colormatch

The spring colour palette

Warm, clear and light — the palette of a garden in early morning sun, before the colours have had a chance to dust over.

Spring is the warm, light end of colour analysis. Every shade in it has yellow somewhere inside, and every shade stays bright rather than muted: coral rather than brick, apple green rather than olive, golden yellow rather than mustard. Held against a spring colouring, these shades make the skin look rested; the same face under a heavy, greyed colour tends to look tired instead.

It is the smallest of the four palettes in most wardrobes, mainly because high-street clothing swings between cool pastels and dark neutrals, and spring lives in neither. Knowing the exact shades — and their codes — is what turns a frustrating shopping trip into a short one.

Undertone: Warm (golden)

Spring colours to wear

The shades that earn their place next to your face — tops, scarves, collars and frames. Every code is the exact colour, so it can be pasted into a shop filter.

  • Coral#E8734A
  • Peach#F0A878
  • Golden Yellow#E8B33C
  • Apple Green#84B23C
  • Warm Turquoise#2F9E9E
  • Aqua Blue#4AA6C8
  • Salmon Pink#E58B7B
  • Periwinkle#7D8FD6
  • Bright Poppy#D8452F
  • Light Moss#A3B56B

Spring neutrals

The quiet shades to build around: coats, trousers, bags and anything you buy once.

  • Ivory#F4EAD6
  • Camel#B98B4F
  • Warm Beige#CDB08A
  • Soft Navy#3C4D7A

Shades spring finds difficult

Very dark and dusty colours can look heavy next to a light, warm colouring and can make the face look tired.

  • Black#111111
  • Burgundy#5D1A2B
  • Dusty Mauve#9B8290
  • Charcoal Grey#3A3D42
  • Icy Grey Blue#B9C6D2

Is spring your season?

Spring is likely to be your season if several of these are true at once. One on its own proves nothing.

  • Your veins look green rather than blue in daylight.
  • Gold jewellery sits more comfortably on you than silver.
  • Ivory and cream look better on you than optical white.
  • Your hair has warmth in it — golden, honey, strawberry or light auburn.
  • Black next to your face looks severe rather than smart.

Get your free colour report

Wearing the spring palette

  1. Put the clear colours near your face

    Coral, peach, warm turquoise and apple green do their work at the neckline: a top, a scarf, a collar, the frame of your glasses. Below the waist the rule relaxes completely — a skirt or trousers in a colour that is not yours causes no trouble at all.

  2. Swap the black pieces, not the whole wardrobe

    Most of what makes a wardrobe look wrong on a spring colouring is the dark neutral doing the heavy lifting. Soft navy, camel and warm brown do the same job without the drain, and they combine with the brighter shades far more easily than black does.

  3. Keep white warm

    Ivory, cream and warm beige read as "white" in an outfit while staying on the warm side. Optical white, the kind used in office shirts, is the single most common spring mistake — it is bright but cold, and it makes the face look flushed.

Where it usually goes wrong

  • Reaching for pastels. Spring is light but not washed out; a chalky pastel flattens it, where a clear peach does not.
  • Treating every warm colour as safe. Mustard, rust and olive are warm but muted, and they belong to autumn — spring wants warmth with brightness still in it.
  • Buying the palette in bulk. Four or five correct pieces near the face change more than a wardrobe rebuilt from scratch.

Questions about the spring palette

What is the difference between spring and autumn?

Both are warm, so both suit gold and struggle with stark white. The difference is clarity: spring colours are bright and fresh, autumn colours are muted and earthy. The same warm orange exists as spring coral and as autumn rust — if the brighter one lifts your face and the earthy one dulls it, you are spring.

Can spring wear black at all?

Away from the face, yes — trousers, shoes, a bag. Right under the chin it tends to look heavy against a light warm colouring. Soft navy or a warm dark brown gives you the same anchoring effect without it.

Is spring only for fair skin?

No. Depth of skin and undertone are separate things: spring occurs across the full range of skin tones, from very fair to deep. What the season describes is the direction your colouring leans — warm and clear — not how light or dark you are.

What are the hex codes for?

They are the exact recipes for the shades on this page. Paste one into a shop filter, a paint chart or a yarn search and you get that colour rather than an approximation of it.

How do I know for certain that I am a spring?

Nothing here is a measurement, so certainty is the wrong bar. Take the free colour report — either from a photo or from seven questions about things you can check at home — and compare the palette it gives you with the one on this page.

The three kinds of spring

Twelve-season systems divide each season into three. The free report gives you the parent season, which is enough to shop with; these pages are for working out which edge of it you sit on.

The other three palettes