Soft winter color palette: 12 colors, and the 12 seasons it sits between
Soft Winter is a name from some 16-season lists. It is not one of our 12 seasons. On our three axes it lands between Soft Summer and True Summer, and the palette below is built from those two.
By Jane MitchellCertified color analystPublished
Soft Winter color palette
Tap a color for its name and hex code.
Where Soft Winter sits on our three axes
- Undertonecool-0.95
- Depthmedium-deep-0.40
- Claritysoft and muted-0.88 (set by "soft")
The two nearest of our 12 seasons
- Nearest: Soft Summer
Distance 0.71 (0 is the same season)
- Next: True Summer
Distance 0.95 (0 is the same season)
A soft winter color palette, in 12 colors
Dusty rose
#C08497 · from Soft Summer
The first six colors are from Soft Summer, the last six from True Summer.
The two palettes side by side
Find your season from one selfie
Free for your best and worst palette. All 12 in the full report.
What is soft 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 Soft Winter is one name that some of them use. Our own 16-season page uses a different version, so you will not find Soft Winter there.
We do not treat Soft 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.
Soft Winter and the 12 seasons: how close
- Undertone: cool.
- Depth: medium-deep.
- Clarity: soft and muted.
Nearest is Soft Summer at a distance of 0.71, then True Summer at 0.95. A person who is soft 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 soft winter palette cannot tell you
- It cannot tell you that you are Soft 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 Soft Winter. Another analyst may use different colors for the same name. How it works and how often it is right.
How we made this soft winter palette
We start from True Winter and change one axis. The word "soft" 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 Soft Summer that sit closest to True Summer, and the six colors of True Summer that sit closest to Soft 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
- 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 is a soft winter?
Soft 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 softer True Winter. On our axes that is cool, medium-deep, soft and muted.
Is soft winter the same as soft summer?
No, but it is the closest of our 12 seasons. On our three axes Soft Winter sits 0.71 from Soft Summer and 0.95 from True Summer. Soft Summer is the nearer one by 0.24. A distance of 0 would mean the same season, and none of the 12 is that close.
What colors should a soft winter avoid?
We can only answer from our own data. The seasons farthest from Soft Winter on our axes are True Spring or Bright Spring, so colors that are typical of those palettes are the likeliest to look wrong. For named colors with a reason for each, see the Soft Summer colors to avoid page.
Which of the 12 seasons is soft winter closest to?
Soft Summer, then True Summer. We placed Soft Winter by starting from True Winter and replacing one axis with the soft value our dataset holds. We then ranked all 12 seasons by distance.
What you can do on this page
This page has an interactive soft winter color palette: 12 colors computed from the two of our 12 seasons nearest to the name (Soft 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.