Deep Winter makeup and hair colors: the blue-red test, and why warm shades go muddy

Direct answer

What is Deep Winter makeup? Deep Winter makeup is cool, deep and saturated: blue-based red, deep berry and cool wine lips; cool berry or plum blush; charcoal, deep navy, aubergine and cool espresso eyes. Deep Winter (also called Dark Winter) is the cool season defined by depth and contrast, and the quickest way to recognise it is the lip test: a blue-red looks like it belongs to the face, while a brick red sits warm and muddy on the same face.

How is Deep Winter different from the other winters?

The three winters share coolness and divide on one axis each. True Winter is run by temperature: pure, balanced cool. Bright Winter is run by chroma: the clearest, most vivid colouring in the system. Deep Winter is run by value.

Value means this colouring starts dark. Hair and eyes read dark in a black-and-white photo, whatever the skin depth, and the features stay defined with no makeup on. That built-in depth works like a budget, the same way it does for Deep Autumn: it can be spent on saturated colour, deep shades and a strong lip, and the face still holds its own against them.

Where Deep Winter parts company with Deep Autumn is temperature alone. Both colourings are deep and high contrast, so depth cannot separate them, and contrast cannot either. Deep Winter spends its depth budget on cool versions of everything: blue-red instead of brick, espresso with the warmth removed, black instead of chocolate. Every buying mistake this season makes is a temperature mistake, not a depth one.

It is also the only season that truly owns black. On the other deep seasons black is a compromise that needs warming up; on a Deep Winter it matches the natural depth and contrast exactly, which is why it sharpens the features instead of overwhelming them.

Source: Color-Analysis.Pro, Deep Winter palette and confirmation tests

Which makeup colours suit a Deep Winter?

Think jewel box in a cold room: intense, but always cool. A warm red and a bronzy beige are the two most common mistakes on this season, because both keep the depth and lose the temperature.

Foundation undertone deserves one line here: pink-based or neutral-cool foundations sit natural on this colouring, while golden-based ones are the usual reason Deep Winter makeup looks right in the shop and yellow at home.

• •Blue-red (true red): lips. The season's signature red: blue-based, deep enough to match the face's value.
• •Deep berry: lips. Berry with a blue base; the everyday version of the dramatic lip.
• •Cool wine and burgundy: lips, evening. Wine with blue or purple underneath, never brown-based.
• •Raspberry: lips, lighter days. The brightest a Deep Winter lip usually goes without tipping into Bright Winter.
• •Cool berry rose and plum rose: blush. Blush must be cool and deep enough to register; peach reads as a separate orange patch.
• •Charcoal and graphite: eyes, lid and crease. The season's neutrals: grey-based, not brown-based.
• •Deep navy: eyes, liner. Navy liner gives definition with slightly less severity than black.
• •Aubergine (cool): eyes. Purple kept blue-based; warm plum belongs to autumn.
• •Cool espresso: eyes, crease. Brown with the red and gold removed; check it against true grey to see the coolness.
• •Silver and pewter: eyes, highlight. The metallics for this season; gold and bronze shimmer warm the whole face up.

Source: Color-Analysis.app, the Deep Winter colour palette guide

Which shades fail on a Deep Winter: wrong vs right?

• •Brick red or terracotta lipstick vs blue-red: both are deep reds, but the warm one reads muddy at this depth, as if the colour were slightly dirty. The blue-based red matches the face's temperature, so the features look cleaner, not just redder.
• •Bronze and copper eyeshadow vs charcoal and silver: warm metallics fight cool skin at close range, and the eye area is the closest range there is. Cool metallics give the same shine at the face's own temperature.
• •Peach or coral blush vs berry rose: peach sits on cool skin as a visible orange layer instead of a flush. Berry rose reads as blood under the skin, which is what blush is meant to imitate.
• •Caramel or honey highlights vs cool espresso: the most common salon mistake for this season. Warm ribbons through dark hair add exactly the warmth the skin cannot support, and the whole colouring looks less sharp for it.
• •Camel, cream and warm beige neutrals vs black and optic white: the warm neutrals dull a Deep Winter the way dusty shades dull a Bright Winter.

What hair colours suit a Deep Winter?

Keep the depth, and keep it cool. The working colours are dark shades with blue, violet or ash reflects.

Avoid honey, caramel, copper and golden anything. Lightening is not the only way to lose this season's depth: warming it does the same damage more quietly.

• •Black and blue-black: the core colours, and the reference point every other shade is measured against.
• •Cool espresso: near-black brown with the warmth taken out; the softer option for anyone who finds pure black severe.
• •Dark cool brown: chocolate with the red removed. If a brown shade name mentions chestnut, mahogany or copper, it is an autumn shade, whatever the level.
• •Deep burgundy and violet-black: colour at depth, kept blue-based; the season's way of wearing red in hair without warmth.
• •Icy platinum: the one light exception. It works because it is fully cool and keeps the contrast high, not because light hair suits the season generally. It is also the highest-maintenance option on this list, and it changes what makeup the face needs, so treat it as a separate decision, not a variation.

Am I Deep Winter or Deep Autumn?

The hardest call in the system, because the two seasons share the two things that are easiest to see: depth and contrast. Only temperature separates them, so test temperature directly.

Hold warm depth against cool depth at your face, in daylight. Compare pure black with dark chocolate brown, optic white with cream, and silver with gold. If the cool side of each pair makes your skin look clear and your features sharper, you are Deep Winter. If the warm side clears your skin and the cool side turns it slightly grey or separate, you are Deep Autumn.

The lip version of the same test is faster. A blue-red that looks expensive and settled on you points to Deep Winter; if that same red looks harsh and a brick red looks like home, your depth is warm. Burgundy, pine and sapphire versus rust, olive and bronze report the same answer in clothes.

Against your own family, the dividing line is depth itself. If deep shades define your features and bright ones feel shallow, you are Deep; if vivid, icy colour is what wakes your face up and depth sits heavy, look at Bright Winter instead.

Source: My Color Seasons, Deep Winter colour analysis and FAQs

What should I ask my colourist for?

Depth is easy to lose in a salon, and warmth is easy to add by accident, because warm glosses are the default finishing step. Brief against both, and bring a photo of the target shade on your own face rather than a celebrity reference. Save the shade name, level and toner as a Salon Card.

• •Keep my depth and keep it cool: ash, violet or blue reflects only, and no warm gloss at the end. Say the gloss part out loud; it is where cool colours most often get quietly warmed.
• •Your natural level stated and agreed before anything is mixed; most Deep Winter regrets are temperature accidents, not level accidents.
• •Toner with a name: ash, smoky, violet. Cool alone in a busy salon can still come back neutral, which reads warm on this colouring.
• •The fade plan: cool dark colours fade toward warmth as the pigment leaves, so ask what the colour will look like at week six and what gloss keeps the reflect cool between visits.