Are you wondering what the differences are between True Summer vs Light Summer?

This article will answer your questions!

What is True Summer vs Light Summer? Before diving into different examples of the Summer representatives, we must remember that True Summer is predominantly the dominant and central palette of the Summer family.

While the Light Summer is on the border with the Light Spring, a totally different palette with a different undertone.

This information is crucial in determining the tones and how the colors will differ.

I will discuss True Summer with the examples of Anna Kendrick and Emily Blunt. Light Summer will be discussed the distance between Jodie Foster and partially Lily Donaldson.

What do we need to know about True Summer?

The skin is of neutral lightness or medium tone, quite pale close to porcelain. Blush is minimal or not too expressive.

Even a shallow layer of tan would contribute to a healthy appearance and might somewhat improve the overall complexion due to natural greyness or, as we call it, an undertone; non-tanned skin may have an indistinct grey cool tone.

The eyes are always with an admixture of grey, so the eyes are not bright.

They are blue-grey, grey-green; seldom warm undertones of brown, but as we conclude last time in the previous article about Seasonal Color Analysis, neither the color of your iris nor the color of the veins is a reliable source of determining your colour palette.

Even cool hair might be blond, dark blond, light chestnut, chestnut, or dark chestnut; Over time, hair can fade into locks of warm tones.

You will see the representatives of this palette very often tend to have reddish or auburn hair colors.

True Summer Colors: What Are The Best Colors?

Sea wave includes grey-turquoise colors, navy dark blue, and blue-grey.

The pinkish undertone of Emily Blunt dictates the vibe. She actually makes this grey-blue color even better.

This composition plays a beautiful story.

Especially when we turn to the outfits of the 19th century, almost all the heroines had porcelain white skin and almost transparent cool undertones blush. That was what made them look so aristocratic.

Grey pearl – any grey shades with a cold undertone, especially pearl tones, are good in glaring textures of fabrics (satin, brocade, silk, etc.).

In this case, the actress wears a rather blunt grey color with a chiffon and wool textures suit.

And then again, we see high contrast in hair color and makeup, but the skin’s pinkish undertone stays almost the main point here.

And undeniable examples, when the grey or light grey color, the appearance look better. Works only with cold undertones.

Prunes combine brown colors with an admixture of purple and cold burgundy tones.

Here burgundy is a Deep Autumn color.

However, the actress has a higher contrast in her appearance, so she might also use deeper saturated colors.

Moonlight pale greys and silvers use instead of white.

And here, in this comparison, you can see why she is a Summer type. Silver, with its cold undertone, beats the golden, with its warmer undertone, 1:0. Look how well her skin is highlighted with the silver coldness.

While the gold makes her skin look reddish, these red-colored accessories were a huge miss.

Pistachio – from light dusty greens to mustard-coniferous, choose yellow shades with an admixture of green tones and necessarily dusty, not too bright.

Grapes means any complex purple colors except overly bright colors.

Emerald – all sorts of cool greens, but (as with purple) avoid light, bright, clean and acidic greens.

Emily is one of the best examples of how well the specific color palettes work for her. She looks fantastic with this cold tone of green.

Nothing works better for her than cold palettes.

Blue satin combines complex blue colors, especially good tones in lace, transparent fabrics, satin, and silk.

Light blues are everyday capsule wardrobe colors if you are a Summer type.

However, be aware of these tertiary color combinations, such as Indigo Blue, which is a conglomeration of cold and warm simultaneously. It might not be your preferred choice.

This colour is way too bright for Emily, and it’s a bit dubious for all of her complexion and makes her hair color look off.

I’d rather change her hair color to the darker one for that to play somehow.

I assume her natural dark hair color would look fabulous.

With Kendrick, you can see that it’s actually not too bad because the actress preserved her natural high contrast.

Dusty lilacs – cool muddy pinks and lavenders.

I like how it looks on the background with a higher contrast appearance.

In the example with Emily, we cannot say the same. And then again, why?

Because there is no contrast in her appearance, this warm Spring salmon pink makes her look like the whole coloring is off.

She needs to come back to her natural coloring with higher contrast, and then this color will work well for her.

Like for example, it does with Kendrick.

Cold dawn denotes cold red colors from light to dark tones.

Cool and dusty shades most favourably emphasize the beauty color type. But overly bright tones discolor and reduce contrast.

What Color To Avoid For True Summer

Not all colors will suit you just because you are in the middle of the season. You have to consider how your appearance looks specifically at the very moment.

Yellow color, mainly when it consists of yellow-green tonalities, is especially dangerous.

In the case of neon lime green, it only looks good with tanned skin and really expressive makeup.

Put it on pale skin with no makeup; the whole image will be ruined.

Too pale colors might not always look good if they are as pale as your skin colour. So it becomes one with the skin color.

It might make your skin look blue-tinted or sickly greenish. Some of the colors will require tan.

Like in this example, with the mustard yellow dress, I’d rather see her in that dress when she is well-tanned.

Because having pale skin with a pink undertone, she creates a clash between a cold undertone and a warm-toned outfit. It doesn’t go well together.

Which one looks better here? What do you think? Obviously not a bright orange color.

What Do We Need To Know About Light Summer?

Light Summer is much smoother and has more delicate coloring than True Summer, with a less intense color palette.

Light Summer starts from a Spring transition to Summer, which is April-June. Then we have True Summer, and only then do we jump into Soft Summer, with softer skin tones.

The skin is very light, porcelain – often extremely white, almost transparent-like; Dark colors look as contrasting as possible with porcelain skin. The undertone is cold.

The blush is minimal or visible, so the skin is like white velvet.

With tan facial features become less contrasting; skin with age may lose the porcelain effect if not protected by SPF – return to a porcelain look, in this case, becomes difficult.

The skin look might “wither” in time and bring more and more of a grey undertone and even an overtone (which becomes more visible to the naked eye).

The eyes often have an admixture of grey, less often cold blue, sometimes blue-grey or grey-green; never warm admixtures (although a small admixture of hazel near the pupil); often, the eyes look cold, like in the appearance of a Snow Queen.

Light hair: blond (I like platinum blond here), dark blond, light chestnut, chestnut – initially tone hair is cool, but can fade into warmer tones during summer if we talk about natural changes with time;

Light Summer Colors: What Are They?

Delicate plum combines various dusty mauve colors, from light to dark.

Pepper – cool grey-beige shades.

Fondant rose includes pink, rose coral pastel colors with a slight fluorescent effect on the background, whose fair skin becomes normal.

The red glove implies cool, low-key red tones that light burgundy leather accessories often have.

Stormy sea – various dusty blues and purples.

Here you can clearly see which shade of blue for the actress better. Right, it’s not an indigo blue, which clashes with its high chroma. At the same time, the dusty blue fits her like a glove.

Silver – things look surprisingly good on Light Summer with the effect of glaring metals; it also refers to pale cool grey tones.

Bitter chocolate combines cool taupe colors.

Green apple includes yellow-green hues.

Bottle glass – complex emerald tones.

Fish scales – light shimmery turquoise greens are especially good in natural silk or sequins.

Nobody forbids experimenting with different colors – for example, and you can wear an inappropriate shade not on the face but as a contrasting accent to other clothes.

Remember that overly bright shades discolor the features of Light Summer, so choose more complex and delicate tones.

Avoid outright orange and shades close to it (peach, brick, warm ocher).

What Are The Differences Between True Summer Vs Light Summer?

Both palettes, True Summer and Light Summer, belong to one family. Hence they also share one cold undertone.

However, since True Summer is the central palette, it will be the cold color concentrated.

All the colors will presumably be saturated with a cold undertone, so none of the warm colors will penetrate the palette.

Though, as it has been mentioned multiple times in the previous discussions if the palette does not change, then what does?

And that would be your appearance through time.

Even if you don’t change your hair color, eye color, or makeup – even if all of that stays untouched since birth, you still change through time.

The more we progress forward, the more we see the changes.

It especially concerns Summer types because the grey tone naturally present in the appearance will be more visible with time.

Jodie Foster is a great example of tracking this tone through time. You must be more careful adding the contrast if you are a Light Summer. Very harsh colrs might look too striking to the eye.

It’s not bad; it’s just a natural process to which we would adjust.

Light Summer is perhaps the most delicate color type.

I need to unravel the paradox of greyish appearance. Actresses and models of this type are inexplicably magnetic and instantly memorable, as if from another planet.

The key strength of the Light Summer type is to enhance the greyed-out appearance – the trump card of the color type.

But of course, you need to act carefully here – depending on the looks (eyes light transparent or deep dark, hair light brown or chestnut, pale or contrasting eyebrows) for each woman, there is a priority for a successful image.

Light eyes and eyebrows – the perfect blonde “ethereal” angelic appearance with cool pearl or platinum hair; even a light tan, in this case, is acceptable, especially if you don’t have that porcelain skin look.

Without a tan, everything is generally wonderful; it is also essential that the blond differs from the skin tone and does not merge into one pale spot with the face.

Dark eyes and eyebrows – of course, dark eyes immediately suggest that you can become a bright brunette with minimal makeup support, and the tan is up to you – with a tan, the appearance will be more
standard, no tan – more contrast (examples: Anna Kendrick, etc.).

Medium saturated eyes and eyebrows are conditionally medium (faded and inexpressive) and look best with multi-faceted brown hair with cool mother-of-pearl and golden highlights at the same time; brown hair is not too different from the natural shade of the hair, but the color – let it be richer (examples: Ashley Goode and Saoirse Ronan are attractive brown-haired women.

Light Summer is on the border with Light Spring, which is warm in an undertone. Spring is essentially higher in chroma than Summer.

The colors of it will not only be warmer but also lighter and brighter.

Lily Donalsdosn has been previously typed as a Light Summer color type. However, in this discussion, we will see that she is actually a Light Spring.

It’s easy to determine that but also very easy to make a mistake.

She seemingly has all the attributes of the Light Summer appearance. The blue eyes, blond hair, natural skin color and most pastel colors fit her well.

But if you are unsure about your undertone, do the grey color test.

In the discussion about Bella Hadid, a definite guess on the grey colors, we concluded that grey in Summer types should play one of the most significant roles.

As it should fit you like a glove. Lily is beautiful, but as you see, the grey is not enhancing anything in this case.

While Bella looks fantastic, especially when without makeup.

The color is muting her appearance, making her look a bit lost.

Another great example is comparing gold and silver tones. She looks fantastic in gold; her skin is rather on the warmer side than the cool one. There is a significant difference between those tonalities.

Spring Colors To Enhance The Appearance

Predominantly Spring colors play well with her appearance. And not only because she is Victoria’s Secret model but also because that is her true season.

You would rather be advised against yellow and orange tonalities as a summer. But look at that:

There is no doubt that Lily Donaldson is a Spring type.

Compare these two variants yourself. A lively, bright, high-in-chroma warm color is a beautiful enhancement for their natural appearance that makes her look better.

While the almost black, dark navy plus brunette hair makes her look tired and instead aged, the wrong color can make you years older than you actually are!

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