Bright Spring vs Bright Winter
The deciding axis is undertone: Bright Spring is the warm one and Bright Winter is the cool one.
Side by side
The deciding axis is undertone — everything else about these two is close.
Bright Spring
moderately warm, moderately light and strongly bright
Bright Winter
moderately cool, moderately deep and strongly bright
The test that settles it
Do this in daylight, with no makeup, looking at your skin rather than at the fabric.
Bright Spring: Hot coral red #FF5252
Bright Winter: Electric red #FF1744
Hold each colour under your chin in turn. The right one settles your skin — shadows under the eyes recede and the face looks rested. The wrong one pulls those shadows forward and adds a grey or sallow cast. If you cannot see a difference, you are probably between the two, which is common and covered below.
Bright Spring palette
- Hot coral red#FF5252
- Vivid coral#FF6E40
- Bright orange#FF3D00
- Vivid gold#FFC400
- Lemon#FFEA00
- Bright lime#AEEA00
- Vivid green#64DD17
- Emerald#00C853
- Bright jade#00BFA5
- Electric turquoise#00E5FF
Bright Winter palette
- Electric red#FF1744
- Hot pink#F50057
- Bright rose#FF4081
- Vivid orchid#D500F9
- Electric purple#AA00FF
- Bright violet#651FFF
- Electric blue#3D5AFE
- Vivid azure#2979FF
- Bright sapphire#00B0FF
- Electric turquoise#00E5FF
Frequently asked
What is the difference between Bright Spring and Bright Winter?
The deciding axis is undertone: Bright Spring is the warm one and Bright Winter is the cool one. Bright Spring is moderately warm, moderately light and strongly bright; Bright Winter is moderately cool, moderately deep and strongly bright. Everything else about them is close enough that the wrong call still looks acceptable — which is precisely why so many people sit between the two.
How do I tell whether I am Bright Spring or Bright Winter?
Test the deciding axis in isolation. Put hot coral red (#FF5252) beside electric red (#FF1744) against your bare face in daylight, and look at the skin under your eyes and around your mouth rather than at the fabric. One of them will settle your skin and the other will pull shadows forward.
What if both palettes look fine on me?
Then you are genuinely in between, and you should take the overlap. Wear the colours that appear in both palettes as your core wardrobe, and treat each season's extremes as occasional. Being between two neighbouring seasons is common and is not a failure of the system — it is what the boundaries look like from close up.
Which is more common, Bright Spring or Bright Winter?
Neither is rare. Judging by search interest, Bright Spring is looked up more often — but that reflects how often people are told they might be one, not how many actually are.