Summer colors: Light, True and Soft Summer

Summer palettes are cool and gentle, like a hazy sky or a bowl of hydrangeas. The three Summer seasons share that calm, blue-based mood but differ in depth and softness.

What the Summer seasons share

All three Summer seasons suit colors with a blue or rosy base that look calm rather than loud. Think powder blue, rose, lavender, soft teal and blue-gray. Strong golden colors such as orange or mustard tend to look yellow against Summer coloring, while very stark, high-contrast combinations can overpower it.

Summer coloring often has a soft, blended quality: hair, skin and eyes sit fairly close together in depth, with no single feature shouting. The three Summers differ in which quality leads: lightness, coolness or softness.

The swatches below are examples to show the general direction. Your screen will shift them a little, so treat them as a guide.

Light Summer

Light Summer is led by lightness, with coolness second. It neighbors Light Spring, so it is the lightest and slightly most neutral of the Summers. People in this season often have light ash or light brown hair, light eyes and fair to light skin with low contrast.

Neutrals: soft white, light gray, dove gray, light cool taupe and a soft gray-navy in place of black.

Metals: silver, white gold and pale rose gold, ideally in a polished or lightly brushed finish.

Skip: black, orange, mustard, heavy browns and neon brights. Very dark colors can look like a block of shadow next to light coloring.

True Summer

True Summer, also called Cool Summer, is led by coolness. It is the most blue-based of the Summers and sits at a medium depth, neither very light nor very dark. Skin often has visible pink or rosy tones, and hair is commonly ash brown or ash blonde, with no gold.

Neutrals: soft navy, blue-gray, cool mid gray, rose-brown and soft white.

Metals: silver, platinum and pewter.

Skip: orange, golden yellow, camel and warm browns, which tend to bring out redness. Pure black is usually too heavy; navy or charcoal does the same job more kindly.

Soft Summer

Soft Summer is led by softness, with coolness second. It neighbors Soft Autumn, so it is the most muted Summer and leans slightly toward neutral. People in this season often have hair that is hard to name, somewhere between ash blonde and soft brown, eyes in gray-blue, gray-green or soft hazel, and low to medium contrast.

Neutrals: charcoal, mushroom, cool taupe, pewter gray, soft navy and off-white.

Metals: brushed silver, pewter and muted rose gold. Matte or satin finishes usually look better than high polish.

Skip: bright white, black, neon brights, orange and anything very saturated. Clear, vivid colors tend to stand apart from soft coloring instead of blending with it.

Telling the three Summers apart

Try three blues near your face in daylight: a powder blue, a mid cornflower and a smoky slate.

• If the powder blue looks best and the slate looks heavy, lean toward Light Summer.
• If the cornflower looks best and warmer colors bring out redness, lean toward True Summer.
• If the slate looks best and the cornflower feels slightly too bright, lean toward Soft Summer.

Soft Summer and Soft Autumn are easy to confuse. Both suit muted colors. The difference is temperature: a dusty rose and a soft blue-gray suit Soft Summer, while a dusty peach and a soft olive suit Soft Autumn.

Practical tips for Summers

• Use navy, charcoal and gray-brown as your darks instead of black.
• Choose soft white over bright white, especially as a Soft Summer.
• Lean on tonal outfits. Several shades of the same cool color, like blue-gray with powder blue and navy, tend to look effortless on Summer coloring.
• Mind the brightness. If a color is the right temperature but still looks off, it may be too vivid. Try a slightly grayer version.