Cool Summer Color Palette: Best Colors, Makeup and Hair

Cool, soft, serene. If you're a Cool Summer, coolness is your strongest trait, so your best colors are blue-based and gently muted. Think dusty rose, soft blue-gray, cool berry and deep periwinkle: refined rather than bold.

This guide pulls from the Cool Summer Complete Guide we give clients after their analysis. It covers your core colors, what to wear in place of black, and how to choose makeup, hair color and jewelry.

Cool Summer at a glance

Every season is a mix of four qualities. For Cool Summer:

Undertone: cool. This is your strongest trait.
Value: medium.
Chroma: soft-leaning, gently muted.
Contrast: low to medium.

Because coolness leads, temperature matters more for you than anything else. A blue-based shade will usually flatter you more than a warm one, even if the warm one is just as soft.

Your best colors

Your core colors are rose violet, purple orchid, raspberry, cherry pink, blossom pink, deep lavender, deep periwinkle, cornflower blue, bright cobalt, ocean teal, teal blue and light jade.

Your foundation neutrals are navy peony, asphalt, frost gray, taupe gray, dove gray and bone white.

What to wear instead of black

True black is a little too harsh for soft, cool coloring. For the same depth with a gentler finish, reach for navy peony, asphalt, deep charcoal, black plum, indigo navy or deep spruce. For crisp white, swap in bone white or soft ivory.

For denim, light and medium blue-gray washes are your best, with a dark indigo wash for contrast. Skip yellowed, warm vintage washes.

Color combinations that work

Try the 60/30/10 rule: one main color for most of the outfit, a second for about a third of it, and a small accent in jewelry, a bag or a scarf. Keep contrast low to medium, and keep everything cool.

Deep lavender, frost gray and bone white: a deep lavender knit, frost gray trousers and a bone white bag.
Cornflower blue, navy peony and blossom pink: a cornflower blue shirt, navy trousers and a blossom pink scarf.
Rose violet, asphalt and dove gray: a rose violet sweater, an asphalt skirt and dove gray flats.
Deep periwinkle, dove gray and raspberry: a deep periwinkle blouse, dove gray trousers and a raspberry bag.

Tonal dressing and soft medium contrast are your sweet spot, with pieces that sit fairly close together in depth.

Your palette through the year

Spring: blossom pink, light jade and soft blue with wisteria, grounded by deeper slate gray and classic navy.
Summer: cool sky blue, turquoise and watermelon on bone white, with teal blue and deep periwinkle for depth.
Fall: plum purple and bordeaux into rose taupe, moss gray, dusty teal and deep spruce.
Winter: cool red and raspberry into deep amethyst, navy peony and hunter green, anchored by asphalt.

Fabrics, prints and metals

Soft, fluid fabrics like velvet, cashmere, chiffon and silk jersey suit your cool, muted coloring. Choose a soft sheen or matte finish over anything stiff or high-shine. For prints, choose soft, blended, watercolor-style patterns with a cool base, like florals, gentle stripes and nature-inspired prints. If a print looks sharp, warm or high-contrast from across the room, it will likely overpower you. Aim for a print that's mostly your palette.

Your best metals are platinum, silver, sterling silver and nickel. Keep shapes delicate and refined. For gemstones, try pearls, moonstone, aquamarine and amethyst.

Makeup for Cool Summer

Lips: nude, rose, pink, mauve, berry and plum.
Blush: pink, mauve, berry, burgundy and raspberry.
Eyes: silver, champagne, pearl, rose gold, brown, gray and pink shadows.
Liner and mascara: navy, charcoal gray, taupe or plum liner, with brown or black-brown mascara.

For foundation, match your undertone and your current depth. If the color you see on the surface of your skin reads differently from your undertone, a neutral foundation is often the easiest match.

Hair color for Cool Summer

Your most flattering hair color usually sits within one to two levels of your natural roots. For Cool Summer, the sweet spot is cool ash and pearl blondes, ashy bronde and cool ash browns with soft highlights. Skip golden, brassy, copper and red tones.

Going gray? Silver and gray hair is naturally cool, so it suits your palette beautifully. Cool or silver toning glosses keep it bright, rather than warm or yellow tones.

Colors to skip, and what to try instead

Warm, bright or very dark colors can work against your soft, cool coloring. Golden, orange-based and neon shades can make you look sallow, and the deepest darks tend to overpower you. Think black, chocolate, rust, tangerine, mustard, olive, camel, neon pink and lime.

A few easy swaps:

Black → navy peony
Camel → taupe gray
Tangerine → watermelon
Chocolate → rich wine
Olive → dusty teal

Your sister season: Cool Winter

Cool Summer and Cool Winter share coolness as their main trait, so you can often borrow Cool Winter's shades that are soft enough to sit beside your palette, like icy pink, icy periwinkle, a blue-red, deep aqua, sapphire and medium navy. Skip its stark, electric and blackened side: pure white, deep black, bright yellows, vivid greens and hot pink. Read more in the Cool Winter color palette.

Not sure you're a Cool Summer?

Cool Summer sits close to Cool Winter, Soft Summer and Light Summer, and lighting, hair color and what you're wearing can all change what you see in the mirror. A professional draping compares colors directly against your face, so you can see the difference for yourself.

Book an in-studio color analysis in St. Louis Park, or start a virtual color analysis from anywhere. Private sessions include your own Complete Season Guide, digital swatches and three outfit checks by email afterward.

Color analysis is a professional opinion, and individual results vary.