Discover your color palette and your style type.

Dark Autumn Makeup Word Cloud

10/22/2018

Where I live, the trees are still an Autumny orange and red, but the nights are cold, and it's dark more of the day than not. It's the perfect time of year to talk about Dark Autumn, one of my favorite seasons.

Dark Autumn is Autumn verging on winter. Still Autumn, but darker and colder.

Dark Autumn colors are mostly warm and rich, because it's an Autumn season. But they have a bit of added coolness, and they're also very dark. In fact, these colors are dark first and foremost; their warmth is a secondary quality. (Hence the name: Dark Autumn, sometimes known as Deep Autumn)

(The light colors you see in Dark Autumn's palette actually make sense as darks as well: they're deepened versions of what would be a tinted white in another palette. Dark Autumn gets a white too; it's an ivory, though, not a pure white.)

When you're a Dark Autumn, your makeup colors all come right from your color palette.

For years now, I've been keeping a list of makeup products that are precisely matched to the Dark Autumn color palette. If you want to spare yourself the trouble of rubbing makeup on white paper and comparing it to the Dark Autumn palette, my list is a good investment. It has hundreds of products on it.

Because this palette (like all seasonal palettes) occupies a very precise section of color space, we see the same color words appear over and over on the makeup list.

Here's the Dark Autumn makeup word cloud, which shows the most common color words. The size of the word indicates how often it appears on the list.

Dark Autumn makeup

What I love about Dark Autumn is its contradictions. Somehow, it seems more complicated than other neutral (not purely warm or cool) seasons. How do you put together pink, rose, and violet with brown, red, and chocolate? Dark Autumn, that's how. I love seeing gold, cherry, and plum right next to each other. Or amber, ink, and fig. So unexpected, yet Dark Autumn makes it work.

Last week, I did the True Autumn makeup word cloud, and I did Dark Winter a while back. Here is True Autumn on the left, Dark Autumn in the middle, and Dark Winter in the right. (I actually redid the Dark Winter word cloud in font that's consistent with my more recent clouds.)

True Autumn

DARK AUTUMN

Dark Winter

I find it really interesting how Dark Autumn represents a middle place between a season that's very rich and warm, and a season that's coolish and very dark. Autumn foliage plus jewel tones!

I had fun making this graphic showing how Dark Autumn color words combine important words from both True Autumn and Dark Winter.

Isn't that fun to look at?

This season makes more sense when you see it on a human being. These Dark Autumns beautifully combine warmth and coolness. You see greys, blacks, navies, and purples with oranges, browns, olives, and rusts.

You who are Dark Autumns, do you enjoy the contradictions of your palette? Or do you even experience your palette that way? Maybe this is your normal! :-)

23 Comments

Melina

10/23/2018 03:50:33 am

Ah, on seeing the TA word cloud & post, I was so sure I must be TA, but now... All this fits me to a T, too - "Autumn foliage plus jewel tones", "how do you put together pink, rose, and violet with brown, red, and chocolate? Dark Autumn, that's how. " ;) And to add I can do black and some pinks... Only I'm not dark to look at (though I realize that's not an absolute requirement), and the lippies are mostly a bit too dark. No wonder I'm now torn between the two!

10/23/2018 05:37:16 pm

Natalie Portman & Julia Roberts are both wearing lighter pink lip colors in this post—would those be more flattering shades for you?

10/24/2018 01:28:42 pm

Natalie Portman's, yes, but the one Julia Roberts is wearing is actually a bit too light ;) Actually, the best ones of these pics would be the ones worn by Kristen Kreuk and the lady with glasses in the upper right corner (sorry but I don't know her, at least from this pic). But I wasn't thinking of these pics when I said that, but (most of) the the usual DA lippie recs :) It's true that there are many among the lighter and medium DA shades that are great for me, but e.g. Revlon Rum Raisin is horrible (too brown, too dark & possibly a bit too cool, too)...

10/24/2018 01:59:46 pm

Not to mention Revlon Black Cherry, which the commenter below mentions, a lippie that dark would certainly look a bit goth on me ;)

But I guess in evaluating suitable and flattering colours, clothes etc. take priority over lipsticks?

10/24/2018 07:36:58 pm

Isn’t it astounding how different Oprah looks with big glasses and pulled-back hair? Almost unrecognizable. I think her old look was more flattering, personally.

10/25/2018 03:35:47 am

Ah, it's Oprah ;) I thought so, but wasn't sure (plus I'm in Europe, so not as much exposed to US popular culture as many others here).

10/24/2018 07:33:35 pm

Yeah, lip colors constitute such a limited portion of your palette that they can be inconclusive or even misleading when trying to figure out your season—unless you’re lucky enough to be flattered by one of your season’s usual suspects in the lip department. Clothes are usually a better indicator since they provide a wider selection of colors. Maybe Rachel would be able to suggest some tiebreaker colors to help you decide between TA and DA? There’s a DA orchid color in her seasonal deal-breakers post that I don’t think is shared with TA; but the TA burgundy in that post is more ambiguous.

10/25/2018 03:43:17 am

Yes, those tie-breaker colours - in that article at least, it really doesn't help that much, as I can do both of those, orchid and burgundy ;) But I believe black is one tie-breaker between TA and DA, but I'm a bit ambiguous about it - I feel I can pull it off very well, but maybe I'm just kidding myself... Like we discussed earlier here, that we are culturally conditioned to think black as flattering. I can pull off both TA and DA in clothes, but medium darkness is best in both lippies and hair colour. Not sure if that's a deciding factor, though.

10/25/2018 04:03:59 am

Just to add that FWIW, the "what season are you" quiz here always leads me to DA, or nearly always, even when choosing the option of not being flattered by black (which I still rather believe I am) ;)

10/28/2018 11:10:00 pm

Well, I did mention that the TA burgundy was rather ambiguous--I could see it working for a DA. I'm pretty certain the DA orchid would not work on a TA, however, so I guess that tentatively points in the direction of DA for you?

You could also look at the TA and DA colors in the 12Blueprints posts below--maybe comparing them will provide more clarity?:

https://www.12blueprints.com/3-great-colours-on-the-12-seasons/

https://www.12blueprints.com/3-beauty-colours-for-12-seasons-v2-0/

10/29/2018 04:05:21 am

KC, thanks, I'm already familiar with both of those "3 great colours" though, and have often studied them :) In the, both DA and TA ones are good, but I'd say DA ones are better. But then again, my discussion with Christy below about hair colour seems to point to TA ;) Like I said there, maybe I'm somewhere on the border of the two...

Silver Roxen

10/23/2018 07:23:26 pm

Thank you! I've been waiting for this. :)

"Somehow, it seems more complicated than other neutral (not purely warm or cool) seasons."

This is so true, both gold and silver look good on me, I'm mostly told told that gold looks better.

For context I'm a 21 yesr old brown skinned (like Angela Basset for example) African American woman like Angela Basset. I'm been experimenting with makeup and I've been afraid to try red or brown because I don't feel bold enough. Now I see that these colors work for me, as opposed to cinnamon or mocha, which I've tried. I recently bought Revlon's Black Cherry, and I think it's going to be a great fit for me.

anna

10/25/2018 12:11:18 am

Would you consider Nars Rock With You an Autumn or Winter shade?

10/25/2018 03:53:48 am

Not sure who your question was meant for, but I'd definitely say Winter, Dark Winter to be specific. It looks typical DW. :)

10/31/2018 12:49:50 am

Thank you! I've been trying to decide between DA and DW and I finally found this lipstick that looks amazing on me. I just don't have an eye for warm/cool yet.

Christy

10/26/2018 08:45:55 pm

I am Dark Autumn, and this is so me! There are days when the contradictions are things I revel in, and days when I just want to be like everyone else. I think what makes this season hard to live in, is that people want to force me into other categories. Yes, I am dark, but I am not purely cool, Don’t dye my hair black. Yes I am warm, but I am not just warm. Don’t dye my hair red. When I try to conform to a societal norm, I can’t quite pull it off.

10/28/2018 09:43:19 am

There are actually all kinds red hair, cool shades as well as warm ;) And I'm not sure why (or how) would anyone force you to dye your hair..?

For me, red is the only dye direction I can comfortably go - neither lighter or darker hair is flattering, at least not if it's any more than one-two shades or so. But warm copper red or lauburn is the hair colour I've always felt most at home in, and keep getting back to.

10/28/2018 09:45:54 am

Auburn of course, not 'lauburn', don't know where the 'l' came from ;) (The lack of editing your own posts is quite an inconvenience ;))

10/28/2018 10:36:53 am

Thanks, Melina, for clarifying that. I did not mean to suggest that there is not a wide range of red hair shades, or that some of the darker ones would not be appropriate for dark autumn. My point was that hair stylists and makeup artists will pick on the depth or slight warmth in my skin and try to exaggerate the look. Makeup is easier to correct that a mixed hair dye that goes too far, and that has happened to me repeatedly.

Melina, a copper shade would suggest to me (sight unseen) that you may be more of a true autumn or true spring. I have had coppery highlights in my hair, but it just makes my skin look muddy. That level of warmth is just too much.

10/29/2018 03:58:24 am

Christy, yes, that's crossed my mind, too; copper or other warm red often even seems to make my skin tone more even... At least at first, unless it gets too bright, which looks bad (which would seem to exclude TSp, plus the fact that I'm good with black & darkness). Then again, many other factors seem to point to DA, some of which I've discussed here in other comments... Maybe I'm just one the border of the two ;)

And no wonder I didn't at first understand what you meant, as I don't do makeup artists or hair stylists; I do my own makeup and cut my own hair, which I've found to be by far the best way :)

10/29/2018 04:09:34 am

Just to clarify, with being good with black & darkness I was referring to clothes & accessories ;) Not hair colours.

2/17/2019 05:21:25 am

I'm a definite dark autumn but I can't stand the colors because I don't like warm colors at all. A lot of orange, peach, coral and salmon colors get thrown my way and I can't stand them and I really like pink but even as a dark autumn pink never gets mentioned. Brown gets thrown my way too often as well.

However I do love red, turquoise, greens are very pretty and yellow is alright. Burgundy is pretty as well.

autumn makeup palette link

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Dark Autumn Makeup Word Cloud

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