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

By the Skintonic team · SKINTONIC LLC · Updated

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

Light Summer and Soft Summer also differ on chroma (moderate against muted), though that is the smaller gap and not the one people get stuck on. What follows is the Light Summer palette against the Soft 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 Light Summer or Soft Summer.

The one factor

Depth. Light Summer is light; Soft Summer is medium. Light Summer and Soft Summer share cool undertone and soft contrast, which is why the two get swapped so easily.

Light Summer against Soft Summer

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

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.

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 Light Summer from Soft Summer

All three test depth, because depth is the only thing in question between Light Summer and Soft Summer. Do all three at a window: an indoor bulb will quietly push the answer toward whichever of Light Summer and Soft 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 Light Summer from Soft Summer: 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 Summer and Soft Summer 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 Summer or Soft Summer face goes. Soft 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 Light Summer and Soft 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 medium of Light Summer and Soft Summer. When both sit high and the brows nearly vanish in soft light, it points at the light one, which here is Light Summer.

Still not sure between Light Summer and Soft Summer?

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

No — the analysis returns one of the two — but Light Summer and Soft Summer sit close enough together that, if you are near the line, either palette covers most of a wardrobe. Light Summer and Soft Summer share cool undertone and soft contrast, 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 Summer and Soft Summer stop overlapping.

Does depth change over time?

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

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

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

Keep going

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