How the color analysis works
Seasonal color analysis is a way of matching your natural coloring to the colors that look best on you. Our tool does the same job a color analyst does with fabric drapes, but from one photo and entirely on your device.
- Your photo stays on your device. It is read by your browser and never uploaded. The analysis tools download once and are kept in your browser cache.
- Your face is located. A face model running in your browser finds your eyes, cheeks, forehead and hairline, and a second model finds your hair.
- The light is balanced. The whites of your eyes are close to neutral in any light, so they show the color of the light in your photo. The tool uses them to correct warm lamps, cool shade and blue screens. If your eye whites are hard to see, it falls back to the average color of the whole photo and tells you.
- Your colors are measured. The tool samples your cheeks and forehead, the colored ring of your irises and your hair. It ignores shine, shadows and stray hair, then measures each color in a way that matches how people see color.
- You get your season. Your coloring is placed on three scales, from cool to warm, from deep to light and from soft to bright. The season closest to your mix is your result, and the next two are shown as well.
The three traits behind every season
Every color season is a mix of three traits. Most people have one trait that stands out, and that trait decides the family of seasons you belong to.
- Temperature is whether your coloring leans golden and warm or pink and cool. It comes mostly from your skin undertone, with a little help from the tone of your hair.
- Depth is how light or deep your coloring is overall. Hair counts for a lot here, because it frames the face.
- Clarity is how bright or soft your coloring looks. Strong contrast between hair, skin and eyes and clear, saturated eye color read as bright. Gentle contrast and muted colors read as soft.
The 12 color seasons at a glance
The 12 season system splits each of the four families into three. Each season is named after its strongest trait. Tap a season to see its full palette with hex codes.
| Season | Strongest trait | Second trait | Signature colors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Light Spring | Light | Warm | Peach, butter yellow, mint |
| Warm Spring | Warm | Bright | Coral, golden yellow, turquoise |
| Bright Spring | Bright | Warm | Poppy red, sunflower, kelly green |
| Bright Winter | Bright | Cool | Cherry, fuchsia, royal blue |
| True Winter | Cool | Deep | True red, emerald, black and white |
| Deep Winter | Deep | Cool | Oxblood, sapphire, royal purple |
| Deep Autumn | Deep | Warm | Rust, forest green, deep teal |
| True Autumn | Warm | Soft | Terracotta, olive, mustard |
| Soft Autumn | Soft | Warm | Sage, dusty teal, antique rose |
| Soft Summer | Soft | Cool | Dusty rose, slate blue, heather |
| True Summer | Cool | Light | Rose, jade, cornflower blue |
| Light Summer | Light | Cool | Powder blue, lavender, ballet pink |
Seasons sit on a wheel. Each one shares a trait with the seasons either side of it, which is why your second and third results are usually its neighbours.
How to get the most accurate result
Light matters more than anything else in color analysis. These tips make the biggest difference.
- Use daylight from a window. Stand facing a window on a bright day, out of direct sun. Daylight shows your true colors. Lamps, shade and colored walls tint your skin.
- Turn off filters and beauty mode. Filters change skin color and smooth away detail. Use the plain camera.
- Go light on makeup. Foundation, bronzer and blush change the very colors the tool reads. Bare skin, or a light layer, gives the truest result.
- Look straight at the camera with your eyes open. The whites of your eyes balance the light, so the tool needs to see them clearly.
- Pull your hair back from your face, but keep it in the photo. Your hair color counts toward your depth and contrast.
- Hold a sheet of white paper next to your face. This is optional, but after your result appears you can tap the paper, and the tool will use it to balance the light even more precisely.
Understanding your result
Your result shows your season, how sure the tool is, and what it measured.
- The season name is the closest match to your coloring. The note under it says whether it is a clear match, a likely match or a close call.
- Your palette has 24 colors. Tap any color to copy its hex code, which is handy for shopping online or making a mood board.
- See the difference frames your face with four of your best colors and four colors to skip, so you can see how each one changes your skin.
- What we measured shows where you sit on each trait, along with the colors read from your skin, eyes and hair. Turn on the overlay to see exactly which areas were sampled.
- Also close lists the next two seasons. If your result was a close call, read all three season pages and compare.
- Tips appear when the photo had tinted light, shadow on one side or hidden eye whites, with what to change next time.
If you are unsure, try two or three photos in different daylight. The season that appears most often is the best one to start with.
Accuracy, limits and the science
Color analysis began with artists and color theory, and the seasonal system grew popular in the 1980s. It is a style tool, not a science, and trained analysts sometimes disagree about the same person.
We test the analysis on synthetic faces where every color is known in advance. They check that each part of the tool reads skin, eye and hair colors correctly, ignores stray hair, and corrects tinted light. We also run it on public photos to check the photo quality warnings. Next, we are building a test set of people whose season was found in person with fabric drapes, and we will publish how often our result matches theirs on our methodology page.
Some limits to keep in mind.
- A photo cannot show your coloring perfectly. Light, camera processing and screens all shift colors a little.
- Dyed hair is read as your current hair color. That is useful for choosing clothes today, but it is not your natural coloring.
- Makeup, tanning and filters change the result.
- Very dark or very bright photos lower the confidence. The tool tells you when this happens.
The same approach is known as colour analysis in the UK and Australia. The system is the same, only the spelling changes.
Privacy
Your photo never leaves your device. It is read by your browser, analyzed there and forgotten when you close the page. We do not upload it, store it or see it, and nothing about your face is sent anywhere. The share card is made on your device too, and your photo appears on it only if you tick the box.
Read our privacy policy for the full details, or learn more about color in our guides to what colors look good on you and skin undertones.