A reader asks, "There are a lot of nuances between Soft Summer and True Summer. How do you know that Kristen Stewart is Soft Summer and Emily Blunt is a True Summer?"

This is a really good question.

I often find Summer celebs difficult to narrow down into subseasons - perhaps because the differences in the muted colors of Summer are harder to discern on a computer screen than the differences in the vivid colors of Spring or Winter.

But after a lot of thought, I eventually came to the conclusion that Kristen's a Soft Summer and Emily's a True Summer.

I'll describe my thought process:

To my eye, both look obviously coolish, but not particularly saturated. Cool and muted is Summer.

But my first impression might be wrong. To determine season, we can't rely on what a person looks like; we have to examine how a person looks in certain colors. So I'll check the other seasons.

Could either woman be a Winter?

Well, both are clearly overwhelmed by black.  That rules out all three Winters.

I do make note of the fact that Emily is less overwhelmed by black than Kristen. So I think perhaps Emily has a higher natural saturation.

How about Autumn?

Hmm. I think both are meh in Autumn colors. 

Notice, though, that Kristen is almost pulling off Autumn color, while Emily isn't at all. So I'm thinking Kristen has more Autumn-like warmth than Emily.

Spring: Testing Spring will be tough, because it's very difficult to find either woman in sure-fire Spring colors like peach, lime, or sunny yellow. So I need to test Spring for them in another way.

I've already seen that both women are overwhelmed by black, so Bright Spring's unlikely for either one. (Black alone is not a great look for Bright Spring, but it's not so much overwhelming as it is boring.)

How can I test Light Spring and True Spring? Hmm... Well, neither woman is a convincing blonde, to my eye. Most "blonde" True and Light Spring celebs are actually brunettes, but they do typically make convincing blondes. Yellow is Spring's soul color, so it makes sense that yellow hair would work on Springs.

Yellow hair is clearly not right for these two women, though.

 So I think my initial idea was correct: both women are Summers.

But what kind of Summer - Light, Soft, or True?

I'm thinking Light Summer is unlikely for Emily, for the same reason I think Spring is unlikely: I don't find her a convincing blonde. Light Summers can often pull off blonde pretty well. Their palette contains many lovely light yellows, so this makes sense.

Again, Emily Blunt with blonde hair: not her best.

On Light Summers, yellow hair can emphasize the delicacy of their coloring; Emily's skin seems to be calling for more depth.

So, Soft or True for Emily perhaps?

In weighing these two seasons, I think about how Emily often wears super-bright colors that look a little but not a lot overwhelming. Here she is in some high-sat choices:

I notice that she can tolerate some brightness of color.  In these two pics, she's certainly farther away than the color - but not miles farther away.

So, of Soft and True Summer, I think True Summer  - the more saturated of the two seasons - is right for Emily Blunt.

Yes. I like her in these purely cool, somewhat muted colors.  They certainly don't look muted next to Emily Blunt - they're exactly the right saturation for her.

With Kristen Stewart, one of the things I notice is that neutral-warm colors aren't awful on her.

On the left, the eyeshadow is warmish, and in this pic it's not glaringly disharmonious. (The skin might appear more even with a cooler shade, but as-is, it's not so bad.) On the right, I could almost believe her as an Autumn.

So I suspect True Summer, which is purely cool, is unlikely for her.

I already decided that a big block of yellow next to Kristen's face was not her best, so that makes Light Summer seem unlikely as well.

That leaves Soft Summer.

Does Soft Summer make sense for her?

Well, Soft Summer's TMIT is softness or mutedness of color. Is Kristen awesome in very muted tones?

Yes, I think. The more subtly colored her makeup and clothes are, the better she looks. She seems so natural in very, very soft shades.

Is she overwhelmed by very saturated colors?

Oh yeah.

So, I say Soft Summer for Kristen Stewart.
Let's see her against a Soft Summer palette.

Oh, yes. I love this.





This post originally appeared in January of 2014. 

Last week I talked about the fact that, though all of your palette colors are gorgeous on you somewhere, they don't all look natural on your lips. 

Now I want to describe a good way to figure out which of your palette colors are best on your lips. 

In a nutshell, the colors that will look most natural on your lips are
 - your MLBB,
- darker versions of your MLBB, and
- a handful of colors very close in hue and value to these

Your MLBB is your "my lip but better" lip color. You may already have a lippy in your stash that you know is your MLBB. If you don't, stand in front of a mirror with your palette and locate the peach, pink, red, or violet that is precisely as dark as your lip and the closest to it in warmth or coolness. (Your natural lip color will be less saturated than any  of these palettte colors; you're basically finding the more saturated version of your natural lip.) 

A lippy that's an  MLBB will always look natural on you. Additionally, colors that are the same hue as your MLBB but darker will also look natural on you. Going very dark within your MLBB hue might be your evening lip, but it won't look unnatural.

In general, avoid opaque colors that are lighter than than your MLBB. This usually looks unnaatural. 

The other colors that will look most natural on your lips will be the colors closest in hue to your MLBB, and as dark or darker.  So if you're a Bright Spring whose MLBB is on your fuchsia strip, you may indeed be able to wear one of Bright Spring's violets as a lippy; the violets are close in hue to the fuchsias. You will find less luck with one of BSp's orange lippies, because orange is pretty far  from fuchsia. 

My MLBB is a neutral Soft Autumn pink that's medium-dark.  I'll wear other pinks and reds that are very close to this color in hue, but I won't go all the way to a Soft Autumn brown -- even though those lippies exist.

If I feel like it, I''ll go somewhat warmer or somewhat cooler within my palette. But I won't stray super-far from this central MLBB hue, and I won't go lighter in value, unless it's a gloss.

And this is what I recommend you do as well:
Find the hue that looks most natural on your lips, and choose lippies that stay relatively close to that hue.

For example, if your MLBB is an orange, experiment with your reds -- but don't stray all the way to a violet, unless you  want to make a statement.  :-) 

And if your MLBB is a violet, experiment with your reds and purples -- but don't stray all the way to orange.

When you know your  MLBB, use your seasonal makeup list and a computer to find the lippies from the list that will look the most natural on your face.

(Computer images aren't completely color-accurate, but you don't need them to be if you have the seasonal makeup list; if it's on the list, it's a color from your season.)

Just check the computer image to make sure the hue and value of the lippy seem right for your lips. Then buy it! 




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This post was originally published in March of 2017. 

In seasonal discussion groups, women spend a lot of time working out which palettte-matching lipsticks and glosses are their best colors.

Why should they have to spend time answering this question? Aren't all of the peaches, pinks, reds and violets in your palette automatically good lip colors for you?

Not exactly.

Every color in your palette is a color that harmonizes with your natural coloring somehow. 

But not every color will actually look good on your lips. 
​
Your right colors look right because they look natural. So if you wear them in an unnatural way, they won't look right.

​Consider my Soft Autumn palette:

Not all of the colors in your correct seasonal palette will be your absolute favorites.

Depending on your depth of coloring, your level of contrast, and the specific colors of  your body, some will be more useful to you than others, and in different ways.

A dark-skinned Winter, for example, might use black as an accent, while a fair-skinned Winter might wear it in large blocks.

But no color in your palette will be awful on you.  The colors in your palette are all harmonious with each other, and if it's your proper palette, they'll all be harmonious with you too.

So for those of you still searching for your season, I give you colors that are seasonal deal-breakers.

If the given color absolutely doesn't work for you, the deal's off. Move this season to the end of the list.

You can't use this list to identify your single best season. But you can use it to rule seasons out.


If you can't rock hot pink, rule out Bright Spring.

Bright Spring has a handful of pinks in this general vicinity.  You may not associate pink with Spring. But moving Spring reds toward Winter means making them both darker and brighter. Reds that are both deep and very bright are purple-reds. So in Bright Spring, we find hot pinks.

If you think you're a Spring but hot pink is no good for you, True Spring may be your home.

If you're not fabulous in lime green, rule out Bright Winter.

Taking True Winter's greens lighter and brighter, all the way into Bright Winter, moves them toward yellow. One of the results is a sort of fluorescent lime. On Bright Winters, this color is amazing. It contrasts beautifully with both very dark and very light skin.

If this color's not right for you, but you think you're a Winter, try Dark Winter next.

A handful of the seasons have some sort of mint. True Summer's is not a pure, saturated mint that's close to aqua. Instead it's a delicate and slightly hazy mint. It's lovely with a delicate fuchsia lip.

If this feels all wrong to you, perhaps vivid mint is beter? You might be a Winter.

Dark Winter yellows are tricky. They're not clear and pure like True Winter's. They're not blindingly bright. They're just slightly warmed, a little rich - but not Autumn rich. Penelope Cruz is lovely here in what looks like one of Dark Winter's elusive yellows.

If you need your yellows purer, try one of the other Winters. And if you need a more delicate yellow, try one of the Summers.

This Dark Autumn color always surprises me. Call it orchid or begonia perhaps. It's not a color I would label Dark Autumn if I saw it in a pile of a hundred other colors. Yet it's gorgeous with the intense dark olives and vivid teals of the season.

Dark Autumn Natalie Portman's been photographed in three or four dresses in something like this color. They're all great on her. If it's not great on you, perhaps try True Autumn or Bright Spring.

Was it Christine Scaman who said Light Spring colors are popsicle colors? It's true. But every season has neutrals, of course. This unusual Light Spring color is like your usual khaki, but with a suggestion of green and gold. On a Light Spring, it may pick up tones in the eye or hair.

If this color's a no-go on you, perhaps look at Light Summer instead.

Light Summer doesn't get very warm, but in the pinks it does go as far as a pinky coral. It's a bit pinker than what you see here, but still warmish. On a Light Summer it picks up healthy color in the face.

If you think you're a Summer but can't wear this light, delicate, warm tone, look at True Summer.

True Spring's colors are Crayola colors. You can see them in this picture of Nicole Kidman: blue dress, yellow hair, red-orange lips.  In these simple primaries, True Spring is gorgeous.

If you struggle to articulate the names of your best colors, they're not True Spring's. You might consider Summer or Autumn. 

True Autumn has a few beautiful burgundies that go beautifully with the rich greens and oranges of the season. You can see all those colors here, in Noa Tishby's face.
Those burgundies make good lippies too.

If this burgundy overwhelms you, try something from Soft Autumn.

This is not a warm golden brown or a milk chocolate brown. If you're a Summer, none of those browns will work for you. Browns are generally bad for Summers, as a rule. But if you're a Soft Summer, you will be lovely in cocoa brown. It's a brown that looks both slightly greyed and slightly purpled. It may pick up tones in your hair.

If this color just isn't right for you, try True Summer next.

This blue feels both rich and muted, and quite medium - neiher purpley nor greenish. I's similar to the color you get if you Google "French blue."

Though it's a subtle color, on Soft Autumn skin it's just as powerful as it needs to be. Notice how rich it looks on Natascha McElhone.

If you need a blue that's much richer than this, you might try a Winter or a Spring.

   *             *              *
For any of these seasons, Google the season's name in quotes to see images of the palette. Images that say "Sci/Art" are usually quite accurate. Or order sheets of color from all 12 seasons to try the seasons out in person.

As always, I hope this helps you find your correct season.  :-)


This post first ran in April of 2013. 

Game of Thrones!

I'm a huge fan of the George R.R. Martin book series and I can't stay away from the TV show either.

So, Emilia Clarke. You've been wondering too, right?

I love Daenerys. But that white-blonde Targaryen hair is so not her. Her coloring's not delicate like that. It makes her seem ghostly.

So probably no Light Spring or Light Summer here.

The natural brown's so much better, isn't it? Just look at this. So real. So beautiful.

The black blazer isn't quite the thing, though. Much darker than she is. Ixnay on any palette that contains black. (That's all three Winters, Dark Autumn and Bright Spring.) 

Just to belabor the point: NOT a Winter.

My very first thought about her was Soft Summer. My first thought is often wrong, but in this case I think it may have been correct. 

These Summery colors are not at all bad, but don't they need to be just a little deeper and warmer? Emilia's skin is a tad richer than these hues.

This is fantastic. Is that one of Soft Summer's teals? It looks like it could be.

True and beautiful. These look like Soft Summer colors to me.

Soft Summers, what do you think? Is Daenerys Targaryen one of you?



Try figuring out your own true colors at home.



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Soft Summer on the left, Light Summer on the right.

Soft Summer on the left, True Summer on the right. 

[Happy July 4th holiday, American readers! I'm re-running one of my most popular posts from several years ago. I welcome your opinions and insights in the comments section!]


This Indian model and actress is both incredibly beautiful and (to me) incredibly difficult to type. There's no agreement on the 'net, that's for sure. But after much study, I think I've figured it out. Here, I'll walk you through the process I used and share my conclusion.

Aishwarya is Indian. If I believed that non-White women are always Autumns and Winters, I'd have it narrowed down to six seasons based on that alone. If I was a particularly rigid thinker, I might have already decided Deep Autumn or Deep Winter. 

But ethnicity doesn't determine season; it's based on how the skin reacts to color. So I'll keep the Autumns and Winters in mind, but not limit myself to them.

Let's look more closely at her.

Aishwarya is probably most famous for her beautiful and unusual eyes. If you believe that eyes determine season - or at least point to it - you're probably thinking Summer. You might even have narrowed it down to Soft Summer based only on these amazing eyes.

I'm going to make a mental note that the eyes suggest Summer, but I know that any season can have any eye color. So I'm moving on to the next step: finding well-lit pics of Aishwarya in a variety of colors, and noticing what the colors that look most - and least - harmonious  on her have in common.

I find it easiest to start with makeup. When does Aishwarya's face look natural and balanced, and when does it seem that color is just sitting on her face?

This face looks pretty natural. In the eye shadow, blush, and lip, I see warmth, and I see mutedness - as opposed to clarity.

Most seasons have warmth or softness or both in them. But I’m tentatively ruling out Bright Winter. Very tentatively ruling out Cool (True) Winter and Bright Spring. 

And maybe penciling a star next to the Autumns (soft & warm) and Soft Summer (soft with a smidge of warmth).

Nothing’s certain yet; let’s keep looking:

A well-lit pic, though not a flattering one: this lip and cheek look a little too bright and too pink to me. The color seems to be sitting on her face in a way that it doesn’t in the previous pics.

(And those silvery, icy jewels seem to have nothing in common with her.)

The most obvious thing I'm noticing at this point is that coolness and Aishwarya don’t mix. So, again, several seasons could be indicated, but I’m leaning farther away from the Winters, and starting to lean away from the Summers as well. Despite those eyes.

Ouch. That lip is too, too purple. Further confirms my growing sense that coolness is not for Aishwarya.

 I'm feeling pretty sure she's a warm season. So the scientist in me says I must try to prove the null hypothesis:

Can I find her in makeup that looks both cool and natural?

Here, I’ve certainly found coolness – at least around the eye - but it looks all wrong: too sparkly, too blue. The lip and cheek here aren’t bad. But they’re more warm than cool. This isn’t disproving my theory; it’s confirming it.

Let's try more pics.

My first thought: nice, natural face, and a pinkish lip. OK, maybe we're on to something.

I'm looking closer at the makeup. The eyes look quite harmonious to me, and, well, I see warmth in the colors there. I see warmth in that nice, natural cheek too.

I start to notice that something's bugging me about that lip.  I ask my gut: what’s wrong? My gut tells me: warm it up and darken it a smidge.

Yeah - I step back and look at the whole face again, and that lip is just too light and too pink for the rest of the face.

(Warm it, darken it… could Aishwarya be an Autumn?  Hmm... maybe. Maybe. Nothing's impossible, despite the eyes.)

Let’s look at some more pics.

Here's the pic from the top of the post.

Apart from the requisite but totally silly super-black liner, this face looks natural as well.

And again, I see warmth in every part of the makeup.

At this point I think I’m prepared to commit myself to the idea that Aishwarya is a season known for warmth: Autumn or Spring.

Because I’ve also been noticing softness, I’m going farther now, and asking: do I see Autumn warmth specifically?

Well, maybe.

Are the flattering makeup colors that I’ve seen so far Autumn’s, and not Spring’s? That is, are they relatively muted and deep, rather than bright and light?

I think so.

Now I’m looking back at every picture I’ve seen so far, and asking this question: does anything in any pic rule out Autumn? Have I seen her looking natural in a super-cool, super-light or super-bright color that no Autumn could possibly wear?

Nope.

Well, I’m going to proceed with a tentative theory that she’s an Autumn, while staying open to evidence that might suggest any other season.

So here's another picture with natural-looking makeup.

Are these colors consistent with Autumn? Yes - they're warm, soft, and deeper rather than lighter.

Are they completely inconsistent with another season?

Hard to say… I can imagine a Soft Summer or a Deep Winter possibly photographing this way, if the light was right.

I think I've exhausted the usefulness of makeup analysis. I have some ideas. Now I'm moving on to clothing colors, and noticing what doesn't look right.

Oh, certainly not.

My brain tells me she looks pale and harsh. My gut doesn’t tell me anything – it just cringes. Beautiful Aishwarya, where are you?

So this is a deep, cool color, and it’s not doing her any favors. Duly noted. Moving on…

Hmm… This just seems so, well, weird.  As in strange, foreign. Unconnected to her.

I see Aishwarya. And I see the light, cool colors. But I don’t see anything joining them together.

Still thinking Autumn is likely. More colors:

My gut has a mixed reaction to this very un-Autumny pink. Something’s working, something’s not.

I pick apart my reaction:

• OK, I definitely dislike the hue for her. It's not calling to anything in her skin. Too cool.
• And I’m finding the color brighter than Aishwarya herself. But, interestingly, not alarmingly so. 
• And the value of the color –  the depth of it, which is sort of medium-deep  – actually seems pretty balanced for Aishwarya.

So are Aishwarya's best colors warm, medium-deep, and kind of vivid? I’m thinking maybe yes.

If yes, I can probably rule out Soft Autumn.

But Deep Autumn and Warm (True) Autumn are still in the running.  Their colors are muted in the context of the full 12-season spectrum, but considered in themselves, they can read as rather bright.

Now that I think I'm closing in on an answer,  I'm ready to look at this problem from another angle:

What are Aishwarya's best colors?
What pics show her in glorious, fantastically harmonious colors?

This one.

This one.

This one.

This one.

This one.

This one.

And, oh my gosh, yes, this one, absolutely. I can’t stop staring. Incredible. Glorious golden goddess.

So... whose colors are these?

Warm (True) Autumn’s.

??

But she has those Summery eyes…

Yeah, I know.
 
But she’s Indian…

So?

I've often thought about this brave and beautiful woman's coloring. I had her up on my "Soft Summer Celebrities" page for a while, but later took her down because I started to doubt that diagnosis. I'm undertaking a closer study of her coloring.


As I often do, I use makeup to narrow down Ashley's season. When it comes to celebs, using clothing colors is often unhelpful, because the effects of the colors on the face are obscured by the makeup.

 This light purple eyeshadow seems too light and bright for her face. Tentative no to Springs and Winters. (Perhaps Dark Winter's still on the table though?)

I think I'd like this lip very much if it were a little lighter. It's hard to know for sure, but that looks like it could be an Autumn lip, or perhaps Soft Summer.

Yikes! Talk about a color dragging down the viewer's eye.

So we can perhaps rule out Dark Winter? This color might be too saturated even for them  -- but it wouldn't have the Joker-like effect that it does on Ashley.

Ouch. Far too bright and far too warm for the rest of the face. I don't think Bright or True (Warm) Spring is likely; this might not be a perfect lip for either of those seasons, but it wouldn't look so completely wrong.

Here's a lighter pink with more shine. The whole face is pretty shiny, actually.  I'd imagine this possibly looking nice on a Light season, perhaps someone with a more delicate complexion. Here, it feels a little off... as if the real Ashley is hidden behind the light, shiny stuff. Tentative no to Light Summer.

That's a really purply lip. And very cool pink cheeks.

Seeing her in too-cool color, I'm skeptical about True Summer and True Winter.

I was confused about my own reaction to this pic at first. I knew it didn't feel right, but I couldn't put my finger on why. On the one hand, the colors all seem to be working together. Then I realized: her whole face looks , well, kind of brownish-orange.

It's as if the MUA painted the entire face with the same too-warm color. So the effect is harmonious at first glance, but the harmony is within the makeup - not between the makeup and the skin.

On a True (Warm) Autumn, these colors would seem to emanate from the face instead of sitting on top of it.

I think I'm back to Soft Summer or Soft Autumn.

I'll try to find pics of her in colors exclusive to each of the Softs: perhaps dusty purple or soft fuchsia for Soft Summer. Maybe muted mustard or a warm brown for Soft Autumn.

That's awful darn good, isn't it? I think it's Soft Summer. It's not Soft Autumn.

This, I don't love so much.

It's hard to find pics of Ashley in Soft Autumn colors. This could be True Autumn and not Soft, but the blended effect of the fabric makes me think a Soft Autumn could pull it off. It matches Ashley's lipgloss, but I think it gives her skin a faint greenish cast.

I'm back to my original thought: I think Ashley Judd is a Soft Summer.

What do you think?