Soft Summer
- Soul of Colour
- Aug 9, 2024
- 6 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
Soft Summer is one of the most popular and most common palettes! This gorgeous palette embodies characteristics of both the Summer and Autumn seasons, resulting in a palette that is soft, subdued, gentle, dusty, sophisticated, feminine and elegant.
The overall impression of Soft Summer is of understated elegance, sophistication and femininity, favouring colours that are neither too bright nor too dark.
Who Falls into the Soft Summer Season?
Soft Summers have an obvious softness to their appearance and a hint of coolness. Their hair, skin and eyes will typically be around a similar shade and no feature will stand out too much from the rest - all harmonise well!
The only way to really determine your color season is through draping, however, there tend to be certain features that Soft Summers have, but keep in mind that there are always exceptions.
Soft Summers typically have:
Skin: Cool to neutral undertones with a soft appearance. The skin may have a slight pink, beige, or olive tone, often giving a muted and harmonious look. The undertone of the skin will be slightly cool but not overly so.
Eyes: The eyes are often soft, muted and slightly moody, with colours such as gray-blue, gray-green, or soft hazel being quite common among soft summers. Regardless of the eye color, they will usually have a hint of gray to them.
Hair: The hair colours of Soft Summers can range from ashy blonde to medium brown, often with a soft, ashy undertone that lacks any red or golden warmth. The Skin will usually be around the same depth level as the skin and eyes.
The colours of the skin, eyes and hair can feel like they all blend into one with little contrast. Soft Summers have a naturally gentle appearance, and their best colours are those that mirror this softness and blend seamlessly with their natural tones.
How Do You Know if You're a Soft Summer?
Each season has a primary, secondary, and tertiary feature. Your primary feature is your dominant and the most obvious one. Your secondary and tertiary features might be a little less obvious and harder to determine. Nevertheless, they are still super important and contribute to your overall coloring.
Primarily Feature: Muted (chroma). Soft Summers are primarily muted, a feature they share with Soft Autumn. The features of people from this season will appear desaturated and gentle - nothing will stick out and the features blend well together.
Secondarily Feature: Cool (temperature). Soft Summer is a neutral-cool season and hence they can pull off both cool and warm tones, however, cool tones will look more harmonious.
Tertiarily Feature: Light (value). Although Soft Summers are the darkest of the three Summer seasons, they are still a light season, compared with Autumn and Winter. The features are slightly lighter than they are dark and they will look better in colors that are on the lighter side.
To determine if you are a Soft Summer, consider the following steps:
Contrast levels: Are your skin, hair and eyes all a similar depth or do you have much darker hair relative to your skin? Soft Summers will usually have features that are all quite similar in terms of depth. For example, they can have medium beige skin, light brown hair and gray eyes or olive skin, medium brown hair and hazel eyes. If your hair, for example, is much darker than your skin, then it's unlikely that you are a Soft Summer or a Soft Autumn.
Analyse your chroma: Are your features more bright or muted? Can you wear bright clothing or do you look better in more muted colors? Soft Summers will be overpowered by bright colours and look far more harmonious in muted tones. Most other seasons will look washed out by the mutedness of Soft Summer colors, however on a Soft Summer those colors will be perfect and make them glow!
Cool vs Warm: Soft Summers are a neutral season meaning they can wear both cool and warm colours as long as the colours are muted, however, they will look best in colours that are cooler. If you feel like you glow in warmer tones, then you might want to check out Soft Autumn.
Analyse your depth: Are your features (hair, eyes, skin, lips) primarily light, medium or dark? If they are very dark or very light then you can eliminate Soft Summer from your palette as you’ll most likely be looking at either the light or deep seasons. Soft Summers typically have medium-light to medium features.
The best way to determine your season is to do a drape test. You can either purchase a physical drape test fan or try some digital tools online like vivaldicolor.com, Dressika, and others. Or, just find different color pieces in your wardrobe, compare them to each other and take notes!
You want to look for colors that smooth your skin out, lift your jawline and bring out your eyes, lips and eyebrows. The colors should harmonise with you, not being too overpowering and also not washing you out.
Also, take note of the colors that you really don't like on yourself. This can offer some clues to your season as well.
If you find that you look best in colours that are muted, cool and medium-light, then you might just be a Soft Summer!
Best Colors for Soft Summer
Soft Summers have a gorgeous, gentle, elegant, subdued and feminine palette to work with! All of the colors in the palette have quite a lot of gray added to them, which is what gives them that soft and muted quality.
Some of the most flattering colours for Soft Summers are:
Blues: Soft navy, slate blue, dusty blue
Greens: Sage, moss green, muted teal
Purples: Lavender, soft plum, dusty violet
Pinks: Rose, dusty pink, mauve
Neutrals: Cool taupe, soft gray, mushroom
Reds: Soft cranberry, muted rose
Overall, Soft Summers look amazing in soft greens, mauves, blues, purples and taupes. Colors for Soft Summers should be neither too bright nor too dark, maintaining a soft and muted quality.
Learn more about the best color combinations for Soft Summers and the best neutrals by downloading the free guide.
Jewelry for Soft Summer
Soft Summers look gorgeous and elegant in soft silver, white gold and gentle gemstones. The best options include:
Metals: Brushed silver, white gold, platinum, and pewter
Stones: Pearls, aquamarine, rose quartz, moonstone, soft gray diamonds
Avoid overly shiny or yellow-toned metals, which can clash with the soft, cool tones of the Soft Summer palette.
Hair Colors for Soft Summer
The natural hair colour for Soft Summer will probably be in the medium range, around levels 5-7N. The hair typically has a slightly ashy, soft quality to it. This colour is gentle and suits the palette well. Colours that are too dark, light or bright can be overpowering on a Soft Summer.
Many Soft Summers likely had blonde hair as children and often will keep dying it blonde. Blonde highlight can look great of Soft Summers but make sure to not go too light or too bright as that can clash. It's better to stick to tones that are soft and cool and closer to your natural hair color.
Flattering hair colour choices include:
Blonde (levels 7-8): Dark ash blonde, old money blonde, bronde
Brown (levels 5-6): Light natural brown, medium natural brown, milk tea brown, mushroom brown
Highlights: Subtle golden highlights can look really nice on Soft Summers and add dimension without overwhelming the natural color
Avoid tones that are too dark (below level 5), too light (platinum blonde) and too bright (orange, copper).
Read more about hair colors for summer seasons here.
Read more about the Best Hair Colors for Summer Seasons and get some inspiration on Pinterest.
Makeup for Soft Summer
Makeup for Soft Summers should be gentle, soft, natural and cool. Soft Summers will always look better in natural “clean-girl” makeup over full glam and can even pull off the "no-makeup makeup" look. Some makeup tips include:
Foundation: Opt for foundations with cool or neutral undertones that match your skin.
Blush: Choose a blush in the color of soft pink, cool mauve, rose and muted plum. Blush works better than bronzer on summer seasons.
Eyeshadow: Shades of cool taupe, soft gray, dusty rose, and muted plum can look really great.
Lipstick: Choose cool, muted shades like rose, mauve, soft plum, and dusty pink. Avoid bright or warm-toned lip colors. Anything close to your natural lip colour will look fantastic.
Eyeliner and Mascara: Soft brown, gray, or cool taupe rather than stark black will harmonise better with your features.
Sister Season: Soft Autumn
Soft Summer's sister season is Soft Autumn. Both seasons are primarily soft with softness being their most obvious feature. Soft Autumns, however, are warmer and slightly darker. They have a golden glow about them, whereas, Soft Summers are more dusty. As a Soft Summer, you may find that some colors from the Soft Autumn palette work well for you and you can borrow some of these colors. However, the coolness of the Soft Summer palette is where your home is at!
Read more about Soft Summer vs Soft Autumn.
Soft Summer Outfits
See more ideas on Pinterest.
Soft Summer Celebrities
Some Soft Summer celebrities include Bella Hadid, Leona Lewis, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jennifer Aniston, Kate Middleton, Emilia Clarke, Kristen Stewart, Rooney Mara, Lorde, Alexa Davalos, and Rachel McAdams.
Male examples include Harry Styles, Joey Batey, Alfie Allan, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Tom Holland.
*It's important to note though that none of these celebrities are verified Soft Summers and it can be difficult to determine the color season of celebrities from photos alone. However, these are some people that I see have the qualities of Soft Summer and that other color analysts have also speculated might be SoftSummers.
Soft Summer Mood Board
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