Discover your color palette and your style type.

Distinguishing Bright Winter From Bright Spring

6/7/2013

The two palettes are clearly different. Look at them side by side and there's no doubt. Bright Winter is darker, crisper, bluer; Bright Spring is livelier, cheerier, yellower.

But getting down to individual colors is tricky. There aren't many hues that are found only in one palette but not in the other. Both have pinks, yellows, greens, blues, purples... The differences are mainly in the temperature of the hues - cool or warm? - and it can be hard to convey those differences in a blog.

I will focus on just two colors, two that are inarguably distinct in hue - one from each palette.

First is Bright Spring's very saturated adobe orange. Think rust or pumpkin, but clear, not dull.

Found in Bright Spring, NOT in Bright Winter.

The Bright Spring palette has a few colors like this, and they're nothing like anything in Bright Winter's palette.

Here's Rose McGowan in such a color:

Bright Spring Rose McGowan. I love everything about her palette here.

If you are lovely in some version of this warm, deep, but clear orange, you're more likely Bright Spring than Bright Winter.

The colors that most easily distinguish Bright Winter from Bright Spring, in my opinion, are its periwinkles. Periwinkle is purple-blue. Bright Winter's are like this:

Found in Bright WInter, NOT in Bright Spring.

Now, Bright Spring has several colors you might call purple.

Bright Spring purple can look like this...

...or like this. (This will read as purple in some contexts.)

Some are crayon purple; others are quite magenta-ish, almost red.

But none of them are purple-blue.

Here's Courtney Cox in a similar color:

I've not formally opined that Courtney Cox is a Bright Winter, but others say she is. It's likely, don't you think?

If you suspect you're a Bright but aren't sure which one, compare these two colors. Make sure both versions are very saturated, not faded or grayed or dull.

For more help figuring out your season, see here. Good luck!

26 Comments

Morgan

6/10/2013 09:05:14 pm

Thanks for this post! I´m suspecting I can be a Bright, and my colouring is similar to Rose McGowan; I have dark eyes (darker than her, I think) and not the electric blue eyes that are stereotypical for Bright Winters, but I am not good at the orange you have post. For me, orange must be pure orange, or nothing. But periwinkle is one of my best colors! Can you tell me if I really can be a Bright Winter with brown eyes?

Rachel

6/11/2013 02:11:15 am

Of course you can! My guess is that worldwide, brown is the most common eye color for Bright Winters. Here are three, in their drapes:
http://12blueprints.com/jackie-and-annie-are-bright-winters/
http://12blueprints.com/jocelyn-is-a-bright-winter/
http://12blueprints.com/myles-is-a-bright-winter/

Alyyna

10/16/2014 11:36:42 pm

I thought Myles has had hazel eyes ?

FrancaB

6/12/2013 02:44:21 am

Your posts are always interesting and insightful!
These "distinguishing" posts are really helpful.
I hope you can make them for the autumn subseasons too!
;)
All the best!
F.

6/12/2013 09:35:28 pm

Thanks for your quick answer! But I still have another question: why do you know Rose McGowan is a Spring, if she has the typical Snow-White colouring we all associate to Winter? I know the answer is in the drapes, as you article shows, but my Q is about how can she be warm when that skin looks cool as snow.

Corinne

10/7/2014 10:47:21 am

Exactly! I have the same question - when I'm not tanned I look like Rose. My skin is rose-white with freckles. The veins are blue. Everyone says I look pale. But I'm clearly a warm-neutral as I look awful in cool colours.

Trisha

9/20/2018 11:49:26 am

Morgan and Corinne, I am a pale ivory skinned Bright Spring draped female who has dark hair and eyes, and am often described as "snow white", even more so when younger. In fact though, cool colours make me look washed out and ivory skin has warmth to it. I cannot take a pink or porcelain toned foundation, even though most friends and family, even beauty counter assistants, think I must suit this - until they try it on me! It sits like a pink, frosty, layer on my skin, so you can then see how much warmth there is, even in my pale skin. Its quite a difficult shade to match up, but found it among the palest gold tones of Lancome's 40 shades. If you look carefully, a certain frostiness seems to come off Winter types and not in the Springs, which just feel warmer, even if very pale still.

Kirsten

6/16/2013 12:40:48 pm

I once saw a beautiful young woman with Snow White coloring--intensely dark hair, very fair complexion--wearing a gown in an orange much like the one you show here. I think the orange was stronger than the one Rose McGowan looks so lovely in--but it, too, was clear, not neon bright but strong enough for me to wonder how such a Wintry looking person could look so good wearing it. I suspect she must have been a Bright Spring too.

6/18/2013 09:16:35 pm

Thanks you again for the answer and for your new article on distinguishing BW from BSp. Althought I would never be sure unless being draped, you have given me a lot of knowledge.

1/4/2014 12:38:44 am

Now I understand why that orange top I own looks rather good on me - it's a similar shade to the orange you describe above for bright spring. I was recently draped and am definitely bright winter, but bright spring was my second runner up. I wondered why the top looked good on me, since I thought it must be dark autumn-ish - thanks :)

Emmy

5/3/2014 11:47:11 pm

Great article :) Have you ever considered that Rose McGowan might be some sort of autumn though? I always thought Spring and Winter colours looked a bit harsh on her (she seems to have such delicate complexion) and I recently came across this picture where I think she looks amazing in softer, warm colours:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/560487116096654839/

kris

12/22/2014 03:41:15 pm

I used to have bright, clear and almost translucent aqua eyes. Now they have more yellow/brown in them which makes them green. I have med. brown hair and cooler skin. Am I a clear winter? Thanks!

Rachel Arnt-Schemmel

12/23/2014 10:18:45 am

Since season is about how your skin responds to color, your hair, eyes, and skin tone don't automatically lead to or rule out any season.

Tanja

11/6/2015 09:23:56 am

Thank you a lot for this article. It was very helpful. Still I'm not 100% sure, wheater I'm BS or BW. I'm thinking of buying two lipsticks from MAC (on from the BW list and one from the BS list). Are there two comparable colours, that you could suggest that would really bring it to a point?

2/12/2016 12:56:21 pm

Hi Tanja,

I'm a BW who was strongly considering BSp before I got draped. One of my favorite BSp test products was Burt's Bees lip shimmer in Rhubarb. It gave me all the benefits of Bright but was clearly just a bit too warm. You might start there because it's a fairly cheap and common lip...if it looks too warm, you could just be a "cooler" BSp but you could also be a BW. (FYI, the BW lips I tried looked quite garish, causing me to rule out the season when I shouldn't have, so I wouldn't necessarily use them as a tester.)

2/12/2016 01:01:42 pm

One more thing--in my draping, I was much closer to BSp than TW of my two neighbor seasons: I'm a fairly warm BW and the Rhubarb lip shimmer was still clearly wrong after I'd worn it a few times. So if it *doesn't* look wrong on you, that might be a clue that you're BSp rather than a "warmer" BW (like me).

2/12/2016 06:37:28 pm

Hi, DC! Thank you so much for you comment! If I get the chance, I will definately try this one out... Recently I struggle alot with my seasonal palette. I'm wearing exactly that Orange, that's showed in this post, at work and I keep receiving compliments about how fresh and glowing (!) I look. But that's like an exeption... I'm not that sucessful with the other BS colors and they don't feel perfectly comfortable neither... Even though I like the brightness of those colors... Something just doesn't seem to fit... *super confused*. Maybe Rhubarb will bring the solution. ;)

Michelle

12/10/2016 11:26:41 pm

Nicki Minaj is another Bright Spring, undeniably

Jayleen Lawler

12/17/2017 11:26:47 am

Hi, I was wondering if it is possible to look good in both of the above colors. I have both in my wardrobe...does a different season altogether cover both?

12/19/2017 03:35:13 pm

Hi! I could imagine someone being OK in both, but I can't imagine someone not being clearly better in one of them.
That periwinkle is really tricky though -- tweak it just a hair, and it starts to look warm.

Alan Richard

8/15/2018 12:20:00 pm

Same here. Both seem to go well on me. Dark Winter has both colours- but then you'd have to make lots of other adjustments.

Bunnie

4/12/2018 10:12:58 am

I did the at home draping and thought that bright spring looked better than bright winter, but bright orange really doesn't work on me and I've generally found that periwinkles are a good choice. My best colors are really bright, almost fluorescent pinks. In the draping the bright winter colors felt too dark and heavy. To me it seems like bright spring would fit if I just ignored all of the orangey colors (orange red also looks bad on me). Am I between seasons?

Sarah

6/4/2018 09:22:09 pm

You are just amazing at colors. I've been debating long whether I'm bright spring or bright winter (or dark autumn/dark winter). Rust is one of my best colors, periwinkle, not so much. Thank you for your amazing insight!

marie

5/21/2019 06:29:10 pm

I have dark golden eyes (with many topaz reflections ) a fresh bright very light skin and natural medium golden blonde hair
I supposed to be an autumn because of my dark eyes, but not sure because I'm not so warm on the yellowish side, I mean I see my skin more apricot or something orangeish
I also have some freckles, my eyes are very shiny (I remember at school a friend who described them as "dark shiny pearls")

Stella

7/2/2019 02:14:14 pm

Haven't been properly draped but think I may be Bright Winter... I call periwinkle "blurple" and always get compliments when I wear it - but maybe because it is fairly unusual. I find most foundation (even pale foundation) sits like a peachy mask on my face. The best foundation shades for me are almost grey - sounds horrifying but looks much better in person!

Natasya Situmorang

3/18/2020 07:11:46 am

Hey there, I am taking some time to read this article of yours so as to learn more about few differences between clear winter and clear spring colour palettes 😚🤗. I suspect that I might have been clear winter (I am especially drawn towards the periwinkle colour that you put up on this page and I can imagine wearing that colour on me and it will look beautiful on me ❤🧡💛). I have never been professionally drapped myself, so I wouldn't know where I am, seasonal colour wise. I can definitely say that I do have that Snow White colouring; very dark hair (my natural hair colour is black, but it's not pitch black. More like natural black), very fair skin (I may say that I'm not very warm or cool toned as the veins in my inner wrists are a purplish and greenish blue at the same time?) and sparkling dark brown eyes (the colour of my iris contrasts with the whites of my eyes and if I were to look at my iris very closely, I can even see the dark-ish rims surrounding my eyes). I don't have the typically bright blue, gray, green and even hazel eyes that many bright winters have. Anyways, this is my two cents for the seasonal colour palette. God bless! ❤🧡💛.

Truth is Beauty

Distinguishing Bright Winter From Bright Spring

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