The Soft Autumn Color Palette: A Complete Style Guide

Soft Autumn Overview

The Soft Autumn color season is warm, soft, and muted. If you’re a Soft Autumn, you have warm skin undertones and a low contrast level (which means that your skin tone, hair, and eyes are similar in color and blend together, rather than contrasting each other). Soft Autumn falls between True Autumn and Soft Summer on the color season chart, and it includes aspects of both the Autumn and Summer seasons. Here’s a breakdown of some specific characteristics: Hair colors: Golden blonde, strawberry blonde, auburn, caramel browns, golden brown Eye colors: Light brown, medium brown, amber, hazel, soft blue, blue-green Skin tones: Light, medium, tan, and deep skin tones with warm or neutral undertones

How to Tell if You’re a Soft Autumn

Check to see if you have warm undertones. Soft Autumns have warm or warm-leaning undertones, so you'll want to check for this first. The easiest way to do this is to look at the veins on the inside of your wrist to check if they’re green-ish. “Green veins are an easy, uncomplicated way to say that there's usually a little bit of gold tones in your skin, and a warmer palette would be more flattering,” explains professional hair stylist Steven Waldman. On the other hand, if you only see bluish or purple-ish veins, you likely have cool undertones. Another way to check is to try on both gold and silver jewelry. If the gold looks better, you’re likely warm, but if silver looks better, you’re likely cool. You can also try on a plain white shirt and see how it looks against your skin. If your skin looks yellow-ish or golden against the white color, this suggests you have warm undertones, but if it looks pinkish, you may have cool undertones. If you have a mix of these characteristics, you may have neutral undertones (a blend of warm and cool). Soft Autumns can have neutral tones, as long as they’re slightly warm-leaning.

Check your contrast level. Soft Autumns have a low to medium contrast level, which means your hair, eyes, and skin tone are all similar colors, and none of them stands out super intensely. A good way to test this is to take a photo of yourself in black and white. If your skin, hair, and eye colors seem to blend and have a similar level of darkness, you likely have low to medium contrast. For example, someone with golden tan skin, medium brown hair, and soft brown eyes would have low contrast because these shades are all pretty close to each other. On the other hand, someone with very pale ivory skin, dark black hair, and piercing blue eyes would have high contrast because all of these colors are very different from each other.

Assess your natural hair and eye color. Soft Autumns tend to naturally have warm-toned hair colors, such as golden or strawberry blond, auburn, or caramel brown. They also tend to have softer, more muted eye colors, such as golden or medium brown, amber, hazel, soft green, or soft blue. If you have any of these characteristics, you may be a Soft Autumn. Keep in mind that these are basic guidelines, and there may be exceptions. You can definitely still be a Soft Autumn if you don’t fit completely into these categories, especially if a professional has told you that this is your color season.

The Soft Autumn Palette

Soft Autumns look best in gentle, warm, and earthy tones. Think muted and softened versions of the changing colors you might see in nature during the fall season. Examples include soft brown, sandy beige, taupe, dusty rose, salmon pink, olive green, sage green, and pistachio. Value: Colors in the Soft Autumn palette tend to have medium value, which means colors are neither super light nor very dark; they’re somewhere in between. Hue: Colors lean toward the warm end of the spectrum, meaning they have more yellow than blue undertones. Chroma: Colors are low in chroma, meaning they are soft and muted, rather than intensely saturated or bright.

Avoid bright, vibrant colors, as well as deep cool tones. If you’re a Soft Autumn, very bright and saturated colors tend to overpower you. Because of this, your least flattering colors include vibrant yellows, oranges, and reds, bright pinks and greens, and anything neon. You should also avoid jewel tones, like royal blue or deep purple, which are too intense and too cool. For neutrals, avoid cooler tones and pastels, like grey, pure white, or pale blue. Instead, opt for warmer creams, beiges and taupes.

Can Soft Autumns wear black? Because black is such an intense and striking color, it isn’t always the most flattering on Soft Autumns, who look best in more muted tones. If black clothing tends to overpower you, try wearing a caramel brown, deep brown, or warm-leaning dark grey instead. These neutrals will bring out the warmth in your complexion, hair, and eyes, and they won’t overpower you as much. If you still want to wear black, you absolutely can! These aren’t hard and fast rules, and some Soft Autumns look absolutely amazing in black. The most important thing is that you feel comfortable and confident in what you’re wearing, and if you feel that way in a black ensemble, go for it!

Soft Autumn Outfits & Style Advice

Stick to low-contrast color combos. Try not to pair light and dark colors together when you’re coming up with outfits. Soft Autumns look best in similar colors that blend together, rather than bold colors that contrast each other. For example, a Soft Autumn would look great in a muted rose dress with a beige jacket, or a sage green top with light brown bottoms. The colors in these combos don’t contrast each other too sharply, so they won’t overpower you. On the other hand, Soft Autumns should avoid color combos like light ivory and deep hunter green, or very pale pink and deep brown. The contrast between the colors in these combos is too intense. As a Soft Autumn, you can also rock monochromatic looks (outfits with different shades of the same color), since these naturally have lower contrast levels. For example, you could wear a neutral brown dress with a tan jacket and caramel-colored heels, or an olive green button-down with a deeper green blazer.

Patterns When choosing patterned clothing, try to make sure the pattern itself contains mostly colors within your Soft Autumn palette. For example, a pattern with a sage green background and muted pink and cream-colored flowers would look great on you. On the other hand, if the background was very bright, saturated green, it may not suit you as well. Avoid patterns with very high contrast levels, such as a white background with black polka dots. If the background and polka dots are closer in color (like tan and muted rose, or beige and sage green), it will likely suit you more. Additionally, large shapes and sharp geometric edges don’t suit you quite as well. Instead, opt for patterns with smaller elements and softer shapes, like florals or small polka dots.

Accessories For jewelry and metal accents on other accessories, gold and rose gold tend to look better on Soft Autumns than silver. Beyond this, muted or brushed metals are ideal, rather than super shiny or bling-y metals. For things like bags, scarves, shoes, or ties, you can pick pretty much anything you’d like, as long as it falls within your regular Soft Autumn palette. For sunglasses, stylist and image consultant Sarah McDonald recommends keeping your undertones and contrast level in mind. As a Soft Autumn, stick to warm and muted colors like caramel brown, olive green, taupe, or rosy pink, rather than stark or intense colors like black or pure white. Tortoiseshell sunglasses look especially amazing on you, too! To complement your low to medium contrast levels, McDonald suggests “find[ing] ones that are pretty similar to your coloring already.” For example, if you have a tan or golden skin tone, golden brown frames would look great. If you’re a bit fairer, frames in the beige or soft pink family may suit you best.

Soft Autumn Makeup

Eyes For everyday looks, warm neutrals like beiges, browns, coppers, muted pinks, peaces, and taupes look great. Shimmery golden or rose-toned shadows also work well for some sparkle, and subtle greens work well for a pop of color. Due to your lower contrast levels, subtler natural-looking makeup also tends to suit you best, as opposed to more dramatic or striking looks. However, if you want to amp up the drama with a smokey eye, opt for brown tones or muted plums, instead of the usual grey and black, which are too cool and too high-contrast for Soft Autumns.

Cheeks Warm-toned blushes look amazing on Soft Autumns. Rosy pink, peach, or coral blushes are perfect to bring out your natural glow. Warm bronzers also work well. If you want to add some highlighter, make sure it leans toward golden or peach-y toned shimmer, rather than cool silvery tones.

Lips Natural-looking lip colors tend to suit Soft Autumns best. This includes nudes, warm rosy pinks, corals, and copper-y or caramel-y brownish shades. Try to steer clear of dramatic cool-toned shades, like bright berries, dark reds, or vibrant pinks. When it comes to choosing the right lip color, professional makeup artist Katya Gudaeva stresses the importance of trying it on. “There are so many undertones and tones, thousands and thousands of different colors and textures and finishes, so you really need to try it on,” she says. She also explains that different shades will look different on different skin tones. “You might pick a color and think ‘Oh, it's nude,’ and apply it on your lips, and if you have a bright lip color naturally, it will appear pink on your lips instead of being nude […] it’s really trial and error,” Gudaeva explains.

Soft Autumn Hair Color

If you’re thinking of dyeing your hair, stick to warmer colors. As a Soft Autumn with warmer undertones, cool shades will likely wash you out, but warm shades will bring out your natural glow. For blonde, this means “more golden tones and honey tones,” as opposed to platinum or ashy shades, explains Waldman. For brunettes, rich caramel-y shades or medium browns with golden highlights look great, as well. Reddish tones like auburn also suit a Soft Autumn very well.

Soft Autumn Celebrities

Gigi Hadid, Hailey Bieber, and Tyra Banks are all Soft Autumns. There are many other celebrities who fall into this color season as well, including Drew Barrymore, Mariah Carey, Scarlett Johansson, Gisele Bundchen, Vanessa Williams, Adele, Devon Aoki, Nicole Richie, Angelina Jolie, Thandiwe Newton, Kate Moss, Nathalie Emanuel, Robert Pattinson, Ryan Gosling, and Justin Timnberlake.

Soft Autumn vs. Soft Summer

Soft Autumn and Soft Summer are sister palettes. They sit next to each other on the color season chart, so they have a lot in common. For example, both palettes are combinations of Summer and Autumn characteristics, both have lower contrast values, and both look best in soft, muted colors. The main difference is that Soft Autumns have warmer undertones and look best in earthy colors and brownish neutrals, while Soft Summers have cooler undertones and look best in airy pastels and greyish neutrals. For example, Soft Autumns would look best in muted olive green, taupe, soft brown, and dusty rose tones, while Soft Summers would look best in soft lavender, blues, greys, and cooler pinks.