Deep Summer Color Palette: The Complete Guide

Deep summer is the darkest season in the summer family, and the one most people have never heard of. It keeps summer's coolness and softness and turns the depth all the way down: every color in the deep summer color palette is cool, smoky and deep, like a lake at dusk under a heavy sky, when the water goes inky navy, the pines go blue-black and the last light turns the clouds a dusty plum. If you have dark hair but look harsh in black, if everyone says you are "a winter" but jewel tones and optic white have always felt like too much, and if the soft, pale summer colors in most guides look washed out on you, there is a good chance this is your season.

You will also see it called dark summer, and the dark summer color palette, or dark summer palette, is the same thing under another name. This guide explains what deep summer actually is, answers the question the search results keep asking, whether it is a real season or a myth, and explains why deep summers are so often mistyped as deep winter or deep autumn. It then gives you a feature-by-feature description with five at-home tests, the full palette by color family with hex codes, the colors to avoid, and how deep summer differs from deep winter, deep autumn, soft summer and cool summer. Finally it translates all of it into a wardrobe, a makeup bag and a hair color.

What is a deep summer?

Deep summer is one of the 17 seasons used in the system MySwatches works with, and the deep summer color season describes people whose natural coloring, meaning skin, hair and eyes together, is primarily dark and secondarily cool, with a soft, blended quality rather than a sharp, high-contrast one.

That order matters. The defining trait of a deep summer is depth: your hair is dark, often ash brown to soft black, and your palette's center of gravity sits in the medium-to-deep range. Coolness comes second: your undertone is blue or pink, never golden. Softness comes third, and it is what keeps you in the summer family rather than the winter one: your features blend rather than stand out, and your best colors are smoky, dusty and muted rather than clear or bright.

The easiest way to picture it is as a position on the seasonal flow. The summer family has five seasons in the system MySwatches uses. Light summer borders spring and is the palest. Soft summer borders autumn and is the most muted. True summer sits at the center. Cool summer borders winter and is a notch deeper and clearer than the center. Deep summer sits below all of them, the darkest summer, right next to deep winter on one side and the deepest end of soft summer on the other. One stylist sums up the whole problem of the season in a single line: typical summer colors are too light, winter colors are too bright, and the deep colors are too dark. Colors that are cool, soft and deep at the same time are the ones that flatter.

Where deep summer sits on the color wheel

Every season is defined by where it falls on three scales: hue, value and chroma. The deep summer color palette is defined by an unusual combination of the second and the third.

Hue (temperature): how warm or cool you are. You are cool. There is blue or pink under the skin, and the whole palette is blue-based, with no gold or orange anywhere.
Value (depth): how light or dark you are. This is your defining trait. You are medium to deep, and the palette avoids both pastels and pitch-black. Most of your best colors sit well below the middle of the scale.
Chroma (saturation): how bright or muted you are. You are low to medium. Deep summer colors are dusty, smoky and softened, never neon, never jewel-bright.

If you take one thing from this section, take this: deep summer is the only season that is dark and soft at the same time. Every other dark season, deep winter and deep autumn, is richer or clearer. Every other soft season, soft summer and soft autumn, is lighter. That combination is exactly why the season is so easy to miss.

Is deep summer a real season, or a myth?

One of the top results for this search is an article titled "Deep summer color palette: myth or valid type?", and it is a fair question, because many people have been told the season does not exist. The honest answer is that it depends on which system you use, and that the people it describes are very real either way.

In the classic 12-season system, there is no deep summer. The twelve seasons give three summers: light, true and soft. A person with dark, cool, soft coloring has to be placed somewhere, so they usually end up at the deepest end of soft summer, which our own soft summer guide calls "soft summer deep" or deep soft summer, or they are pushed into deep winter or deep autumn, neither of which quite fits.

In 16-season and 17-season systems, including the one MySwatches uses, deep summer is its own palette. Some systems call it dark summer, and at least one calls it soft winter. The reasoning is simple. A group of people is too dark for the standard summer palettes, too soft and blended for any winter, and too cool for any autumn. Rather than make them borrow half a palette from three neighbors, these systems give them a palette of their own: cool, soft and deep.

So it is a valid type, not an invented niche. If you have dark, ashy hair, cool skin, smoky eyes and medium contrast, and you have always felt that every palette you were given was either too light, too bright or too warm, you are exactly who the season was created for. Whether your analyst calls you deep summer, dark summer or the deep end of soft summer, the colors that flatter you are the same ones in this guide.

Deep summer characteristics: how to know if you are one

The People Also Ask box asks how you know if you are a dark summer. Here is what deep summer coloring looks like, feature by feature, followed by five tests you can do at home in daylight.

Skin

Cool beige, rosy beige, cool olive, and cool medium to deep brown, with pink or blue undertones and never a warm peach or golden cast. Deep summer skin often looks slightly muted or greyed rather than luminous, and it looks smooth and even next to cool, deep, softened colors like slate navy or dusty plum. It looks sallow next to camel, gold and orange, and it looks harsh and shadowed next to pure black and optic white.

Eyes

Grey, grey-blue, grey-green, muted hazel with little warmth, and cool, soft dark brown. The tell is the quality rather than the color: deep summer eyes look smoky or clouded rather than crisp and brilliant, with a soft, diffused pattern in the iris. If your eyes are dark but have been called "soft", "smoky" or "hard to describe" rather than "piercing" or "sparkling", that points to deep summer rather than deep winter.

Hair

Medium to dark ash brown, cool dark brown, soft black and, in lighter deep summers, a muted dark ash blonde. The hair is cool or neutral, with little or no gold or red, and it does not turn brassy or coppery in the sun. Soft black on a deep summer looks smoky rather than blue-black and glossy.

Contrast

Medium, and blended. This is the most important feature of the season. The hair is dark, so people expect high contrast, but on a deep summer the skin, hair and eyes meld into each other rather than standing apart. In a black and white photo, a deep winter shows stark jumps between light and dark; a deep summer shows a gradual, smoky range. That blend is what makes winter colors look harsh on you.

Five tests to do at home

Do these in natural daylight, without makeup, in front of a mirror.

The black and charcoal test. Drape pure black near your face, then a soft charcoal or a blue-black that has been softened. On a deep summer, pure black looks harsh and overwhelming, deepening shadows and hardening the face, and the charcoal looks calm and flattering. If pure black makes you look sharp and alive, you are a winter. This is the most telling single test for the season.

The jewel and smoky test, for deep summer versus deep winter. Hold a clear, saturated emerald near your face, then a smoky teal or a blue spruce. A deep winter lights up in the emerald. A deep summer looks slightly overpowered by it and at home in the smoky teal.

The berry and brick test, for deep summer versus deep autumn. Hold a cool, dusty raspberry or mulberry near your face, then a brick red or a rust. A deep summer looks natural in the cool berry and slightly sallow or orange in the brick. A deep autumn is the reverse.

The silver and gold test. Hold silver jewelry against your face, then yellow gold. Silver should make the skin look clearer and more even; gold should make it look slightly yellow. If gold wins, you are an autumn.

The pale and deep test, for deep summer versus the other summers. Hold a powder blue near your face, then a slate navy. A light, true or soft summer usually looks lovely in the powder blue. A deep summer looks slightly washed out in it and comes alive in the slate navy. If you need the deep version of every summer color, you are a deep summer.

If you want to skip the guesswork, the free MySwatches palette quiz walks you through this with your own photos and tells you which of the 17 seasons matches. Take the free palette quiz

Why deep summers get mistyped as deep winter or deep autumn

A popular Reddit thread in the search results is titled "Deep summer often mistyped as deep winter or deep autumn", and it describes one of the most common frustrations in color analysis. Deep summers spend years in the wrong palette, and there are three usual routes into it.

Mistyped as deep winter, because of the dark hair. Analysts see dark hair and dark eyes, assume high contrast, and hand over a palette of black, optic white and jewel tones. On a deep summer, those colors look harsh: black adds shadows, optic white looks stark, and emerald or royal blue overpower the face. The tell is that the person looks better in the "softer" end of the winter palette, charcoal, blackened plum, smoky teal, than in its signature colors.

Mistyped as deep autumn, because of olive skin. Cool olive skin can read as warm at a glance, especially next to dark hair. A deep summer with olive skin may be handed chocolate, rust and forest green, and look sallow and heavy in all of them. The tell is that silver beats gold and berry beats brick.

Mistyped as soft summer, because of the softness. This is the closest miss. Soft summer is muted and cool-leaning too, but it is medium in depth and neutral enough to borrow warm-leaning colors. A deep summer given the full soft summer palette finds that roughly half of it, the lighter, warmer half, looks washed out. The tell is that only the darkest soft summer colors look right.

What all three have in common is that the person keeps saying some version of "this is almost right, but not quite". If that is you, the three rejected palettes are pointing at the same place: cool, soft and deep.

Deep summer color palette swatches

Here are the deep summer color palette swatches, organized by how you actually get dressed: neutrals first, because they will be most of your closet, then the colors you build around them. You will notice that the palette is weighted toward deep, smoky shades, that it contains very few light colors, and that it has no pure black, no optic white and no bright color anywhere.

Deep summer neutrals

Deep summer neutrals are the cool, smoky tones of a stone city in the rain: slate, graphite, pewter and wet charcoal.

• Darks: inky navy, soft navy, blue-black softened with grey, charcoal, graphite, espresso-charcoal, deep slate.
• Mids: pewter, blue-grey, cool taupe, mushroom, steel grey, stone.
• Lights: soft white, silver grey, pale stone, cool light taupe.

Your version of black is a softened blue-black, charcoal or inky navy. Your version of white is soft white or silver grey. Brown is worth a note: most browns in stores are warm and will undermine the whole palette, so the only browns that work are true cool browns, like an espresso-charcoal blend or a cool mushroom. The deep summer neutrals to avoid are pure black, optic white, camel, tan and anything golden.

Deep summer colors by family

• Blues: inky navy, slate navy, slate blue, steel blue, blue-grey, soft denim, smoky cornflower, and a deep powder blue for the lightest accent. Blue is the heart of the palette.
• Teals and greens: smoky teal, blue spruce, cedar green, deep sea green, pine softened with grey, eucalyptus.
• Purples: dusty plum, deep mauve, mulberry, smoky amethyst, blackened plum, heather deepened.
• Pinks and reds: dusty raspberry, steel rose, amethyst pink, cool burgundy, wine, soft cranberry.
• Accent greys: silver grey, graphite, blue-grey, soft plum-grey.

The through-line of the deep summer palette colors is that every color looks like it has been mixed with both navy and grey: deepened and softened at the same time. If a color looks bright, clear, warm or pale, it is not yours. If it looks like smoke, stormy water or a well-worn velvet, it almost certainly is.

Twelve deep summer colors with hex codes

These twelve are approximate reference points for the signature deep summer colors, not an official palette, and screens vary. Use them to recognize the family, not to match fabric. Many deep summers copy hex codes like these into online shops' color filters to narrow the search, then check the actual fabric against their swatch card.

• Inky navy: #1F2A44
• Slate navy: #3A4A63
• Slate blue: #5A6F8C
• Blue spruce: #2E5E5A
• Smoky teal: #3E6E6E
• Dusty plum: #5E3B55
• Mulberry: #6E2F4F
• Cool burgundy: #6B2737
• Dusty raspberry: #A64A6B
• Steel rose: #B07A8A
• Charcoal: #3B3F45
• Soft white: #F2F0EC

Sister palettes, and what you can borrow

Deep summer sits between several palettes, and you can borrow carefully from each, always keeping the color cool, soft and deep.

From cool summer, the clearer side: navy, raspberry, soft plum. Take the darkest, dustiest versions.

From soft summer, the muted side: slate, mushroom, dusty rose deepened, spruce. Take only the darker half of that palette; the lighter half will wash you out.

From deep winter, the darker side: blackened plum, deep burgundy, midnight navy. Take the softest, least saturated versions, and skip the pure black, optic white and bright jewel tones.

From deep autumn, the warm side, very sparingly: a deep teal or a dark plum, if they lean cool. Some deep summers can borrow the coolest, most muted deep autumn colors; most cannot.

The rule for borrowing: if it looks bright, soften it; if it looks pale, deepen it; if it looks warm, put it back.

Is deep blue a summer color?

The People Also Ask box asks this directly, and deep summer is the answer to it. Most people think of summer blues as powder blue, sky blue and periwinkle, which is true for the lighter summers. But deep blue is a summer color too, as long as it has the summer quality: cool and softened.

The deep blues that work for summer: inky navy, slate navy, a greyed midnight, a smoky denim, a deep steel blue. They are dark, but they have a veil of grey over them, like the sea on an overcast day.

The deep blues that do not: royal blue, cobalt and sapphire at full saturation, which are winter colors, and teal-navies with a green-gold cast, which lean autumn. The difference is the veil: if a deep blue looks clear and bright, it belongs to a winter; if it looks softened and cool, it belongs to a summer.

For a deep summer, a softened navy is not just one color among many. It is the single most useful color in the palette, the one that replaces black, anchors every outfit and flatters the face better than any other dark.

Deep summer colors to avoid, and why

Every deep summer has a list of worst colors, and it is the warm, the bright, the pale and the stark.

• Pure black: too harsh. It overwhelms the blended quality of your coloring. Your black is charcoal or softened blue-black.
• Optic white and icy white: too stark. They create more contrast than your face has. Your white is soft white.
• Bright, clear jewel tones: royal blue, emerald, hot pink, fuchsia at full strength. These are winter colors and they overpower you.
• Neon and bright colors: anything electric or fluorescent.
• Warm colors: tomato red, bright coral, orange, peach, golden yellow, mustard. They clash with your cool undertone and can emphasize redness in the skin.
• Warm neutrals: camel, tan, caramel, cream, golden brown.
• Pastels on their own: baby pink, powder blue, lavender. Too light, they wash you out unless paired with a deep neutral.
• High-contrast statements: black with optic white, bold color-blocking in opposite colors.

None of these is forbidden. If you love one, wear it away from your face, in trousers, a skirt, shoes or a bag, and keep your best colors at the neckline.

Deep summer versus the seasons it gets confused with

Because deep summer sits at a crossroads, it is confused with more seasons than almost any other. Here are the borders that matter.

Deep summer vs deep winter

The People Also Ask box asks what the differences between deep summer and deep winter are, and people search deep summer vs deep winter and deep winter vs deep summer. It is the most important border for the season. Both are dark and cool, and both wear navy, burgundy, plum and charcoal. The difference is clarity and contrast. Deep winter has high contrast and clear coloring, and looks its best in pure black, optic white and clear jewel tones like emerald and sapphire. Deep summer has medium, blended contrast and soft coloring, and looks its best in the same families softened: charcoal instead of black, soft white instead of optic white, smoky teal instead of emerald, slate navy instead of sapphire. If harsh black feels overwhelming, lean summer. The black and charcoal test and the jewel and smoky test settle it.

Deep summer vs deep autumn

The People Also Ask box also asks about the differences between deep autumn and deep summer. Both can have dark hair and olive skin, and both wear soft, deep colors rather than bright ones. The difference is temperature. Deep autumn is neutral-warm: chocolate, olive, rust, forest green, gold. Deep summer is cool: slate navy, blue spruce, mulberry, charcoal, silver. A deep autumn looks muddy in cool slate; a deep summer looks sallow in rust. The berry and brick test and the silver and gold test settle it.

Soft summer vs deep summer

People search soft summer vs deep summer and deep summer vs soft summer, and the confusion is real, because in 12-season systems the two are sometimes the same person. Soft summer is muted and medium: dusty rose, slate, sage, mushroom, with a neutral-cool undertone that can borrow a few warm-leaning colors. Deep summer is muted and deep: the darker half of the soft summer family, plus inky navy, blue spruce and mulberry, with a fully cool undertone. What our soft summer guide calls "soft summer deep" is essentially where these two meet. If the lighter half of the soft summer palette washes you out and only the darkest colors look right, you are a deep summer.

Deep summer vs cool summer, and deep summer vs true summer

Cool summer is a notch deeper and clearer than the center of the summer family, and it can wear a true navy and a clear raspberry. True summer is the medium, gently softened center. Deep summer is darker than both and softer than cool summer. If a clear raspberry looks right on you, you are more likely a cool summer. If you need the deeper, dustier version, mulberry or dusty raspberry, you are a deep summer. If medium tones like rose pink and periwinkle look best, you are a true summer.

Deep summer vs soft winter

People also search soft winter vs deep summer and deep summer vs soft winter. "Soft winter" is not one of the MySwatches seasons, but some systems use the term for exactly the coloring this guide describes: dark and cool, but too soft for the other winters. In practice, a soft winter and a deep summer are the same person under two names, and the palette in this guide applies.

Building a deep summer wardrobe

How to combine your colors: deep summer outfits

Tonal, blended layering is the guiding principle for deep summer outfits, because blended contrast is what your own coloring has. Deep summer color palette clothing looks best when it moves smoothly between deep, smoky shades rather than jumping from light to dark.

• Best: tonal layering within one family. Inky navy with slate blue and steel blue. Mulberry with dusty plum and steel rose. Charcoal with graphite and pewter.
• Best: neighboring deep colors at a similar depth. Slate navy with blue spruce. Dusty plum with cool burgundy. Smoky teal with inky navy.
• Good: a deep neutral with a softened accent. Charcoal with dusty raspberry. Inky navy with steel rose. Pewter with mulberry.
• Good: soft white or silver grey with a deep color, for a gentle contrast. Soft white with slate navy.
• Avoid: black with optic white, bright color-blocking, and any outfit where one piece jumps out far more than your face does.

A deep summer capsule wardrobe

A ten-piece capsule covers most of life, because every piece is in the deep summer color palette and combines with every other.

• An inky navy coat.
• A charcoal blazer.
• Slate navy trousers.
• A graphite or pewter skirt.
• A mulberry knit and a blue spruce knit.
• A soft white shirt and a steel blue shirt.
• A dusty plum or cool burgundy dress.
• Shoes and a bag in charcoal, inky navy or cool burgundy.

Denim

Dark, softened washes work best: a deep indigo with a slightly grey or smoky cast, a charcoal-grey denim, a soft black denim. Skip bright, clean blues, light washes and anything with a yellow or golden tint.

Patterns and prints

The best prints for a deep summer use deep summer colors at low to medium contrast: tonal florals, smoky watercolors, soft plaids in navy and slate, blurred abstracts, tonal paisleys, heathered knits. What to skip is anything with pure black and white, bright colors, sharp high-contrast graphics and warm, earthy prints.

Metals and deep summer jewelry

• Best metals: silver, white gold, platinum, pewter, and a soft, brushed gunmetal. Brushed and matte finishes suit your softness better than high shine.
• Avoid: yellow gold and warm, pinkish rose gold, which introduce warmth.

Stones for deep summer jewelry: amethyst, sapphire in its softer tones, blue spinel, grey moonstone, smoky quartz, labradorite, iolite and grey or dark pearls. Skip bright, clear stones like emerald and ruby at full saturation, and warm stones like amber and citrine.

Glasses: frames in charcoal, slate, inky navy, dusty plum or brushed silver. A soft charcoal frame beats a hard black one.

For work

A deep summer's professional wardrobe is one of the easiest in the summer family, because navy and charcoal are office staples and both are yours in their softened forms. Build on inky navy and charcoal suits with soft white or steel blue shirts, and accent with mulberry, dusty raspberry or blue spruce. Replace the black suit with charcoal and the white shirt with soft white, and you have a wardrobe that looks authoritative without looking harsh.

Deep summer for men

Deep summer men usually have dark ash brown to soft black hair, cool skin and smoky grey, grey-green or cool brown eyes, and they are the men who look tired in a black suit and a white shirt despite having dark hair. The fixes are small. Swap black for charcoal and inky navy. Swap optic white for soft white or light blue-grey. For color, slate blue, blue spruce, mulberry and cool burgundy are the easy wins: a slate blue shirt under a charcoal suit, a blue spruce knit with dark jeans, a mulberry tie. Metals should be brushed silver or gunmetal.

How to use your palette in the store

Deep summer is the hardest palette to shop for by eye, because it lives in the dark end of the spectrum where store lights make everything look the same. The "navy" that turns out to be a bright royal. The "charcoal" that is really a warm brown-grey. The "plum" that is a clear, bright purple in daylight. And because most brown in stores is warm, true cool browns are rare. Memory is not a reliable judge of whether a dark is cool or warm, soft or clear.

That is exactly what the MySwatches Personal Swatch Card is for. It is a transparent, credit-card-sized card printed with your deep summer color palette, so you hold it directly against the fabric and see at once whether the color belongs. Because the card is see-through, you are comparing the actual dye to the actual shade rather than a photo to a memory. It is waterproof, scratch resistant, and lives in your wallet. See the Deep Summer card

Deep summer makeup

The mistake most deep summers make with makeup is borrowing from winter: black liner, a bright red lip and a stark contrast that looks harsh on blended coloring. The second mistake is borrowing from the lighter summers: pale pinks and pastel shadows that disappear. Deep summer makeup should be cool, smoky and softly defined, with matte or satin finishes and deep, dusty colors.

Foundation and base

Cool or neutral-cool, with a pink, rosy or cool olive base, matched in daylight. Avoid orange, peach or golden bases and warm bronzers. If you want dimension, a cool taupe contour works better than bronzer.

Blush

Mauve, rose-plum, dusty rose deepened, soft berry. A matte or satin finish suits the season. Avoid peach, coral and anything orange.

Lips

Berry, cool wine, mulberry, dusty raspberry, plum, deep rose and a cool rosy-brown nude. A wine or mulberry lip is close to a deep summer signature. For a bold lip, choose a cool, deep berry rather than a bright true red. Avoid coral, orange-red, peach and warm nudes.

Eyes

• Shadows: charcoal, slate, cool taupe, soft navy, dusty plum, smoky grey, graphite, and a soft silver for highlight. A smoky eye in charcoal and slate is the deep summer evening look.
• Liner: grey, charcoal, soft navy or plum. Grey liner outperforms black for daytime; a smudged charcoal gives definition without the harshness.
• Mascara: black-brown or soft black.
• Brows: cool ash brown to soft black, defined but not sharp.

Nail colors

Mulberry, wine, dusty plum, slate, inky navy, charcoal, steel rose and a cool mauve. Skip coral, bright red, neon, gold and pure white.

The MySwatches Personal Makeup Card takes the same deep summer palette and translates it into lipstick, blush and eyeshadow shades, so you can hold it up to a tester and know.

Deep summer hair color

Your natural hair is already in your palette, which is why the best deep summer hair color stays close to nature: cool, dark and smoky, with no gold, red or copper.

• Best: cool espresso, charcoal brown, dark ash brown, soft black, and smoky dark blonde for lighter deep summers.
• Good for a change: a cool mushroom-brown gloss, subtle ash lowlights, or a soft plum or cool burgundy tint on dark hair.
• Avoid: red, gold, copper and caramel, which conflict with the palette and can emphasize redness in the skin, and glossy blue-black or jet black, which add more contrast than your face has.

Grey hair suits deep summers well, because it is cool and soft. Keep it smoky and even rather than stark white, and as it lightens, the mid-depth end of the palette, slate blue, steel rose, pewter, tends to become even more flattering.

Deep summer celebrities and examples

Nobody has draped these people in person, celebrity typing from photos is never certain, and because deep summer does not exist in every system, many of these names are typed differently elsewhere. Treat these deep summer examples, and any deep summer color palette celebrities list you find online, as a visual reference rather than a verdict. What they share is the season's combination: dark, ashy hair, cool skin, smoky eyes and blended contrast.

• Jennifer Connelly: dark hair, cool fair skin and soft grey-green eyes, often cited as a deep summer who looks softer and better in slate and plum than in stark black.
• Rachel Weisz: dark ash brown hair, cool skin and smoky eyes, a frequent example of dark, blended coloring.
• Lana Del Rey: dark, soft hair, cool skin and a signature look built on smoky navy, dusty plum and soft vintage tones.
• Kate Beckinsale: dark hair, cool skin and grey-toned eyes, often typed dark summer.
• Freida Pinto: cool-neutral brown skin, dark hair and soft features, a common example of a deeper-skinned deep summer.
• Jake Gyllenhaal and Dev Patel: two commonly cited deep summer men, with dark, soft hair, cool skin and smoky eyes, and both at their best in navy and charcoal rather than black.
• Selena Gomez: the contested one. She is typed deep summer, deep winter and deep autumn in different places, which is exactly the pattern the mistyping section describes. If you have been typed into all three and none fit perfectly, she is in good company.

Beyond the closet

Once you know your palette, it tends to spread. Deep summers often find that the colors that flatter their face are the ones they want to live with: an inky navy study, slate-grey walls, a mulberry velvet chair, pewter and brushed silver, smoky glass and weathered wood. It is not a coincidence. Colors that harmonize with you are easier on the eye, yours and everyone else's, and a room in your palette photographs you well too.

Frequently asked questions about deep summer

How do I know if I am a dark summer?

Look for three things: dark, ashy hair with cool skin; black looking harsh on you while charcoal and softened navy look better; and smoky, dusty deep colors beating both bright jewel tones and pale summer pastels. If all three are true, you are a deep summer, also called dark summer. The five tests earlier in this guide walk you through it.

Is deep summer the same as dark summer?

Yes. Deep summer and dark summer are two names for the same season. Some systems also call it soft winter.

Is deep summer a real season?

Yes, in 16-season and 17-season systems, including the one MySwatches uses. It does not exist in the classic 12-season system, where the same people are usually placed at the deep end of soft summer or mistyped as deep winter or deep autumn.

What colors look best on a deep summer?

Inky navy, slate navy, slate blue, blue spruce, smoky teal, dusty plum, mulberry, cool burgundy, dusty raspberry and steel rose, on a base of charcoal, graphite, pewter and soft white.

Can a deep summer wear black?

Not well near the face. Pure black is too harsh for blended coloring. Charcoal, graphite and a softened blue-black or inky navy do the same job and flatter you more.

Is deep blue a summer color?

Yes, when it is cool and softened: inky navy, slate navy, smoky denim. Bright royal blue and cobalt are winter colors. For a deep summer, a softened navy is the single most useful color in the palette.

What are the differences between deep summer and deep winter?

Clarity and contrast. Deep winter is clear and high-contrast, and wears pure black, optic white and bright jewel tones. Deep summer is soft and blended, and wears the same families softened: charcoal, soft white, smoky teal, slate navy.

What are the differences between deep autumn and deep summer?

Temperature. Both can be dark and soft, but deep autumn is neutral-warm, with chocolate, olive, rust and gold, and deep summer is cool, with slate navy, spruce, mulberry and silver.

What is the difference between deep summer and soft summer?

Depth and temperature. Soft summer is medium and neutral-cool. Deep summer is deeper and fully cool, and only the darker half of the soft summer family works on it.

Should a deep summer wear silver or gold?

Silver, white gold, platinum and pewter, ideally brushed. Yellow gold introduces warmth that works against the palette.

What hair color suits a deep summer?

Cool espresso, charcoal brown, dark ash brown, soft black and smoky dark blonde. Avoid red, gold, copper, caramel and glossy jet black.

How does deep summer color analysis work?

Deep summer color analysis looks at the same three things as every season: hue, value and chroma. Value is depth, and deep summer is medium to deep. Hue is temperature, and deep summer is cool. Chroma is saturation, and deep summer is low to medium: smoky and dusty. The season is defined by being dark and soft at once, which is rare, so the most useful home tests compare it with the seasons it gets confused with: pure black against charcoal, emerald against smoky teal, berry against brick, and powder blue against slate navy.

Are deep summers rare?

Less rare than they seem. Because the season does not exist in every system, many deep summers have been typed as deep winter, deep autumn or soft summer, so they are underrepresented in most counts rather than genuinely rare. It is especially common among people with dark ash hair, cool or cool-olive skin and grey or soft brown eyes.

Find your season, then carry it with you

If this guide sounded like a description of you, the next step is to confirm it. The free MySwatches palette quiz uses your own photos to place you in one of the 17 seasons, deep summer included. Take the free palette quiz

And once you know, the Deep Summer Personal Swatch Card puts the whole deep summer color palette from this guide in your wallet, transparent so you can hold it up to any fabric, waterproof and scratch resistant so it lasts. No more guessing whether a dark is soft or clear, cool or warm, under store lights. See the Deep Summer card