What color season am I?
Three things decide your season: undertone (cool or warm), value (light or dark), and chroma (bright or muted). Whichever is most extreme picks your sub-season. Below is the 60-second framework — and a free quiz if you'd rather just answer eight questions.
Short answer: Your color season is the one of twelve sub-seasons whose undertone, value, and chroma match your natural coloring. To find it, identify your dominant axis first — the single most extreme trait. If your most extreme trait is chroma (very bright or very muted features), you're a Bright or Soft season. If it's value (very light or very deep), you're a Light or Deep season. If it's hue (clearly cool or warm at medium contrast), you're a Cool or Warm season. Then combine that dominant axis with your family — Spring and Autumn are warm, Summer and Winter are cool — to land your sub-season, such as Light Spring or Deep Winter. Three quick at-home tests settle it: vein color for undertone, a desaturated photo for value contrast, and your compliment history for chroma. The free 60-second quiz below does the same math for you and returns a season, a runner-up, and a starter palette.
The three axes
Personal color analysis isn't one question — it's three. The 12-season system maps them as:
- Hue — cool (blue base) vs warm (yellow base). Check vein color and metal preference.
- Value — light vs deep. Compare your skin/hair/eye combined value to the average.
- Chroma — bright (saturated) vs soft (muted). Look at whether your features are clear and sparkling or blended and watercolor.
Everyone has one axis that's more pronounced than the others. That's your dominant. Your dominant axis decides your sub-season; the other two place you in the family.
The 12 seasons at a glance
Bright Spring
Warm + high chroma. Clear, sparkling features. Coral, fuchsia, bright gold.
Warm Spring
Warm dominant + medium chroma. Peach, camel, golden green.
Light Spring
Light dominant + warm. Butter, peach, mint, soft sky.
Light Summer
Light dominant + cool. Powder blue, mauve, dove gray.
Cool Summer
Cool dominant + medium chroma. Berry, navy, true white.
Soft Summer
Soft (low chroma) + cool. Dusty rose, sage, smoke.
Soft Autumn
Soft + warm-leaning. Camel, dusty terracotta, fawn.
Warm Autumn
Warm dominant + medium-deep. Rust, mustard, olive, deep teal.
Deep Autumn
Deep dominant + warm. Espresso, oxblood, forest, plum-brown.
Deep Winter
Deep dominant + cool. True black, jewel emerald, magenta.
Cool Winter
Cool dominant + medium-deep. Icy pastels and dark cool jewels.
Bright Winter
Bright (high chroma) + cool. Hot fuchsia, cobalt, lemon yellow.
How to find your dominant axis in 60 seconds
If you only have a minute, run these three quick tests in order. The one with the clearest result is your dominant.
1. Vein color (hue test)
Look at the inside of your wrist in daylight. Blue or purple veins = cool. Green = warm. Mixed = neutral. If the answer is obvious, hue may be your dominant.
2. Black-and-white photo (value + chroma test)
Open a recent photo of yourself and desaturate it. If skin, hair, and eyes are very different values (high contrast), you're probably Deep or Bright. If they're nearly the same value (low contrast, blended), you're probably Light or Soft.
3. Compliment audit (chroma + family)
Recall the last three "that color looks amazing on you" moments. Bright jewel tones = Bright. Muted dusty tones = Soft. Warm earthy tones = Warm Spring or Autumn. Cool blues and pinks = Summer or Cool Winter.
Skip the math — take the 8-question quiz
Free. No signup. ~60 seconds. Gives you a season + runner-up + starter palette.
The borderline cases (where most people get stuck)
Three sub-season boundaries account for most "I keep getting different results" frustration:
- Soft Summer vs Soft Autumn — both are muted. Decide by undertone: cool-leaning skin = Soft Summer, warm-leaning = Soft Autumn.
- Light Spring vs Light Summer — both are light. Decide by undertone: warm peach undertones = Light Spring, cool pink = Light Summer.
- Bright Spring vs Bright Winter — both are saturated. Decide by undertone: warm = Bright Spring, cool = Bright Winter. Hair color usually settles it.
If you're on a border, the quiz returns both your top pick and your runner-up. The runner-up is right about 30% of the time for borderline cases. Try both palettes for a week and see which one consistently earns the compliments.
What you can do with your season
- Wardrobe — Build a capsule around your palette. The "I have a closet full of clothes and nothing to wear" feeling almost always traces to wearing colors outside your season.
- Makeup — Foundation undertone, lipstick, eyeshadow all change dramatically by season. Cool seasons need cool-base foundations; warm seasons need yellow-base.
- Hair color — If you dye, match the undertone of your season. A Soft Autumn going jet-black looks like a costume; staying within warm earthy browns reads natural.
- Accessories — Silver vs gold metals, brown vs black leather, denim wash. Small choices that compound.
Going deeper than a quiz
Quizzes get you to the family with 90%+ accuracy and the sub-season with 70–80%. For the remaining 20–30% (mostly borderline cases), the best signal is your face in neutral light against draped fabric — the same method professional color analysts have used for 60 years.
Tonebook's iOS app does this from a single selfie. It runs a 12-season analysis calibrated across Fitzpatrick I–VI, returns a 24-color palette, and shows your runner-up season with the confidence delta. Free analysis on first use.
One selfie. Twelve seasons. Your palette.
Tonebook for iPhone — free first analysis, $59.99/yr Pro for outfit generation and wardrobe tools.
FAQ
What color season am I?
Your season is determined by the dominant trait among hue, value, and chroma. Take the quiz or run the three 60-second tests above to find yours.
How do I find my color season?
Find your dominant axis first, then run three quick tests: vein color (cool vs warm), a desaturated photo (high contrast = Bright/Deep, low = Light/Soft), and your compliment history (jewel = Bright, dusty = Soft). Combine the clearest result with your warm/cool family — or take the free 60-second quiz.
How do I find my color season without a quiz?
Three signals converge: vein color (blue/purple = cool, green = warm), metal preference (silver = cool, gold = warm), and contrast in a black-and-white photo (high = Bright/Deep, low = Light/Soft).
What are the 12 color seasons?
Bright/Warm/Light Spring · Light/Cool/Soft Summer · Soft/Warm/Deep Autumn · Deep/Cool/Bright Winter.
Is the 12-season system the same as the 4-season system?
No. The 4-season system places everyone in Spring/Summer/Autumn/Winter. The 12-season system adds three sub-seasons per family to explain why two people in the same family wear different shades best.
Can your color season change?
The underlying season doesn't change, but hair graying, sun exposure, and aging can shift you into an adjacent sub-season. A True Winter who goes silver often reads as Cool Winter or even Cool Summer.