Deep Autumn vs Deep Winter
If you've worked out that you're definitely some kind of dark season and then hit a wall, you're in good company. Nearly everyone stalls right here. Both of these seasons are deep, so depth is the loudest thing about you either way – which means it tells you nothing at all about which one you actually are. What splits them is temperature and clarity: does your depth run warm and slightly muted, or cool and clean? Below are six tests you can do today with stuff you already own, both palettes side by side, and a straight answer for when it refuses to resolve.
What the two have in common
Both are deep seasons. In the 12-season system that means value leads – the single loudest thing about your colouring is that it's dark. Deep hair, usually deep eyes, and skin that can be any depth at all. Fair skin with near-black hair is a really common deep colouring, and it catches people out – everyone assumes deep means deep skin. It doesn't.
Since depth leads, both seasons want saturated, substantial colour. Pale washy pastels just vanish on you. You can wear a shade that would flatten someone else completely. That shared superpower is exactly why the two get muddled, because the wins overlap enough that one bad draping session can drop you in the wrong season and still look okay.
Where they part ways is the second note. For Deep Autumn it's warmth. For Deep Winter it's coolness. Everything below is a way of hearing that second note over the top of all that depth.
The two palettes, side by side
Try to see each one as a whole rather than shade by shade. Deep Autumn reads like a forest floor in October: earth, rust, olive, bronze. Deep Winter reads like ink and jewels, all black and pine and sapphire and magenta.
Deep Autumn – deep + warm
Deep Winter – deep + cool
Same depth, opposite temperature
Two people, both unmistakably deep, each wearing her own season. Watch the skin above the fabric rather than the fabric itself. That’s where the answer shows up.
Six tests, and what each one is measuring
Do these in daylight, near a window, no makeup, hair pulled back. Indoor bulbs are warm and they will straight up lie to you. Take a photo of each if you can't judge it live, because comparing two photos is so much easier than trying to remember what your face looked like ninety seconds ago.
- 01
True black at the neck
counts doubleThe most useful test for this pair by a mile. Hold a true-black tee under your chin, then swap it for dark chocolate or espresso brown. Deep Winter wins in the black. Deep Autumn wins in the espresso – its version of a neutral anchor.
- 02
Metals
Hold one of each against the inside of your wrist in daylight, then look at the skin next to the metal instead of the metal. One makes your skin look even. The other makes it look patchy or tired.
- 03
The red test
Two lipsticks, one on each half of your mouth, then look at your whole face rather than your lips. The wrong red makes the skin around your mouth go grey or blotchy. The right one makes your teeth look whiter.
- 04
Icy accents
counts doubleThe most decisive test after black, because it isolates clarity rather than temperature. Deep Winter is the only deep season that can take an icy shade without the whole thing collapsing.
- 05
Olive and rust
The mirror image of the icy test. If icy shades work on you and olive really doesn't, you've got your answer twice over.
- 06
High saturation
Deep Winter handles chroma that would swamp almost anyone else. If vivid jewel tones feel like a costume on you, that's a warmer, softer depth talking.
Calling it
Deep Autumn 0 · Deep Winter 0 · answered 0/6
Answer at least four to get a read. Two or three is noise, not a verdict.
Every test above is a manual stand-in for something siOsi measures directly. One photo gives you your season with a confidence score, your undertone on its own, and your contrast level – plus the makeup labs, which catch the problems a season label never explains.
Analyze my photo — freeNo signup · one photo · fifteen labs
If it splits evenly, wear these
The deeps both palettes share. If the tests above kept contradicting each other, this is your reliable middle ground – no true black, no rust, nothing that commits hard to either temperature.
Safe for both
Deep Autumn only
Deep Winter only
The two tests worth setting up
You don't need a drape kit. Two squares of fabric and two lipsticks will settle this for most people.
The makeup shades, side by side
Same intensity for both, opposite temperature. This is where getting the season right pays off daily.
Lips – Deep Autumn
Lips – Deep Winter
Blush – Deep Autumn
Blush – Deep Winter
Eyes – Deep Autumn
Eyes – Deep Winter
Makeup, once you know
Depth is the shared part, so how strong your makeup can go barely changes between these two. Only the temperature does. This is where getting the season right actually pays off day to day.
- Deep Autumn lips
- Brick, terracotta, warm brown-red, burnt sienna. A red with orange in it. Deep warm nudes read as skin on you rather than as beige.
- Deep Winter lips
- True red, wine, deep berry, plum. A red with blue in it. Nudes need a cool rosy base or they go muddy on you.
- Deep Autumn blush
- Warm terracotta, brick and bronzed peach. Cool pinks sit on your skin like a separate layer.
- Deep Winter blush
- Cool berry, plum and true rose. Peach and coral turn orange and fight your skin.
- Deep Autumn eyes
- Bronze, copper, olive, espresso. Warm metals. Brown liner is often better on you than black.
- Deep Winter eyes
- Charcoal, pine, plum, silver-grey. Black liner genuinely is yours, and you're one of very few seasons who can wear it undiluted.
Why people end up in the wrong one
Hair colour, mostly. Both seasons usually come with dark hair, and people read dark hair as automatically cool. It isn't. Near-black hair with a warm brown cast in sunlight is really common in Deep Autumn, and that warm cast is the tell. Check it outdoors, not under your bathroom light.
Dyed hair breaks the read completely. If yours is coloured, judge on skin and eyes only, and expect draping to be harder than it should be. Your natural colour is the thing your season describes. The box dye is just a costume, and the test can still see through it.
Then the classic one: assuming deep skin means Deep Winter and fair skin means anything else. How deep your skin is and how deep your colouring is are two different measurements. Both seasons show up across the entire range of skin tones. What matters is the relationship between your features, not where your skin sits on its own.
“Because it is difficult to print the color swatches 100 percent accurately, verbal descriptions will help you understand the concept of your colors when you shop for clothes.”
Or skip the draping
Everything above is the manual version of what siOsi does from one photo. It names your season and tells you how confident it is, and that confidence number is the useful bit here. A low-confidence read that keeps circling two neighbouring deeps is telling you something real: you're close to the line, so the tests above are worth running instead of just trusting the label.
You also get your undertone on its own (warm, cool, neutral or olive) plus your contrast level, which is the other half of why a colour works on you. Those are measured separately from the season, so when all three agree you can stop second-guessing yourself.
And the season is only part of it. The same photo runs fifteen labs, most of them about makeup rather than colour – whether your base oxidises warm through the day, whether it throws flashback in photos, how your blending and transitions actually read, how long it's lasting. That matters for the shade lists above, because a lipstick can be dead right for Deep Autumn and still fail on you for reasons that have nothing to do with your season.
Free, no signup, one photo. Then come back here and check it against your own eyes, because a window and a black tee are still the honest arbiter.
Watch it done
Draping these two side by side, from colour analysts on YouTube. Some use the “Dark” naming instead of “Deep” – same seasons.
Deep Autumn vs Deep Winter: differences and similarities
Filoso Vlogs
Dark Autumn colour palette and seasonal guide
Mikaela Carrizo
Dark Winter colour palette and seasonal guide
Mikaela Carrizo
Answered
Can I be Deep Autumn with fair skin?
Yes, and more often than people expect. Deep seasons are about the depth of your whole colouring, hair and eyes included, not how deep your skin is on its own. Fair skin with dark brown hair and brown or hazel eyes is a very typical Deep Autumn.
What is the fastest single test?
True black against espresso brown, in daylight, at your neck. Deep Winter comes alive in black. Deep Autumn looks heavier in it and much better in espresso. If you only do one test, do that one.
Is Deep Winter the same as Dark Winter or True Winter?
Deep Winter and Dark Winter are the same season under two naming conventions, so different system, same colouring. True Winter is a different thing: it's the cool-dominant Winter rather than the depth-dominant one. siOsi uses the 12-season names, so Deep Winter is what you'll see in your result.
Can I wear black if I am Deep Autumn?
You can wear it, it's just not doing you any favours next to your face. Keep it below the shoulders, or break it up with a scarf or a necklace in one of your warm deeps. For anything that frames your face, espresso and dark chocolate do the same job without flattening you.
What if the tests keep contradicting each other?
Then you're probably deep neutral, sitting between the two. Wear what both palettes share (charcoal, true navy, deep teal, aubergine, deep pine) and avoid the extremes at either end. Honestly, that's a better outcome than picking a side and then fighting your own palette.
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