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