Summer Season
Cool Summer
Elegant, refined, and cool. Medium contrast with clearer blues, teals, and cool berry tones.
- Undertone
- cool & Cool
- Contrast
- Medium
- Best metals
- silver, white gold
Palette Comparison
Cool Summer vs Cool Winter Color Palette
Cool Summer and Cool Winter are the pair people mix up most often, because they share enough of their coloring to look interchangeable in the wrong light. Cool Summer is cool and cool, medium contrast, while Cool Winter is cool and cool, high contrast. Here are both palettes side by side, with the eye, skin, and hair traits behind them.
Winter Season
Cool Winter
Striking, sophisticated, and icy. High contrast with vivid blue-based brights and true neutrals.
- Undertone
- cool & Cool
- Contrast
- High
- Best metals
- silver, white gold
The Cool Summer and Cool Winter Palettes
Each type's eight signature shades. Read them as a set rather than one color at a time: it's the overall temperature and clarity that separates these two palettes.
Cool Summer colors
Cool Summer colors are blue-based and gently softened. They have real presence without the hard edge of a Winter palette.
Raspberry
Your signature shade
Deep Teal
Cool and grounded
Cool Cerulean
Clear and calm
Orchid
Rich cool pink
Cool Navy
Your best dark
Soft Jade
Gentle cool green
Dusty Lilac
Soft and refined
Dove Grey
Everyday cool neutral
Cool Winter colors
Cool Winter colors are blue-based, clear, and saturated. Icy pastels and true jewel tones both work — what matters is that nothing is muddied with warmth.
True Fuchsia
Your signature shade
Royal Blue
Vivid and clear
Emerald
Cool jewel tone
True Violet
Rich and cool
Icy Aqua
Frosted and light
Icy Orchid
Your softest accent
Deep Navy
Your best dark
Pure White
Crisp and clean
Key Characteristics
The coloring each palette is built around. Where you land on these three is what decides which of the two is yours.
Eyes
Cool Summer
Cool blue, soft grey-blue, or cool grey-green. The iris often has a slightly clouded quality with a soft outer ring rather than a defined one.
Cool Winter
Light brown, cool hazel, blue, or icy grey, usually with a sharply defined ring around the iris that contributes to your contrast.
Skin
Cool Summer
Medium to deep with clear cool undertones. Cool Summer skin has a rosy or blue-toned cast and rarely takes on a golden colour in the sun.
Cool Winter
Olive, or fair to medium with cool pink or blue undertones. Cool Winter skin looks noticeably better beside pure white than beside cream.
Hair
Cool Summer
Medium to dark ash brown. Cool Summer hair keeps its ashy quality even when it lightens, and rarely develops golden or red highlights.
Cool Winter
Ashy blonde, dark brown, black, or cool ash brown. There is no golden or coppery cast even in the lighter shades.
How to tell Cool Summer and Cool Winter apart
Both are firmly cool with medium-to-deep coloring, and both look best in silver rather than gold.
Chroma separates them. Cool Summer suits softened, blended color — raspberry, dusty teal, slate. Cool Winter suits pure saturated color — true fuchsia, royal blue, and black. Hold a bright fuchsia against your face: if it looks like the color is wearing you, you are Cool Summer.
Not sure which season you are? Take the quiz
One photo tells you whether you are a Cool Summer, a Cool Winter, or one of the other ten types, with your full palette and a preview on your own face.
Get my color analysisCool Summer vs Cool Winter Celebrities
Style icons for each palette. Comparing two faces you already know is often quicker than comparing swatches.
Jacqueline Kennedy
Cool Summer
Dakota Fanning
Cool Summer
Carey Mulligan
Cool Summer
Emily Blunt
Cool Summer
Liv Tyler
Cool Winter
Elizabeth Taylor
Cool Winter
Lucy Liu
Cool Winter
Aishwarya Rai
Cool Winter
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the real difference between Cool Summer and Cool Winter?
Not undertone: both palettes are cool, so warm-versus-cool will not settle it. What differs is weight. Cool Summer works at medium contrast and Cool Winter at high, so the same cool family splits on how much depth your coloring can carry. Hold raspberry next to true fuchsia by your face: one will let your features read clearly, and the other will either flatten them or overpower them.
Are Cool Summer and Cool Winter the same season?
No. Cool Summer belongs to Summer and Cool Winter belongs to Winter, two separate seasons in the twelve-type system. They read as similar because both are cool, and cool and cool coloring can look alike in poor light. The shades each one is named for do not transfer between them.
Which key colors define Cool Summer vs Cool Winter?
Cool Summer is defined by raspberry, deep teal, cool cerulean and orchid. Cool Summer colors are blue-based and gently softened. They have real presence without the hard edge of a Winter palette. Cool Winter is defined by true fuchsia, royal blue, emerald and true violet. Cool Winter colors are blue-based, clear, and saturated. Icy pastels and true jewel tones both work — what matters is that nothing is muddied with warmth. Metals will not help you choose between these two, since both want silver or white gold.
Am I Cool Summer or Cool Winter? How can I tell the difference?
This is one of the most confused pairs in the system, so work through it in order rather than trusting a first impression. Skip the undertone test. Both are cool, so vein color, jewelry instinct and the usual warm-versus-cool questions will point both ways. Start with depth: Cool Summer carries medium contrast between hair, skin and eyes where Cool Winter carries high, so judge how much contrast your own bare-faced photo shows. Metals will not break the tie here, since both types want silver or white gold. That leaves the fabric test as the deciding one, which is exactly why this pair is worth checking against a photo rather than a mirror.
Who are some celebrity examples of Cool Summer and Cool Winter?
For Cool Summer, look at Jacqueline Kennedy, Dakota Fanning, Carey Mulligan and Emily Blunt. For Cool Winter, look at Liv Tyler, Elizabeth Taylor, Lucy Liu and Aishwarya Rai. Read them for the relationship between hair, skin and eyes rather than for individual outfits, since a stylist can put anyone in anything. Daylight photographs without heavy makeup or filters are far more useful here than red-carpet shots.
Why does getting Cool Summer vs Cool Winter right matter?
Because the two palettes fail in opposite directions, and the failure is quiet rather than obvious. The mismatch is clarity, so nothing clashes outright: Cool Winter colors on a Cool Summer simply drain the life out of the face, and Cool Summer colors on a Cool Winter sit too heavily on it. It also costs money. Most of a wardrobe is neutrals and basics, and buying those on the wrong side of the line means every top you own works slightly against your face while none of them looks obviously wrong on the hanger. Jewelry is the one thing you can buy safely either way, since both types want silver or white gold.
Can Cool Summer and Cool Winter share any colors?
Not the same shades, but a large share of both palettes sits close enough that one garment could pass for either. Those near-matches are the softest, most neutral parts of each palette, where the gap narrows to a degree or two of warmth. Everything either season is known for stays on its own side: raspberry and deep teal for Cool Summer, true fuchsia and royal blue for Cool Winter. Treat the near-matches as safe ground, not as proof the palettes are interchangeable.
What's the fastest way to confirm my season at home?
Stand at a window in indirect daylight, without makeup, in something that will not bounce color onto your face. Hold raspberry against true fuchsia under your chin, one at a time, and watch your skin rather than the fabric: the right one evens out redness and softens the shadows under your eyes, and the wrong one adds a grey or yellow cast. Do it twice on different days, since both types want the same metals and jewelry cannot act as your second opinion here. Two readings that agree are usually enough, and a photo-based analysis will confirm it in minutes.
Browse All Palettes
All twelve color seasons, three to a family. Open any one for its full palette, traits, and the colors to keep away from your face.
Spring
Summer
Autumn
Winter
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