Neutral color palette: 34 neutral colors, with hex codes
Every neutral in our 12 seasonal color palettes, from pure white to true black. Tap a color to copy its hex code. Below the list: which neutrals suit which season, and what to wear them with.
By Jane MitchellCertified color analystPublished
All 34 neutral colors, with hex codes
Lightest first. The line under each name says how many of the 12 seasons wear it.
Which neutral colors suit you
The neutral shades in each season's palette, most first. The neutral beside each is one from the same season to wear with them.
Soft Summer 7 shades
oat, greige, soft cocoa, mushroom and soft charcoal and 2 more. Wear with soft white (#EDEAE4).
Deep Winter 5 shades
pure white, icy gray, charcoal, cool espresso and true black. Wear with blue charcoal (#263238).
Bright Spring 3 shades
bright ivory, warm stone and dark warm brown.
Light Summer 3 shades
soft white, pearl gray and light cool gray. Wear with blue gray (#7C8894).
True Summer 3 shades
cool gray, slate and medium gray. Wear with soft white (#F0EFEC).
Soft Autumn 3 shades
soft cream, muted forest and soft olive brown. Wear with slate blue (#5F7386).
Bright Winter 3 shades
pure white, bright ice and cool slate. Wear with true black (#212121).
Light Spring 2 shades
ivory and warm sand.
True Spring 2 shades
cream and warm mushroom.
True Autumn 2 shades
warm cream and deep olive.
True Winter 2 shades
pure white and silver gray. Wear with true black (#000000).
Deep Autumn 1 shade
dark mahogany. Wear with warm cream (#EDE0C8).
Warm and cool neutrals
A neutral is warm or cool by the seasons that wear it: Springs and Autumns are warm, Summers and Winters cool.
Warm only (13)
- Bright ivory#FFFDF5
- Ivory#F6EFE2
- Soft cream#F0E8D8
- Warm cream#F2E7D0
- Cream#F2E6CE
- Warm sand#E4D9C5
Cool only (21)
- Pure white#FFFFFF
- Soft white#F4F1EC
- Bright ice#ECEFF1
- Icy gray#D6D6D6
- Pearl gray#D5D2CC
- Oat#D6C7B0
Worn by both (0)
None in our palettes.
Neutral outfit ideas
Three outfits, one from each of the seasons that hold the most of this color: a main piece, a second color and a neutral, all from that season's own palette.
Soft Summer
Soft navy as the main piece, oat as the second color, soft white for shoes and bag.
Deep Winter
True black as the main piece, pure white as the second color, blue charcoal for shoes and bag.
Bright Spring
Dark warm brown as the main piece, bright ivory as the second color.
Using this neutral palette for a design
For a website, a room or a brand, copy the hex codes from the list above. The shades of one season already work together, so a set taken from one season card reads as a planned palette. For a calmer base, add shades from the brown color palette or the green color palette. To see one of these colors next to every other color, use colors that go with every color. For ready combinations, see three colors that look good together.
How we picked the shades
We pooled the wearable palette and the neutrals of all 12 seasons on this site, 271 different colors, and measured each in CIELAB: lightness (L*), chroma (C*, how strong the color is) and hue angle. A shade is in this palette when it is a chroma below 15 (C* under 15), so whites, ivories, creams, beiges, taupes, grays and charcoals count, at any hue. A shade named for a color (blue, rose, mauve, orchid, moss) stays with that color.
No shade is typed by hand, and no paint or fashion brand is used. The same shade can be in two palettes, for example a light pink in both the pink and the pastel palette.
What this page cannot do
This page shows which seasons wear each neutral. It cannot tell you which season you are: that depends on your own skin, hair and eyes, in good light. Our free analysis reads them from one selfie, in your browser, and gives you your own palette with every neutral that suits you.
How this is different from other color analysis tools
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Questions
What colors are in a neutral color palette?
Our neutral color palette holds 34 shades from the 12 seasonal palettes, among them pure white, bright ivory, soft white, ivory, bright ice and soft cream. Each one has its hex code on this page.
Which color season looks best in neutral?
Soft Summer holds the most neutral shades of the 12 seasons (7), followed by Deep Winter (5) and Bright Spring (3). By family, Summer leads. Every season has at least one.
What colors go with neutral?
Each season pairs its neutrals with its own neutrals. For Soft Summer that is soft white. For a design, brown and green shades from the same seasons sit well beside it.
What are the hex codes for neutral colors?
For example pure white #FFFFFF, bright ivory #FFFDF5, soft white #F4F1EC, ivory #F6EFE2 and bright ice #ECEFF1. All 34 are listed at the top of this page, and one tap copies a code.
What you can do on this page
This page is a neutral color palette of 34 named shades, each with its hex code and a one-tap copy, taken from the 12 seasonal color palettes on this site by a stated CIELAB rule. It shows which neutrals each season wears with a neutral to pair, splits the shades into warm, cool and both, and builds three outfits from the seasons that hold the most. The free photo analysis finds a season from one selfie in the browser, with no upload and no account.
More on color palettes
Part of the Color Analysis Encyclopedia: every article on color palettes.