What is your color season?

A free color analysis test that reads 478 facial landmarks from one photo and reports your undertone, skin depth, clarity and your color season out of twelve, right in your browser.

What the color analysis test measures

The color analysis test at faceshapetest.app is a free tool that reads the colors of your skin, eyes and hair from one front-facing photo. It finds 478 points on your face with MediaPipe Face Landmarker, entirely in your browser. The photo never leaves your device, there is no sign-up, and it takes about a second.

The landmarks locate eight skin patches: both cheeks, the cheek apples, the forehead, the upper forehead at each side, and the chin. They also find the whites of the eyes, the iris, and the hair above the forehead and temples. Each patch is the median color of a small disc, ignoring blown highlights and shadows.

First, the tool corrects for the light in the room. Eye whites are close to neutral gray, so it scales the color channels until they read gray, with the correction capped. It reports the lighting cast it removed, a yellow or blue tint, so you know how much the photo fought you.

If your eyes are closed, hidden by glasses or too dark to read, no correction is applied and the result says so.

The corrected colors are converted to CIE Lab*, a color space built so that equal steps look equally different. From Lab the test reads three axes: undertone, depth and clarity. Together they answer "what season am I" with one of twelve color seasons.

The result shows a gauge for each axis, color chips for your measured skin, eye and hair, your season with its family, a strip of about ten colors that suit it, and four colors to hold up against your face as a check.

None of this is a diagnosis. An in-person drape session with a trained analyst, colored fabrics held to your face, is the gold standard of personal color analysis. A photo can only approximate it, and this page says where the approximation ends. The same photo also gives your face shape and eye shape.

Warm, cool or neutral: your undertone

Undertone is the hue of your skin, separate from how light or dark it is. Warm skin leans yellow, golden or peach. Cool skin leans pink, red or blue. Neutral sits between, and most people are closer to the middle than they expect.

The tool measures hue as the angle of your skin color in the Lab plane. A higher angle means more yellow than red, which reads warm; a lower angle means more red than yellow, which reads cool. It is reported as a percentile against 3,079 reference faces, so 50 is a typical hue.

Warm and cool are the top and bottom bands of that distribution, and neutral is the broad middle. The labels are rankings among real faces, not fixed thresholds, so neutral means your skin's hue is ordinary, the most common honest answer to "warm or cool undertone."

Because undertone is hue, not lightness, it is independent of depth. Deep skin can be cool, with a rosy or blue cast under the brown, and fair skin can be warm, with a golden or peach cast under the ivory.

The vein and jewelry tests, and why a photo does better and worse than them

The vein test says blue or purple veins at the wrist mean cool undertones and green veins mean warm. Veins do look greener through yellow-leaning skin and bluer through pink-leaning skin, so it tracks hue. But it depends on skin thickness, vein depth and the light, and many people see both colors.

The jewelry test says silver flatters cool skin and gold flatters warm. It is closer to a real drape, since it compares two colors against your face, but a preference for one metal often decides the answer first.

A photo does better than both in one way: it measures skin hue as a number, from several patches, after correcting for the light. It does worse in another: it sees only the light that reached the camera, so a yellow bulb or blue wall can move the number more than your skin.

Light, medium or deep: skin depth on the ITA scale

Depth is how light or dark your skin is. The tool measures it with the Individual Typology Angle, or ITA, a dermatology scale computed from L* and b* in Lab. Chardon, Cretois and Hourseau introduced it in 1991 to classify skin color for sun-exposure research.

ITA runs from very light, above 55 degrees, through light, 41 to 55, intermediate, 28 to 41, tan, 10 to 28, brown, minus 30 to 10, and dark, below minus 30. Higher angles are lighter skin. Del Bino and Bernerd showed in 2013 that these bands track how skin responds to ultraviolet light.

For the season logic the tool groups those six bands into three: light covers very light and light, medium covers intermediate and tan, deep covers brown and dark. Your exact ITA value sits on the depth gauge, so you can see how close you are to the next band.

Light and deep decide the Light and Deep seasons; medium hands the decision to the other two axes.

A tan raises b* and lowers L*, which moves ITA down a band. The tool cannot separate a tan from base skin, so it reads the skin in the photo.

Bright or soft: clarity and contrast

Clarity is the axis people most often miss. Two people with the same warm, medium skin can suit different palettes, because one has high skin-to-hair contrast and vivid coloring, and the other low contrast and muted coloring.

The tool reads clarity from two numbers. The first is skin chroma, the distance of your skin color from gray in Lab. The second is value contrast, the difference in lightness between your skin and your hair. When hair is not visible, it uses the iris instead.

High contrast with clear color reads bright. Low contrast with muted color reads soft. In between, clarity drops out of the season name and undertone and depth alone give the True seasons.

Hair drives most of the contrast reading, and the tool takes hair as it appears. Dyed hair counts as your current hair color, because that is what people see. Bleaching dark hair or darkening light hair can move clarity a full step.

The twelve color seasons

Seasonal color analysis started with four groups, published for a wide audience by Carole Jackson in 1980: Spring warm and light, Summer cool and light, Autumn warm and deep, Winter cool and deep. Many people did not fit cleanly into any of the four.

The 12 season color analysis system splits each family into three by asking which quality dominates. The tool uses the same idea: the family comes from undertone, and the leading trait from whichever of depth and clarity is most pronounced.

A neutral undertone lands in one of the Light, Soft, Deep or Bright seasons, whichever fits your depth and clarity, and the tool says whether you lean warm or cool within it.

Spring

Spring is the warm, clear family. Skin has a golden or peach cast, eyes are often clear blue, green, hazel or warm brown, and hair runs from golden blonde through strawberry to light warm brown.

Light Spring is the palest warm coloring, with light skin, light hair and light eyes, and little contrast between them. It suits peach, warm ivory, light aqua, coral and soft golden yellow.

True Spring is warm and medium, with warmth as the leading trait, often with golden or copper hair. It suits warm coral, bright turquoise, golden yellow, apple green and camel.

Bright Spring has clarity as its leading trait, with high contrast between skin and hair or eyes. It suits clear red, hot coral, bright cobalt, true turquoise and warm white.

Summer

Summer is the cool, soft family. Skin has a pink or rosy cast, eyes are gray, blue, gray-green or soft brown, and hair is ash blonde to ash brown.

Light Summer is pale and cool, with light hair, light eyes and light skin close together in value. It suits powder blue, lavender, rose pink, soft white and pale gray.

True Summer is cool and medium, with coolness leading, often with ash hair and blue or gray eyes. It suits raspberry, French navy, periwinkle, cool rose and slate blue.

Soft Summer has softness leading, with muted coloring and low contrast between skin, eyes and hair. It suits dusty rose, mauve, soft teal, gray-blue and stone.

Autumn

Autumn is the warm, deep family. Skin has a golden, bronze or olive cast, eyes are warm brown, hazel, olive green or amber, and hair runs from auburn through chestnut to dark warm brown.

Soft Autumn is warm and muted, with skin, hair and eyes close together in a soft golden range. It suits olive, warm taupe, salmon, moss green and soft teal.

True Autumn is warm and medium with warmth leading, the richer warm medium opposite True Spring's clearer one. It suits rust, mustard, olive, tomato red and chocolate brown.

Deep Autumn has depth leading, with dark hair and eyes on warm skin of any depth. It suits burgundy, forest green, terracotta, dark teal and black-brown.

Winter

Winter is the cool, deep or bright family. Skin has a cool pink, olive or blue-black cast, eyes are dark brown, black, icy blue or clear green, and hair is dark brown to black.

Deep Winter has depth leading, with very dark hair and eyes on cool skin of any depth. It suits black, pine green, true red, deep plum and cool white.

True Winter is cool with high contrast leading, typically dark hair against skin that is clearly lighter. It suits royal blue, fuchsia, emerald, icy pink and charcoal.

Bright Winter has clarity leading, with vivid eyes and sharp contrast. It suits hot pink, electric blue, lemon yellow, bright emerald and pure white.

What to wear, and what to test first

A palette is a starting point, not a uniform. The colors that matter most are the ones nearest your face: shirts, sweaters, scarves, coats and collars. Trousers, shoes and bags can be anything.

Start with the four test colors the tool gives you. Hold each under your chin in daylight, in a mirror, and watch your face rather than the fabric. A color in your season makes skin look even and eyes clearer. A color outside it deepens shadows, strengthens redness or makes skin look sallow.

Undertone is the first thing to get right. Warm seasons look best in warm neutrals: camel, cream, olive, chocolate, warm gray. Cool seasons look best in cool neutrals: navy, charcoal, soft white, gray, and black for the Winters. A neutral reading borrows from both, starting with the side you lean toward.

Then match depth and clarity: light seasons suit light, low-contrast outfits, deep seasons carry dark colors and strong contrast, bright seasons take pure, saturated color, and soft seasons look better in dusty, grayed versions of the same hues.

Hair color moves in the same direction. A warm season going lighter looks most natural in golden or honey tones, a cool season in ash or beige. Going much darker than your natural contrast pushes a Soft or Light reading toward Deep.

For anyone who wears makeup, undertone applies to foundation first. Warm undertones match foundations labeled golden, yellow or warm; cool undertones match pink, rosy or cool; neutral sits between. Blush and lipstick follow the palette: coral and peach for warm seasons, rose and berry for cool ones.

Metals follow the jewelry test. Gold and bronze tend to flatter warm seasons, silver and platinum cool ones, and rose gold or mixed metals sit comfortably on neutrals. Watch straps, glasses frames and belt buckles count too. The face shape guides cover frame shape; this page covers frame color.

How to get an accurate reading

Color is the reading on this site most affected by the room. The least confident readings almost always trace back to light: yellow indoor bulbs push warm, blue shade pushes cool, and a beauty filter flattens chroma.

• Shoot in daylight near a window, with no direct sun on your face.
• Use a plain, neutral background. A colored wall bounces its color onto your skin.
• No makeup, self-tanner or colored contact lenses. Each replaces a color the tool is measuring.
• Keep your eyes open and lit. Eye whites are the white balance reference; without them there is no correction.
• Let your hair show above the forehead and temples, or the tool falls back to your iris for contrast.
• Turn off beauty filters and skin smoothing.
• Face the camera straight on at eye level. The test flags a photo past 12 degrees of turn and asks for a retake past 25.

Take two or three photos in the same light. If undertone, depth and clarity agree, you have a stable reading. If they move, the light changed, not your coloring. A large lighting cast in the result means a daylight retake deserves more trust than the correction.

Frequently asked questions

What color season am I?

Upload a front-facing photo and the color analysis test measures your skin, eye and hair colors, corrects for room light, and places you in one of twelve seasons. Undertone picks the family, Spring, Summer, Autumn or Winter; depth and clarity pick the sub-type. A palette of about ten colors comes with it.

Is my undertone warm or cool?

The test measures the hue of your skin in CIE Lab from eight patches on the cheeks, forehead and chin. A hue that leans yellow or golden reads warm; one that leans pink or red reads cool. Warm and cool are the top and bottom bands among 3,079 reference faces; the middle reads neutral.

How accurate is color analysis from a photo?

It is an approximation. The tool corrects white balance from the whites of your eyes and reports the lighting cast it removed, but it cannot see skin under mixed light, drape fabric, or separate a tan from base skin. A session with a trained analyst is the gold standard. A daylight photo gets close.

Can I do color analysis with dyed hair?

Yes, with one caveat. The test reads hair as it appears, because that is what sits next to your face. Dyed hair changes the contrast between skin and hair, which drives the clarity axis, so bleached or darkened hair can move a Soft reading toward Bright or Deep. Undertone and depth do not change.

Why did I get a neutral undertone?

Because most people are neutral. The undertone reading is a percentile among real faces, and warm and cool are the top and bottom bands, so the middle is most common. Neutral is not a failure. It means depth and clarity decide your palette more than hue, and the tool says which way you lean.

Does your color season change with age or a tan?

Depth and clarity can. A tan moves skin down the ITA scale, sometimes a full band, and hair that greys with age lowers contrast, which pushes a reading toward Soft or Light. Undertone, the hue under the surface, stays fairly stable. A winter photo without a tan is the best guide to your base.

References

• Chardon, A., Cretois, I., & Hourseau, C. (1991). Skin colour typology and suntanning pathways. International Journal of Cosmetic Science, 13(4), 191-208. Introduces the Individual Typology Angle.
• Del Bino, S., & Bernerd, F. (2013). Variations in skin colour and the biological consequences of ultraviolet radiation exposure. British Journal of Dermatology, 169(Suppl. 3), 33-40. The ITA bands from very light to dark.
• Jackson, C. (1980). Color Me Beautiful. Acropolis Books. The four-season system.
• Kalisz, K. Understanding Your Color. Sci\ART. The twelve-season method built on hue, value and chroma.
• CIE 15:2004. Colorimetry (3rd ed.). Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage, Vienna. Defines the CIE 1976 Lab* color space.
• Google AI for Developers. MediaPipe Face Landmarker guide. ai.google.dev/edge/mediapipe/solutions/vision/face_landmarker. The 478-point face mesh this test runs.