Your Guide to Warm vs Cool Colors
Need help determining which colors are cool vs warm?
Let’s be honest, whether you’ve known your best colors for 5 years or even 5 days, if you look at a few colors long enough, they can all start looking the same 😂
If you’ve had a color analysis with us, you know whether your skin tone and features are warm, cool, or neutral, but learning to SPOT warm and cool colors in real life can be really hard.
Since we do this all day, every day as color analysts with over 20,000 clients, let us help you figure it out. With a few of our tips you can train your eye to spot the difference between the warm and cool shades of your favorite colors!
Let’s dive into these warm vs. cool colors 👉 : Green | Brown | Red
If you know your color season and want to get even more specific check out our expanded digital palettes. They’re packed with 120+ colors you can have with you while shopping!
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Warm vs Cool Greens
Warm Greens
What do warm greens look like?
Warm greens have a hint of yellow, like grass.
For bright greens, think lime, grass, and shamrock.
For muted greens, think army and khaki.
For deep greens, think olive.
If it has blue tints, like emerald, jade, and spruce, it’s probably not a warm green.
✨Watch Lindsey’s tip for spotting your best green here. ✨
Cool Greens
What do cool greens look like?
Cool greens have a hint of blue, including many jewel-toned greens.
For bright greens, think chartreuse, kelly, or emerald.
For muted greens, think jade and hunter.
For deep greens, think spruce and pine.
If it has any kind of yellow or brown tints, it’s probably not a cool green.
✨Watch Lindsey’s tip for spotting your best green here. ✨
Warm vs Cool Browns
Warm Browns
What do warm browns look like?
Warm browns have a hint of orange or yellow.
For light browns, think camel, yellowy tan, and khaki.
For medium browns, think caramel, cinnamon, sienna, and copper.
For deep browns, think rust, chocolate, and maroon.
If it has purple, gray, or rose undertones, or resembles mocha, it’s probably cool.
✨Watch Lindsey’s tip for spotting your best brown here. ✨
Cool Browns
What do cool browns look like?
Cool browns have a hint of purple, gray, or rose.
For light browns, think light taupe or champagne.
For medium browns, think purpley-taupe, mocha, or rose-brown, or a gray-brown wood stain.
For deep browns, think coffee. Usually a purpley or gray-brown is cool.
If it has any kind of orange, yellow tint, it’s probably not a cool brown.
✨Watch Lindsey’s tip for spotting your best brown here. ✨
Warm vs Cool Reds
Warm Reds
What do warm reds look like?
Warm reds have a hint of orange, coral, or brown.
For bright reds, think candy apple, watermelon, flame, poppy, tomato, or coral.
For muted reds, think terra cotta and amber.
For deep reds, think maroon and brick.
If it has any kind of blue or purple tint, it’s probably not a warm red.
Cool Reds
What do cool reds look like?
Cool reds have a hint of purple, blue, berry, or wine.
For bright reds, think cherry, true red, ruby, or raspberry.
For muted reds, think cranberry.
For deep reds, think wine, crimson, blood red, and scarlet.
If it has any kind of orange, earthy, or coral tint, it’s probably not a cool red.
Learning to discern these subtle differences in color takes time and lots of practice.
I find it helpful to find one or two examples of warm and cool shades of these colors in my closet, and compare potential purchases to those examples in my mind.
(Wait this brown looks like that one sweater that actually was cool and didn’t work on me, etc).
If you’re neutral-toned, you can likely borrow from the least warm and least cool shades of each color. In this case, just avoid the extremes of warmth and coolness, and pay more attention to how light/dark or bright/muted the color is and you’ll be fine!
Wish you could filter items from your favorite stores by warm vs cool colors? WE DO THAT FOR YOU!
We categorize items from popular stores by palette on our blog at Created Colorful!
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