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 Soft Summer Color Palette
Cool Summer and Soft Summer are both Summer types, so they share an undertone and differ in how light and how saturated their best colors are. Cool Summer is cool and cool, medium contrast, while Soft Summer is cool and soft, low contrast. Here are both palettes side by side, with the eye, skin, and hair traits behind them.
Summer Season
Soft Summer
Blended, hazy, and sophisticated. Low contrast with the most muted palette of the cool seasons.
- Undertone
- cool & Soft
- Contrast
- Low
- Best metals
- silver, rose gold
The Cool Summer and Soft Summer 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
Soft Summer colors
Soft Summer colors are blended and hazy, as if seen through morning mist. Nothing in your palette is fully saturated — that softness is the point.
Dusty Rose
Your signature shade
Sage Green
Hazy and restful
Soft Denim
Gentle cool blue
Soft Plum
Your richest tone
Muted Teal
Blended and calm
Dusty Lilac
Soft cool accent
Slate Blue
Quiet and refined
Soft Oyster
Everyday light neutral
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.
Soft Summer
Soft grey-green, blue-grey, or muted hazel. The iris tends to look slightly clouded, with colors that shift depending on the light.
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.
Soft Summer
Medium to deep brown with muted neutral-cool undertones. Soft Summer skin often has an olive cast layered over coolness, which is what pulls it toward the Autumn border.
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.
Soft Summer
Medium to dark ashy brown, softly muted. It rarely holds a strong tone in either direction — neither clearly golden nor clearly ash.
Not sure which season you are? Take the quiz
One photo tells you whether you are a Cool Summer, a Soft Summer, or one of the other ten types, with your full palette and a preview on your own face.
Get my color analysisCool Summer vs Soft Summer 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
Jennifer Aniston
Soft Summer
Cameron Diaz
Soft Summer
Bella Hadid
Soft Summer
Sarah Jessica Parker
Soft Summer
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the real difference between Cool Summer and Soft Summer?
Not undertone: both palettes are cool, so warm-versus-cool will not settle it. What differs is weight. Cool Summer is the cool type at medium contrast, and Soft Summer is the soft one at low contrast. Hold raspberry next to dusty rose by your face: one will let your features read clearly, and the other will either flatten them or overpower them.
Are Cool Summer and Soft Summer the same season?
No. They are two types inside the same Summer family, which is why they share cool undertones and still call for different colors. Cool Summer is the cool version and Soft Summer is the soft one, so their palettes sit at different levels of lightness and saturation. Being told you are "a Summer" is only half an answer, and the half that decides your best shades is the type.
Which key colors define Cool Summer vs Soft Summer?
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. Soft Summer is defined by dusty rose, sage green, soft denim and soft plum. Soft Summer colors are blended and hazy, as if seen through morning mist. Nothing in your palette is fully saturated — that softness is the point. Metals are the quickest tell of all: Cool Summer wants silver or white gold, and Soft Summer wants silver or rose gold.
Am I Cool Summer or Soft Summer? How can I tell the difference?
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 Soft Summer carries low, so judge how much contrast your own bare-faced photo shows. Then metals: Cool Summer suits silver or white gold and Soft Summer suits silver or rose gold. When two of the three agree, that is your answer.
Who are some celebrity examples of Cool Summer and Soft Summer?
For Cool Summer, look at Jacqueline Kennedy, Dakota Fanning, Carey Mulligan and Emily Blunt. For Soft Summer, look at Jennifer Aniston, Cameron Diaz, Bella Hadid and Sarah Jessica Parker. 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 Soft Summer right matter?
Because the two palettes fail in opposite directions, and the failure is quiet rather than obvious. The mismatch is weight, so nothing clashes outright: Soft Summer colors on a Cool Summer simply drain the life out of the face, and Cool Summer colors on a Soft Summer 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. Metals compound it: Cool Summer suits silver or white gold and Soft Summer suits silver or rose gold, so jewelry bought for the wrong season quietly undercuts the rest.
Can Cool Summer and Soft Summer share any colors?
Not the same shades, but another 12 sit 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, dusty rose and sage green for Soft Summer. 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 dusty rose 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. Then repeat at your wrist with silver or white gold against silver or rose gold jewelry. Two signals pointing the same way is 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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