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Seasonal color analysis: the 16 color types

By the LookMemo team · Updated:

Seasonal color analysis sorts a person’s natural coloring (skin, hair and eyes) into seasonal types and gives each type a palette of clothing colors that tend to look harmonious near the face. LookMemo uses 16 types: the 12 widely used seasons plus a true type for each of the four seasons.

Where the idea comes from

Johannes Itten, who taught color at the Bauhaus, observed that people tend to prefer color harmonies that echo their own coloring and wrote about it in The Art of Color (1961). The four-season system became widely known in the 1980s through Carole Jackson’s book Color Me Beautiful.

Later systems split each season into three types by its strongest trait, which gives 12. LookMemo works with 16: those 12 plus a true type for each season.

What the analysis looks at

Three properties of your coloring decide the season:

  • Undertone: warm, with a golden or peachy cast, or cool, with a pink or bluish cast.
  • Value: how light or deep your coloring is overall.
  • Chroma: how clear and bright, or soft and muted, it looks.

The 16 types

Spring is warm and clear, summer cool and soft, autumn warm and muted, winter cool and clear with strong contrast. Inside each season the types are named after their strongest trait:

  • Spring: light, warm, bright and true spring.
  • Summer: light, cool, soft and true summer.
  • Autumn: soft, warm, deep and true autumn.
  • Winter: deep, cool, bright and true winter.

How to find your type from photos

Selfies can work if the light is honest:

  • Stand facing a window in daylight, out of direct sun, with indoor lamps off.
  • Skip makeup, filters and beauty modes.
  • Take two or three photos with your whole face visible against a plain light background.
  • If your hair is dyed, pull it back: dye changes the reading.

How to use your palette

Wear your best colors near the face: tops, collars, scarves. Colors outside the palette still work further away, in trousers, skirts, shoes and bags, or with a flattering layer between them and your face.

Photos are an approximation, because cameras adjust white balance and screens show color differently. Treat the result as a starting point and check the colors on yourself.

How LookMemo helps

In LookMemo you add two or three daylight selfies and get one of the 16 types with a palette of your best and worst colors. The stylist then uses it everywhere: in the 1 to 10 rating of each item, in outfits and in the check before you buy.

The free plan includes the color type. In Premium the analysis can be repeated up to three times a month, and each family member can have their own.

Download on the App Store

Questions

Is seasonal color analysis scientific?

It is a styling convention built on color theory (undertone, lightness and contrast), not a scientific test. Use it as a practical guide for choosing colors.

Can my color type change?

Your undertone stays the same, but new hair color, a tan or graying hair change lightness and contrast, so the best type can shift. Redo the analysis after a big change.

What is the difference between 12 and 16 types?

The 12-type system splits each season by its strongest trait. The 16-type system used by LookMemo adds a true type to each season.

Sources