True Spring / True Autumn: What Is The Difference?

I. Seasonal Characteristics

To understand the key differences between the two colour seasons, we have to first look at each one's colour dimensions:

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And it's quickly becoming clear where the differences lie: While both seasons sit at the warmest end of the hue scale, True Spring is lighter and brighter than True Autumn, which is darker and softer.

These differences are reflected in the two seasons' colour palettes: While True Autumn's colours are more muted, True Spring's colours are more saturated and brighter. Similarly, True Autumn's colours are darker than True Spring's. Overall, they are more earthy, while True Spring's colours are fresher.

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True Spring Colour Palette

II. True Spring vs True Autumn

Now that we know the difference in colour dimensions between True Spring and True Autumn, we can identify what makes someone a True Spring or a True Autumn.

Take a look at the following example: both of these women are clearly warm. Their colouring radiates heat, and there is no sign of coolness in their features.

But the woman on the left is a True Spring because she has more brightness in her colouring, and her colouring is lighter than that of the woman on the right. The latter, in contrast, has some grey pigments in her colouring, which makes her appear more muted.

II.i The Drape Test

If you ever have any doubts about your season, the best thing to do is to select the most prominent colours of the palette you are testing and drape yourself in them (or use lipstick with the same colour aspects).

For our purposes, we will use Deepika Padukone and Jamie Chung as examples, and we will drape them in a few True Spring colours as well as True Autumn colours side-by-side, to see which ones work on them.

We can see already that the more muted True Autumn colour doesn't work so well on Deepika. It diminishes her colouring and fades her. The brighter red, on the other hand, lifts her appearance and makes her come to life

Now let's see how the same colours look on Jamie.

Jamie is the exact opposite! While the brighter Spring red overwhelms her, the more muted Autumn version harmonises very well with her colouring.

To make sure that we are seeing is consistent, let's drape the two ladies in some more colours.

The purples confirm our analysis. The muted True Autumn purple isn't intense enough for Deepika and looks a bit bland on her. But the bright True Spring purple lets her shine.

Jamie, in contrast, cannot handle the bright purple. It looks very separate from her. The muted purple blends much better into her appearance.

And lastly, the greens paint a similar picture. The muted Autumn green is too greyed out for Deepika. It washes her out. But the brighter green looks amazing.

The opposite is true for Jamie. The bright green is too intense for her, but the muted one looks gorgeous on her.

Therefore, we can conclude that Deepika is a True Spring and Jamie is a True Autumn.

II.ii The Lipstick Test

If you are still unsure whether you are True Spring or True Autumn, try the lipstick test.

Both seasons look best in very warm lip colours, but True Autumn cannot handle the bright colours of Spring. In contrast, True Springs only truly shine in brighter tones. Muted, brownish colours make them look drained.

Just like we said, Deepika's appearance comes to life in the brighter lipstick. the brown one looks a bit bland on her.

Jamie, on the other hand, cannot handle the bright orange. It's too intense for her and stands out from the rest of her appearance. The more muted, brownish red looks much better on her.

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