Find Your Colors. Find Your Glow. 
Have you ever put on a certain color and suddenly thought, Wait… why do I look so good today? Your skin looks brighter, your eyes seem clearer, and somehow you look more awake, even when you definitely could have used another cup of coffee.
Then there are those other colors. Beautiful on the hanger, gorgeous on someone else, but on you? Something just feels off.
That’s where color analysis comes in.
Color analysis is about finding the colors that naturally harmonize with you. Your skin, hair, eyes, undertones, contrast and overall coloring all work together. When the colors you wear complement those natural characteristics, something pretty amazing can happen: instead of noticing the color first, people notice you.
It’s almost like having your own natural ring light.
And that glow is what pulled me back into the world of color analysis.
I actually learned that I was a Soft Summer way back in college. I knew my season, but I didn’t really run with it. For years, I ran with trends instead. If a color was popular, caught my eye, or looked great on someone else, that was usually enough for me.
Recently, though, I started paying attention to what happened when I wore my Soft Summer colors.
I glowed.
My complexion looked brighter and more balanced. My features seemed to come forward. There was a softness around my face that I can only describe as having a natural ring light following me around.
I call it the Halo Effect.
Once I noticed it, I couldn’t unsee it. I wanted to know everything. Why did certain colors make me shine while others seemed to wear me? Which colors should I actually be buying? What about my hair? Makeup? Jewelry? Neutrals?
Suddenly, knowing my color season wasn’t just a fun fact I had learned years ago. It became a way to shop more intentionally and choose things that actually work for me instead of constantly chasing the next trend.
And that’s why I’m starting with Soft Summer. It’s my own color season, so it’s the one I know, wear and experiment with every day. But whether you’re a Spring, Summer, Autumn or Winter, the goal is the same: find the colors that make you come alive.
Wear your colors. Find your glow. Share your light.
What Is Color Analysis?
Color analysis is a way of identifying the colors that harmonize best with your natural coloring. It looks at more than whether you have blonde or brunette hair, blue or brown eyes, or light or deep skin.
Instead, color analysis considers things like temperature, depth, chroma (how bright or muted a color is), and contrast.
You may have heard of the four main color seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. From there, seasonal color analysis goes deeper into sub-seasons, such as Soft Summer, Cool Summer, Soft Autumn, Bright Spring and others.
And this is important: your season isn’t determined by your ethnicity or by one physical feature.
Blue eyes don’t automatically make someone a Summer. Dark hair doesn’t automatically make someone a Winter. Red hair doesn’t automatically make someone an Autumn.
People of different ethnicities, skin tones, hair colors and eye colors can belong to the same color season. What matters is how all of your natural coloring works together and how it responds to color.
That’s why seeing the right color next to your face can be so surprising. A color doesn’t have to be your favorite to make you glow, and a color you absolutely love may not always love you back. 
The goal isn’t to give you a list of fashion rules or tell you what you’re “allowed” to wear. It’s to give you another tool for choosing colors intentionally, so you can spend less time guessing and more time wearing what makes you shine.
And for me, that brings us right back to Soft Summer.
The 12 Seasons of Color Analysis
You may have heard of the four traditional color seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. But most of us don’t fit perfectly into just one broad category.
That’s where the 12-season color analysis system comes in. Each of the four main seasons is divided into three more specific sub-seasons based on whether your coloring leans lighter, deeper, softer, brighter, warmer or cooler.
Spring: Light Spring • Warm Spring • Bright Spring
Summer: Light Summer • Soft Summer • Cool Summer
Autumn: Soft Autumn • Warm Autumn • Deep Autumn
Winter: Cool Winter • Clear Winter • Deep Winter
This is why two people can both be Summers and look completely different. One may shine in the airy, delicate shades of Light Summer, while another looks incredible in the smoky, blended colors of Soft Summer.
And this is also why I don’t believe you should determine your season from hair color, eye color or ethnicity alone. What matters is how color interacts with your whole natural coloring.
Think of the four seasons as the neighborhood. Your sub-season is your actual address.
What Is a Soft Summer?
Soft Summer is one of the twelve seasonal color palettes, and the word soft tells you a lot about what makes this season special.
Soft Summers tend to shine in colors that are muted, blended and gently cool to neutral-cool, rather than extremely bright, warm or high-contrast. Think of colors that have been softened just a little: dusty rose instead of hot pink, sage instead of bright green, slate blue instead of electric blue.
Nothing needs to shout.
The overall effect is beautifully blended.
Soft Summer Is More Than a Hair or Eye Color
One of the biggest misconceptions about Soft Summer is that you have to look a certain way to belong in this season.
You don’t.
A Soft Summer doesn’t have to have fair skin, blonde hair and blue eyes. Soft Summer coloring can appear across different ethnicities, skin tones, hair colors and eye colors.
Instead of looking for one specific feature, look at the relationship between your features.
Soft Summer is generally characterized by:
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- Softness: Your overall coloring has a muted quality rather than looking extremely bright or saturated.
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- Cool to neutral-cool undertones: Cooler colors tend to harmonize better than strongly golden or orange-based shades.
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- Gentle contrast: Your features tend to work together without extremely sharp contrast.
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- Blended coloring: Nothing necessarily jumps out first. Your skin, hair and eyes tend to create an overall sense of harmony.
And this is where that Halo Effect starts to make sense.
When a Soft Summer wears a color with that same soft, muted quality, the color doesn’t have to compete with the person wearing it. Your features get to come forward.
The clothes become the supporting cast.
You get to be the star.
The Soft Summer Color Palette
So what do Soft Summer colors actually look like?
Imagine taking beautiful colors and turning the volume down just a notch. Soft Summer shades aren’t dull. They’re muted, sophisticated and gently cool, with a softness that allows your natural coloring to take center stage.
Some of the most beautiful Soft Summer colors include:
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- Dusty rose
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- Mauve
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- Soft berry
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- Muted raspberry
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- Lavender
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- Smoky plum
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- Slate blue
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- Dusty blue
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- Soft navy
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- Sage
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- Eucalyptus
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- Muted teal
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- Cool taupe
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- Mushroom
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- Soft gray
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- Charcoal
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- Soft white
Your Neutrals Matter, Too
Before discovering your best colors, it’s easy to build an entire wardrobe around black, bright white and whatever neutral happens to be trending.
But Soft Summer has its own gorgeous family of neutrals.
Instead of harsh black, try charcoal, soft navy or smoky gray. Instead of stark optic white, look for soft white, pearl or cool off-white. Cool taupes and mushroom shades can also be beautiful alternatives to warmer tans and camel.
This doesn’t mean you have to throw out every black shirt in your closet. I certainly don’t believe color analysis should turn into a set of rigid rules.
Think of your palette as a guide, not a fashion police department.
The real magic happens when you start holding these colors near your face and paying attention.
Does your complexion seem more even? Do your eyes come forward? Do you notice your face before the color you’re wearing?
That’s the effect we’re looking for.
And once you start seeing it, you might become just a little obsessed too.
How to Tell If You’re a Soft Summer
Now for the question you’re probably asking: Am I a Soft Summer?
Rather than focusing on one specific hair color, eye color or skin tone, look at your overall coloring and how different colors interact with your face.
You may be a Soft Summer if:
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- Your overall coloring appears soft and blended rather than bright or highly contrasted.
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- Muted colors tend to flatter you more than vivid, highly saturated shades.
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- Your undertone leans cool to neutral-cool, rather than strongly warm or golden.
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- Your features have gentle to medium contrast rather than an extremely dramatic difference between your skin, hair and eyes.
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- Smoky, dusty or slightly grayed colors seem to make your features come forward.
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- Very bright, very warm or extremely harsh colors can sometimes seem to overpower you.
Don’t Get Too Hung Up on Hair, Skin or Eye Color
This is worth repeating because traditional color-analysis examples can make seasonal color seem much more limiting than it actually is.
Soft Summer doesn’t have one “look.”
Two Soft Summers can have completely different skin tones, hair colors and eye colors and still share the same beautiful relationship with muted, cool-neutral colors.
That’s why I prefer looking at what the color actually does to your face.
Try the Ring-Light Test
Stand near a window in natural daylight, preferably without a filter and with little or no makeup.
Hold different colors underneath your face and really look at your face, not at which color you like best.
Ask yourself:
Does my skin look brighter and more even?
Do my eyes become more noticeable?
Do shadows or redness seem more or less obvious?
Do I see my face first, or does the color enter the room before I do?
When you find a color that seems to soften everything, bring your features forward and give you that naturally illuminated look, you’ve found what I think of as the Halo Effect.
And that little glow can tell you a whole lot more than the label on your hair color ever could.
What Colors Can Be Tricky for Soft Summer?
Let’s get one thing out of the way: you can wear any color you want.
Color analysis isn’t about someone handing you a tiny approved palette and confiscating everything else in your closet. It’s about understanding which colors naturally harmonize with you, and then deciding what you want to do with that information.
For Soft Summers, colors that are extremely bright, warm, saturated or high-contrast can sometimes compete with our naturally softer coloring.
Some shades you may find trickier near your face include:
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- Neon or electric brights
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- Tomato red and orange-red
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- Bright orange
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- Strong mustard yellow
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- Very warm camel
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- Intense coral
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- Stark optic white
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- Jet black
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- Highly saturated jewel tones
Notice I said tricky, not forbidden.
But What If You Love Black?
I get it. Black is easy. Black is chic. Black is everywhere.
And no, finding out you’re a Soft Summer does not mean you need to break up with your entire black wardrobe.
You can soften black by keeping your more flattering Soft Summer colors closer to your face. Try a dusty rose scarf, muted blue jacket, soft gray cardigan or jewelry in one of your best metals.
You can also experiment with charcoal, smoky navy or deep slate when you’re buying something new. They can give you that same sophisticated, dark-neutral feeling without creating quite as much contrast.
The same idea works for any color outside your palette.
If you love it, wear it.
Color analysis should help you shop more intentionally, not make getting dressed more stressful.
The goal isn’t perfection.
The goal is learning which colors give you that little extra glow, and using them whenever you want your Halo Effect to do its thing.
Building a Soft Summer Wardrobe
Once you know your colors, please don’t feel like you need to replace your entire closet overnight.
The goal is to become more intentional about what you buy from this point forward.
That’s one of my favorite things about rediscovering my Soft Summer palette. Instead of buying something just because the color is trending, I can stop and ask myself: Does this color actually work for me?
Over time, those little decisions can create a wardrobe where more pieces work together and, more importantly, work with you.
Start With Your Everyday Basics
If you’re building a Soft Summer wardrobe, I would start with the pieces you reach for constantly:
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- A soft white or pearl tee
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- A dusty rose or mauve top
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- A slate or muted blue shirt
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- A soft navy jacket or cardigan
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- A mushroom or cool taupe sweater
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- Muted denim
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- Charcoal trousers or leggings
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- A soft neutral everyday bag
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- Shoes in cool taupe, gray, soft white or another muted neutral
You don’t need every color in the Soft Summer palette hanging in your closet.
Choose the shades you love wearing and build around those.
Then Add the Finishing Touches
Your palette doesn’t have to stop at your clothes.
Once I started paying attention to Soft Summer again, I wanted to know how my colors could work with my hair, makeup, jewelry and accessories, too.
That’s when color analysis became much more interesting to me.
A lipstick, pair of earrings, scarf or even the tone of your hair sits close to your face, so those smaller details can be another opportunity to create that soft, harmonious look we’re after.
And remember, we’re not chasing perfection.
We’re creating a wardrobe that makes getting dressed easier, helps us shop more intentionally and gives us more opportunities to look in the mirror and think:
There she is.
This Is Just the Beginning
Rediscovering Soft Summer has reminded me of something I apparently needed to learn twice: knowing what works for you is a lot more useful than knowing what’s trending.
I spent years chasing colors because they were the color of the season, only to come full circle back to something I learned in junior college. Apparently Past Me knew things. I just wasn’t listening to her.
Now I’m looking at color completely differently. I’m paying attention to what makes me glow, what makes me feel like myself, and what deserves a place in my closet instead of automatically following whatever the fashion gods have declared we’re all supposed to love this month.
And yes, I’ve gone down the rabbit hole.
We’re going to talk about Soft Summer hair colors, makeup, jewelry, accessories, capsule wardrobes, shopping finds and probably a few things I haven’t even thought of yet. I love a random fact, so don’t be surprised if a little color theory, science or completely unnecessary-but-fascinating information sneaks in along the way.
But underneath all of it is something I believe goes beyond clothes.
When you feel good in your own skin, you carry that energy with you. Maybe you smile at someone who needs it. Maybe you’re a little more confident walking into a room. Maybe you simply feel more like you.
That’s my kind of Halo Effect.
Not just looking brighter, but taking a little of that light with you when you walk out the door.
So wear the dusty rose. Question the trendy orange. Follow the glow. And if the fashion world tells us neon chartreuse is mandatory next season?
We’ll discuss.
Not sure which season you are yet? Start by paying attention to the colors that make your skin look brighter, your eyes clearer and your whole face come alive. And if Soft Summer turns out to be yours, stick around. I have a lot more coming.
