Is the Soft Summer Color Season Your Best?

Have you ever worn bright, high-contrast colors and felt they overwhelmed you? Or tried on soft, cool hues like dusty blue or muted rose and noticed how they blended harmoniously with your natural coloring? If your natural coloring is cool, muted, and low in contrast, you might be best suited to Soft Summer!

Soft Summer belongs to the 16-season color analysis system and is one of the coolest and most muted seasons, sitting between True Summer and Soft Autumn. This guide will help you determine if the Soft Summer palette is your best, which colors suit you, and how to style them effortlessly.

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How to Know If the Soft Summer Palette is for You

A Soft Summer has cool undertones, a muted appearance, and low-to-medium contrast. If you resonate with the following characteristics, this may be your best season!

Key Characteristics

While characteristics don’t fully determine which of the 16-season color palettes may be your best, they can give clues that help narrow it down. If you have any of the following characteristics (you don’t have to have them all!), the Soft Summer palette may be the best for you:

✅ Quick Color Analysis Quiz: Is Soft Summer Your Best Palette?

Answer YES if you… 

✔ Glow in muted cool tones like dusty blue, soft lavender, or rosewood, but look overwhelmed in black or bright jewel tones 

✔ Look best in silver jewelry over gold 

✔ Have a soft contrast between your features, rather than strong, dramatic contrast

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Soft Summer Palette Characteristics

With seasonal color analysis, there are generally 12 seasons, while some use the 16-season color analysis system. Each season sits on a spectrum of color, and the palette will usually have characteristics to match. When looking at the seasons, we consider three main color dimensions: Hue, Chroma, and Value.

Hue

This is how warm or cool a color is—also known as its temperature. The Soft Summer palette is cool, sitting on the cool and muted end of the spectrum. Most colors in this palette have a blue, cool rose, or neutral undertone. While it’s generally a cool palette, because it borders with Soft Autumn, you’ll see some warm leaning colors in this palette like soft yellow, peach and taupe-brown. The palette includes soft grays, dusty blues, muted purples, and cool taupes. Even traditionally warm colors like pink appear softened with a cool undertone.

Chroma

This is how saturated or muted a color is. Soft Summer colors are low in saturation, meaning they are toned down and softened with a touch of gray.The colors in this palette are gentle and understated, without strong brightness.Compared to True Summer, which is more vibrant, Soft Summer is more muted and neutralized.This is the most important characteristic of this palette - those that suit this palette are usually fine to wear a mix of warm or cool colors because they don’t have a distinct cool or warm undertone (neutral). 

Value

This is how light or dark a color is. Soft Summer leans medium to light, meaning the colors are not extremely dark, but also not pastel-light. While there are some deeper shades, most of the colors have a soft, blended quality.This makes Soft Summer lighter and more muted than its brighter sister palette, True Summer.

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The Soft Summer Color Palette

The Soft Summer palette is cool, muted, and delicate, inspired by misty mornings, faded florals, and serene coastal landscapes. This gives it a relaxed and elegant feel, making it perfect for soft, effortless styling. While this palette may feel like it only lends itself to very neutral styling, it can be styled in all different ways depending on the vibe you’re going for and the accessories you use. 

These are just a few standout colors in the Soft Summer palette. The palette also includes cool mauves, soft greens, and powdery purples.

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Colors to Avoid for Soft Summers

These are colors with opposing color dimensions to the Soft Summer palette. If this palette suits you best, wearing colors that are too warm, bright, or stark can make you look washed out or overwhelmed.

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Sister Palettes

For Soft Summer, which is cool, muted, and soft, its sister palettes are True Summer and Soft Autumn.True Summer shares the same cool undertones but is more vibrant and higher in contrast.Soft Autumn is also muted but leans warm, containing slightly warmer and earthier tones.

If Soft Summer is your best palette, you may also be able to wear the cooler colors from Soft Autumn and the more muted shades from True Summer.

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Styling Your Soft Summer Palette

A Soft Summer wardrobe should feel cool, effortless, and naturally blended. It pairs well with fluid fabrics, soft textures, and layered, tonal styling.

✅ Best Outfit Combinations

🌿 Casual: A dusty blue knit sweater with soft gray jeans and silver accessories

💼 Workwear: A muted lavender blouse tucked into charcoal trousers with a cool taupe blazer

🌙 Evening: A rosewood dress with misty gray heels and a subtle mauve wrap

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Hair & Makeup for Soft Summers

When considering hair and makeup for Soft Summer, think of gentle coolness, soft definition, and natural elegance. Your look should enhance the muted, cool glow of the season.

Hair colors for Soft Summer should stay cool and blended. Natural ash tones, soft brown highlights, and neutral blonde shades work best. Avoid anything too warm or overly dark or vibrant. 

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FAQs: Everything You Need to Know About Soft Summer

Q: How do I know if Soft Summer is my best season or if I suit another summer season better? A: If you think you have cool undertones and suit lighter colors but find True Summer colors too bright and Soft Autumn colors too warm, you’re likely a Soft Summer.

Q: Can Soft Summers wear black? A: Black can be too harsh for Soft Summers. A softer alternative is cool charcoal or deep taupe. Or, as I always recommend you can try wearing black on the bottom paired with a softer color on top from the palette to minimize the contrast of black. Check out this post for some tips!

Q: What’s the difference between Soft Summer and Soft Autumn? A: Soft Summer is cool and muted, while Soft Autumn is warm and muted. The biggest difference is if you look at the entire Soft Summer palette it appears soft and beachy - like wispy colors you would wear on misty summer day. If you zoom out on the whole palette of Soft Autumn, it appears more earthy - the green, brown and yellow tones are more obvious. If you feel like you can wear colors from either palette, you may be best suited to the True Soft palette (or simply borrow from both palettes). 

Q: I was typed as a Soft Summer but it feels too bland. A: There are two possible reasons for this - the first has to do with how we perceive color and feelings around color. It’s worth doing some reflecting on why the colors may feel “bland”. Is it a past association with these types of colors? 

The second reason could be you were potentially mis-typed. The Soft seasons are often mistyped because they match very closely to certain traits like soft brown or dirty blonde hair, and an overall soft appearance. This is why draping with colors is so important rather than trying to type by features alone. If either of these things are the case the solution is the same - try out True Summer. Its colors have more depth and it might be what you need to feel a bit more vibrancy and balance with the colors. 

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Embrace Your Soft Summer Beauty

Understanding your seasonal color palette allows you to build a wardrobe, makeup routine, and style that enhances your features naturally. If the Soft Summer palette resonates with you, start embracing cool, muted hues and soft, elegant tones today!