Maximum clarity and contrast at 1.00, on a cool base, with medium depth.
Last reviewed 2 August 2026By Sravya
slight cool, blue base
medium
high, striking
clear, bright
The palette
Each axis runs from about -1 to +1 and is scored separately. These are editorial centres for a repeatable comparison, and the hex values are screen references rather than measured standards. Scoring the four apart is what lets the tool tell you which single call was the shaky one, instead of handing you a season and no reasoning.
Clear Winter scores 1.00 on both contrast and chroma, the highest available, on a cool base at -0.55. Colouring is vivid and sharply separated: bright clear eyes, hair that contrasts strongly with the skin, and an overall impression of brightness rather than depth.
It is the mirror of Clear Spring, which shares the identical clarity and contrast on a warm base. Temperature is the only axis separating them, and it is the axis to check when a result feels almost right but slightly off.
Assess contrast. If your features sit sharply apart from each other rather than blending, you are in a high-contrast season.
Test clarity. Hold a bright fuchsia against your face, then a dusty rose. Clear Winter needs the bright one; the dusty version leaves the face flat.
Then temperature. Against Clear Spring, this season is cool at -0.55. Pure white should work better than cream, and silver better than gold.
Mistaken for
Identical contrast and chroma at 1.00. Temperature separates them: -0.55 cool here, 0.55 warm there. Pure white against cream is the fastest check.
Mistaken for
Cool Winter is more strongly cool at -1.00 and slightly less bright at 0.70 against 1.00 here. If pure cool colours suit better than vivid ones, look there.
Light Spring
Warm Spring
Clear Spring
Light Summer
Cool Summer
Soft Summer
Soft Autumn
Warm Autumn
Deep Autumn
Deep Winter
Cool Winter
Clear Winter
These are the actual palettes the colour tool works from, not a sample. Point at one to hold it. Twelve seasons rather than the old four, because four cannot separate someone light and cool from someone deep and cool.
Maximum clarity with a cool base, built into high-contrast pairings. Muting is the single thing this palette cannot survive.
Along with Clear Spring, this is one of the two seasons that can carry genuinely vivid colour. Both are frequently talked out of it.
Worth reaching for
Works against it
Contrast is the outfit
Pair your brightest colour with true black or pure white rather than with another mid-tone.
At contrast 1.00 the colouring is built on sharp separation. Two mid-tones together remove the structure the face is matching, which is why this season so often looks flat in a tonal outfit that would suit anyone else.
This palette collapses under muting more than any other. At chroma 1.00 there is no version of a dusty colour that works, regardless of how well the hue is chosen.
Cream, camel and beige are all warm and are the standard neutrals in most wardrobes. Here they fight the cool base and remove the contrast at the same time.
Clarity and contrast are shared exactly. Temperature is the only difference, and it is easy to skip once two axes have matched so strongly.
Color Palette Analysis
Seasonal color analysisThe temperature, value and chroma framework behind the four season families.
Last checked 2026-07-31
Color Palette Analysis
Seasonal color analysis chart: 12 seasonsThe twelve-season grouping and neighbouring season descriptions.
Last checked 2026-07-31
Color Palette Analysis
What is color analysis?Why undertone is considered alongside depth, chroma and contrast.
Last checked 2026-07-31
The tool scores temperature, depth, contrast and chroma separately across all twelve seasons, then shows which of the four calls was closest to a boundary. That is the honest answer to why different sites give you different seasons.
Find my colour seasonOr see all the guides.