Glossary · Value
Color science
Value
How light or dark a colour (or a face) reads overall, regardless of its hue.
What it means
Value is the lightness scale: a pastel pink is high-value, a navy is low-value. Faces have value too — a fair person with white-blonde hair reads as a high-value face; a deep-skinned person with near-black hair reads as a low-value face. Wearing colours close to your face's overall value tends to harmonise; wearing colours much darker or much lighter creates contrast, which can be flattering or jarring depending on the season.
How it shows up in your Better in Style analysis
Value places you on the light-deep axis of the 12-season system. It's why 'Light Spring' and 'Deep Winter' are both real categories that need different palettes even though many quizzes lump everyone with cool skin into one bucket.