Season comparison
Soft Autumn vs Soft Summer: how to tell which you are
By the Skintonic team · SKINTONIC LLC · Updated
Soft Autumn and Soft Summer get confused because almost everything about them matches except the one thing that decides the palette. The two share medium depth, soft contrast and muted chroma, so in a mirror Soft Autumn and Soft Summer can look like the same person. Then the undertone splits them — Soft Autumn is warm, Soft Summer is cool — and the two color lists end up pulling in opposite directions.
No other axis separates Soft Autumn from Soft Summer at all, which is unusual and is exactly why this pair is so hard to settle by eye. What follows is the Soft Autumn palette against the Soft Summer one, three undertone 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 Soft Autumn or Soft Summer.
The one factor
Undertone. Soft Autumn is warm; Soft Summer is cool. Soft Autumn and Soft Summer share medium depth, soft contrast and muted chroma, which is why the two get swapped so easily.
Soft Autumn against Soft Summer
Six colors from the Soft Autumn palette and six from the Soft Summer one, the metal each wears, and the direction each one's neutrals run. The Soft Autumn 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.
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.
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 Soft Autumn from Soft Summer
All three test undertone, because undertone is the only thing in question between Soft Autumn and Soft Summer. Do all three at a window: an indoor bulb will quietly push the answer toward Soft Autumn, and there is no way to notice that it has while you are looking.
1. Gold against silver
Soft Autumn or Soft Summer: hold a gold chain and a silver one under your chin in daylight, one at a time, watching your jawline rather than the metal. On Soft Autumn the gold settles in and the silver leaves a faint gray cast under the skin; on Soft Summer it is the other way round. If you genuinely cannot pick, you are in the neutral middle, which is where Soft Autumn and Soft Summer sit closest together of anywhere.
2. Peach against pink
Two pieces of paper or fabric, one peach and one cool pink, held near the cheek in turn, with Soft Autumn and Soft Summer in mind. Soft Autumn warms up under the peach and goes slightly sallow under the pink; Soft Summer does the reverse and looks fresher under the pink. It is the comparison the analysis runs on the skin pixel, done by eye and on exactly the axis that splits Soft Autumn from Soft Summer.
3. Look at your veins in daylight
Not conclusive on its own, and anyone who says otherwise has oversold it, but between Soft Autumn and Soft Summer it costs nothing to look. Inner wrist, natural light: green-leaning veins point at Soft Autumn, blue or purple ones at Soft Summer. Use it as a tiebreaker between Soft Autumn and Soft Summer after the two tests above, never as the answer in itself.
Still not sure between Soft Autumn and Soft Summer?
Each test above reads one factor by eye, and undertone by eye is exactly where Soft Autumn 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 Soft Autumn and Soft Summer?
No — the analysis returns one of the two — but Soft Autumn and Soft Summer sit close enough together that, if you are near the line, either palette covers most of a wardrobe. Soft Autumn and Soft Summer share medium depth, soft contrast and muted chroma, so a good part of the two color lists overlaps. Where it starts to matter is the undertone end of each one, which is where Soft Autumn and Soft Summer stop overlapping.
Does undertone change over time?
Undertone does not, so Soft Autumn and Soft Summer will not swap places on you over time. It is the direction your skin leans, and it stays put — so one of Soft Autumn and Soft Summer is yours for life. What moves is surface tone — a tan, a flush, a winter spent indoors — and none of that will turn Soft Autumn into Soft Summer. So a photo meant to separate Soft Autumn from Soft Summer wants an ordinary day at a window rather than the week after a holiday.
What if I dress as Soft Autumn and I am really Soft Summer?
Nothing dramatic, which is worth saying plainly — Soft Autumn 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 Soft Autumn and Soft Summer overlap everywhere except at the undertone extremes. The giveaway is at the undertone extreme, where the Soft Autumn colors furthest along that axis are the first to stop working on a Soft Summer face.
Keep going
Soft Autumn in full · Soft Summer in full · Take the quiz instead · All season comparisons · All 12 seasons