The 12 color seasons

The 3 traits behind each season

Each season comes down to 3 traits, and both the wheel and the season table show them.

Temperature comes first. It tells you whether golden, warm colors flatter you more, or whether silvery, cool ones do. A season can be fully warm or fully cool, and some sit in the middle and tilt one way.

Depth comes next. It's about whether your coloring reads as light, as medium, or as deep overall.

Clarity is the third one. It tells you whether colors near your face work best clear and bright, or soft and muted.

Spring and autumn tilt warm. Summer and winter tilt cool. Within a family, what separates the 3 seasons is which trait leads. That's how you end up with a "light spring" or a "deep winter".

Reading the color analysis wheel

The wheel lays out all 12 seasons using 3 sets of opposites: warm against cool, light against deep, and clear against soft. The wheel can help you spot shared traits: soft summer and soft autumn share their softness, and deep autumn and deep winter share their depth.

Each family has one season that is fully warm or fully cool, and two that only lean that way. In spring, warm spring is the fully warm one, while light spring and bright spring only lean warm.

The 12 seasons and the older 4-season system

The old system named only 4 seasons: spring, summer, autumn, winter. The 12-season version keeps those same families and cuts each one into 3. If your coloring is neutral or mixed, this gives you a closer match than one broad family could.

How to determine your color season

Our home page quiz runs 3 questions, one per screen. Your answers land on 1 of the 12 seasons and link you to its palette.

1. Say whether gold or silver flatters you more. That's your temperature.
2. Say if your features read as light, medium or deep. That's your depth.
3. Say whether bright or soft colors work better near your face. That's your clarity.

No photo, upload, camera, email or account is involved, and your answers never leave your browser. We ask questions rather than having you snap a photo, since phone cameras and household bulbs both shift how skin color reads. Treat the quiz as a first step, then check the result yourself in a mirror by daylight or with an in-person draping.

Spring season characteristics

Spring brings warmth and brightness together. Bright colors suit all 3 spring seasons, and each row shows the temperature, depth and clarity of one season.

Summer season characteristics

Summer pairs coolness with softness. Soft colors suit all 3 summer seasons, and all 3 lean cool.

Fall color analysis: the autumn seasons

Autumn is the warm family. Its colors run soft, while deep autumn carries the deepest shades with medium clarity.

The winter seasons

Winter pairs coolness with bright colors, and deep winter is its deep season.

Summer vs winter

Summer and winter both lean cool. What mostly sets them apart is clarity: summer colors are soft, while winter colors are bright and clear. Winter also has a deep season, while summer has a light one, light summer.

Spring vs summer

Both families include a light season, which puts light spring and light summer right beside each other. Spring tilts warm and bright, and summer tilts cool and soft.

Spring vs autumn

The two families tilt warm. Bright colors suit the spring seasons, and soft or medium ones suit the autumn seasons. Spring offers a light season, while autumn goes the deep route instead.

Autumn vs winter

Both families include a deep season, which places deep autumn right beside deep winter. Autumn brings warmth with gentler colors, and winter brings coolness with vivid ones.

16 seasons color analysis systems

Some systems sort people into 16 seasons rather than 12. The idea behind them is the same, but they add middle-ground types for anyone whose coloring sits right on a border.