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True Winter Season Guide

If you’re a True Winter, you glow in cool, high-contrast colors with crisp, high clarity. Think true red, emerald, marine blue, indigo, and fuchsia.

Already know you’re a True Winter? See your colors!

Are You a True Winter?

Look for 3 traits: high contrast, cool undertone, and high clarity (saturation). You’ll find descriptions of each below to help confirm if you’re a True Winter.

Contrast

Contrast is the difference in value (light vs dark) between your features, including your skin, hair, eyes, teeth, and eyebrows. True Winters have a high contrast between their features. 

You likely have high contrast if any of these feel true:

  • Dark brown to black hair
  • Medium‑depth hair and very dark eyes
  • Medium-deep to deep skin paired with very dark hair or eyes

Undertone

Skin Undertone

Look at areas that don’t carry their own tint, like the sides of your face or the center of your forehead. Rosy cheeks or darkening around the mouth or under the eyes could impact the visibility of your undertone.

For a True Winter, you’re looking for almost no warmth (orange tone) in your skin, indicating a cool undertone. 

Cool-Neutral

A cool undertone will show almost no warmth and lean more toward pink, yellow, or gray, rather than orange.

Note that you won’t find a perfect match to your skin, as our skin is made up of many colors, but you want to see if your skin has a similar level of warmth as the swatches below.

Color examples of cool-toned light-depth skin.
Color examples of cool-toned mediun-depth skin.
Color examples of cool-toned deep-depth skin.
Warm-Neutral and Cool-Neutral

If your skin shows more warmth, even just a bit of warmth, then you likely have a cool-neutral or warm-neutral undertone.

Color examples of skin tones likely too warm to be a cool undertone.

Hair Undertone

Your hair is a secondary but still helpful indicator of undertone. You’re looking to see if your hair has any signs of warmth, meaning that it contains orange. 

Check your natural hair color at your roots, the part of your hair closest to your scalp, as sun and environmental factors can alter the lightness and warmth of your hair. If you have gray hair or colored hair, try to look back at photos of your hair before it changed color. 

Neutral

Black, dark brown, and medium, neutral-toned brown all contribute to a neutral undertone.

True Winter swatches of hair that are neutral and dark, and good examples of the hair tones that True Winters are likely to have.
True Winter swatches of hair that are neutral and medium-dark, and good examples of the hair tones that True Winters could have.
Warm

Warm brown, red, and ginger hair are all warm-toned, and will likely be too warm to be a True Winter, that is very cool-toned.

True Winter swatches of hair that are warm browns and reds. These are likely too warm to be a True Winter.
Unlikely to be True Winter

Dark and light blondes are likely too light to provide the amount of contrast that a True Winter has.

True Winter swatches of hair that are dark and light blondes. These are good examples of the hair tones that are likely too light to be True Winters.

Putting Skin and Hair Undertone Together

True Winters have a cool undertone, meaning they have almost no warmth in their skin tone and hair. Based on the undertones in your hair and skin, you can determine your overall undertone.


Skin

Hair

Undertone

Can be a True Winter?

Cool

Neutral

Cool

Yes

Cool

Slightly Warm or Warm

Cool-Neutral

Maybe

Cool-Neutral

Neutral or Slightly Warm

Cool-Neutral

Maybe

Cool-Neutral

Warm

Warm-Neutral

No

Warm-Neutral

Neutral or Slightly Warm

Warm-Neutral

No

Warm-Neutral

Warm

Warm

No

Warm

Any

Warm

No

Clarity

Clarity refers to how clear and saturated your features are. High-saturation colors have no gray in them, and low-saturation colors have a lot of gray. This can refer to your skin, hair, eyes, and lips. True Winters have high clarity, meaning most of their features will have the vibrance of high clarity.

Determining Clarity

High Clarity

High clarity has high pigment with very little appearance of gray. High clarity eyes often appear sparkly, bold-colored, and you can often see a clear pattern in the iris. High clarity skin will again appear pigmented, and can often have a bright, glowy appearance. Overall, high clarity features will appear bold and colorful.

Low Clarity

Low clarity has low pigment and can often appear cloudy or gray. Low clarity eyes could appear foggy, a muted color, and an indistinguishable pattern on the iris. Low clarity skin can have a slightly gray, ashy appearance. Overall, low clarity features will appear blended and not stark against each other. 

Medium Clarity

Medium clarity sits between high and low clarity. Features are neither boldly pigmented and sparkly, nor gray and cloudy. Very dark features, like almost-black hair and black-brown eyes, can be considered as medium clarity.

Putting Everything Together

If you’ve found that you have high contrast, cool undertone, and high clarity (saturation), then you are likely a True Winter.

If you meet most of the description of a True Winter, but not all of them, these are some seasons that share similar attributes:


Contrast

Undertone

Clarity

Likely Season

High

Cool

Medium

True Winter

Medium

Cool

High

Bright Winter

High

Cool-Neutral

High

Bright Winter

Low

Cool

High

Light Summer

High

Cool-Neutral

Medium

Dark-Winter

True Winter Color Palette

The features of a True Winter are high contrast, cool undertone, and high clarity (saturation). The colors that will accentuate a True Winter’s features will have the same attributes as their features. 

  • They’ll be cool-toned.
  • They’ll have a high contrast and be somewhat dark.
  • They have medium to high saturation in the colors. 
  • Think of cool, rich, dark colors like true red, emerald, marine blue, indigo, and fuchsia.

Best Colors for True Winter

These colors are likely to help you feel your best.


Best Colors

Red & Pink

Magenta
Dark Pink
Peony
Barbie
Light Magenta
Hot Pink
True Red
Lipstick
Ruby
Strawberry
Soft Raspberry
Azalea Red
Berry

Purple

Fuchsia
Periwinkle
Violet
Brilliant Violet
Iris
Eggplant
Indigo
Dark Indigo
Grape

Blue

Space
Forget-Me-Not
Lapis
Azure
Marine Blue
Cerulean
Sky
Aqua
Turquoise
Teal

Green

Soft Emerald
Viridian
Bottle Green
Emerald
Mint
Pine Green

Neutrals

Navy
Soft Navy
Charcoal
Biscotti
Hickory
Warm Gray
Steel
Dusky Blue
True Black
Denim
Umber
Smoke
Latte
Stone Gray
True White

Secondary Colors for True Winter

The colors listed previously aren’t the only colors that True Winters can look awesome in. Even within the 12 seasons, every face is unique, and some individuals could shine more in some colors than others. Here are some color categories that you may want to experiment with to discover what additional colors make you feel your most radiant.

For True Winters, secondary colors all stay in the cool and cool-neutral hues, but can lean softer or bolder.

There are far more secondary colors out there, so feel free to experiment with other colors that fit the description.


Secondary | Cool and Slightly Muted

Compass
Blue Jay
Soft Viridian
Soft Jade
Soft Fuchsia
Rose Pink
Twilight
Soft Raspberry


Secondary | Cool-Neutral and Bright

Electric Blue
Rich Blue
Rich Green
Bright Jade
Warm Pink
Fuchsia
Daffodil
Lemon

Out-of-Season Colors for True Winters

Even if a color is “out-of-season”, it doesn’t mean you can’t wear it. You can and should wear whatever colors and clothes that make you feel great. Out-of-season colors should be a helpful tool, but not cause you to throw out your favorite shirt.

Since these colors are less complementary for a True Winter’s coloring, if you use these colors, you may want to wear them further from your face, like on shoes, bags, pants, and skirts. 

The most out-of-season colors will be warm and soft.


Out of Season | Warm and Bright

Deep Cyan
Peridot
Kiwi
Fox
Tangerine
Watermelon
Honey
Mustard


Out of Season | Warm, Light, and Muted

Ice Blue
Sage
Latte
Vintage Rose
Green Gray
Bay Leaf Green
Pink Lemonade
Warm Brick