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Light Spring vs Warm Spring: how to tell which you are

By the Skintonic team · SKINTONIC LLC · Updated

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

Light Spring and Warm Spring also differ on contrast (soft 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 Warm Spring 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 Light Spring or Warm Spring.

The one factor

Depth. Light Spring is light; Warm Spring is medium. Light Spring and Warm Spring share warm undertone and clear chroma, which is why the two get swapped so easily.

Light Spring against Warm Spring

Six colors from the Light Spring palette and six from the Warm Spring one, the metal each wears, and the direction each one's neutrals run. The Light Spring column and the Warm Spring 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.

Warm Spring

warm · medium · medium contrast · clear

  • Poppy Red
  • Golden Amber
  • Kelly Green
  • Warm Fuchsia
  • Deep Turquoise
  • True Red
Best metal
Gold
Neutrals run
cream, camel and warm khaki
Typical coloring
Hair somewhere in the middle, usually medium brown, eyes that read as bright and defined against the face, and skin that leans golden or peach. Usually a moderate gap between hair and skin.

Three tests that separate Light Spring from Warm Spring

All three test depth, because depth is the only thing in question between Light Spring and Warm Spring. Do all three at a window: an indoor bulb will quietly push the answer toward whichever of Light Spring and Warm Spring 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 Light Spring from Warm Spring: take a plain photo at a window, convert it to grayscale, and look at where your hair sits against your skin. The medium of Light Spring and Warm Spring reads noticeably darker overall; the light 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 Light Spring or Warm Spring face goes. Warm Spring takes the charcoal without being flattened by it; on Light Spring the same charcoal takes over and the features retreat behind it. It is the clearest single signal Light Spring and Warm Spring 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 medium of Light Spring and Warm Spring. When both sit high and the brows nearly vanish in soft light, it points at the light one, which here is Light Spring.

Still not sure between Light Spring and Warm Spring?

Each test above reads one factor by eye, and depth by eye is exactly where Light Spring and Warm Spring 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 Warm Spring?

No — the analysis returns one of the two — but Light Spring and Warm Spring sit close enough together that, if you are near the line, either palette covers most of a wardrobe. Light Spring and Warm Spring share warm undertone and clear 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 Light Spring and Warm Spring stop overlapping.

Does depth change over time?

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

What if I dress as Light Spring and I am really Warm Spring?

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

Keep going

Light Spring in full · Warm Spring in full · Take the quiz instead · All season comparisons · All 12 seasons