Light Spring vs Light Summer
You've worked out you're light. Congrats, that was the easy half. Both of these seasons are light, so lightness is the loudest thing about you either way and it tells you absolutely nothing about which one you are. Both of them also look faintly unwell in anything heavy near the face, so that's not a clue either. The entire split is temperature: does your light run warm and golden, or cool and rosy? Six tests below using stuff already in your house, both palettes side by side, and a straight answer for when it refuses to resolve.
What the two have in common
Both are light seasons, which in the 12-season system means value leads. Your coloring is delicate: light-to-medium hair, light eyes more often than not, and a fairly narrow gap between how light your hair is and how light your skin is. That small gap is the thing – it's why heavy color near your face looks like it arrived without you.
So both seasons share the same failure mode. True black is too much. Deep burgundy is too much. Anything with real weight in it grabs the attention and leaves your face hovering above the fabric like an afterthought. If people keep telling you that you look tired specifically when you wear your favourite black jumper, mystery solved, and it happens in both seasons equally.
What splits them is the second note. Light Spring's light is warm. Light Summer's is cool. That's a subtler difference than it sounds, because both palettes are gentle and neither goes anywhere near a saturated shade, so you're listening for a whisper rather than a shout.
The two palettes, side by side
Take each as a whole. Light Spring reads like early morning: warm ivory, butter, apricot, peach, pistachio, light aqua. Light Summer reads like a cool overcast afternoon: oyster, dove grey, powder blue, lavender, soft rose, mint.
Light Spring – light + warm
Light Summer – light + cool
Same lightness, opposite temperature
Two people, both unmistakably light, each in her own season. Look at the skin just above the fabric. Whether you like the color is a separate question from whether it suits you.
Six tests, and what each one is measuring
Daylight, near a window, no makeup, hair pulled back. This pair is the most light-sensitive of all of them, because both palettes are gentle and warm bulbs will tilt every single test toward Spring. Test in the morning. Photograph each one.
- 01
Cream against soft white
counts doubleTwo sheets of paper, one cream and one copier-white, held under the chin in daylight. The most reliable test for this pair, and free. Neither of you wants a stark optic white, so judge between the two off-whites.
- 02
Peach against soft pink
counts doubleThe second decisive one. One blush on each cheek, then stand back a metre and look at your whole face. You are checking which one disappears into your skin, not which one you can see more.
- 03
Light metals
Hold one of each against the inside of your wrist and look at the skin next to the metal rather than the metal. One makes your skin look even, the other makes it look a bit mottled.
- 04
Aqua against powder blue
Both seasons wear light blue happily, so this one isn't about whether blue suits you. It's about which *kind*. If the greener aqua looks livelier on you, that's Spring.
- 05
Apple green against mint
The mirror image of the aqua test, and a good confirmation. If yellow-greens suit you and mint looks a bit cold and flat, you have now answered the temperature question twice.
- 06
The red question
Neither of you wants a deep red at all, so keep both options light. Two lipsticks, one on each half of your mouth, then judge the skin around your mouth rather than your lips.
Calling it
Light Spring 0 · Light Summer 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 reads off a photo. 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 photoFirst look free · one photo · fifteen labs
If it splits evenly, wear these
The lights both palettes share. If the tests kept swapping sides on you, this is the reliable ground – light, gentle, and committed to neither temperature.
Safe for both
Light Spring only
Light Summer only
The two tests worth setting up
Both of these you can do in the next five minutes with things already in the house.
The makeup shades, side by side
Same gentleness for both, opposite temperature. Light seasons get overwhelmed easily, so shade choice matters more than technique here.
Lips – Light Spring
Lips – Light Summer
Blush – Light Spring
Blush – Light Summer
Eyes – Light Spring
Eyes – Light Summer
Makeup, once you know
Keep the intensity down in both seasons. The single most common mistake for light coloring is a shade that is correct on temperature and about three steps too strong.
- Light Spring lips
- Warm coral, light salmon, soft apricot. Nudes want a peachy base. A deep berry will read as a costume on you.
- Light Summer lips
- Cool rose, raspberry, soft pink. Nudes want a pink-beige base rather than a peachy one.
- Light Spring blush
- Peach, warm apricot, light coral, applied sheerly. Cool pinks read slightly grey against your skin.
- Light Summer blush
- Soft rose, cool pink, petal. Peach turns orange on you and stops looking like a flush.
- Light Spring eyes
- Light camel, soft gold, light moss. Brown liner, and a softer brown than you think. Black liner is far too heavy for your coloring.
- Light Summer eyes
- Soft grey, lavender, soft teal. Grey liner instead of black. Cool taupes work better on you than any warm brown.
Why people end up in the wrong one
Hair, and specifically highlights. Light Summer with warm honey highlights reads Spring in every photo, and Light Spring who has gone ashy blonde reads Summer. If your hair is colored at all, judge on skin and eyes only, and expect this comparison to be harder than it should be.
Sun exposure is the other one. A tan pushes almost everyone warmer for a few months, and a Light Summer tested in August will very often come out Light Spring. If you can, test in the part of the year when your skin is at its own baseline.
Then the same trap as every light pair: reading light as *low contrast*. They aren't the same measurement. You can be light with a fairly noticeable gap between your hair and your skin, and that gap is what tells you whether you're a light season or a true summer or spring. Check your contrast level separately rather than assuming it follows from being pale.
Or skip the draping
All of the above is the manual version of what siOsi does from a photo. It names your season and gives a confidence score, and for this pair the score earns its keep: a low-confidence read circling two neighbouring lights means you're near the border, so the shared-middle list above will serve you better than committing to a side.
Undertone comes back separately (warm, cool, neutral or olive) along with your contrast level, which is the exact measurement the last paragraph above is about. Getting those two independently is what stops the light-versus-low-contrast mix-up.
The season is also only a slice of it. One photo runs fifteen labs, most of them makeup rather than color – whether your base oxidises warm through the day, whether it throws flashback under a camera flash, how your blending and transitions read at normal viewing distance, how long everything is lasting. Light coloring is unforgiving about base shade in particular, so that part is worth having.
One photo, and your first look is free without an account. Then come back and check it with two sheets of paper by a window, because that test is still the honest one.
Watch it done
Draping these two side by side, from color analysts on YouTube. Some use the “Dark” naming instead of “Deep” – same seasons.
Color Analysis Session | Spring or Summer?
Color Analysis Studio
Light Summer color palette and seasonal guide
Mikaela Carrizo
Discover the Spring palette: Light, Warm or Clear?
Color Class
Answered
What is the fastest single test for Light Spring vs Light Summer?
Cream paper against cool copier-white paper, under your chin, in daylight. Light Spring looks clean and lifted against the cream. Light Summer looks fresh against the cool white and slightly sallow against the cream. It costs nothing and it is the most reliable single test for this pair.
Can I be a light season with medium or deep skin?
Light describes the depth of your whole coloring rather than your skin alone, so it's less common but it does happen – light coloring generally means your hair, eyes and skin all sit fairly close together and none of them is deep. If your hair is dark, you're much more likely a true summer, a soft season or a deep one.
Is Light Summer the same as Light Spring but cooler?
Effectively yes, and that's why they're confused so often. They share a value band and differ on temperature. Light Summer's palette is cool and slightly greyer; Light Spring's is warm and slightly clearer. Everything else about how you should dress and do your makeup is close to identical.
Why do I test as Light Spring in summer and Light Summer in winter?
Because a tan pushes your skin warmer, and draping reads the skin you currently have. That seasonal swing is a real effect rather than a mistake on your part. Test when your skin is at its baseline, and if you can only test while tanned, weight the eye and hair evidence more heavily than the skin.
What if the tests keep contradicting each other?
Then you are probably light neutral. Wear what both palettes share (light sky blue, soft taupe, shell pink, mint, a soft off-white) and avoid warm ivory and cool grey at the two extremes. Keep everything light and let the temperature sit in the middle.
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