The idea for this post came from a message I wrote to a woman trying to locate herself within Spring. Thanks, T. :-) When considering the sub-seasons, it can often be difficult to identify colors that clearly distinguish between them. In the case of Light Spring vs. True (Warm) Spring, though, there are a few differences between the palettes that are relatively easy to articulate. If you've narrowed yourself down to these two seasons, you might use the following examples to help determine where you fit. Which colors can you (or can't you) wear? Pink True Spring has no pinks to speak of. The closest it comes to pink is bright, fairly deep coral. Light Spring, on the other hand, has several lovely, warmish, light-to-medium pinks and pinky-corals. If you're a Light Spring, you may be able to wear a similar coral. But if you're a True Spring, you won't look well in that pink. Yellow Light Spring's lightest yellows are bright, but light and delicate. True Spring's yellows, even the lightest ones, are much more rich and buttery. A Light Spring may be able to wear both yellows. But the lightest, most delicate yellow will only flatter a Light Spring. Green True Spring's greens go surprisingly deep. Deeper even than this. Have I mentioned that this season can take a lot of color? Light Spring, meanwhile, is ever delicate. Their greens don't go much deeper than this: A True Spring can wear a similar light green, but a Light Spring won't tolerate the deep, saturated green. As you consider these two seasons for yourself, keep these two ideas in mind:
And don't forget: your hair and eye color do not rule you out of either of these seasons. To my knowledge (and I research this stuff), only one woman mentioned in this post is a natural blonde. And it's dark blonde. :-)
31 Comments
5/2/2011 03:40:37 am
Hey, thank you for this great article :-D Hope all is going well on your side! I think these differentiation posts are tremendously helpful, as distinguishing between the subseasons is always the most difficult. And there are so many subseasons you can do this on, haha! Here's to hoping for more in the future, and I wouldn't mind a post of distinguishing between the lights, haha. Christine says it's by green-yellow vs. aqua, or pink vs. peachy-pink or respectively how much yellow the person can take :-) That is a good thing to begin with and the one that keeps me believing I'm a Light Spring :-D
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Denise Hester
5/2/2011 01:22:12 pm
Really enjoy your posts. Helps build my growing understanding of personal color each time. Keep going strong!
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Ashley
5/5/2011 03:24:11 pm
Hi Rachel,
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Emily
5/8/2011 07:49:21 pm
Hi, Rachel! And hi, new baby!
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Meredith
5/10/2011 02:28:15 am
Emily, I'm so glad you posted these questions! I'm also torn between Light and Bright Spring, and your questions are similar to the problems I'm encountering. I've looked at the Pretty Your World Bright Spring, and it seems to be similar to my coloring, but I'm just not positive. I do have naturally blonde hair, but it has faded to a darker blonde (maybe a level 8) since my days of platinum youth. And then I read on 12 Blueprints that Bright Spring and Light Summer both have a pink-ish undertone, but Light Summer's is not quite as bright. I have what most describe as warm skin, but wear many cool colors well and thought this could be because I have a warm overtone with a cool undertone. So now I guess I'm torn between three seasons: Bright Spring, Light Spring, and Light Summer.
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Emily
5/12/2011 08:20:14 pm
Hi, Meredith! If Rachel doesn't mind me butting in, I'll let you in on some of the wiggedy-wack methods I've tried to use to distinguish between Bright Spring and Light Spring, with some vague possible help regarding Light Summer. As indicated above, I still feel that there must be a 'twist' in the personality of Light Spring's colors that distinguishes them, swatch for swatch, from Bright Spring - something other than 'less bright' and 'less deep.' And I don't know quite what that thing is. But I've tried to make good use of everything I do know about each season, in to figure out which one works best for me.
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Emily
5/12/2011 08:25:44 pm
...almost frightening degree that the Bright Spring colors do. Light Spring yellows also come across more like butter and cream, while Bright Spring yellows look more like citrus to me. I have a pretty high tolerance for very bright yellow, and it makes the iris of my eye go *crazy.* But I find that lighter yellows are either no harm, no benefit or they visibly need perking up - say with a bright green patterned sweater layered over top.
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Emily
5/12/2011 08:27:56 pm
... look pretty bright in the tube, but are completely subtle on BS. (For this reason - their subtlety - I love them!) I wouldn't be surprised if other seasons can wear them, but perhaps they'd come across as more visibly bright?
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Emily
5/12/2011 08:43:58 pm
Oh, one last thing I forgot:
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Meredith
5/13/2011 04:42:48 am
Thank you Emily! Your response is so helpful, and I especially am keen on your nail polish swatching tip.
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Meredith
5/13/2011 04:20:25 pm
The more I think about all of this, the more I wonder about the idea that everyone in a season can wear any of the colors. I mean, each person's coloring is a little different, a unique color combination. So is it possible that people will simply never have quite the same palette? For example, could I just be a Light Spring suited to the brighter colors of that season? Or a Bright Spring that needs some of the lighter colors of that season's palette?
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Ashley
5/13/2011 05:41:28 pm
Yeah Meredith, it makes sense that there would be variation even within a single sub season. I've come across discussions of women labelling themselves as "on the cool side of spring", etc. Maybe none of your seasons's colours will be bad on you exactly, but some will have that wow factor and some will be sort of blah.
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Meredith
5/14/2011 04:31:11 am
Oh man, I love that coral pink dress! So pretty. But yeah, some of those outfits are just too delicate for me, even though I'm pretty light.
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Z
6/30/2011 12:50:08 am
I've been trying to sort this question out for some time. Eventually I decided on True Spring, but have now decided that I was wrong. Not completely wrong since my best lip colour has turned out to be a diluted TSp red, but after about 6 months wearing TSp colours next to my face, I can see that they're a bit on the heavy side. There's no visible yellowing going on, it just looks a bit heavy ( and I just found out that I can't really take the full heap of pigments of the darkest dots in the "dot bible", it darkens my face). Even though I wouldn't normally go for a beige and cream outfit, I know I can do it, so that should have been something to look for when I decided on which to buy. One of the clues I've been looking at lately is also that I can handle more blue than is in the TSp fan. Really good tips in this article! When someone is in my position, on the border between two seasons, make up trials aren't enough and it would have been really nice to have been directed to the tell-tale colours earlier (since it was obvious from the beginning that LSu was just somehow WRONG).
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8/22/2011 07:04:05 pm
Great points ! I would disagree with some celebrity picks! But overall very informative!
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Allegra
3/13/2012 12:47:05 am
I have to thank you a lot for this article and your website. I´ve been analyzing my coloring type, since I always thought to be a summer with blue eyes and natural light brown hair. But my problem was my dislike for pink and berry tones ;-) I don´t know, I just don´t like them on me... make me pale, disappearing... Then I discovered by trying make up, that red coral tones as well as reddish undertoned colors suit me best. Also, I began to read more about PCA and tried to find out my real type. For me this was important, because my opinion is that colors are an important part of our personal expression. But here in Germany, very often they seem to know only the 4-types system of the 80´s as well as there are many summers and winters, few autumns in the south but not so much springs. So first I thought I could be an autumn. But the colors for autumn looked too dark on me. Then I turned back to summer because my blue eyes and the ash to natural brown hair - I can´t really describe my hair: As a baby it had a reddish hazelnut tone, then turned into light golden blonde, as a teen my hair got darker up to a dark blond with golden higlights and then turned to a light natural brown. At least it could be also a summer hair, but my skin was more peachy/reddish and my sun tan even more golden than that of a summer. My coloring is very similar to Charlize Theron´s. So I got curious, but the palette of spring seemed to be too pale on me, I need more color. After a while, finally I got it, that I absolutely couldn´t wear rosé or pink neither as a lipstick. Orange I never tried, but like I said coral red or even darker nectarine are good. Once I head a dark red brown lipstick, but I have to make attention not to get too dark. With colors it´s the same, best suit me a darker tomato red, a golden camel with brown tones, turquoise or aqua - a green blue - a special purple tone, a warm dark gray, and light olive tones. To my suprise I also can wear golden brown. Normal blue, blue pink as well as blue violet look really disgusting on me. Besides cream and ivory even many pastels make me pale. Coral pink should be better than blue untertoned pink, but better peach or more reddish. Now I found out, that probably I´m warm spring, what I never thought. Thank you so much for this awsome website!
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Claudia
4/3/2012 06:51:22 am
Loved this. Just confirms to me that DH is probably a light spring, darling daughter a TSpr.
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anna
4/25/2012 07:48:05 pm
I think Cameron Diaz is a Brigt Spring, she needs a contrast, and her eyes shine. http://www.supervizaz.net/blog/celebrity-a-farby-cameron-diaz-kontrastn-jar
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Jane
6/11/2015 11:29:33 pm
Sorry but I do not think so as BS can fairly well handle black and black looks way to harsh on Cameron.
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9/24/2013 06:42:49 pm
Thank you for keeping us up-to-date. I must say i enjoy it and learn the many info beneficial.
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Elaine
12/24/2013 03:19:31 am
Emily, thanks very much for your insight. Particularly the part about seeing how your skin changes when you add or remove layers of clothing. Also, I find I'm in the same boat as meredith and find her absolutely right, Dark LSp and Light BSp colors suit me best, though I'd probably same I'm BSP because my skin does seem to be more even and bright in clearer colors and muddied and shadowy in paler colors, especially nudes. However, my super pale skin means that almost any bright color lipstick looks ridiculous on me, especially in winter. However, the overall effect with my darker blond hair and darker greenish blue eyes balances my skin for clothing and eye makeup.
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I have medium brown hair w/red highlights, green eyes and very light warm coloring with reddish cheeks. I have tried True Spring colors and they seem to be too bright. Could I possibly be a Soft Autumn or a Spring w/ summer influence? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
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Rachel
1/25/2015 04:55:02 pm
Hi!
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Lindsay
11/21/2015 06:22:28 pm
I have no idea what I am! My hair was white blonde as a child, deepened to a dark golden blonde, and eventually brown. I swear my hair is more of a very warm grey than a true brown. My eyes are turquoise and my skin is pretty neutral, but pulls more warm. I do have freckles especially when I've been outside a lot. I look really nice in a light, springy green color but equally as good with dark hair. I thought I might be a bright spring but in black and white photos, my coloring lacks the contrast for that to be true. Help?
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Johanna
12/13/2015 08:31:01 am
Can a True Spring look like an Autumn?
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Rachel
1/11/2016 03:54:07 pm
If you're trying to distinguish between True Autumn and True Spring, try comparing gold and pure yellow.
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Shawna
6/29/2018 04:09:58 pm
I know this is an old post but I want to say that thanks to Rachel I am very certain that I am a True Spring. I thought I was Autumn but it was never quite right. I know I am very warm. I was analysed online as a Warm Autumn in a system that has a sort of Autumn-Spring hybrid but I am convinced True Spring is my best palette. Rachel's posts helped me to clarify that, especially the deal breaker colours. The bright blue of True Spring is great for me and Burgundy is not a good colour. And as Rachel suggests in the comments, for deciding between Autumn and Spring, I am better in yellow than gold. Like Johanna, I don't look like the celebrity examples of True Spring as I am not a blonde. I have warm brown hair as would be the natural colour of many celeb blondes. Another way I determined Spring over Autumn was makeup. Autumn makeup is too heavy and dark although the warmth looks good.
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Eliza
6/16/2019 07:42:24 am
Coming late to the party, but this post is so interesting I had to chime in! I think I am Light Sp, but what makes me question this is because my eyes are a medium teal, with aqua, turquoise, and some of the dark green shown on Scarlett Johannsen above, and that green always gets me compliments. But the rest of the Light Sp colours are fine. And the True Sp palette in general is too strong and deep for me. My hair is a natural light golden blonde and my skin is very pale, peachy, no freckles. I wonder if there are any other colours to try that would be deal breakers? Also, can someone actually be a blend of two palettes? Lots of analysts say no, but with all these comments I am beginning to wonder. I do love this website, and keep coming back for new inspiration. Thank you, Rachel!
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gitte
1/17/2020 12:48:48 pm
Hello, I know this is an old post- but could you make a post about distinguishing between bright and true spring? I relate a lot to plenty of the true spring characteristics - complementary colouring, looking great in bright colours including bright greens of all kinds, warm reds, bright warm blues (turquoize and salmon are some of my best colours) and I belong to the often true spring group of warm-blue ish(amber-green-blue-bluegrey-navy, from pupil to outer ring) eyed and golden reddish haired, porcelain-skinned very rare people. My colouring copies are people like nicole kidman, amy adams etc.
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Melina
2/3/2020 12:22:17 pm
I really second that request! :) I'm currently trying to decide between Bright and True Spring, too.
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Spring girl
7/2/2021 05:09:43 am
Actually, this article is not quite correct - for example, True (Warm) Spring palette does have several pinks, even if they are very warm corally pinks! Just look at any 12 season palette.
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