Cool Summer color palette.
Cool Summer is the most distinctly cool of the three Summers. Where Light Summer leans pastel and Soft Summer leans muted, Cool Summer is a true cool palette at medium depth — bluer, slightly more saturated, and clearly not warm. Think English garden in early evening rather than Mediterranean noon.
The Cool Summer swatches
These are the same swatches Better in Style uses inside its personal color analysis report. Hex codes are shown so you can match fabrics, paints or screen colours exactly.
The colouring this palette is made for
Hair is cool brown, ash brown or muted dark blonde — no golden or red cast. Skin is cool pink-beige or rosy. Eyes are cool blue, cool grey or cool green. There's enough depth in the face that pure pastels can wash you out, which is why Cool Summer's palette runs slightly richer than Light Summer's.
Best metals for Cool Summer
Silver, white gold, platinum. Cool-toned rose gold can work, but the more orange the rose gold, the worse it sits. Skip yellow gold near the face — wear it as an accent further down if you love it.
Anchor neutrals from your own palette
Cool slate (#667A8F), cool navy and a soft true grey. Anchor with a cool rose-grey (#A7838E) rather than warm beige. Cool ivory (#EEF0EF) replaces cream.
Lean into
- Raspberry, cool watermelon, true rose pink
- Periwinkle, cool denim, soft sapphire
- Cool mint and spruce green
- Plum and cool berry tones
- Slate, cool navy, dove grey
Lean away from
- Orange, peach, salmon — they fight the cool undertone
- Olive, mustard, ochre
- Warm browns (camel, tobacco, chestnut)
- Tomato red — go cool raspberry instead
Shopping note
When trying things on, ask whether the garment makes your face look fresher or more tired. Cool Summer is famously close to several other cool seasons; the body test (does it brighten my eyes? does it calm my skin?) is more reliable than reading hex codes.