Season comparison
Light Spring vs Soft Autumn: how to tell which you are
By the Skintonic team · SKINTONIC LLC · Updated
The line between Light Spring and Soft Autumn is chroma — whether the color in you is clean or slightly dusted. Light Spring and Soft Autumn match on warm undertone and soft contrast, which is more than most pairs manage, so the mistake is an easy one. Light Spring is the clear one and Soft Autumn the muted one, and it is the difference between a color looking crisp on you and looking like it is shouting.
Light Spring and Soft Autumn also differ on depth (light against medium), though that is the smaller gap and not the one people get stuck on. What follows is the Light Spring palette against the Soft Autumn 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 Light Spring or Soft Autumn.
The one factor
Chroma. Light Spring is clear; Soft Autumn is muted. Light Spring and Soft Autumn share warm undertone and soft contrast, which is why the two get swapped so easily.
Light Spring against Soft Autumn
Six colors from the Light Spring palette and six from the Soft Autumn one, the metal each wears, and the direction each one's neutrals run. The Light Spring column and the Soft Autumn 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.
Light Spring
warm · light · soft contrast · clear
- Poppy Orange
- Warm Turquoise
- Coral Red
- Marigold
- Watermelon Pink
- Coral
- Best metal
- Gold
- Neutrals run
- ivory, warm beige and camel
- Typical coloring
- Hair in the light range, from blonde to light brown, eyes that read as bright and defined against the face, and skin that leans golden or peach. Usually almost no gap between hair, skin and eyes.
Soft Autumn
warm · medium · soft contrast · muted
- Deep Rust
- Deep Olive
- Burnt Orange
- Warm Burgundy
- Deep Mustard
- Terracotta
- Best metal
- Gold
- Neutrals run
- warm taupe, soft camel and sage
- 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 golden or peach. Usually almost no gap between hair, skin and eyes.
Three tests that separate Light Spring from Soft Autumn
All three test chroma, because chroma is the only thing in question between Light Spring and Soft Autumn. Do all three at a window: an indoor bulb will quietly push the answer toward whichever of Light Spring and Soft Autumn 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 Light Spring and Soft Autumn. Light Spring is lifted by the clean one and goes flat under the dusty one; Soft Autumn 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 Light Spring and Soft Autumn in mind. Light Spring shows a visible line where the iris meets the white, often with a pattern inside it; Soft Autumn 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 Light Spring and Soft Autumn are usually settled here.
3. Try a mid-gray top
Plain, unremarkable gray, and the unremarkableness is exactly the point for Light Spring against Soft Autumn. Soft Autumn sits in it happily and looks intentional; Light Spring is drained by it, and the tell is reaching for a scarf without knowing why.
Still not sure between Light Spring and Soft Autumn?
Each test above reads one factor by eye, and chroma by eye is exactly where Light Spring and Soft Autumn 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 Light Spring and Soft Autumn?
No — the analysis returns one of the two — but Light Spring and Soft Autumn sit close enough together that, if you are near the line, either palette covers most of a wardrobe. Light Spring and Soft Autumn share warm undertone and soft 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 Light Spring and Soft Autumn 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 Light Spring and Soft Autumn it is the one axis you can settle once and stop re-checking.
What if I dress as Light Spring and I am really Soft Autumn?
Nothing dramatic, which is worth saying plainly — Light Spring and Soft Autumn are neighbors rather than opposites. A handful of shades will look slightly off under your chin and the rest will be fine, because Light Spring and Soft Autumn overlap everywhere except at the chroma extremes. The giveaway is at the chroma extreme, where the Light Spring colors furthest along that axis are the first to stop working on a Soft Autumn face.
Keep going
Light Spring in full · Soft Autumn in full · Take the quiz instead · All season comparisons · All 12 seasons