Light Summer Color Palette

The Light Summer color palette

30 colours in four groups and 5 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 Light Summer palette card (PNG) sized for a phone screen, to take shopping.

Light Summer core and accent colors

The eight core colours are the everyday Light Summer wardrobe: powder blue, sky, periwinkle, lavender, soft pink, dusty rose, pale sage and sea glass. They are cool, light and slightly powdery — every one has a little grey in it, and none has much weight. That is the season: colouring that sits high on the light–deep scale, with a pink or neutral cast, looks best in colours that sit at the same height.

Accents carry more colour without adding weight: soft raspberry, soft fuchsia and soft watermelon for pink and red, cornflower and soft teal for blue-green, light aqua and cool mint, orchid, and a pale lemon. Can a Light Summer wear red? Yes — a blue-leaning, slightly softened red like soft watermelon or soft raspberry. Orange-red and tomato red are the versions that fail, because they are warm and heavy at once.

The lightest and deepest Light Summer shades

The lightest shades — pearl, lilac blush, pale blue, mint cream, lemon ice — are near-whites with a hint of colour, and they are what replaces optic white near the face. The deepest shades — soft navy, slate blue, denim blue, blue grey, spruce, soft plum, mauve, rosewood — are mid-tones. That is the rule to remember about the season: the darkest colours a Light Summer carries well are mid-tones, not darks.

Light Summer neutrals

• Soft white#F5F3F0
• Rose beige#D9C3BC
• Cool grey#B7B5B3
• Light taupe#A89E9A
• Slate#5C6B73

Five neutrals carry the wardrobe. Soft white replaces optic white, slate and soft navy replace black, and rose beige, light taupe and cool grey do the everyday work. Can a Light Summer wear navy? A soft, greyed navy, yes; a very dark ink navy behaves like black and drags shadow into the face.

What makes a Light Summer: warm or cool, light or deep, soft or bright

Light Summer is cool colouring at low weight and low contrast: light hair, fair skin with a pink or neutral cast, and soft blue, grey or green eyes that blend rather than announce themselves. The whole season sits close together on the value scale, which is why heavy colours look like they were borrowed from someone else.

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 hair and skin, half each.

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

Hair carries more of the light–deep axis than skin does, so light hair is a large part of a Light Summer reading. Very fair skin is common in the season but not a requirement, and very fair skin with dark hair usually reads somewhere else entirely.

The borders follow from the rule. A warm–cool value near zero sits on the line with Light Spring. A light–deep value that drops under 0.3 turns the result into True Summer. And because light hair on light skin means a small lightness gap, soft–bright often reads on the soft side too — if that softness is further from zero than the lightness, the result is Soft Summer. Is Light Summer cool or warm? Cool: it belongs to the Summer family.

Light Summer skin, eyes and hair

These are examples, not a checklist. Light Summer is most often fair to medium skin with light hair, but the relationship matters more than any single feature: a pink or neutral cast, light hair, and soft eyes that blend rather than stand out. The test also reports your skin's ITA, a separate lightness measurement, and that number is not your season — two people with the same ITA can be Light Summer and Deep Winter depending on their hair.

Am I a Light Summer? A drape test you can do at home

Two checks, the second one decisive.

1. 1

   Stand facing a window in daylight, with no coloured walls behind you and no makeup. Leave your hair visible for one comparison and covered for another — on a light season the hair is doing much of the work.

2. 2

   Test depth first. Hold black under your chin, then slate. On a Light Summer black reads as a separate object and drags shadow into the face; slate sits with it. Then powder blue against navy: powder blue lifts, navy swallows.

3. 3

   Then test temperature: peach against soft pink. Soft pink should look fresh and peach should slightly yellow the skin. If peach wins, look at Light Spring.

4. 4

   Finally, check softness against lightness. If mid-tone greyed colours — storm blue, dusty plum — look even better than the pastels, the next season to read is Soft Summer.

• Silver against gold in daylight: if silver looks clean and gold looks yellow against the skin, you are cool.
• Black under the chin: if it reads harsh and drags shadow into the face, your value is light rather than deep.
• Powder blue versus navy: Light Summers are lifted by the first and swallowed by the second.

Light Summer vs Light Spring, True Summer and Soft Summer

Light Summer vs Light Spring is the most searched comparison for this season, and on this test it is decided by temperature alone — both are called when lightness is the strongest axis. Everything else looks alike: light hair, low contrast, faces that are overwhelmed by black. The difference is the cast of skin and hair, pink or ashy on a Light Summer and golden or peachy on a Light Spring. Peach against soft pink settles it; so does silver against gold. Warm light is the usual reason a Light Summer gets a Light Spring result. The Light Spring color palette is written from the other side.

Light Summer vs True Summer is a question of how light. True Summer is what the test calls a cool face when neither depth nor clarity is strong and light–deep is at or just above zero. It carries mid-tones — denim, rose, cadet blue — as its main colours, where on a Light Summer those look slightly heavy and the powdery pastels look right. If denim beats powder blue under your chin, read the True Summer color palette.

Light Summer vs Soft Summer shares the coolness and the gentleness, and differs in which of lightness or softness is the stronger signal. Light hair with light skin produces a small hair–skin gap, which reads as soft, so the two are often close on this test. Soft Summer sits a step deeper and looks best in greyed mid-tones that flatten a Light Summer; Light Summer looks best in the lighter, clearer pastels that make a Soft Summer look washed out. The Soft Summer color palette covers that season.

Light Summer colors to avoid, and what to wear instead

The three colours that fight a Light Summer 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.

• Black#1C1C1C
• Orange#FF5714
• Rust#8B4513

Light Summer 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.

• Powder and slate

  • Powder blue#BFD7EA
  • Slate#5C6B73
  • Soft white#F5F3F0

  A powder blue shirt, slate trousers, soft white trainers.

• Rose and grey

  • Dusty rose#D4A5B5
  • Cool grey#B7B5B3
  • Pearl#F0E6EF

  A dusty rose knit, cool grey trousers, a pearl scarf.

• Sea glass summer

  • Sea glass#9FB8AD
  • Soft white#F5F3F0
  • Cornflower#7F9FD6

  A sea glass dress, a soft white cardigan, a cornflower bag.

• Soft navy workday

  • Soft navy#4F6384
  • Pale blue#DCE9F3
  • Soft raspberry#C45C83

  Soft navy suiting, a pale blue shirt, a soft raspberry accent.

• Lavender and taupe

  • Lavender#C3B1E1
  • Light taupe#A89E9A
  • Lilac blush#EBD3E8

  A lavender blouse, light taupe trousers, lilac blush accessories.

• Periwinkle evening

  • Periwinkle#9FA8DA
  • Soft plum#8E6A8E
  • Cool grey#B7B5B3

  A periwinkle dress, a soft plum wrap, silver-grey jewellery.

Low-contrast, delicate prints work: small florals, watercolour patterns, fine stripes in soft navy and soft white, gingham in powder blue. Bold black-and-white graphics and saturated tropical prints put the heaviest thing in the outfit under the face. Light fabrics help the palette — chiffon, cotton voile, linen, fine knits and soft silk — because they carry pastel colour without making it look flat.

Light Summer capsule wardrobe

• Soft navy blazer
• Slate trousers
• Soft white shirt
• Powder blue knit
• Dusty rose blouse
• Cool grey cardigan
• Light-wash denim
• Periwinkle or sea glass dress
• Light taupe trench coat
• Soft white trainers
• Silver or white gold jewellery
• Rose beige bag

Light Summer color palette for men

A Light Summer man looks best in light, cool tailoring. Light grey, blue grey and soft navy suits replace charcoal and black; a light grey suit with a powder blue shirt is close to the ideal combination for the season. Shirts in soft white, pale blue and powder blue; knitwear in sky, sea glass, lavender and cool grey. Ties and pocket squares carry periwinkle, soft raspberry and cornflower. Leather in grey, taupe or soft navy suede rather than black or dark brown. The habit to drop is the dark business default — a black or charcoal suit with a stark white shirt is the highest-contrast outfit there is.

Light Summer makeup

Cool, soft and light — the failure mode here is intensity, not colour choice.

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

Light Summer nail colors

• Sheer pink#EBD3E8
• Lavender#C3B1E1
• Powder blue#BFD7EA
• Soft raspberry#C45C83
• Dove grey#B7B5B3
• Pearl#F0E6EF

The best hair colors for a Light Summer

Ash blonde and light cool brown. Golden and copper tones are the common mistake — they add warmth the skin has nowhere to put, and the face reads sallow next to it.

Ash blonde, pearl blonde, light cool brown and soft silver-blonde are the easy directions. Fine, cool babylights keep the low contrast of the season; a gloss in a violet or silver tone keeps brassiness away.

Going grey often looks natural on a Light Summer, because light hair turning silver keeps both the lightness and the coolness. On this test the reading usually stays in the Summer family.

Hair colors that fight a Light Summer

Golden, honey, copper and strawberry tones add warmth the skin has nowhere to put, and the face reads sallow. Very dark dye — dark brown or black — adds weight and contrast at once and pushes the colouring out of the light seasons. Chunky high-contrast highlights fail for the same reason.

Light Summer jewelry: gold or silver?

Silver, white gold and platinum. Gold is not ruinous in a pale brushed finish, but polished yellow gold overpowers.

Silver, white gold and platinum are the natural metals. Delicate pieces suit the season better than heavy ones, and a soft satin or brushed finish often looks better than high polish.

Can a Light Summer wear gold? A pale brushed gold or a soft rose gold works; polished yellow gold overpowers. Stones follow the palette: aquamarine, moonstone, rose quartz, pink sapphire, blue topaz, amethyst in its lighter shades and white or pink pearls.

Glasses frames work the same way: clear, soft grey, rose, pale blue or light silver metal rather than thick black. Colour is decided here; the frame shape is decided by your face shape.

Light Summer celebrities, and why this page does not list them

Light Summer celebrity lists are often contradicted by a single hair appointment, because hair carries so much of the light–deep axis. Someone who dyes light cool hair golden starts appearing as Light Spring on other lists, and one who goes darker starts appearing as True or Soft Summer. Studio lighting and colour grading move the result further.

This page does not list names for that reason. 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 Light Summer color season change?

Your measured result can change even when your colouring has not. A tan darkens the skin and moves you down the light–deep axis, so a tanned Light Summer can read as True Summer or Soft Summer. Summer-lightened hair does the opposite.

Hair dye moves the result most. Golden or honey dye pulls warm–cool toward Light Spring; darker dye pushes toward True or Soft Summer. The system is usually taught as describing natural colouring, but the colours that flatter you follow the hair you actually have. The ITA figure the test shows is a measurement of skin lightness only; it will move with a tan even when the season does not.

Why selfie tests give Light Summers different results

Overexposure is the Light Summer problem. Direct sun, a phone's automatic brightening or a ring light blows out the skin and hair, which reads as lighter than they are — and the test then calls more people Light than should be. Underexposure does the opposite. Soft, even daylight from a window is what gives a trustworthy light–deep reading.

Warm light is the second problem, because Light Summer and Light Spring are separated by temperature alone. The test looks for the whites of your eyes and uses them as a neutral reference to correct for the colour of the light, and the result says whether that worked. 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.