Are you wondering what a True Summer Color Palette is?

This is what a fashion stylist and artist tells you!

The most muted and blatant of all summer color palettes is True Summer. It’s in between the Light Summer and Soft Summer Palette.

However, the True Summer is a bit deeper and more saturated than the surrounding ones.

Just imagine it’s a scorching summer day, and you see the sky getting grey and dark.

After a while, you see it’s storming with the wind. Instead of a hot sunny day, you experience rain, and suddenly everything looks grey.

The True Summer is all interwind with this rainy greyness. It’s a blatant color with grey coolness.

The True Summer Color Palette 

The most common seasonal palette that can be confused with True Summer is True Winter.

Winter is very harsh in cold color tones, and it’s way too contrasting.

Pitch black hair and white/pale skin in winter, while True Summer is all about softness and low contrast between eyes, hair, and even skin color.

As I mentioned before in the article about Light Summer, the easiest way to figure out where you are, a warm or cold pallet type, is to play around with two types of jewellery.

It’s gold-toned and silver, of course.

I usually use earrings or necklaces to determine skin tone.

If you find that silver matches your overall complexion better than gold, you are the cold type.

And it’s not only silver that will suit you but also a cooler palette for summer.

Your skin has a pink undertone, your hair is grey and blue, and your eyes are muted with grey as well.

Your complexion is tender, and your beauty is delicate, somewhat aristocratic.

The Features Of True 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 ivory with a pink undertone. You will easily spot blue veins on your almost “transparent” skin.

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 get a bit tanned; however, your summer tone doesn’t stay for a long time.

Hair

Hair is cool-toned with an ashy undertone. Like ashy blond, dark blond, natural ashy blond, medium brown, and dark ashy brown.

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 ivory skin.

The Color Palette

True Summer is a kaleidoscope of soft colors that look like a 5-minute rain during June’s hotness.

Colors melt down into the oneness of the pastel undertone.

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

Colors are cool but refreshing, like a fresh breath from the ocean but somewhere in the cosmopolitan with skyscrapers.

It is like a beautiful desert that reaches the oasis. Hot and scorching tones are just melting like a bar of chocolate, creating a pleiade of fresh dreamy style.

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

True Summer 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 that two-season, 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 True 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 Of True Summer

Pastels

Even though we have already cleared out that True Summer is dominant only with cold colors like blue and contains lots of blue 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 fog,” a grey cloud overstepping them.

That will create a pastel color, and it looks like someone poured milk all over the bright warm color resulting in a colder foggy shade.

Your pink skin undertone requires 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, 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 True Summer Color Palette

How to mix and match a true 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 true summer palette should only be chosen from the palette given to you.

As 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 true summer palette.

You have to understand that even if you use all 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.

Especially it 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 or cherry red doesn’t suit your true summer type, and the most flattering color is 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 red color existence.

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 is a shining example of a celebrity Olivia Wilde who is an absolute True Summer type.

True Summer Color Palette

In this example, you can see that the picture to the left is bright black, which washes off her face’s beauty and makes her look heavy.

Her eyes got lost in the brightness of the black color, and they were not vivid.

The overall look is not bad, but the color blocks the color of her skin and eyes. The deep black eyeliner made her eyes heavy.

And the light champagne decolletage area is the best choice. Just look at her eyes, they are vivid, and you can enjoy the beauty of her delicacy.

The same goes for the other picture where we see a silver champagne dress that looks stunning on her and a bright yellow that doesn’t suit her type.

So be mindful of the color deepness that you choose.

I’d say you need to keep your facial/decolletage area for the True 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 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.

As you can see in this example, the black color on the left picture got Olivia really “lost” and heavy.

Simultaneously, the creamy-white and silver champagne-shaded dress made her look different, and the color fits her eyes.

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

Colors to avoid for True Summer wardrobe

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

Patterns & Prints For True 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 True 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 which is basic here, so you need to see if that primary color is from your True Summer palette.

It’s believed that True 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 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 create a cut between the color and my face with a pearl necklace that perfectly fits my skin. So the jewellery is the first color reflector near my face.

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

Jewelry For True 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.

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