Wear the colours that love you back
Have you ever noticed that some colours make you look radiant while others wash you out — even in the same style, in the same mirror, on the same day? That is not imagination. Every woman has an undertone — warm or cool — and colours that harmonise with it brighten the eyes, even the skin, and soften the years. Colours that fight it do the opposite.
Seasonal colour analysis sorts everyone into one of four palettes — Spring, Summer, Autumn, or Winter — based on undertone, depth, and clarity. It began in the 1980s, and it has endured because it works: once you know your season, shopping gets dramatically easier, your wardrobe starts coordinating itself, and you stop bringing home beautiful things that mysteriously look wrong on you.
Answer a few quick questions below about your skin, eyes, and hair, and the finder will match you to your most likely season — with your best colours and the ones to treat with caution.
The four seasons at a glance
Your season is decided by two things: whether your undertone is warm or cool, and whether your overall colouring is light or deep, bright or soft.
| Season | Undertone | Your best colours | Use with care |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spring | Warm | Warm, clear brights — coral, peach, golden yellow, warm turquoise, camel, bright navy. | Icy pastels, stark black, cold greys — they drain warmth from the face. |
| Summer | Cool | Cool, soft and muted — powder blue, rose, lavender, soft grey, mauve, dusty teal. | Orange, bright gold, neon brights — they overpower soft cool colouring. |
| Autumn | Warm | Warm, rich and deep — rust, olive, mustard, terracotta, chocolate, forest green. | Pastels, stark white, cool jewel tones — they clash with warm depth. |
| Winter | Cool | Cool, vivid and high-contrast — true red, emerald, royal blue, fuchsia, black, pure white. | Muted earth tones, beige, warm browns — they dull winter’s clarity. |
Finding your undertone at home
Undertone is the permanent tint beneath your skin’s surface — it never changes with tanning or age, which is why it is the reliable anchor of your season. Three quick tests, done in natural daylight with a bare face:
- The vein test: look at the veins on the inside of your wrist. Blue or purple suggests cool; greenish suggests warm. (If you genuinely cannot tell, you may be neutral.)
- The jewellery test: hold gold against your face, then silver. Whichever makes your skin look healthier and your eyes brighter points to your undertone — gold for warm, silver for cool.
- The white test: hold pure white fabric, then cream, near your face. Stark white flatters cool undertones; cream flatters warm ones. The wrong one will cast shadows under your eyes.
Wearing your season after 50
Colour analysis gets more valuable with age, not less — because the right colours do the work that heavy makeup used to. As skin loses some of its natural contrast, wearing your best shades near the face (scarves, necklines, earrings) brightens everything without a single cosmetic.
Two adjustments for mature colouring: first, you may find your very brightest shades feel like too much now — every season has softer versions of its palette, and leaning into them looks modern, not muted. Second, hair changes everything. Going grey often cools the overall picture, and many women find their season shifts slightly — usually from a warm season toward its cooler neighbour. Re-take the finder after a major hair change; your wardrobe will thank you.