Free quiz · 5 questions · no signup
Color Analysis Quiz: What Season Am I, and What Colors Suit Me?
Five quick questions, about your natural hair, your eyes, how your skin takes the sun, gold or silver, and your veins, place you in one of the 12 color seasons. You get your season, your Korean personal color, the colors to wear and skip, and your close second. Not sure of an answer? Check it with a selfie at the end, read on your device.
CostFree
TimeUnder 1 min
SignupNone
DataKept on device
01 / 05
What is your natural hair color, before any dye or gray?
Your roots or your brows are the truest guide if your hair is colored.
The science
How the color analysis test works
01
Color analysis sorts your natural coloring on three scales: undertone (warm or cool), depth (light or deep) and contrast (how far your hair and eyes sit from your skin). Seasonal color analysis names the mix after a season. The four seasons were popularized by Carole Jackson’s book Color Me Beautiful in 1980, which built on the painter Johannes Itten’s The Art of Color (1961); color consultants later split each season in three by its strongest quality, which gives the 12 seasons most quizzes use today.
02
This color analysis quiz asks 5 questions and moves the three scales with them. Undertone: gold or silver jewelry counts 2, red or copper hair 2, golden or ash hair 1, your eye color 1 and your veins 1. Depth is the average of how light or deep your skin, natural hair and eyes are. Contrast is how far your hair and eyes sit from your skin in depth. The scale furthest from its middle names your season family (Light, Deep, Bright, Soft, or True if warmth or coolness leads), and the other two pick the season inside it.
03
Two things to know. The weights and cut-offs are this quiz’s own settings, not figures from a study, and seasonal color analysis itself is a styling convention: we know of no controlled study showing that the seasons predict which colors other people find flattering on you. What the quiz gives you is a consistent starting palette. If an answer was a guess, the photo check at the end runs the seasonal color analysis from a photo on your selfie and measures undertone, depth and contrast instead of asking.
What season am I? The 12 seasons at a glance
There are four season families, two warm and two cool: Springs are warm and light to clear, Summers cool and light to soft, Autumns warm and muted to deep, Winters cool and clear to deep. Each family splits in three by its strongest quality, so every season is named for what dominates your coloring. Your result names your season and your close second, the season your answers sit nearest to. When you sit between two, both palettes will work for you.
| Season | What leads | Korean personal color | Wear, for example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Light Spring | Light, then warm | Spring Warm Light | peach, warm coral, buttercup |
| True Spring | Warm, then clear | Spring Warm True | warm orange, golden yellow, grass green |
| Bright Spring | Bright, then warm | Spring Warm Bright | poppy, marigold, bright jade |
| Light Summer | Light, then cool | Summer Cool Light | powder blue, rose, lavender |
| True Summer | Cool, then soft | Summer Cool True | cornflower, raspberry rose, sea green |
| Soft Summer | Soft, then cool | Summer Cool Mute | slate blue, dusty rose, sage teal |
| Soft Autumn | Soft, then warm | Autumn Warm Mute | terracotta, olive, camel |
| True Autumn | Warm, then soft | Autumn Warm True | rust, moss green, mustard |
| Deep Autumn | Deep, then warm | Autumn Warm Deep | mahogany, deep brick, forest |
| Bright Winter | Bright, then cool | Winter Cool Bright | fuchsia, cobalt, emerald |
| True Winter | Cool, then clear | Winter Cool True | true red, royal blue, pine green |
| Deep Winter | Deep, then cool | Winter Cool Deep | burgundy, deep teal, midnight violet |
What colors suit me? Reading your palette
Your palette is a filter, not a rulebook. Its colors share your undertone and sit at your depth and contrast, so anything inside it goes with your face and with the rest of the palette. It matters most right next to your face: tops, collars, scarves, glasses frames, and makeup. Further away, on trousers, shoes and bags, any color you like works.
Start with three things from your result. The neutrals replace black, white and gray where those fight you (black is the usual mistake for the light and soft seasons). The metals tell you gold or silver for jewelry and frames. And the skip list names the colors that will make your skin look sallow, gray or shadowed next to it. The same undertone decides your hair color, so the hair color for your skin tone matcher takes it from here.
Korean personal color test: the four tones
Korean personal color analysis (퍼스널 컬러) uses the same seasons, named as four tones: Spring Warm, Summer Cool, Autumn Warm and Winter Cool. Each has subtypes: light, bright, mute (the Korean term for muted), deep, and true for the middle one. In Korea it is usually done in a studio by draping colored fabric under the chin; this quiz reads the same three qualities from your answers and gives your tone and subtype with your season.
| Tone | Subtypes, with their season |
|---|---|
| Spring Warm | Light (Light Spring), True (True Spring), Bright (Bright Spring) |
| Summer Cool | Light (Light Summer), True (True Summer), Mute (Soft Summer) |
| Autumn Warm | Mute (Soft Autumn), True (True Autumn), Deep (Deep Autumn) |
| Winter Cool | Bright (Bright Winter), True (True Winter), Deep (Deep Winter) |
Quiz or photo: which color analysis should you use?
They answer the same question two ways. This quiz asks what you can see in a mirror and in your jewelry box, so it works in a minute with no photo, and it is only as good as your answers. The seasonal color analysis from a photo measures instead: you tap your cheek, hair and iris, and it reads undertone, depth and contrast from the pixels in Lab color, on your device. A camera’s white balance shifts those pixels, so it needs daylight and no filter.
Use the quiz first, then the photo check at the end of your result if any answer was a guess, especially the undertone ones. The undertone test and the skin tone finder each measure one of the three scales from a photo, if you want to check just that one.
Why the vein test counts for little
The wrist vein test (green veins mean warm, blue mean cool) is the best-known undertone test and the weakest. Veins hold dark red blood and look blue or green because of how skin scatters and absorbs light, how deep the vein sits and how wide it is: Kienle and colleagues showed this with skin measurements and light simulations (Applied Optics, 1996). Your undertone is only part of that. So in this quiz your veins count 1, half as much as gold or silver jewelry at 2, and on darker skin, where the veins are hard to see, "hard to see" counts nothing either way.
If undertone is the part you are least sure of, the undertone quiz adds the white paper test and how foundation fails on you, and the photo check measures it.
How to answer for the most accurate result
Five minutes of setup makes the answers far more reliable than guessing from memory.
- Step 1Stand by a window in daylight, with no makeup or tinted moisturizer. Indoor bulbs are yellow or blue and change how every color looks.
- Step 2For hair color, look at your roots or your brows if your hair is dyed or gray. Answer for your natural color.
- Step 3Hold a gold and a silver piece of jewelry against your jaw, one at a time, and look at your skin rather than the metal. The one that makes it look even and awake wins; if neither does, answer "both look the same".
- Step 4Check your wrist veins in the same daylight, and answer "a mix" when you cannot tell.
FAQ
Common questions
What season am I?+
Your season comes from three things: your undertone (warm or cool), your depth (light or deep) and your contrast (how far your hair and eyes sit from your skin). Whichever is strongest names the family: light coloring makes you a Light Spring or Light Summer, dark coloring a Deep Autumn or Deep Winter, high contrast a Bright season, low contrast a Soft one, and a strong warm or cool cast a True season. This quiz works it out from 5 questions.
How do I find my color palette?+
Find your season first, then use its palette: the colors that share your undertone and sit at your depth and contrast. This quiz gives your season, a palette of colors and neutrals, the metals that suit you, what to skip near your face, and your close second, the season your answers sit nearest to.
What colors look good on me?+
Colors that match your coloring on all three scales: warm colors if your undertone is warm, cool ones if it is cool, light colors if you are light, deep ones if you are deep, and clear, saturated colors if your contrast is high or muted ones if it is low. The test is how your skin looks next to a color in daylight: even and awake is right, sallow, gray or shadowed is wrong.
Is this color analysis test free?+
Yes. The quiz and its photo check are free, need no signup, and give the full result: your season, Korean personal color, palette, metals and close second. The photo check reads your selfie on your device and never uploads it.
How accurate is a color analysis quiz?+
As accurate as your answers, and the hardest one to get right is undertone. That is why the quiz weights gold or silver jewelry most, since it compares colors against your face directly, and veins least. Seasonal color analysis is a styling convention rather than a measurement, so read the result as a starting palette and check it in daylight, or with the photo check.
What is Korean color analysis?+
Korean personal color analysis sorts people into four tones, Spring Warm, Summer Cool, Autumn Warm and Winter Cool, and then a subtype: light, bright, mute (muted), deep or true. It is the same idea as the 12 seasons with different names, so this quiz gives your Korean personal color with your season, for example Autumn Warm Mute for a Soft Autumn.
What is the difference between personal color and seasonal color analysis?+
Personal color is the name used in Korea and Japan, seasonal color analysis the Western one. Both sort your coloring by undertone, depth and clarity and give you a palette. The Korean system leads with warm or cool and names the subtype; the 12-season system leads with whichever quality is strongest.
What if my hair is dyed or gray?+
Answer for your natural color: your roots, your brows, or your hair in childhood photos. Your season reads your natural coloring, though a big change in hair color does change your contrast, so if you now wear a very different shade, the palette of your close second may suit you better.