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Cool Summer vs Light Summer: how to tell which you are

By the Skintonic team · SKINTONIC LLC · Updated

The question between Cool Summer and Light Summer is how dark your coloring runs overall, and nothing else. Both are cool undertone and moderate chroma, which is why the same person can be told both at different times. Cool Summer sits in the medium range and Light Summer in the light one, and getting that wrong is what makes a palette feel either heavy or washed out.

Cool Summer and Light Summer also differ on contrast (medium against soft), though that is the smaller gap and not the one people get stuck on. What follows is the Cool Summer palette against the Light Summer one, three depth tests you can run at home with things you already own, and what each of the two looks like in a mirror. If you would rather not work it out by hand, the scan measures all four factors from one photo and tells you whether you are Cool Summer or Light Summer.

The one factor

Depth. Cool Summer is medium; Light Summer is light. Cool Summer and Light Summer share cool undertone and moderate chroma, which is why the two get swapped so easily.

Cool Summer against Light Summer

Six colors from the Cool Summer palette and six from the Light Summer one, the metal each wears, and the direction each one's neutrals run. The Cool Summer column and the Light Summer column are both drawn from the season data the app itself uses, so these are the swatches the free result would hand you rather than an approximation of them.

Cool Summer

cool · medium · medium contrast · moderate

  • Deep Raspberry
  • Blueberry
  • Plum
  • Cool Teal
  • Cool Burgundy
  • Raspberry
Best metal
Silver
Neutrals run
cool gray, soft white and slate
Typical coloring
Hair somewhere in the middle, usually medium brown, eyes that read as clear without being striking, and skin that leans pink, olive or blue-toned. Usually a moderate gap between hair and skin.

Light Summer

cool · light · soft contrast · moderate

  • Rose
  • Cool Berry
  • Slate Blue
  • Orchid
  • Soft Teal
  • Cornflower Blue
Best metal
Silver
Neutrals run
soft white, light gray and dove gray
Typical coloring
Hair in the light range, from blonde to light brown, eyes that read as clear without being striking, and skin that leans pink, olive or blue-toned. Usually almost no gap between hair, skin and eyes.

Three tests that separate Cool Summer from Light Summer

All three test depth, because depth is the only thing in question between Cool Summer and Light Summer. Do all three at a window: an indoor bulb will quietly push the answer toward whichever of Cool Summer and Light Summer you were already hoping for, and there is no way to notice that it has while you are looking.

1. Photograph yourself in black and white

Depth is lightness and nothing else, so stripping the color out is the quickest way to tell Cool Summer from Light Summer: take a plain photo at a window, convert it to grayscale, and look at where your hair sits against your skin. The light of Cool Summer and Light Summer reads noticeably darker overall; the medium one keeps more of its light range.

2. Charcoal against a mid gray

Hold a very dark neutral near your face, then a middling one, and watch which way a Cool Summer or Light Summer face goes. Cool Summer takes the charcoal without being flattened by it; on Light Summer the same charcoal takes over and the features retreat behind it. It is the clearest single signal Cool Summer and Light Summer give you.

3. Check your natural hair against your eyebrows

Not for the color but for the level: when your hair and brows both sit low on the light-to-dark scale that is depth, and it points at the light of Cool Summer and Light Summer. When both sit high and the brows nearly vanish in soft light, it points at the medium one, which here is Cool Summer.

Still not sure between Cool Summer and Light Summer?

Each test above reads one factor by eye, and depth by eye is exactly where Cool Summer and Light Summer go wrong. The scan reads all four — undertone, depth, contrast and chroma — from a single photo, shows you the three colors it took off your face so you can correct them, and names which of the two you are. It runs in your browser, the photo is never uploaded, and seeing your type costs nothing.

Find out which one I am — free

Questions about this pair

Can you be both Cool Summer and Light Summer?

No — the analysis returns one of the two — but Cool Summer and Light Summer sit close enough together that, if you are near the line, either palette covers most of a wardrobe. Cool Summer and Light Summer share cool undertone and moderate chroma, so a good part of the two color lists overlaps. Where it starts to matter is the depth end of each one, which is where Cool Summer and Light Summer stop overlapping.

Does depth change over time?

Depth does, and more than people expect — enough that one person can genuinely be Cool Summer at thirty and Light Summer at sixty. Hair lightens or greys and the depth of the whole face moves with it, so between Cool Summer and Light Summer this is worth looking at again every few years.

What if I dress as Cool Summer and I am really Light Summer?

Nothing dramatic, which is worth saying plainly — Cool Summer and Light Summer are neighbors rather than opposites. A handful of shades will look slightly off under your chin and the rest will be fine, because Cool Summer and Light Summer overlap everywhere except at the depth extremes. The giveaway is at the depth extreme, where the Cool Summer colors furthest along that axis are the first to stop working on a Light Summer face.

Keep going

Cool Summer in full · Light Summer in full · Take the quiz instead · All season comparisons · All 12 seasons