True, Soft, or Light Summer? Kristen Stewart and Emily Blunt.

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.

NOT WINTER

Notice how the black jacket and black eyeliner jump out at you. That's because they're more saturated than she is. More saturated colors appear closer than less saturated colors.

Ohh, really not good. Kristen's healthy skin tone is lost here.

WINTER

Compare this pic of Winter Mary Louise Parker. Notice how her eyes are just as intense as her black top. She's a Winter, and not overwhelmed by black.

Winter Taylor Cole balances black, instead of being overwhelmed by it.

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. 

NOT AUTUMN

Next to this rich, warm background color, Emily's lovely, porcelain skin looks a little muddy.

The warm makeup on Kristen seems to be sitting on her face instead of emanating from it. And the orange around her eyes especially seems wrong; it reads like discoloration.

AUTUMN

Against a similarly warm background, Autumn Eva Longoria just looks like herself.

This is Autumn makeup that looks like it's emanating from the skin. It's applied heavily, yet the colors are still harmonious with Noa Tishby.

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.

NOT SPRING

Yellow hair on Kristen seems wrong. Most Hollywood blonde is artificial, but this blonde reads as particularly unnatural because it doesn't harmonize with Kristen's skin.

Yellow hair on Emily seems to diminish her rather than bring her to life.

SPRING

Blake Lively's also a natural brunette (see those roots), but because she's a Spring she can pull off yellow hair. See the light golden highlights in her skin that the yellow hair picks up.

Another naturally brown-haired Spring who's enlivened by blonde hair. With yellow hair, Cat Deeley's face shows a subtle variation in color that signifies health, instead of uniform pallor.

 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.

Laura Linney

Naomi Watts

Elisha Cuthbert

You can tell from their roots that these Light Summers are brunettes, but blonde looks appropriate on them.

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.

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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.

Yellow next to her face = not so great. Light Summer's unlikely.

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.

Overwhelmed by too-saturated color.

Too, too bright for Kristen.

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.