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

By the Skintonic team · SKINTONIC LLC · Updated

The line between Cool Summer and Soft Summer is chroma — whether the color in you is clean or slightly dusted. Cool Summer and Soft Summer match on cool undertone and medium depth, which is more than most pairs manage, so the mistake is an easy one. Cool Summer is the moderate one and Soft Summer the muted one, and it is the difference between a color looking crisp on you and looking like it is shouting.

Cool Summer and Soft 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 Soft Summer one, three chroma 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 Soft Summer.

The one factor

Chroma. Cool Summer is moderate; Soft Summer is muted. Cool Summer and Soft Summer share cool undertone and medium depth, which is why the two get swapped so easily.

Cool Summer against Soft Summer

Six colors from the Cool Summer palette and six from the Soft Summer one, the metal each wears, and the direction each one's neutrals run. The Cool Summer column and the Soft 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.

Soft Summer

cool · medium · soft contrast · muted

  • Muted Burgundy
  • Deep Sage
  • Soft Navy
  • Dusty Plum
  • Deep Muted Teal
  • Dusty Rose
Best metal
Soft / brushed silver
Neutrals run
taupe, soft gray and greige
Typical coloring
Hair somewhere in the middle, usually medium brown, eyes with a slightly blended, dusty quality rather than a sharp one, 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 Soft Summer

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

1. A pure color against a dusty one

Find one color in two versions — clean and saturated against the same thing grayed down — and hold each near your face while thinking about Cool Summer and Soft Summer. Soft Summer is lifted by the clean one and goes flat under the dusty one; Cool Summer does the reverse, and under the clean version starts to look like the color is wearing the person.

2. Look at your eyes up close

In daylight, in a mirror, close enough to see where the iris ends, with Cool Summer and Soft Summer in mind. Soft Summer shows a visible line where the iris meets the white, often with a pattern inside it; Cool Summer blends, with a softer edge and an iris that reads as a single tone. It is the most reliable chroma signal a face gives, which is why Cool Summer and Soft Summer are usually settled here.

3. Try a mid-gray top

Plain, unremarkable gray, and the unremarkableness is exactly the point for Cool Summer against Soft Summer. Soft Summer sits in it happily and looks intentional; Cool Summer is drained by it, and the tell is reaching for a scarf without knowing why.

Still not sure between Cool Summer and Soft Summer?

Each test above reads one factor by eye, and chroma by eye is exactly where Cool Summer and Soft 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 Soft Summer?

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

Does chroma change over time?

Chroma barely moves, which is lucky here. It is a property of how your eyes and skin are built rather than how dark they are, so between Cool Summer and Soft Summer it is the one axis you can settle once and stop re-checking.

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

Nothing dramatic, which is worth saying plainly — Cool Summer and Soft 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 Soft Summer overlap everywhere except at the chroma extremes. The giveaway is at the chroma extreme, where the Cool Summer colors furthest along that axis are the first to stop working on a Soft Summer face.

Keep going

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