What Season Am I? A Step-by-Step Color Self-Test

To figure out what season you are, you need answers to three questions: are you warm or cool, light or deep, and bright or soft? Your strongest trait decides your subseason, and your temperature decides the family. The self-test below takes about 15 minutes and a window.

If you want the short version, our color analysis quiz asks these same questions and gives you a result in a couple of minutes. Then come back here to double-check it.

Before you start

Bad setup is the number one reason people land in the wrong season. So:

• Daylight only. Face a window, ideally on a bright overcast day. No direct sun, no warm bulbs.
• Bare face. Remove foundation, concealer, blush and tinted lip balm.
• Cover dyed hair. A plain white or light gray towel works.
• Neutral top. White or gray. A red shirt will throw red onto your jaw and confuse everything.
• Grab props. Something gold and something silver, a white and a cream piece of fabric or paper, and a few lipsticks if you have them.

Step 1: Are you warm or cool?

This is your hue, and it's tied to your undertone. Quick checks:

• Jewelry: Does gold look like it belongs on you, or does silver? Gold points warm, silver points cool.
• White vs cream: Pure white flatters cool people. Soft cream or ivory flatters warm people.
• Sun: Burn first and stay pink? Often cool. Tan easily to golden? Often warm.

If the results are split, you may be neutral, or you might have an olive undertone. Our undertone test goes deeper.

Step 2: Are you light or deep?

Take a selfie and turn it black and white. Squint at it.

• Light: Everything reads pale to light-medium, including hair, brows and eyes.
• Medium: Nothing very pale, nothing very dark.
• Deep: Dark hair, dark eyes and medium to deep skin, or pale skin with very dark hair and eyes.

Depth includes your hair and eyes, not just skin. That trips a lot of people up.

Step 3: Are you bright or soft?

This is chroma, and it's the trickiest. Hold two versions of the same color near your face: one vivid and clean, one dusty and grayed. A bright teal and a muted sage-teal work well. So do a clear cherry and a dusty rose.

• Bright: The vivid one makes your eyes sparkle. The dusty one makes you look tired and a bit gray.
• Soft: The dusty one melts into your skin. The vivid one looks loud and sits on top of your face.

Another clue: bright people often have high contrast, like very clear eye whites, a sharp difference between iris and white, or dark hair against light skin. Soft people tend to look blended, with no single feature stealing the show.

Step 4: Find your strongest trait

Look back at your answers. Which one felt most obvious? That's your dominant trait, and it picks your subseason.

The decision flow

Your strongest trait is...	And you lean...	Your season is likely
Light	Warm	Light Spring
Light	Cool	Light Summer
Deep	Warm	Deep Autumn
Deep	Cool	Deep Winter
Bright	Warm	Bright Spring
Bright	Cool	Bright Winter
Soft	Warm	Soft Autumn
Soft	Cool	Soft Summer
Warm (clearly)	Clear, medium depth	True Spring
Warm (clearly)	Muted, medium to deep	True Autumn
Cool (clearly)	Muted, light to medium	True Summer
Cool (clearly)	Clear, medium to deep	True Winter

If temperature was your most obvious answer, you're probably one of the "True" seasons. Then use chroma to choose between them.

Step 5: Confirm with lip and blush colors

Lip and cheek colors sit right on your face, so they're brilliant for confirming a season. Test one color from your result and one from its closest neighbor, side by side.

What a good match looks like:

• Your skin looks more even without extra concealer.
• Your eyes look brighter and the whites look whiter.
• The color looks like it grew there.

What a bad match looks like:

• Grayness or yellowness around the mouth and chin.
• Redness or dark circles suddenly louder.
• The color looks like it's floating.

No lipstick stash? The live virtual try-on lets you flick between seasonal shades on your own face in seconds.

Common mix-ups and how to settle them

Neighboring seasons share a trait, so mix-ups are normal. Here are the usual suspects.

Soft Autumn vs Soft Summer

The classic. Both are muted, gentle and medium in depth. The difference is temperature, and it's subtle.

• Tie-breaker: Try a muted peach blush, then a muted mauve-rose. If peach gives you life and mauve makes you look gray, you're Soft Autumn. If peach turns you sallow and mauve looks fresh, you're Soft Summer.
• Lip test: Rosy brown nude vs dusty berry.
• Clue: Soft Autumns often have hints of gold or olive in their skin and hazel or warm brown eyes. Soft Summers often have ashy hair and gray, blue-gray or cool brown eyes.

Light Spring vs Light Summer

Both are delicate and light. Light Spring has a golden glow, Light Summer a rosy one.

• Tie-breaker: Light peach vs pale cool pink on the cheeks. Peachy-coral lip vs sheer rose lip.

Deep Autumn vs Deep Winter

Both are dark and rich. Deep Autumn is warmer and a little softer, Deep Winter cooler and crisper.

• Tie-breaker: Brick red vs black cherry lipstick. Brick that looks polished means Autumn. Black cherry that looks sharp means Winter.

Bright Spring vs Bright Winter

Both love vivid color. Bright Spring leans warm, Bright Winter leans cool.

• Tie-breaker: Coral-red vs blue-red. Hot coral vs fuchsia.

True Summer vs Soft Summer

Both are cool. True Summer can handle a little more clarity, Soft Summer needs everything grayed down.

• Tie-breaker: A clean raspberry lip vs a dusty mauve one.

Mix-up	Shared trait	Quick test
Soft Autumn vs Soft Summer	Soft	Muted peach vs muted mauve blush
Light Spring vs Light Summer	Light	Light peach vs pale pink blush
Deep Autumn vs Deep Winter	Deep	Brick red vs black cherry lip
Bright Spring vs Bright Winter	Bright	Coral-red vs blue-red lip
True Summer vs Soft Summer	Cool	Clear raspberry vs dusty mauve lip

A few honest warnings

• Your favorite color isn't evidence. Loving burgundy doesn't make you a Deep Winter. Try to judge your face, not the color.
• One photo isn't enough. Phone cameras warm up or cool down images automatically.
• Trust the second glance. The color that looks "nice but boring" at first is often the one that makes your skin look best.

Got your season?

Head to the 12 seasons overview to read your full palette and the best blush and lip colors for each one. If you're still torn between two, wear colors from both for a week. One will keep winning.