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
Palette Comparison
Soft Summer vs Deep Winter Color Palette
Soft Summer and Deep Winter both run cool, which is why a Summer palette and a Winter palette can look closer than you would expect. Soft Summer is cool and soft, low contrast, while Deep Winter is cool and deep, high contrast. Here are both palettes side by side, with the eye, skin, and hair traits behind them.
Winter Season
Deep Winter
Dramatic, dark, and intense. High contrast with black, deep violet, and cool jewel tones.
- Undertone
- cool & Deep
- Contrast
- High
- Best metals
- silver, white gold
The Soft Summer and Deep 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.
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
Deep Winter colors
Deep Winter colors are dark, cool, and saturated. This is the only palette in the system where true black is a genuine hero rather than a compromise.
Deep Violet
Your signature shade
True Red
Blue-based and bold
Pine Green
Dark and cool
Deep Sapphire
Rich and saturated
Deep Magenta
Cool and vivid
Deep Teal
Your jewel accent
Midnight
Everyday deep neutral
True Black
Your strongest 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
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.
Deep Winter
Dark brown, cool dark hazel, or black-brown. The iris usually reads as almost uniformly dark, with a crisp boundary against the white of the eye.
Skin
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.
Deep Winter
Olive, or fair to deep with cool undertones. Deep Winter skin can look almost translucent at the fair end and richly saturated at the deep end.
Hair
Soft Summer
Medium to dark ashy brown, softly muted. It rarely holds a strong tone in either direction — neither clearly golden nor clearly ash.
Deep Winter
Medium to dark brown, dark espresso, or black. It holds its depth without any golden or coppery warmth showing through.
Not sure which season you are? Take the quiz
One photo tells you whether you are a Soft Summer, a Deep Winter, or one of the other ten types, with your full palette and a preview on your own face.
Get my color analysisSoft Summer vs Deep Winter Celebrities
Style icons for each palette. Comparing two faces you already know is often quicker than comparing swatches.
Jennifer Aniston
Soft Summer
Cameron Diaz
Soft Summer
Bella Hadid
Soft Summer
Sarah Jessica Parker
Soft Summer
Anne Hathaway
Deep Winter
Kim Kardashian
Deep Winter
Sandra Oh
Deep Winter
Lupita Nyong'o
Deep Winter
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the real difference between Soft Summer and Deep Winter?
Not undertone: both palettes are cool, so warm-versus-cool will not settle it. What differs is weight. Soft Summer is the soft type at low contrast, and Deep Winter is the deep one at high contrast. Hold dusty rose next to deep violet by your face: one will let your features read clearly, and the other will either flatten them or overpower them.
Are Soft Summer and Deep Winter the same season?
No. Soft Summer belongs to Summer and Deep Winter belongs to Winter, two separate seasons in the twelve-type system. They read as similar because both are cool, and soft and deep coloring can look alike in poor light. The shades each one is named for do not transfer between them.
Which key colors define Soft Summer vs Deep Winter?
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. Deep Winter is defined by deep violet, true red, pine green and deep sapphire. Deep Winter colors are dark, cool, and saturated. This is the only palette in the system where true black is a genuine hero rather than a compromise. Metals are the quickest tell of all: Soft Summer wants silver or rose gold, and Deep Winter wants silver or white gold.
Am I Soft Summer or Deep Winter? 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: Soft Summer carries low contrast between hair, skin and eyes where Deep Winter carries high, so judge how much contrast your own bare-faced photo shows. Then metals: Soft Summer suits silver or rose gold and Deep Winter suits silver or white gold. When two of the three agree, that is your answer.
Who are some celebrity examples of Soft Summer and Deep Winter?
For Soft Summer, look at Jennifer Aniston, Cameron Diaz, Bella Hadid and Sarah Jessica Parker. For Deep Winter, look at Anne Hathaway, Kim Kardashian, Sandra Oh and Lupita Nyong'o. 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 Soft Summer vs Deep Winter 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: Deep Winter colors on a Soft Summer simply drain the life out of the face, and Soft Summer colors on a Deep 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. Metals compound it: Soft Summer suits silver or rose gold and Deep Winter suits silver or white gold, so jewelry bought for the wrong season quietly undercuts the rest.
Can Soft Summer and Deep Winter share any colors?
Not the same shades, but another 2 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: dusty rose and sage green for Soft Summer, deep violet and true red for Deep 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 dusty rose against deep violet 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 rose gold against silver or white 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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