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Cool/True Winter: Color Palette and Wardrobe Guide for 2025

cool winter

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18 Comments

  1. Hi, my name is Karen. I’m a cold/dark winter. Your post stated that this particular season will have no traces of red in their hair.
    I have very porcelain skin, very bright deep blue eyes with spokes, and my hair is very dark with a lot of red in it.
    Dark winter colors do look best on me.
    Please enlighten me on the “no red”.
    I understand that red hair and bright blue eyes are rather rare. My hair was very very black at birth but has changed as I got older.
    I’m confused.
    Thanks for reading this. Looking forward to your reply.

    1. Hey Karen!

      So a cool winter is also a “true” winter and is cool toned in all areas. A deep winter, however, is a different season and may have red because of the warm influence of autumn. Hope that helps!

      Stacey

  2. Hi,
    I am Scandinavian but not the type with icy blond hair with light blue sparkling eyes and very fair pink skin type, that seldom exists in the real world but mostly in fairy tales.
    Even so I have a clearly nordic look.
    I have dark blond or light brown hair (I’m not sure where the line goes) slightly ashy but not very much so. Clear medium to dark gray blue eyes with a darker rim around the iris, clearly destinguishing it from the white of the eye. Fair or light pink and rosy skin (I’m not sure about the distinction between fair and light). Naturally cool colorful pinkish lips. So clearly cool, without looking blueish. Because of the pink, rosy complexion I do not look pallid or anemic. Some would maybe say clearly a summer. Yes maybe, but soft grayed out colors and pastels are not the best for me. The contrast between my skin, hair and eyes is not low, but at least medium, leaning towards high.
    What do you make of it? Summer or winter? Or not a season at all? Maybe just a cool color type, somewhere in between summer and winter?
    And by the way, I am male.
    As I see it color analysis and finding ones season or color type is even more important for us males. Why? Because we (usually) do not have many tools to our help. Women can use make up to enhance their looks. We have to go with what nature has given us and make the best of it by using the right colors and color quality.
    Thanks for reading this looong comment, Nils

    1. I talk to my husband about color analysis all the time! We’re opposite seasons, so it makes for good conversation! Cool Summer actually has pretty decent value variations and is more bright because of the winter influence. The lighter hair explanation and medium contrast is more likely summer than winter. Occasionally I run into what amounts to a “deep” summer, someone who needs the darker richer colors of the soft summer palette, borrowing from deep winter, but not able to handle the high contrast neutrals.

  3. Thank you for answering.
    I have been searching around, testing different self analyzing tests, also with selfies, and come up with cool summer, cool winter, clear winter and even dark/deep winter.
    I think that I have somewhat misjuged my own coloring (maybe because my bathroom has warm lighting and so not showing my colors correctly) after taking a lot of selfies in natural light, and desaturting the fotos to gray scale, I have come to realize that my contrasts are stronger than I first figured.
    I thought that black was to strong for me. It’s not my favourite, which is darker blues, but black evens out my face coloring and makes me look good (well as good as it gets 🙂 So black is very good on me, and that is taking me to winter since black is supposed to be to harsh for summers.
    I have also learned that I have typical winter eye patterns and coloring. As mentioned cool clear darkish blue-gray irises with lighter spokes, no other patterns that could indicate ambivalence and leaning towards some other season. So presumably winter, but which one, cool, clear or deep? My coloring is cool, but also clear and quite deep. So if it exists I would guess Cool Winter, or perhaps Cool Shaded Summer if I would need more toned downed colors, with more depth than usual, but without the deep winter’s slight leaning towards autumn and neutral almost a little warm colors. Orange is a no, no. Neutral universal red is not for me, it has to be clearly bluish red. The same with neutral universal green, no, it has to be clearly bluish green.
    For me there is no such thing as a working universal neutral color with equally even cool and warm influence, or lack of. All colors have to be clearly cool.
    I think that the so called universal neutral colors that supposedly everyone can wear, is a color theory myth that does not work when you have clearly cool coloring with pink, rosy, red face coloring. It clashes.

    1. Hey Nils!

      The need for blue based colors indicates a true cool season, either winter or summer. If black isn’t too harsh then definitely winter!

  4. Hi Stacey,
    That is what I have also come to (after much searching and pondering).
    I think I can be a “Smokey Soft Winter”, i.e. a winter with lower contrast than most winters, which has a muted quality, with deep, rich, toned colors.
    I need the cool, the dark, but not the very clear and vivid colors. Black, as mentioned, is to my surprise my best color, it compliments my dark blue-gray eyes, tones down uneven coloring and gives a nice contrast and calmness to my face, so logically other colors should also be cool, dark, saturated and calm. Deep charcoal blue, cool burgundy, boysenberry, black cherry, toned raspberry, deep blue, deep blue-green, etc. I can do lighter colors, but best as lesser parts. I think I have found my “season”.
    It was not so obvious since I am not extremely dark and the typical winter, with emediate eye-catching great contrast, very dark brown to black hair, dark brown eyes, etc.
    Thank you.

    1. Hey Nils!

      Those are great colors, and you may find lots of ideas crossing over Deep Winter and Soft Summer!

      1. Aida Navadeh says:

        Hey Stacey,

        Thanks for the article. I found out i am a true winter? Is that the same as cool winter? I am so confused because i never wear silver jewelry, i only like gold jewelry. Don’t like icy silver make up. Could that be because i have a more warm overtone? I am more yellow and i also wear golden based foundation and concealer.
        I am from Iran originally.

        Kind regards,
        Aids

  5. This is a great post! I’ve always struggled to understand what my season is! I have dark brown hair, dark blue eyes that pop with darker blues and charcoal. However, my skin tone is naturally olive. As I tan my eyes look bluer.

  6. What nail polish colors do you recommend for cool winter?

    1. Hey Mindy,

      The rule for color holds true for nail polish as well, essentially anything in the palette is good as a nail color. Cool, bright, medium-dark value colors will be the best.

  7. I think I am a true winter, I originally went with deep because…I actually don’t know why. I probably just hadn’t gotten used to seeing colors properly yet. But one thing really worried me—I really couldn’t rock those deep dark lip colors deep winters are supposed to look at home in. They made me look ghostly. So I re-analysed, knowing I had to be some type of winter. And I noticed that I didn’t seem to have any warmth in my skin (I’ve had blonde hair before and the minute it got brassy I looked absolutely horrible). Now I’m thinking this could be it. I have naturally jet black hair, so dark it looks almost silver, dark eyes, and black winged eyebrows. I’m Indian and my skin is…definitely brown, but not the golden tan we’re known for. It has a natural pinkness to the cheeks. I look best in cool, bright colours, but there’s definitely a limit—I think unfortunately bright winter colors are not my best, I look just a bit overwhelmed. Does this sound like true winter? It really looks like it fits, but I don’t recognize the color differences yet because I haven’t been researching color theory for long.

  8. Hey, I’d love to see a “Best neutrals, best colors, worst colors” and “colors for the whole year” for Cool winter like you have for Deep and Clear Winters!

    1. I would like to see them as well, please!

  9. Wonderful post! When I started to get into color analysis, I new from the get-go that I was some kind of Winter, as cool, dark and bright colors definitely suit me best. Now, I’m 90% sure that I’m a True Winter, but I also wonder about Bright Winter, since I am yet to find a color that I’m like “yep, this is too bright for me”, but I also have never found any color that feels too cool for me. My ultimate conclusion is that I’m just a very bright True Winter, because Bright Winter’s colors, while they never feel too bright, they do feel too light and too warm at times. Still, I was wondering, are there any specific colors that I can test to make a definitve judgement?

  10. Hi Stacey! This is the best article I’ve found that breaks down so beautifully how to match and wear these colors. I’ve just learnt I’m a cool winter. Thank you !

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