Season comparison
Cool Winter vs Deep Winter: how to tell which you are
By the Skintonic team · SKINTONIC LLC · Updated
The line between Cool Winter and Deep Winter is chroma — whether the color in you is clean or slightly dusted. Cool Winter and Deep Winter match on cool undertone, deep depth and strong contrast, which is more than most pairs manage, so the mistake is an easy one. Cool Winter is the clear one and Deep Winter the moderate one, and it is the difference between a color looking crisp on you and looking like it is shouting.
No other axis separates Cool Winter from Deep Winter at all, which is unusual and is exactly why this pair is so hard to settle by eye. What follows is the Cool Winter palette against the Deep Winter 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 Winter or Deep Winter.
The one factor
Chroma. Cool Winter is clear; Deep Winter is moderate. Cool Winter and Deep Winter share cool undertone, deep depth and strong contrast, which is why the two get swapped so easily.
Cool Winter against Deep Winter
Six colors from the Cool Winter palette and six from the Deep Winter one, the metal each wears, and the direction each one's neutrals run. The Cool Winter column and the Deep Winter 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 Winter
cool · deep · strong contrast · clear
- True Red
- Royal Purple
- Deep Emerald
- Deep Navy
- Black
- Royal Blue
- Best metal
- Silver
- Neutrals run
- black, pure white and charcoal
- Typical coloring
- Hair that runs dark — deep brown through to near-black, eyes that read as bright and defined against the face, and skin that leans pink, olive or blue-toned. Usually a wide gap between the lightest and the darkest parts of the face.
Deep Winter
cool · deep · strong contrast · moderate
- Black
- Deep Emerald
- Wine
- Royal Purple
- True Red
- Emerald
- Best metal
- Silver
- Neutrals run
- black, charcoal and pure white
- Typical coloring
- Hair that runs dark — deep brown through to near-black, eyes that read as clear without being striking, and skin that leans pink, olive or blue-toned. Usually a wide gap between the lightest and the darkest parts of the face.
Three tests that separate Cool Winter from Deep Winter
All three test chroma, because chroma is the only thing in question between Cool Winter and Deep Winter. Do all three at a window: an indoor bulb will quietly push the answer toward whichever of Cool Winter and Deep Winter 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 Winter and Deep Winter. Cool Winter is lifted by the clean one and goes flat under the dusty one; Deep Winter 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 Winter and Deep Winter in mind. Cool Winter shows a visible line where the iris meets the white, often with a pattern inside it; Deep Winter 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 Winter and Deep Winter are usually settled here.
3. Try a mid-gray top
Plain, unremarkable gray, and the unremarkableness is exactly the point for Cool Winter against Deep Winter. Deep Winter sits in it happily and looks intentional; Cool Winter is drained by it, and the tell is reaching for a scarf without knowing why.
Still not sure between Cool Winter and Deep Winter?
Each test above reads one factor by eye, and chroma by eye is exactly where Cool Winter and Deep Winter 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 Winter and Deep Winter?
No — the analysis returns one of the two — but Cool Winter and Deep Winter sit close enough together that, if you are near the line, either palette covers most of a wardrobe. Cool Winter and Deep Winter share cool undertone, deep depth and strong contrast, 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 Winter and Deep Winter 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 Winter and Deep Winter it is the one axis you can settle once and stop re-checking.
What if I dress as Cool Winter and I am really Deep Winter?
Nothing dramatic, which is worth saying plainly — Cool Winter and Deep Winter are neighbors rather than opposites. A handful of shades will look slightly off under your chin and the rest will be fine, because Cool Winter and Deep Winter overlap everywhere except at the chroma extremes. The giveaway is at the chroma extreme, where the Cool Winter colors furthest along that axis are the first to stop working on a Deep Winter face.
Keep going
Cool Winter in full · Deep Winter in full · Take the quiz instead · All season comparisons · All 12 seasons