Are you wondering what the difference is between Soft Summer vs Light Summer Color Palette as both summer seasons?

This article has all the answers

Soft Summer vs Light Summer? In order to describe the difference between Soft Summer and Light Summer color types, we first need to find out what Summer Type appearance is like.

Simply put, the differences are that Light Summer is the first Summer type on the color chart and is the transitional type that is on the border with Light Spring (with a warm undertone).

Whereas the Soft Summer palette is a transitional type on the border with Soft Autumn (which is deeper and warmer).

Thus, such color combinations will share some warm tones.

And let’s not forget about the “in-transition” type that sits between all the transitional types and will fluctuate vertically and diagonally on the color chart.

I will use Miranda Kerr and Cobie Smulders for the Soft Summer reference, and for Light Summer, there will be Kirsten Dunst, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Clémence Poésy.

Also, check out why Kate Middleton is not Soft Summer.

Cool skin tone characterizes this type; most often, it has baby pink undertones or olive tones; the hair color is also cold, and most often, it is light brown hair, medium ash, or with a gray undertone.

The eye color of the summer color type is also light, completely lacking red pigmentation, and most often, they are blue, gray-blue, and green color and their mixtures.

The lips also have a cold tint; usually, they do not have clear outlines, and their contour is not as visible.

As for Soft Summer, really soft shades of external features characterize this appearance; their image is gentler and muted.

It is believed that this color type is an intermediate called transitional between the Summer and Autumn color types of appearance.

Soft Summer is a palette of muted, soft tones that gradually transition from one color to another.

Although the color palette of the appearance of the representatives of this type is very gentle and muffled.

It cannot be called monotonous and boring. The appearance of a Soft Summer natural beauty is best enhanced with pastel colors, avoiding the worst colors, which are saturated bright colors.

A cold porcelain sheen, translucent pinkish hue, cool undertones, and gray or ashy freckles can identify light Summer skin.

Hair can be both dark and light, but they always lack a red tint; in the sun, it casts ashy.

The eyes can be of different colors: all shades of blue, including green-blue, hazel, and dark brown eyes.

Thus, the main element you need to focus on when determining the type of appearance is the skin.

Soft Summer vs Light Summer Difference

Obviously, we need to start with the contrast level. Since these types run the same values, the contrast is known as low.

The main difference between these two types would be that Soft Summer tends to become and stick to medium contrast through life and Light Summer will rather stay at a low point, and with age, it will be even more noticeable as such women tend to have ethereal (Angelic) essence.

This is why most stylists recommend pastel shades because harshly contrasting colors will overshadow you and, first things first – your face.

Here we see Miranda Kerr fluctuating from low to medium contrast.

The skin is quite neutral, with light powder pink blush, blue eyes, and grey pigmentation.

We cannot always determine the true undertone of the original hair color as the person is drawn to changing it quite often.

The hair color in this example changes from dark blonde with brown pigmentation to brunette.

And let’s not forget that once you change your hair color, you also change the possibility of expanding your color palettes.

In other words, if the change is visually drastic, you might add or delete some of the colors, shades, or even the whole palette.

Typically Soft Summer types have a great predisposition to tanning well.

In this example, we can conclude that Miranda is indeed an “in transition” type that sits in between Soft Summer and Soft Autumn as a separate type.

She is more likely to use highly contrasting colors, some of which will be cold and warm, as well as some of the Winter palette, such as Cool winter and deep Winter.

This type of orange color is exclusively Autumn. And if we return to the Soft Summer color palette, we will spot an absolute absence of red-pigmented and bright blue colors.

And now the question is: So why has she previously been typed as a Soft Summer?

Because most of the pastel and bluish colors look good on her, the mistake is really slight.

Blue and soft grey-blue are undeniably well-looking on her.

Here we have baby blue, light blue, and turquoise blue. I’d say that baby blue looks well on most people.

It’s a well versatile universal color we normally see in our everyday wardrobe.

It fits all seasonal color types well, whether it’s Summer, Spring, Autumn, or Winter.

However, this type is also able to jump to Spring colors (as I said previously, vertically and horizontally on the color chart).

This is a great comparison of Autumn and Summer colors.

And here we will witness more Autumn palettes.

Quite similar color palette will see with Cobie Smulders as well.

Initially types as a Soft Summer, we will see a lot of other color palette colors appropriations.

Here we can see an absolute Autumn color palette, which is undeniably fitting for her appearance.

What To Avoid As In Transition Type Between Soft Summer And Soft Autumn

I wouldn’t advise on intensively bright or neon colors that overshadow your own assets.

This outfit was worse because she used a color block, making it even harder for the eye to perceive.

There is a strong bright division that not only hurts the eye but also makes her look a little vertically disproportionate.

The same goes here. And like for most people, the specific yellow mustard (yellow and green) conglomeration doesn’t work well if they lack tan.

While acidic colors are out of the question, they are way too pastel, and light colors can also make you look a bit too pale, like in this example with Kerr.

The basic wardrobe of representatives of this color type must necessarily include clothes of smoky blue, gray-brown, olive, beige, and pinkish shades of this color, gray-blue, steel, purple, and emerald green tones.

To create an evening look, it is permissible to use clothes of dark red, lingonberry, lilac, raspberry, and cherry colors, as well as burgundy or lemon shades of yellow.

It is better for this color type to avoid black colors, as it can visually age the delicate coloring of summer beauties.

White color in clothes is better to choose only in summer, when light skin is more tanned, an excellent alternative to white color will be ivory or cream.

Light Summer Color Type

Normally, we see a really low contrast in Light Summer with rather noncontrasting hair color as well.

However, Clemente Poesy has been previously typed as Light Summer.

Michelle Pfeiffer fluctuates from low to medium contrast as her natural hair color has also been dark blond.

The same goes for Kirsten Dunst. However, I’d rather stick to solely low contrast since she doesn’t have natural-looking skin, and all the harsh or bright contrast needs to be carefully appropriated.

Here we see the amalgam of pastel-shaded color for the actress, which fit perfectly well with her delicate appearance.

The pastel grey looks well, I wouldn’t say it’s astonishing, but it adds to her ethereal (angelic) essence.

Colors that are on the border with the Spring color palette (warm Spring) will interexchange the values.

What To Avoid For Light Summer

The mustard-like colors drop into Autumn color palettes such as Deep Autumn, very obviously.

In this contrast, we can see the difference and why the Light Summer fits her better.

The Light Summer ladies definitely tend towards being of Angelic essences.

So all very deep-looking shades will definitely require either heavier makeup or another accent, or it just won’t make any sense for them.

If, in the first example, we can work with the Spring palette, which is complementary, then with the other one, the color is way more demanding in terms of brightness.

The palette for the Light Summer color type should be cold. These are all shades of blue, red, green, and yellow with a blue undertone.

For example, if red, then not brick or scarlet, but lilac purple; if yellow, then not canary, but lemon.

If green, then not light green, but sea green.

And yet, if you do not belong to the contrast type of appearance (contrast does not depend on the color type), your shades are muted and dusty colors.

The choice of hair color is also very important. Incorrectly colored hair can disrupt the harmony between the eyes and the skin.

For this type, the ideal colors are smoky, silver-ash blond (no wheat or rye hair), platinum, and natural blond.

If you prefer a more extravagant look, your color is all shades of lilac, purple, green, and cold pink.

A very good solution is to lighten the strands near the face with one or two tones to give it freshness.

Makeup for Soft Summer and Light Summer

Ideally, use cold light colors for makeup – metallic, lilac, olive, and other shades of green, pink, and purple.

To create the perfect face tone, it is better to prefer foundation creams of natural beige and pinkish shades and, in no case, use shades with a yellow undertone.

A foundation with radiant particles is ideal, as they can visually even out the skin of the face and perfectly hide all skin imperfections.

Hair, eyelashes, and eyebrows should also have muted shades, do not focus on the color of the eyebrows and paint them in dark colors.

The compromise part is the lips: it is perfectly acceptable to use lipstick in saturated colors here, especially if you have darkish hair.

In this case, bright and flashy shades, such as scarlet, crimson, fuchsia, or lilac-pink shades, are perfect for you.

The rest of the girls with this color type, who have a lighter hair color, are best to prefer delicate pink, beige, pale purple, and nude shades.

As for eye makeup, soft shades of shadows related to the pastel color palette are quite suitable for this color type.

Recommended are pink, gray, beige, light brown, olive, and other colors.

Mascara is better for choosing the color of the eye contour, it is desirable to prefer brown shades, but black mascara is also suitable.

For evening makeup, deep shades of green and blue are perfect, but it is best to match them to the color of the eyes; then, you can make their color visually brighter and richer and emphasize it.

Most Summer women are blonde, with hair from ash gray to pale blond.

Many women of this color type are trying to get away from their calm shades of blond hair, especially the owners of ashy hair color because they are afraid to get lost in this color and merge with the crowd.

But with their characteristic appearance features, you should not change the color to bright shades because you risk ruining the harmonious composition of the colors.

When creating a fashionable look, it is better to choose clothing sets consisting of tones that are adjacent in the color spectrum; that is, it is better to use monochrome color combinations.

The ideal option for summer girls is to choose clothes in pastel colors, as these shades suit them very well.

But since they are a mixture of an autumnal and bright spring look, diluting the pastel colors with bright hues is acceptable.