Deep Winter Color Palette

The Deep Winter color palette

30 colours in four groups and 6 neutrals, each written out with its hex code — tap any code to copy it, or take a whole group at once. The same palette is available as a Deep Winter palette card (PNG) sized for a phone screen, to take shopping.

Deep Winter core and accent colors

The seven core colours are the ones to build a Deep Winter wardrobe from: midnight, burgundy, wine, plum, forest, deep teal and charcoal violet. Every one is cool-based and every one has real depth. That is the whole season in two words — the colouring is usually dark hair with a cool or neutral cast to the skin, and a colour has to carry both depth and a blue base to sit next to it without looking either weak or muddy.

Accents are jewel tones: ruby, cool red, sapphire, cobalt, emerald, deep turquoise, amethyst, berry and a clear cool pink. Deep Winter is not a muted season, so the accents are clean and saturated — a dusty version of the same colour looks tired here. The accents work best worn against the dark core, which is how a Deep Winter gets colour without losing the depth: an emerald top under a black coat, a ruby lip with midnight.

The lightest and deepest Deep Winter shades

The lightest Deep Winter shades are icy: icy pink, icy blue, icy lemon, icy mint and icy lilac, with cool white and silver grey. A pale colour works on this season only when it is almost white with a hint of colour and sits next to something dark — an icy pink shirt under a midnight suit, not an icy pink outfit. Pastels, which carry more colour and less clarity, are what fails. The deepest shades — black cherry, blackberry, pine, dark sapphire, aubergine, deep spruce and teal blue — are the colours that make evening wear look expensive on this season, and alternatives to black when you want depth with colour in it.

Deep Winter neutrals

• Crisp white#FAFAFA
• Stone grey#A9ABAF
• Cool taupe#857C7B
• Graphite#5A5A5A
• Ink navy#172440
• Black#0D0D0D

Six neutrals carry the wardrobe. Black and crisp white are genuinely yours — Deep Winter is one of the few seasons that wears both next to the face without looking severe. Ink navy and graphite are the everyday dark neutrals; stone grey and cool taupe are the light and middle ones, and they are the answer to beige. A warm beige or camel reads yellow on a Deep Winter; stone grey and cool taupe do the same job with the warmth taken out.

What makes a Deep Winter: warm or cool, light or deep, soft or bright

Deep Winter is cool colouring at maximum depth: dark hair, cool or neutral skin, and usually dark eyes. Depth defines it and coolness sets the family, so the palette runs to colours with weight and a blue base — burgundy, midnight, pine, plum. Pale and warm colours do not clash so much as vanish beside the face.

Deep Winter and Dark Winter are the same season. The two names come from two families of the twelve-season system — one names each subtype by how the colouring looks, the other by the axis that defines it — and this page answers to both. Deep Winter is a cool season: it belongs to the Winter family, carried at depth.

The test on this page turns three measurements into numbers between minus one and plus one. Warm–cool is mainly the hue angle of your skin in CIE Lab, with your hair counting for about a third. Light–deep is skin lightness and hair lightness together, with hair weighted slightly more. Soft–bright is the saturation of your irises and the lightness gap between your hair and your skin, half each.

It calls you Deep Winter when three conditions hold. Warm–cool reads on the cool side. Light–deep reads on the deep side. And light–deep is at least as far from zero as soft–bright, with at least one of them past 0.3 — meaning depth is the strongest thing about your colouring.

That rule answers the question people ask most about this season: why does very fair skin with black hair so often come out Bright Winter rather than Deep? Because skin lightness is almost half of the light–deep axis, so a very fair face pulls the depth back toward the middle — while the large gap between fair skin and black hair pushes soft–bright up. Clarity then beats depth, and the result is Bright Winter. Deep Winter most often combines medium to deep skin with dark hair, where both halves of the light–deep reading point the same way.

The borders follow from the same rule. A warm–cool value close to zero sits on the line with Deep Autumn, which is decided by the same axis. A light–deep value that only just clears 0.3 sits near True Winter. And a soft–bright value that nearly matches the depth sits near Bright Winter.

Deep Winter skin, eyes and hair

These are examples, not a checklist. The word deep in the name describes the season, not a skin tone: Deep Winter runs from fair to very deep skin, and it is common across every ethnicity. What makes it is the relationship — a cool or neutral cast, dark hair, and eyes that are usually dark. Two people with the same skin can be Deep Winter and Deep Autumn because of the warmth in their hair, or Deep Winter and Bright Winter because of how much lighter the skin is than the hair.

Am I a Deep Winter? A drape test you can do at home

Depth first, then temperature, then clarity.

1. 1

   Stand facing a window in daylight, with no coloured walls behind you and no makeup. Tie your hair back or cover it with a white towel so you see the skin's reaction on its own.

2. 2

   Test depth first. Hold a pastel pink under your chin, then ruby or burgundy. On a Deep Winter the pastel disappears next to the face and makes the skin look grey; the deep colour makes the features look defined.

3. 3

   Then test temperature — the entire difference between Deep Winter and Deep Autumn. Hold warm cream, then crisp white. Then dark chocolate, then true black. On a Deep Winter crisp white and black look natural and the warm pair makes the skin look sallow. If the warm pair wins, check Deep Autumn.

4. 4

   Finish with clarity: a saturated fuchsia against burgundy. If the fuchsia looks as good or better, you may be Bright Winter — the season decided by clarity rather than depth.

• Burgundy and midnight should look better on you than any pastel, easily.
• Optic white should beat cream, and true black should look natural rather than heavy.
• If deep warm shades — espresso, rust — beat the deep cool ones, you are Deep Autumn instead.

Deep Winter vs Deep Autumn, True Winter and Bright Winter

Deep Winter vs Deep Autumn is decided by temperature and nothing else. On this test both are called when depth is the strongest axis, and the sign of warm–cool picks the family, so the two seasons share their depth, their dark hair and their love of rich colour. What they do not share is black, white and gold. Deep Winter wears true black and crisp white next to the face naturally and looks best in burgundy, midnight and emerald; Deep Autumn looks best in dark chocolate, warm bone, oxblood and pine. Test with two pairs held under the chin in daylight — black against dark chocolate, crisp white against warm cream. Hair is about a third of the warm–cool reading, so dark hair with a warm or red cast pulls a result toward Deep Autumn, and the colour of the light pulls it either way. The Deep Autumn color palette looks at the same line from the warm side.

Deep Winter vs True Winter is a question of depth. True Winter is what the test calls a cool face when neither depth nor clarity is strong and depth is slightly on the dark side — coolness at full strength, at medium depth. A True Winter can carry a clean mid-tone cool blue or a crimson without being swamped; on a Deep Winter the same colours look slightly light, and midnight, burgundy and forest look better. If ruby beats a clear cherry red under your chin, you are on the deep side. The True Winter color palette covers the other side.

Deep Winter vs Bright Winter is the comparison most sites leave out, and on this test it is common. Bright Winter is called when clarity — iris saturation plus the lightness gap between hair and skin — is stronger than depth. Very fair skin with black hair is the classic case: the contrast is enormous, the average depth is not, and the result is Bright. Bright Winter looks best in saturated, clear colour at every depth, including icy brights, fuchsia and royal blue; Deep Winter looks best when the colour has weight. If fuchsia and icy blue look as good on you as burgundy, read the Bright Winter color palette.

Deep Winter colors to avoid, and what to wear instead

The three colours that fight a Deep Winter hardest are below. Three, not thirty — a palette is a prediction about which tones lift the face, not a list of banned colours, so every one of them has a version that does the same job.

• Peach#F7C5A0
• Spring green#C9DE8E
• Oat#E0C9A6

Deep Winter outfits and clothing

Six combinations built only from the palette, shown in the proportions you would wear them — the largest block is the main garment, the smallest is the accessory.

• Midnight and ruby

  • Midnight#00204A
  • Crisp white#FAFAFA
  • Ruby#9B111E

  A midnight suit or dress, a crisp white shirt, a ruby lip or accessory.

• Forest and icy pink

  • Forest#1B3A2A
  • Graphite#5A5A5A
  • Icy pink#F5D5E2

  A forest green knit, graphite trousers, an icy pink scarf near the face.

• Wine evening

  • Wine#7C2242
  • Black#0D0D0D
  • Silver grey#C3C6CC

  A wine dress, a black coat, silver jewellery.

• Sapphire workday

  • Ink navy#172440
  • Icy blue#DCEAF4
  • Sapphire#0F3D8C

  Ink navy suiting, an icy blue shirt, a sapphire tie or bag.

• Emerald and black

  • Emerald#00704A
  • Black#0D0D0D
  • Crisp white#FAFAFA

  An emerald top or dress with black trousers and a crisp white layer.

• Plum and stone

  • Plum#4B1E52
  • Stone grey#A9ABAF
  • Cool taupe#857C7B

  A plum sweater, stone grey trousers, cool taupe shoes and bag.

Deep Winter is one of the seasons that carries high-contrast prints: black-and-white stripes, crisp geometric patterns, houndstooth, polka dots on a dark ground, bold florals in jewel tones against black or midnight. Soft, blurred prints and watercolour florals in dusty colours look faded next to the face. Fabrics with some sheen — silk, satin, velvet, patent leather — suit the clarity of the season, and so does sharp tailoring. The easy rule is to keep the darkest or brightest part of a print close to the face, not the palest.

Deep Winter capsule wardrobe

• Black tailored coat
• Ink navy suit or trousers
• Crisp white shirt
• Burgundy knit
• Emerald or sapphire silk blouse
• Graphite blazer
• Dark indigo jeans
• Wine or ruby dress
• Icy blue or icy pink shirt
• Black leather boots
• Silver or white gold jewellery
• Black or burgundy leather bag

Deep Winter color palette for men

The classic men's wardrobe was more or less built for a Deep Winter. Black, charcoal and ink navy suits all work, and a crisp white shirt under a dark suit — the highest-contrast combination in menswear — looks natural on this season instead of severe. Shirts in crisp white and icy blue; knitwear in burgundy, forest, deep teal and charcoal. Ties and pocket squares are where the jewel tones go: burgundy, emerald, sapphire, a cool red. Leather in black or deep burgundy. The colours to drop are camel, tan, khaki and olive near the face, which read yellow against cool skin — a camel overcoat is the most common miss, and a charcoal or ink navy one fixes it.

Deep Winter makeup

Deep and cool; strong lip colour is easier here than almost anywhere.

Shade is decided by your season; where the colour goes is decided by your eye shape.

Deep Winter nail colors

• Wine#7C2242
• Black cherry#4A0E1F
• Midnight#00204A
• Forest#1B3A2A
• Ruby#9B111E
• Graphite#5A5A5A
• Icy silver#C3C6CC
• Crisp white French#FAFAFA

Eight shades, deepest first. Cream finishes in wine, black cherry and midnight are the everyday Deep Winter manicure; ruby and forest work in a glossy or jelly finish; graphite and icy silver suit a metallic or chrome finish, which is a natural fit for a season that wears silver. A crisp white French tip is one of the few pale nail looks that suits the season, because it sits next to a strong contrast rather than on its own. The shades to skip are nude beiges, peach, coral and warm gold shimmer.

The best hair colors for a Deep Winter

Cool dark brown to true black. Lightening costs this season the depth its palette is built on; warm highlights fight the temperature at the same time.

Dark colour kept glossy is the most flattering direction: a cool espresso, soft black or blue-black gloss adds shine without changing the depth. If you want dimension, very fine cool-toned lowlights or a subtle burgundy or plum tint in the ends keep the temperature right.

Going grey often works well on a Deep Winter, because silver is cool and keeps the family. On this test grey hair raises the lightness of the hair and lowers the contrast, so the reading usually moves up the light–deep axis — toward True Winter, and with a lot of silver sometimes into the Summers. A clean silver with the crisp white and jewel tones of the palette near the face tends to look deliberate; a warm dye over grey usually does not.

Hair colors that fight a Deep Winter

Honey and caramel balayage, copper, golden brown and golden blonde fight twice: they add warmth the skin has no warmth to meet, and they reduce the depth the palette is built on. Heavy blonde highlights on dark hair lighten the overall reading and make dark eyes and brows look disconnected from the hair.

Deep Winter jewelry: gold or silver?

Silver, white gold and platinum. Gunmetal and pewter also work; yellow gold does not.

Silver, white gold, platinum and gunmetal are the natural metals, and Deep Winter can wear them polished and bold. High-shine metal matches the clarity of the season.

Can a Deep Winter wear gold? A cool rose gold or a white-and-yellow mix with the white leading works; polished yellow gold is the one to skip near the face. Stones follow the palette and are among the easiest to choose in the system: sapphire, ruby, emerald, amethyst, onyx, garnet in its cool red and black pearls. Diamonds and clear crystal suit it too.

Glasses frames work the same way: black, ink navy, deep burgundy or crystal-clear acetate, and thin silver metal, rather than tortoiseshell or gold. Colour is decided here; the frame shape is decided by your face shape.

Deep Winter celebrities, and why this page does not list them

Deep Winter celebrity lists contradict each other constantly — the same actor appears as Deep Winter on one site, Deep Autumn on another and Bright Winter on a third. The Deep Winter–Deep Autumn line is decided by temperature, which is the first thing studio lighting and colour grading change, and the Deep–Bright line is decided by contrast, which changes with every hair colour a stylist chooses. The lists are typing photographs.

This page does not list names for that reason. It is also worth saying that a season is not a verdict on how someone looks: Deep Winter is simply the set of colours that has as much depth and coolness as the face does. The measurement worth having is your own, from a photo taken facing a window — which is what the test at the top of this page reads.

Can your Deep Winter color season change?

Your measured result can change even when your colouring has not. A tan deepens the skin and can make a Deep Winter result more decisive; winter pallor lightens it, and a very pale face with dark hair can start reading as Bright Winter because the contrast then outweighs the depth.

Hair dye moves the result most, because hair carries more of the light–deep axis than skin does. Going blonde pushes the reading toward True Winter or out of the Deep seasons; a warm brown or copper dye moves warm–cool toward Deep Autumn. The system is usually taught as describing natural colouring, but the colours that flatter you follow the hair you actually have.

Greying moves it slowly in the same direction as lightening, while keeping the temperature cool — which is why many Deep Winters find the True Winter or even Summer palettes easier later on.

Why selfie tests give Deep Winters different results

Indoor light is the biggest problem for a Deep Winter result, because it breaks two things at once. A warm yellow bulb shifts the skin hue toward yellow and can push a Deep Winter result into Deep Autumn. And a dim room makes dark hair hard to separate from the background: the test checks the hair it samples against the corners of the photo, and if the two are too close it drops the hair and lists it as unread. Without hair, depth comes from skin alone and clarity from the eyes alone, so the result usually reads less deep than it should.

The fix is simple: daylight facing a window, against a light plain wall, with the whites of your eyes visible. The test uses them as a neutral reference to correct for the colour of the light, and the result tells you whether it managed. The full explanation is on the color analysis page.

References

1. 1.Fink, B., Grammer, K., & Matts, P. J. (2006). Visible skin color distribution plays a role in the perception of age, attractiveness, and health in female faces. Evolution and Human Behavior, 27(6), 433–442. doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2006.08.007.
2. 2.Chardon, A., Cretois, I., & Hourseau, C. (1991). Skin colour typology and suntanning pathways. International Journal of Cosmetic Science, 13(4), 191–208. PMID 19291061.