What's Your Seasonal Color Palette?

Our unique features are one of the primary ways that we establish our individuality. We are all created differently, and our distinctive characteristics are something to be valued and cherished.

Key Takeaways

• Finding your season colors are essential to highlighting your natural features
• Hue, value, and chroma are the main qualities that define a season's color palette
• Our eyes, hair, and skin tone are used to determine our personal color palette
• Winters are characterized by a cool undertone and a stark contrast in features and look best with richly saturated bright colors
• Summers have moderate features that are offset by a cool undertone and thrive in muted and soft colors
• Springs have a lower contrast in their features with a warm or neutral tone, complemented best with light and clear colors
• Autumns have dark features and warm undertones, and red or earthy hues look best on them

The key to finding the right colors that look best on us lies in discovering our seasonal palette. We'll let you know precisely how to find your colors, and you'll be able to see your gorgeous magnificence like never before!

See Related: 14 Fall Colors To Incorporate Into Your Nail Art Designs

What's A Seasonal Color Palette?

When we talk about the seasons, our mind instinctively goes to thoughts of holidays, changing weather, and an adapting wardrobe. But the seasons are more personal than they may seem!

Finding our colors comes down to correctly interpreting our seasonal color analysis. This analysis is what essentially tells us what colors and color schemes fit our unique traits best.

Our distinctive features define our individuality. Because we are all different, there are specific colors out there that are perfect for highlighting our most beautiful features.

On the other hand, there are other colors that only serve to reduce our gorgeous inheritance and minimize our natural glow. That's why finding your color palette is essential to completing your brand.

Seasonal Color Qualities

The colors we use to accentuate our natural beauty are based on the seasons' colors. After all, drawing inspiration from Mother Earth seems like the natural way to go.

We can determine seasonal colors with three key qualities; hue, value, and chroma.

Hue

Hue is the underlying color tone of a color. Typically, this ranges from warm to cool. Colors from the same hue family usually go together and can make for a great look.

For example, if your look contains colors with a warm tone and hue, it wouldn't be complimented with a cooler color. Instead, keeping warm tones together will help your look be complete.

Value

The value defines the lightness or darkness of a color. So a color with a lower value will be lighter, while a higher value color will be much darker.

You can also think of value like brightness - dark colors have a low brightness or a deep value, and vice versa for light colors.

Chroma

Chroma defines whether a color is muted, soft, or bright and clear. Chroma is similar to the saturation of a color. A color with a rich and deep saturation would be on the colorful and expressive end of the chroma spectrum.

For example, colors with a low chroma are typically very muted. As a result, they can appear close to being a shade of gray.

These qualities (hue, value, and chroma) are used to determine our personal color season palette. By evaluating our characteristics, it's easy to discover the best way to bring out your best features!

How Your Features Determine Your Seasonal Colors

Determining your color palette means finding what colors complement your natural characteristics. So it would only make sense that part of this process would include evaluating your own features.

Eyes

We've all heard the saying that the eyes are the window to the soul. So such an impressive feature should play a role in determining our color palette!

Our eyes can be any variety of colors or tones. But you won't be successful in finding your color palette if you only use your eye color as a metric.

This is because our seasonal color analysis is determined by all of our characteristics and, most importantly, how they fit together. So you can't say that because your eyes are a rich hazel, you are surely a True Autumn.

Hair

Hair color is an essential aspect of our look. A suitable hair color can completely transform our self-image, while a disastrous hairstyle can ruin our self-confidence.

Properly analyzing the color of your hair is essential in finding our best seasonal colors. What colors look fantastic on dark hair might look ridiculous on light hair.

Skin Tone

The last quality considered when determining your color palette is your skin tone. Skin tone is perhaps the most essential when conducting your season's color analysis, as this plays a massive role in defining your undertone.

Though it might not seem that impressive at first glance, our skin's undertone determines our best and worst colors. Remember that skin undertone is not the same as skin color. For example, any skin color can have a warm or cool undertone.

Now that we know the three main characteristics used to conduct our seasonal color analysis let's get into the nitty-gritty and find out what our color season is!

Why Do I Need To Discover My Seasonal Color Palette?

Our outward expression often resembles our inward emotions. When we want to communicate to the world without words, self-expression is often the best way to do that.

Regardless of how you dress or carry yourself, finding the seasonal palette that suits you is essential in curating the perfect self-image. Finding the best color palette to match your natural features is a great way to show the world you are confident in who you are.

But enough talk - let's figure out our color palettes!

The Difference Between Warm Or Cool Undertones

The first step in your seasonal color analysis is determining your undertone. However, this step can be tricky for many people.

This difficulty lies in finding a successful method to determine our undertone. But don't worry - we'll let you know some of the best ways to nail down your exact undertone!

Those with a warm hue typically have a low level of contrast between their features - their eyes, hair color, and skin tone are similar in hue. For example, a warm skin tone typically appears golden and rich.

Cool-toned people are usually characterized by high contrast in their features. Often, this shows up as fair skin and dark hair and eyes, though any race can potentially have cool undertones.

What If I'm Not Warm Or Cool Toned?

However, warm or cool undertones are only half of it. There are four leading hue families to choose from. In addition to warm or cool tones, there are also olive and neutral undertones.

Those with olive skin usually have blue undertones mixed with green overtones. This can still be considered a cool tone, but its unique formula creates a truly gorgeous complexion.

Many people may develop the misconception that our skin can either be only warm or only cool. On the contrary, our skin is always a mixture of both, and the key to finding our undertone lies in finding the dominant hue.

So those who may not have a powerful hue family for their undertone likely have a neutral skin tone. That means their skin tone isn't particularly warm or cool.

How Can I Find My Undertone?

There are a few different methods to discover your undertone, so we'll let you in on a couple of the best.

First, you can find your undertone by placing silver and gold jewelry on your skin in natural light. Take a moment and consider which one allows your skin to look the most fulfilled and healthy.

You likely have cool undertones if your skin looks best with silver jewelry. On the other hand, if you look best with golden metal, you probably are warm-toned.

If this method doesn't give you precise results, you can also try throwing on a plain white T-shirt (if you don't have any, you can also hold a piece of white paper up to your face.)

Compare your skin tone to this simplistic white canvas. If your face appears to be more peachy and yellow, you have warm undertones. If, on the other hand, your skin is bluish or pinky, you have a cool undertone.

Still a little confused? Try out other ways to determine your skin undertone, and you'll be an expert in no time - so give your friends a hand too!

Bonus: 5 Key Halloween Colors And What They Signify

Lastly, It's Time To Discover Your Season!

Now that we've addressed the color of our hair and eyes and tracked down what skin tones we might be, it's time to put it all together and discover our season color palette for our beautiful nail designs!

Winter

Winter - a season known for its icy atmosphere and cool colors. So it would make sense that you might be a Winter if you have a cool undertone!

Winters usually have a high contrast between their characteristics and lack any warm colors in their palette. So a Winter with dark brown hair might also have vibrant, icy-blue eyes and light skin.

Winters usually have cool or olive skin tones, bright blue or icy gray eyes, and ashy blonde or medium to dark brown hair. Keep in mind these are just general guidelines - you can still be considered a Winter if you aren't cool-toned or don't have high-contrast features.

Deep, Clear, Or Cool Winter

Each of the four seasons can be broken down into three different groups. For those in the Winter family, you can be further classified as a Deep Winter, a Cool Winter, or a Clear Winter.

Each of these subfamilies has other specifications that can help you determine where you belong. For example, Deep Winters typically have a medium or dark skin tone, while Cool Winters are usually very pale.

The best color palette for Winter includes vivid hues and bright colors with cool undertones. So if you're looking to accentuate your Winter side, adding a pop of bright colors to your look is a sure way to bring out your best side!

An easy way to do this is by introducing some brilliant colors to your nails. But we get it - not everyone is an artist or necessarily wants to resort to going to the nail salon. That's why here at Maniology, we created our iconic nail stamping sets to give you a hand.

And for those Winters out there, our Bright Stamping Art Polish Set is a great place to get started in your nail art journey. In just five easy steps, our stamping sets will allow you to have exceptionally cool and beautiful Winter nail art!

Summer

If there are Winters, then there have to be Summers! Cool or neutral undertones can identify Summers. In addition, Summers usually have light-toned hair and eyes.

A summer palette is comprised of colors with a low value. So it's common for Summers to have light grey-blue or bright green eyes. Summers usually also have strawberry blonde, golden blonde, light brown, or medium brown hair.

Light, Cool, Or Soft Summer

Though Summers usually have neutral undertones, you might be a Cool Summer if you have cool undertones. Regardless if you're a Soft Summer, Cool Summer, or Light Summer, your characteristics will truly shine when you add dusty, soft, or muted colors into your look.

The light and clear colors of Maniology's Metallic Stamping Polish Set are perfect if you're looking to bring some life to your Summer look!

Spring

Springs usually show up as warm-toned, low-contrast characteristics. They typically have peachy skin tones, delicate features, and bright eyes. The warm undertones that Springs have can manifest as golden-light to medium hair and striking eye colors.

It's also not uncommon for a Spring (especially a Warm Spring) to have auburn or red hair. Plus, the light colors of Spring allow any color to complement their features beautifully.

Clear, Warm, Or Light Spring

Warm Springs are known for having warm colors throughout their features - hence the name! And on the other hand, Clear Springs usually have dark features, such as copper or dark brown hair and eyes, as well as a tanned complexion.

If you're a Light Spring, your warm undertone is likely complemented by your similarly light features. Looking to embrace your Spring side? Start with the Iridescent Shimmer Stamping Polish Set from Maniology to really bring your look to the next level!

Autumn

Throughout all the seasons, none is perhaps more heartfelt and meaningful than Autumn. Autumn is a warm season, so it is usually characterized by warm undertones, medium brown or auburn hair colors, and rich, light brown or dark brown eyes.

If you're an Autumn, you typically look best with muted colors and warm, rich hues. Earthy colors and deep, calming hues will also be perfect to add to your look.

Deep, Warm, Or Soft Autumn

Autumns can be further classified as Deep Autumn, Warm Autumn, and Soft Autumn. A Soft Autumn is very similar to a Light Spring, but with warm skin rather than a cool undertone.

Regardless of what Autumn you are, earthy colors will be your best friend. Warm reds, oranges, and forest greens will make your natural Autumn beauty stand out! 

Keep Reading: Your Guide To A True Autumn Color Palette