Summer or Soft

QUESTION

Thank you for your wonderfully informative and straightforward site. I've been through the Colour Analysis wringer over the past ten years or so, with in-person professional analyses variously placing me in Light Summer, Soft Summer, Soft Autumn & Light Spring.

So I have been leery of colour analysis for a long time, but finding your site, and much trial and error, has helped me to narrow my true likely seasons down to either Summer or Soft/Muted.

I would be very grateful if you could write a bit about differentiating between these two palettes, since both are soft and relatively light and the colour characteristics of the people whom they suit seem to have several similarities.

Does the Soft/Muted palette have some warmth to it, where Summer does not have any at all? Might one see differences mainly in the neutrals and how much warmth those contain? Is the depth of the colours different? Are Summer a lot more vivid than Soft/Toned? What other distinguishing differences are there between the colours?

It would be great to understand the real nuances between these two palettes.

Many thanks!
Jessica


Hi Jessica

I'm sorry you have had such a long road discovering your colors - it can become very frustrating.

You obviously know a little about the difference between the Seasons and the Tonal color families as you're talking about the MUTED family and SUMMER. You appear to have narrowed your color direction down to one of these two.

The Muted color palette includes both warm and cool shades but they all have MUTED/SOFT as their dominant characteristic - in other words this is the connecting factor that makes them into a family! The undertone is of secondary importance.

The Summer season is a complex color family a glorious mix of LIGHT, COOL and MUTED/SOFT in more or less equal proportions. The Soft input makes it a gentle color palette and Light just means that the colors have a low intensity. Because the Muted palette includes both warm and cool shades the Cool input into Summer is tempered down a little.

So the difference is that MUTED has equal shades of Warm and Cool. SUMMER is primarily Cool but no sharp Cool shades as it is tempered down a little with softness.

Phew! I do hope I've made it a little more understandable. I'm sorry you have had such problems with different answers over the years.

I do appreciate that it's difficult to remember the different effects of colors around your face when you have a personal color analysis.

My own Online Color Analysis works because clients have my explanation and the images to look back on to see exactly what is happening and how your complexion is affected.

Hope that helps you unscramble your thoughts.

kind regards
Pamela