Cool Summer
Cool Summer is a medium-depth palette that stays cool and soft, built from gently muted roses, plums and blues with zero warmth.
- Temperature
- Cool
- Depth
- Medium
- Clarity
- Medium soft
- Best metal
- Silver, white gold
- Best neutral
- Slate
- Also called
- True Summer
Not sure this is you? Take the three-question season quiz or check your undertone.
Cool Summer signature colors
- Dusty Rose
- Cornflower
- Soft Jade
- Raspberry
- Orchid
Best neutrals
- Soft White
- Light Stone
- Greige
- Pewter
- Slate
Accents
- Dark Watermelon
- Rosewood
- Bright Spruce
- Bright Teal
- Peacock
All 60 Cool Summer colors with HEX codes, plus free swatch files
Cool Summer belongs to people who shine in quiet, medium-deep blues, roses and plums that carry no warmth at all.
- Runs cool
- Sits at medium depth
- Reads soft
- Metals: silver and white gold
- Neutral: slate
If silver suits you, orange leaves you looking worn out, and black sits heavy on you, this may be the one for you.
Cool Summer is 1 of the 12 seasons in all, and they grow out of 4 families: spring, summer, autumn and winter. Every family breaks into 3 seasons, and each season takes its name from its most obvious quality. Here that quality is coolness, and softness comes just after it.
Cool Summer color analysis: how to tell
- Warm yellow and orange leave your skin looking sallow and tired
- Pure black sits too heavily and pulls the color out of your face
- Silver jewelry sits smoothly against your skin, while gold reads separate and brassy
- Cool rose pink lifts your face and eases dark circles at once
- Slate grey and dusty blue make your eyes read clearer than navy
Cool Summer (True Summer) characteristics: skin, hair and eyes
The skin of a cool summer
This skin can run light or deep. What the tones below have in common is coolness underneath, not how fair or dark they are.
- Fair beige skin with cool pink beneath
- Medium neutral beige that flushes at the slightest thing
- Cool olive with an ashiness to it
- Deep cool brown carrying rose or plum undertones
On top of that, your features sit at medium contrast. Contrast is how far apart your skin, hair and eyes are in lightness. At medium contrast, nothing about you is harsh or warm, so very sharp color combinations can swallow your face.
Silver jewelry melts into this skin nicely, while gold stands apart and turns brassy. Orange and warm yellow worn near the face can leave the skin sallow and weary.
Eye color in this season
Eyes here read soft, cool and a touch cloudy rather than glassy and crisp. Grey or cool brown tones show up often.
- Blue with a cool cast, or grey blue
- Slate grey, softened
- Murky green with a cool base, or grey green
- Ash brown from medium to dark
Dusty blue and slate grey usually make these eyes look clearer than navy does.
Hair for a cool summer
Ashy hair has no red or golden glint in it.
- Ash blonde at medium to dark depth
- Mousy brown, cool, with no red
- Ash brown at the dark end
- Charcoal brown with a cool cast, or soft black
Why does it also go by true summer?
Cool Summer also answers to True Summer. The two names point to the same palette, and you'll run into both.
Summer colors are cool and gentle as a family. This season is its coolest, purest expression, so nothing in it holds any warmth. Your undertone is the shade living just beneath your skin's surface. For this season that shade is always cool, whatever rosy, bluish or pink cast it takes.
Colors for a cool summer
The shades that love you are cool, muted and neither very light nor very dark. Muted means the color has been toned down, like someone stirred a bit of grey through it, so it never shouts. They suit you because they match the calm, cool quality of your skin, hair and eyes.
These five shades lead the season:
- Dusty Rose
- Cornflower
- Soft Jade
- Raspberry
- Orchid
A cool rose pink can lift your face and calm dark circles in seconds. Raspberry and ocean blue usually bring healthy color to your skin.
For daily basics, Slate is the neutral to reach for. Slate, Soft Marine and Soft White can take the place of harsh black and pure white. For brown, Dark Taupe or Rose Brown serves you better than the warm kind.
Shades that tend to fight this coloring include Bright Peach, Bright Copper, Gold, Moss, Bright Royal Blue and Navy.
This site's complete Cool Summer palette holds 60 named colors, each with its HEX code: the code designers rely on to match a color exactly. They're sorted into 3 groups: neutrals, main colors and accents. A list of colors to avoid comes with it. You can download the whole set for free as a PNG palette card, a CSV file, Adobe ASE swatches or Procreate swatches.
Cool Summer or Soft Summer?
The two share a love of calm, medium colors without harsh contrast. To separate them, bring a greyed sage green and then a clear cool blue up to your face in daylight.
Soft Summer is yours if pure blue feels a touch loud and pewter or a dusty sage smooths your skin out. Cool Summer is yours if sage turns your skin sallow while cool blue or silver brightens you.
Cool Summer beside Light Summer
Each one runs cool, loves silver jewelry, and suits gentle rose or blue shades. The real question is whether pale baby pink or deeper raspberry makes you look your best.
Light Summer fits you if baby pink and sky blue lift your face and deeper raspberry drags it down. Cool Summer fits you if raspberry and ocean blue bring healthy color and pale pink washes you out.
Cool Summer or Cool Winter
Both are purely cool with not a drop of warmth, and both wear silver best. Set soft slate blue beside a stark black and white outfit and compare.
Cool Winter fits if stark black and white give your features edge while slate blue turns dull and dusty on you. Cool Summer fits if slate blue and soft berry melt into your coloring while stark black and white hits too hard.
Checking your season
A quiz makes a fine first step, and daylight in front of a mirror can confirm the answer. A draping session with a real person can settle it too. Draping is when a trained person drapes different colored fabrics near your face to learn which ones flatter you.
Selfies don't work for us, because phone cameras and indoor bulbs change how skin color reads.
Cool Summer worst colors to skip
- Bright Peach#FFC299
- Bright Copper#D56400
- Gold#D4A73E
- Moss#647C36
- Bright Royal Blue#3743F7
- Navy#172A5A
Cool Summer (True Summer) for men
- Suits, coats and trousers
- Soft White
- Light Stone
- Greige
- Pewter
- Shirts and knitwear
- Dusty Rose
- Cornflower
- Soft Jade
- Raspberry
- Ties, socks and pocket squares
- Dark Watermelon
- Rosewood
- Bright Spruce
- Bright Teal
Often confused with Cool Summer
Questions people ask
Is black or gold ever an option for a cool summer?
True black usually feels too heavy and pulls the life out of this face, so for dark clothes reach for Slate or Soft Marine instead. Gold sits on the avoid list, and gold jewelry often goes brassy. The metals that flatter you most are white gold and silver.
Which makeup shades suit this palette best?
Begin with cool rose pink, since it lifts the face and eases dark circles. Orchid, Dusty Rose and Raspberry all belong to one cool, muted family. Warm picks such as Bright Copper and Bright Peach tend to look sallow on this coloring.
Is Cool Summer possible for deep skin?
Yes. One of the typical Cool Summer skin tones is deep cool brown skin with rose or plum undertones. The season rests on medium contrast and a cool undertone, not on how fair or deep your skin happens to be.