Soft Summer makeup and hair colors: muted, cool, and softer than you think

Direct answer

What is Soft Summer makeup? Soft Summer makeup is cool, muted and soft: dusty rose, mauve and soft berry lips; grayed taupe, dusty mauve and slate eyes; cool rose blush, with nothing vivid and nothing warm orange anywhere in the bag. Soft Summer (also called Muted Summer) is the summer season defined by softness rather than lightness, and the quickest way to recognize its shades is the gray test: if a color looks slightly grayed, dusty or smoked, it probably belongs to this face, whatever depth the skin is.

How is Soft Summer different from the other summers?

The three summers share coolness and divide on one axis each. Light Summer is run by lightness: the shades are pale first and cool second. True Summer is run by temperature: balanced, clear cool. Soft Summer is run by softness: the color itself is muted, as if gray had been stirred into every shade on the palette.

Softness is not lightness, and confusing the two is this season's most common mistyping. Soft Summer exists at many skin depths, including deep skin, because mutedness is about how grayed the coloring is, not how pale it is. A deep Soft Summer wears the deepest versions of the same palette: plum instead of mauve, charcoal instead of slate, deep rose instead of dusty pink.

The second trait is contrast. Soft Summers sit at low to medium contrast, meaning hair, skin and eyes stay close in depth with no makeup on. That is why high contrast combinations, black with optic white, overpower this face: the coloring has no sharp edges for the outfit to answer. Makeup for this season works by adding gentle definition, never by creating contrast the face does not have.

Which makeup colors suit a Soft Summer?

Think of a clear summer shade with the volume turned down: same cool family, one step quieter and dustier.

Foundation undertone follows the same rule: neutral-cool or pink-based foundations sit natural on this coloring, while golden-based ones are the usual reason Soft Summer makeup looks right in the shop and yellow at home.

• •Dusty rose: lips. The season's signature lip: pink with gray in it, never bubblegum.
• •Mauve: lips. Cool pink purple, muted; the everyday neutral for this coloring.
• •Soft berry: lips, deeper days. Berry with the brightness removed; the strongest lip most Soft Summers need.
• •Cool rose: blush. Blush must be cool and quiet; peach reads as a separate orange patch.
• •Grayed taupe: eyes, lid and crease. The season's neutral: gray and brown in balance, no warmth.
• •Dusty mauve: eyes. Purple kept dusty and cool; vivid violet belongs to the winters.
• •Slate: eyes, liner. Blue gray liner defines without the hard edge of black.
• •Soft plum (muted): eyes, evening. Depth for this season comes from mutedness, not darkness.
• •Rosewood: lips, blush. The bridge shade when a lip and blush need to match in tone.
• •Pewter and soft silver: eyes, highlight. The metallics for this season, worn satin rather than mirror bright.

Source: Curate Your Style, Soft Summer colour palette guide

Source: Soft Summer Palette, Soft Summer makeup colors and products guide

Which shades fail on a Soft Summer: wrong vs right?

Put dusty rose and bright coral on your own photo and watch which one your face agrees with.

• •Bright coral or orange lipstick vs dusty rose: the warm, vivid lip arrives before the face does and makes cool, muted skin look tired by comparison. Dusty rose sits at the face's own temperature and volume, so the features look rested instead of outshouted.
• •Fuchsia or blue-red lipstick vs soft berry: both are cool, but the winter reds are clear and saturated, and saturation is the problem here. Soft berry keeps the coolness and drops the intensity to a level this coloring can hold.
• •Hard black eyeliner vs slate or soft gray-brown: black liner draws a sharp line on a face that has no sharp lines, and the contrast looks pasted on. Slate gives the same definition at the season's own contrast level.
• •Peach or warm coral blush vs cool rose: peach sits on cool skin as a visible orange layer instead of a flush. Cool rose reads as blood under the skin, which is what blush is meant to imitate.
• •Bright gold shimmer vs pewter: gold warms the whole eye area toward autumn, and at close range the mismatch is obvious. Pewter gives the same light at the face's own temperature, in a satin finish rather than a glitter one.

What hair colors suit a Soft Summer?

Keep it cool, and keep it muted. The working colors are browns and blondes with the warmth taken out and a little gray put back in.

Avoid golden, honey, copper and strawberry anything. Warmth is not the only way to leave this season: going too dark and glossy does the same damage, because it builds contrast the face does not have.

Test ash brown and mushroom brown on your photo before anyone reaches for a golden gloss.

• •Ash brown: the core color, mid brown with a smoky reflect; the reference point every other shade is measured against.
• •Mushroom brown: brown with a gray beige cast, named after the fungus; the most requested version of this season's hair because it is muted by design.
• •Cool dark blonde: the deep, grayed blonde sometimes called dishwater blonde; it suits this season precisely because it is not golden.
• •Soft cool brunette: dark brown with the red removed, for deeper Soft Summers; if a shade name mentions chestnut, mahogany or copper, it is an autumn shade.
• •Smoky ash balayage: lightness placed through the ends in ash and cool beige, kept grayed so the contrast stays low.

Am I Soft Summer or Soft Autumn?

The closest call in the light seasons, because the two share the thing that is easiest to see: softness. Both colorings are muted and low to medium contrast, so only temperature separates them, and temperature has to be tested directly.

Hold the cool version and the warm version of the same soft shade at your face, in daylight. Compare silver with gold, slate gray with warm taupe, dusty rose with terracotta, and a grayed mauve with olive. If the cool side makes your skin look clear and your eyes settled, and the warm side turns you slightly yellow or muddy, you are Soft Summer. If the warm side clears your skin and the cool side grays it, you are Soft Autumn, and the full breakdown of that palette is in our Soft Autumn guide.

Jewelry reports the same answer over a week of wearing it: silver and brushed or antique silver sit quiet on a Soft Summer, while bright yellow gold keeps pulling the eye. If you are still torn after the pair test, check your undertone first with our guide to finding it, and run the full twelve season test in our hub.

Source: We Heart This, Soft Summer color palette guide

What should I ask my colorist for?

Softness is easy to lose in a salon, because golden glosses are the default finishing step and ash tones fade warm between visits. 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 it cool and keep it muted: ash, violet or smoky reflects only, and no golden gloss at the end. Say the gloss part out loud; it is where cool colors most often get quietly warmed.
• •Your natural level stated and agreed before anything is mixed; most Soft Summer regrets are temperature accidents, not level accidents.
• •Toner with a name: ash, mushroom, smoky. Cool alone in a busy salon can still come back neutral, which reads warm on this coloring.
• •The fade plan: ash pigment leaves first and brassiness arrives quietly, so ask what the color will look like at week six and which gloss keeps the reflect grayed between visits.