Let’s skip the mystery. Finding your color season comes down to three things: your undertone, natural contrast, and a few key questions. That’s it. No magic or guesswork required.
So let’s find your color season, together.
But first- what does color season mean?
Every person’s coloring- aka skin, hair, and eyes- falls into one of four broad categories: Spring, Summer, Autumn, or Winter. These aren’t personality types or vibes. They’re based on how your natural coloring behaves next to different colors.
Some colors will make your skin look brighter and your eyes more awake. Others will make you look tired without you doing anything different. That’s your color season at work.
Once you know yours, you stop shopping by trial and error and start shopping with confidence (and naturally your wardrobe will have more items to mix and match!).
THE THREE FACTORS THAT DETERMINE YOUR COLOR SEASON
If you’re trying to figure out how to find your color season on your own, these are the three things to look at.
1. Your Undertone
This is the biggest factor. Your undertone is either warm (golden, peachy, olive) or cool (pink, blue, rosy), or neutral.
2. Your Natural Contrast
Contrast is the visual distinction between your hair, skin, and eye color. To find yours, look at yourself without makeup, in natural light.
High contrast- like dark hair paired with fair skin- often points toward Winter. Low contrast, where everything blends more softly together, often points toward Summer. Warmer, medium-contrast combinations tend to land in Spring or Autumn.
Tip: If it’s hard to tell in natural light, take a photo of yourself without makeup and switch it to black and white. Do your features have a lot of contrast, or do they all blend into a similar shade?
3. The Metal Test
Hold a piece of gold jewelry up to your face, then switch to silver. One will almost always make your skin look more alive and the other slightly duller. That’s your undertone talking again- and it’s one of the fastest ways to start narrowing things down.
As a general rule:
- Gold tends to flatter warm undertones, which usually means you’re a Spring or Autumn.
- Silver tends to flatter cool undertones, which usually means you’re a Summer or Winter.
If both metals look equally good on you, don’t worry- that’s common too, and it usually just means your undertone leans more neutral. In that case, contrast will help you to narrow down your season.
WHY COLOR ANALYSIS APPS GET IT WRONG
I am constantly asked why I don’t recommend the color analysis apps (or ChatGPT) that are everywhere right now. My answer: they’re built on math, not nuance.
An app can’t account for the lightbulb in your bathroom, the white balance on your phone camera, or the fact that you’re comparing yourself to a screen instead of daylight. I’ve had clients come to Color Analysis sessions convinced they were one season because of an app, only to find out they were something else entirely once we checked in-person.
THE EASIEST WAY TO FIND YOUR COLOR SEASON
Take with my free Color Analysis Quiz! It’s a fun way to dip your toe into color analysis without committing to a full session.
Based on your answers, you’ll get a read on your color season and your tonal range within that season. Because knowing you’re a Winter is helpful — but knowing you’re a True Winter versus a Deep Winter is where things really click into place.
P.S. Want more personalized style guidance and personal styling support? Tune in to my podcast on Apple or Spotify where we talk all things style, confidence, and authenticity!
