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Light winter color palette: 12 colors, and the 12 seasons it sits between

Light Winter is a name from some 16-season lists. It is not one of our 12 seasons. On our three axes it lands between Light Summer and True Summer, and the palette below is built from those two.

By Jane MitchellCertified color analystPublished

Light Winter color palette

Tap a color for its name and hex code.

Where Light Winter sits on our three axes

  • Undertonecool-0.95
  • Depthlight+0.85 (set by "light")
  • Claritybright+0.60

The two nearest of our 12 seasons

A light winter color palette, in 12 colors

Rose pink

#D98BA5 · from Light Summer

The first six colors are from Light Summer, the last six from True Summer.

The two palettes side by side

Our example face against the Light Summer palette
Example face, not yours

Find your season from one selfie

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Free for your best and worst palette. All 12 in the full report.

Folded fabric swatches in icy blue, pale lilac, cool pink, silver grey and white on pale stone
An illustration made with an image model, not a photo of real products. The colors in the palette above are the computed ones.

What is light winter?

Many analysts sort people into 16 seasons instead of 12. They do not all use the same list: different analysts use different 16-season lists, and Light Winter is one name that some of them use. Our own 16-season page uses a different version, so you will not find Light Winter there.

We do not treat Light Winter as a separate season of our own. We show where the name falls among the 12 seasons we measure, so you can see which palettes it borrows from.

Light Winter and the 12 seasons: how close

  • Undertone: cool.
  • Depth: light.
  • Clarity: bright.

Nearest is Light Summer at a distance of 0.89, then True Summer at 1.03. A person who is light winter by one list may be read as either of them by another, so check both palettes against your own hair, skin and eyes.

What a light winter palette cannot tell you

  • It cannot tell you that you are Light Winter. The name is not a standard season, and no photo test measures it.
  • It cannot replace your own coloring. Hair and eyes decide between close seasons, and a palette on a screen changes with the screen.
  • It is a blend of two palettes, not a list a studio published for Light Winter. Another analyst may use different colors for the same name. How it works and how often it is right.

How we made this light winter palette

We start from True Winter and change one axis. The word "light" sets that axis to the average of the two of our seasons that carry it. We then rank all 12 seasons by their distance from that point on the three axes (undertone, depth and clarity).

The palette takes the six colors of Light Summer that sit closest to True Summer, and the six colors of True Summer that sit closest to Light Summer. Closeness is the standard color difference (ΔE2000). Every name and hex code comes from our palettes.

How this is different from other color analysis tools

  1. 01

    Your photo stays on your device

    Many photo apps upload your selfie and read it on their server (see our comparison). Ours measures it in your browser. There is no upload.

  2. 02

    The result is free

    Your season and palette, with no account and no email. At least one app in our comparison takes payment before you see any result.

  3. 03

    A close call says so

    Every result names the runner-up season and how close the call was. Borderline is a result we print.

  4. 04

    We publish our accuracy

    We tuned the method on faces that experts had labelled by season, then tested it on 410 celebrity photos we collected. The results, misses included.

How the photo analysis works, step by step

Questions

What is a light winter?

Light Winter is a name used in some 16-season color analysis lists. Different analysts use different 16-season lists, so it is not a standard season, and it is not one of our 12. By its name it is a lighter True Winter. On our axes that is cool, light, bright.

Is light winter the same as light summer?

No, but it is the closest of our 12 seasons. On our three axes Light Winter sits 0.89 from Light Summer and 1.03 from True Summer. Light Summer is the nearer one by 0.14. A distance of 0 would mean the same season, and none of the 12 is that close.

What colors should a light winter avoid?

We can only answer from our own data. The seasons farthest from Light Winter on our axes are Deep Autumn or True Autumn, so colors that are typical of those palettes are the likeliest to look wrong. For named colors with a reason for each, see the Light Summer colors to avoid page.

Which of the 12 seasons is light winter closest to?

Light Summer, then True Summer. We placed Light Winter by starting from True Winter and replacing one axis with the light value our dataset holds. We then ranked all 12 seasons by distance.

What you can do on this page

This page has an interactive light winter color palette: 12 colors computed from the two of our 12 seasons nearest to the name (Light Summer and True Summer), each with its name and hex code. A visitor sees where the name sits on our three axes, how far it is from each season, and both source palettes side by side. The page then offers the free photo analysis, which measures undertone, depth and clarity from one selfie in the browser, with no upload and no account.

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