True Summer
Purely cool, blue-based, elegant, slightly hazy.
True Summer is the coolest of the soft seasons: every color in the palette is blue-based, with no golden warmth anywhere. The look is refined and slightly hazy, dusty blues, soft raspberry, cool navy and gray. It is the classic English-garden palette.
Temperature is the dominant axis here: get the warm-versus-cool call right and everything else follows. (Undertone is what the 12-tone system calls this season's primary characteristic.)
Where this season sits
Every one of the twelve seasons is a position on three axes. These are the coordinates our analysis scores you against.
Is this you?
- Skin
- Cool with a pink, rosy or blue-ish cast; burns before it tans.
- Hair
- Ash blonde to ash or cool medium brown, never golden.
- Eyes
- Cool blue, gray-blue, gray-green, or soft cool hazel.
- Contrast
- Low to medium, and always gentle rather than crisp.
True Summer celebrities
Famous faces that share True Summer coloring. The point is the pattern in skin, hair and eyes, not a resemblance.
Christie Brinkley
Diane Kruger
Emily Blunt
Jodie Comer
Photos via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY / CC BY-SA / public domain. The credit for each one is on the True Summer celebrities page.
The palette
The 20 colors that work hardest for True Summer, with hex codes so you can match them exactly.
- Cool raspberry#C2185B
- Rose red#D81B60
- Soft rose#E091AE
- Dusty pink#C97B9B
- Cool berry#A85C7A
- Soft plum#7E5A82
- Cool lavender#9575CD
- Periwinkle blue#7986CB
- Cornflower#5C7CB0
- Cool blue#3F6FA8
Neutrals to build on
- Soft white#F0EFEC
- Cool gray#C7C6C4
- Medium gray#8E8F92
- Blue gray#5A6B7C
- Cool navy#2F4058
Metals and makeup
Best metals: Silver, White gold, Platinum.
Lip
- Cool raspberry
- Rose
- Soft pink
Blush
- Cool rose
- Dusty pink
- Mauve
How to wear the True Summer palette
A styling example: three women who share True Summer coloring, each in a different outfit built from this palette.
More on True Summer
Often confused with
Watch: this season explained
Hand-picked videos on True Summer from working color analysts, a different teacher, the same season.
Cool Summer Makeup Tutorial 💙 Best Shades for the True Summer Palette
Zee Dooley · YouTube
Is COOL SUMMER the same as TRUE SUMMER? | Colour Analysis Studio
Colour Analysis Studio · YouTube
Frequently asked
What is the True Summer color season?
True Summer is one of the twelve seasonal color types. It is strongly cool, moderately light and moderately soft. In practice that means cool raspberry, rose red and soft rose sit comfortably on you, while the colors in the avoid list make you look tired. Temperature is the dominant axis here: get the warm-versus-cool call right and everything else follows. (Undertone is what the 12-tone system calls this season's primary characteristic.)
How do I know if I'm a True Summer?
Three checks. Cool with a pink, rosy or blue-ish cast; burns before it tans. Ash blonde to ash or cool medium brown, never golden. Cool blue, gray-blue, gray-green, or soft cool hazel. Contrast is the fourth: low to medium, and always gentle rather than crisp. If two of those four describe you, True Summer is very likely your season, our free analysis scores all twelve and tells you how close the runners-up are.
What are the worst colors for a True Summer?
The clearest ones to drop are orange, golden yellow and black. The single most jarring color for a purely cool palette. Full explanations for each are on the colors-to-avoid page.
Am I a True Summer or a Light Summer?
They are neighbors, which is exactly why they get confused. The deciding axis is depth: True Summer is the deep one and Light Summer is the light one. We have a full side-by-side comparison if you are torn between them.
Can a True Summer wear black?
Not near your face. True Summer coloring is too gentle for true black, it drops a hard edge under the chin and pulls shadows forward. Use Cool navy (#2F4058) instead for anything worn up top, and keep black for trousers, shoes and bags where it has no effect on your skin.
Is True Summer warm or cool?
Cool. True Summer sits clearly on the cool side of the temperature axis, which is why silver, cool raspberry and the rest of the Summer palette settle the skin while orange and golden colors turn it ruddy or gray. Temperature is also its dominant axis, so coolness matters more here than depth or clarity.
Should a True Summer wear gold or silver?
Silver, White gold and Platinum. Metal is one of the fastest at-home tests there is: hold silver and gold either side of your face in daylight and watch your skin rather than the jewelry, the wrong metal leaves a gray or sallow cast along the jaw.
How does True Summer color analysis work?
True Summer color analysis places your coloring on three axes, depth, temperature and clarity, and checks they match True Summer, which is strongly cool, moderately light and moderately soft. You can approximate it at home with the metal, vein and contrast tests, but those disagree often. Our free analysis settles it: it scores all twelve seasons from your answers and one photo, so you see how far True Summer leads the neighbors it gets confused with.