Light Summer vs Soft Summer
Light Summer
the lighter one
Soft Summer
the deeper one
These two are close. Your own photo shows which one is you.
The deciding axis is depth: Light Summer is the lighter one and Soft Summer is the deeper one.
Side by side
The deciding axis is depth, everything else about these two is close.
Light Summer
cool, strongly light and moderately soft
Soft Summer
moderately cool, medium in depth and strongly soft
The test that settles it
Do this in daylight, with no makeup, looking at your skin rather than at the fabric.
Light Summer: Powder pink #F2C4D0
Soft Summer: Dusty rose #C08497
Hold each color under your chin in turn. The right one settles your skin, shadows under the eyes recede and the face looks rested. The wrong one pulls those shadows forward and adds a gray or sallow cast. If you cannot see a difference, you are probably between the two, which is common and covered below.
Light Summer and Soft Summer palettes
Each row pairs a color with the nearest one left in the other palette.
Light Summer
Soft Summer
- Powder pink#F2C4D0
- Dusty rose#E5A9BC
- Rose pink#D98BA5
- Soft raspberry#C2739A
- Soft lilac#B8A4CC
- Periwinkle#A6A9D6
- Powder blue#93B4DB
- Cornflower#7FA8CC
- Soft denim#6C97BF
- Sea glass#9CC8D6
- Pale dusty pink#D9C4C9
- Rose beige#C9A99B
- Dusty rose#C08497
- Soft berry#A5677A
- Soft mauve#B08BA5
- Dusty periwinkle#7A809E
- Eucalyptus#87968F
- Cloud blue#9CAAB5
- Slate blue#6E8CA0
- Dusty blue#B7C4CC
Frequently asked
What is the difference between Light Summer and Soft Summer?
The deciding axis is depth: Light Summer is the lighter one and Soft Summer is the deeper one. Light Summer is cool, strongly light and moderately soft; Soft Summer is moderately cool, medium in depth and strongly soft. Everything else about them is close enough that the wrong call still looks acceptable, which is precisely why so many people sit between the two.
Soft Summer vs Light Summer: which one am I?
Test the deciding axis in isolation. Put powder pink (#F2C4D0) beside dusty rose (#C08497) against your bare face in daylight, and look at the skin under your eyes and around your mouth rather than at the fabric. One of them will settle your skin and the other will pull shadows forward.
What if both palettes look fine on me?
Then you are genuinely in between, and you should take the overlap. Wear the colors that appear in both palettes as your core wardrobe, and treat each season's extremes as occasional. Being between two neighboring seasons is common and is not a failure of the system, it is what the boundaries look like from close up.
Which is more common, Light Summer or Soft Summer?
Neither is rare. Judging by search interest, Soft Summer is looked up more often, but that reflects how often people are told they might be one, not how many actually are.