Are You Wondering What A Soft Summer Color Palette Is?

This is what a fashion stylist and artist tells you!

Soft Summer is the darkest color-shaded palette of the all Summer family.

The colors are literally a mixture of very cold soft summery colors mixed with a black/dark grey transparent hue.

On the color wheel you can see exactly how these colors were created.

Take into consideration that we call it muted mostly due to the tonality. If you pay attention to the overlay of the color wheel you will see it’s a transparent black color.

It creates a tone out of the “pure” color – this is what Soft Summer is.

The colors down below will also be included if you will lean towards the In-Transition type – meaning one or a few other color palettes.

Soft Summer is one of the three Summer seasons and sits on the seasonal flow chart between True Summer and Soft Autumn.

Every Summer palette is a slow gradation of light into a grey/dark hue

Just so you could have a better understanding, imagine Light Summer as early as 6 am morning with a little fogginess.

After that, you have a hot, scorching day with rain, which is True Summer, and finally, a dark evening with a little chilly summer hotness and shades which represents Soft Summer.

You are a Soft Summer if your appearance has low contrast in colors.

For example, your skin tone, eye color, and hair tone are in the same color palette, which is ashy/dark.

They all blend together perfectly and don’t stand out too much.

It’s rather a beautiful mix altogether than one thing that could really stand out.

Imagine someone last summer month medium bronzed with a soft sun kiss on their cheeks, but still holding this cool undertone in appearance.

Grey-ish eyes with ash-toned hair make it all look very fresh and rather cool than hot warm.

These are the images of the Soft Summer Color tones that you should be taking into consideration:

The Features Of Soft Summer Color Palette

Eyes

All eye colors with grey shading. Typically blue, grey, green, or grey hazel.

And yes, dark ethnicities also can have brown eyes with a grey mixture.

Such eye colors wouldn’t be very bright and usually, look “foggy” like London weather.

Skin

Typically your skin will be olive or slightly bronzed as if after a good summer vacation with a subtle pink undertone.

Let’s be honest here if you see resources saying you have a blue undertone for skin, disregard it.

Nobody has blue skin. You can be or get a bit tanned, while during winter or colder season, your skin might be ivory; however, your summer tone is not necessarily meant to stay for a long time (unless you are Brazilian, etc.).

Hair

Hair is cool-toned with an ashy undertone or rather dark tonality like dark chocolate, etc.

Like ashy dark blond, dark chocolate, and cold brown tonality, everything is cool but not peach black as it is True Winter harsh tone.

Your hair color would instead blend in with your greyish eyes and olive skin.

Soft Summer is a kaleidoscope of dark soft colors that look like an evening after 8 pm.

Colors melt down into the oneness of the pastel undertone.

Those are so complimentary that they do not contradict each other— dark pastel blue matches soft pastel grey, and even pale, dark yellow.

The colors are cool but refreshing, like a fresh breath from the ocean during the night.

It is like a beautiful summer evening in the middle of a desert in Saudi Arabia that reaches its peak during the night with its coldness.

Refreshing tones are just melting like a bar of chocolate, creating a pleiade of evening colors.

Soft Summer Color Palette

This palette is predominantly cool with a grey undertone which creates a muted shade like pure pastel.

If you check out True Winter’s palette, you will notice that those are also cool; however, they are very bright, almost “sharp” to the naked eye.

So if you compare those two seasons, you will see they are both cool and cold but differ in softness and brightness.

Always remember that summer has a soft cold undertone and another cold season, winter – sharp and harsh like winter in Norway.

The best colors for Soft Summer are genuinely soft. So we can distinguish those; for example, brown would not be bright brown; instead, it would be taupe, greyish brown, or cappuccino-toned.

Deep blue would turn into the blue sea or greyish navy tone.

Deep purple would become lavender, which I find works best for the Summer (it’s so refreshing for the complexion).

Color Dimensions For Soft Summer

Pastels

Even though we have already cleared out that Soft Summer is dominant only with cold colors like blue/green and contains lots of blue/olive color variations, it still has lots of colors that might look like they are from the warm color palette like yellows, etc.

However, if you pay closer attention to each color from the palette, you will see it contains a drop of this “summer dim,” a black cloud overcovering them.

That will create a pastel color, and it looks like someone threw a black veil all over the bright warm color resulting in a colder evening dim shade.

Your pink skin undertone requires olive, bluish, and greyish complementary tones.

You could override this pink undertone with a blue technique that will conceal the “redness” of your skin and even enhance the beauty of your complexion.

Pay attention to the brightness of the color that you choose. Blue can be profound, bright, and soft light summery.

Your variant would be second, of course, because you don’t want to wash off the beauty of your eye color with the harshness of the color of the garment.

Trust me; nobody reads a fashion book written by a stylist walking around thinking about the value, the chroma of the color palette.

So let’s make it as simple as possible for you to score the suitable garment for you.

Styling For Soft Summer Color Palette

How to mix and match a soft summer color palette in your wardrobe?

In technical fashion materials, it is stated that you should only combine colors from one color palette that belongs to your skin tone.

So colors that work for a soft summer palette should only be chosen from the palette given to you.

Harsh and way too bright/warm colors can create an undesirable effect on the skin, especially if you have a delicate appearance.

However, it is not entirely like that. I have already mentioned that dark/warmer colors can still be used for the lower body.

The main center is always your facial zone which attracts the most attention.

So it would help if you mainly concentrated on the face and decolletage zone with your soft summer palette.

You have to understand that even if you use all green, blue combinations, or greyish combinations in your upper and lower bodies.

It will be color correct for your skin but still unflattering if your body shape is not a perfect hourglass shape.

This especially concerns those that have an ampler bottom-like pear body shape.

So that would mean that white pants will not be the best choice for your bottom line because they can make you look bigger than you are.

And this is what we are trying to avoid when constructing the perfect wardrobe.

• Inverted Triangle Body Shape: Capsule Wardrobe
• Pear Shaped Body: Capsule Wardrobe
• Apple Body Shape Shape: Capsule Wardrobe
• Hourglass Body Shape: Capsule Wardrobe
• Rectangle Body Shape: Capsule Wardrobe

In technical resources, it is believed that bright red doesn’t suit your soft summer type, and the most flattering color is olive/blue/grey at any time, any day.

And I know what you would do if you read something like that.

You would throw away all red dresses and jackets, including your perfect red lipstick, and, in general, would forget about the existence of red color.

It’s technically correct to avoid red, but on the other side, you cannot wholly toss it all out just because it is written in the book.

You can still rock the red color anyway; the only thing you have to know about it is where and how to integrate it into your wardrobe and facial zone.

Here are examples of models Adriana Lima, Sara Sampaio, etc who are Soft Summer type.

In this example, you can see that the first 5 collages are the perfect spot on in terms of an immaculate soft summer palette.

Where you can see that in the last collage, the bright fuchsia color washes off her face’s beauty and makes her look “lost”.

Her eyes got lost in the brightness of the vivid color, and they are not as beautiful as they could be with the right soft palette.

The overall look is not bad, but the color blocks the color of her skin and eyes. I’d say cancel bright fuchsia and pay closer attention to burgundy!

Take a closer look at the blue color and how it delicately matches her skin tone.

It’s not a bright baby blue color, but rather dark foggy blue that is not on the bright side.

What To Wear For A Soft Summer Palette

I’d say you need to keep your facial/decolletage area for the Soft Summer palette, but keep the accent red lipstick on your face.

Avoid being monotonous, being dressed in one color or one color tonality. You still need a contrasting bright spot to break the “fashionable routine.”

For example, you can choose a monochromatic outfit like a light blue shirt and dark blue jeans and still have a bright red bag and red lips for your whole look.

And that is ok. Moreover, it is fabulous!

Avoid those theories and stylists that claim that you can only wear monotonous and monochromatic grey and blue outfits.

You can always work this thing out and make it work specifically for you. But you have to pick your best-looking shades and put them right near your face zone, avoiding cool and contradictory bright colors away.

Leave those vivid colors to accessories, lipsticks, bags, belts, or even shoes.

The same goes for the deep black color, as it’s believed that it doesn’t go well with your type.

But there is always a solution, and you can still keep your lower body part darker and keep the top’s summery clothes.

You can still use black eyeliner and mascara; that is fine. It’s not necessary to go for brown shades and eyeliners.

White could also be substituted for off-white or champagne, creamy shades as those are softer.

Colors to avoid for Light Summer wardrobe

Avoid colors that are too bright, warm and vivid, dark and too intense in your upper body area.

P.S.: Use burgundy or Soft Dark Pink instead of Fuchsia or Hot Pink.

Patterns & Prints For Soft Summer Palette

Patterns are usually used for upper body garments like blouses and sweaters, etc., or summer dresses.

People rarely wear trousers with patterns; most likely blatant colors are used.

As a Soft Summer type, you can wear prints, but those would need to be in the right color palette for you.

If you see a patterned fabric, you need to concentrate on the primary color of the whole garment.

There might be blue flowers on white, but you need to figure out which color is primary here.

It’s primarily white that is basic here, so you need to see if that primary color is from your Soft Summer palette.

It’s believed that Soft Summer needs to use low-contrast because of the delicacy of natural beauty.

You might still go for low-level contrast, which would be right for you.

However, there is always a solution for you if you didn’t find anything from this guide.

How you could fix your non-perfect colored look with just one thing. It’s a necklace, and for me it’s pearls. Be mindful that pearls need to fit your skin color perfectly.

When you put something like a pearl necklace on your neck, you create a rough separation between the “wrong” color of your skin and the necklace.

So, the chain is going to be the primary color reflector for your skin color.

For example, I have a purple dress that does not really fit my skin color, and my face tends to look a bit tired with it.

You know it, especially if you have blue-eye bags in the morning. It doesn’t make me look the best.

So I created a cut between the color and my face with a pearl necklace that perfectly fits my skin. So the jewelry is the first color reflector near my face.

Check out my article: “How to wear pearl necklace and where to buy it. “

Jewelry For Soft Summer Color Palette

As stated between gold and silver, I’d recommend silver as it’s cool enough for your skin tone.

Gold is appropriate if it is mixed with silver and looks light.

Pearls need to be light pink, cream-white color as they match your complexion perfectly.

Avoid huge plastic earrings of vibrant shades like Samantha from Sex and City used to wear.