Color analysis, in plain English.
A short, opinionated glossary of the terms that come up in personal and seasonal color analysis. Each entry explains what the term actually means and how it shows up in your Better in Style report.
Foundations
What color analysis actually is, and what it's trying to do for you.
Color analysis
A method of identifying which colours flatter your natural features by comparing your skin, hair and eyes to fabrics or digital swatches and observing the effect.
FoundationsPersonal color analysis
Color analysis applied to one specific person — your individual skin, hair and eye combination — rather than a generic palette.
FoundationsColor harmony
When the colours you wear share enough properties (undertone, value, chroma) with your face that the eye reads the whole picture as belonging together.
Color science
The technical building blocks: undertone, overtone, value, chroma, hue.
Undertone
The cool, warm or neutral cast that sits underneath your skin's surface colour. Undertone doesn't change with a tan or with the seasons.
Color scienceOvertone
The surface colour of your skin — how light or deep it appears — separate from the undertone underneath.
Color scienceValue
How light or dark a colour (or a face) reads overall, regardless of its hue.
Color scienceChroma
How saturated or pure a colour is — its distance from grey. High-chroma colours are clear and vivid; low-chroma colours are muted and dusty.
Color scienceContrast level
The amount of visual difference between your hair, skin and eyes — and the amount of contrast a colour combination contains.
Color scienceHue
The actual 'name' of a colour — red, blue, green — independent of how light, dark, bright or muted it is.
12-season system
How the modern 12-season model splits the classic four into something usable.
The 12-season color system
An expansion of the classic four seasons (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter) into twelve more precise sub-seasons that account for whether you lean light, deep, soft, clear, true warm or true cool.
12-season systemSeasonal color analysis
A specific style of color analysis that places people into seasonal categories (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter — or one of twelve sub-seasons) based on undertone, value and chroma.
12-season systemWarm vs cool
The undertone axis: warm colouring leans golden, peach or yellow; cool colouring leans pink, rosy or blue.
12-season systemSoft vs clear
The chroma axis: soft colouring is muted and blended; clear colouring is bright, saturated and high-contrast.
12-season systemLight, soft and deep (the value axis)
Three points on the lightness axis used to refine the 12 seasons. 'Light' overall colouring suits light pastels and washes; 'deep' colouring suits dark, rich, dramatic colours; 'soft' sits in the middle and prefers muted mid-tones.
Process
How analysts actually do this work — in studio and digitally.