OpenTube

Why Soft Spring Was MISSING From Color Analysis

Color Class

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Why do some blondes feel too bright for Clear Spring… but too warm for Summer?

In this Color Class video, Sara and Lucinda break down one of the MOST overlooked palettes in color analysis: Soft Spring. This missing palette helps explain why so many people feel mistyped in the traditional 12 season color analysis system.

We explore how the original 4 season system evolved into the 12 palette system — and why even the 12 seasons still leave people out. Enter the 16 palette system, where Soft Spring finally gets the recognition it deserves.

If you are light, warm, but NOT extremely bright or high contrast, you may be a Soft Spring.

In this video:
• What makes Soft Spring different from Clear Spring, Warm Spring, and Light Spring
• Why some blondes appear softer and more neutral
• How contrast and “highs and lows” in hair affect color analysis
• Why Hollywood blondes can be difficult to analyze
• Amanda Seyfried vs brighter spring examples
• The difference between SOFT harmony and BRIGHT harmony
• Why softer palettes often lean more neutral
• How the 16 palette system fills the gaps left by the 12 seasons
• Real examples of how highlights can temporarily increase perceived contrast
• Why “soft” does NOT mean dull

This video is part of our “Missing Palettes” series where we explore the additional palettes added when moving from the 12 palette system into the 16 palette system.

At Color Class, we combine art, science, color theory, visual harmony, and real-world observation to modernize seasonal color analysis.

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CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction
00:53 Why Some Palettes Feel “Missing”
01:00 From 4 Seasons to 12 Seasons
01:31 How the 12 Palette System Works
01:58 Why Soft Spring Was Left Out
02:31 What Makes a Soft Spring?
02:56 Soft vs Bright Contrast
03:29 What “Soft” Actually Means
03:52 Hollywood Blonde Challenges
04:20 Amanda Seyfried Example
05:06 Is Amanda Seyfried a Soft Spring?
05:37 What Happens With Dramatic Highlights?
06:03 Comparing Soft Spring to Clear Spring
06:22 Amanda vs Margot Robbie
06:57 Looking at Hair Contrast Up Close
07:37 Why Clear Springs Get Mistyped
08:00 Soft Palettes & Neutrality
08:35 Warmth vs Brightness
09:07 Comparing Soft Autumn to Soft Spring
09:59 Homework for Viewers
10:24 Find Your Own Soft Spring Examples
11:17 Final Thoughts

#softspring #coloranalysis #seasonalcoloranalysis #16palettesystem #springpalette #softspringpalette #clearvssoft #blondecoloranalysis #personalcoloranalysis #springseason #lightwarmsoft #colorclass

20 Comments

@reettaelina 4 months ago

This compare is like my daughter and her friend together. Those blond hair colors are so tricky

@kareno7792 4 months ago (edited)

This so reminds me of a blog on color analysis that I used to read about 10+ years ago. A very controversial post was about a woman with dark brown hair, brown eyes, and perhaps somewhat warm skin tone. She was constantly typed as some sort of Winter but she hated the colors on her. She went to an analyst who typed her as a Bright Spring and she was so happy. However, I (and I have absolutely no color analysis background) and many others thought she looked wrong in the Bright Spring colors too. I'd love to see her typed under your expanded system as I would bet she was an example of a Clear Autumn. The post no longer exists as I guess it really riled up the color analysis community.

@amyk5446 4 months ago

Maybe soft spring is a compromise for us dark blonde/light brown types. I have always felt under-represented in color analysis because being blonde assumes that you have classic light blonde hair. That's not at all the case for me, and I can't be the only one. It's frustrating because l have denim blue eyes, which would point to summer, but hair is too warm, not ashy enough. Too dark for light, too "cool" for warm. Bright is overwhelming. So I guess this is my home.

@rockssolid2543 4 months ago

Carole Jackson on Spring, Color Me Beautiful:
"Some have very dark brown hair. A few Springs are vivid carrot-tops, missing being an Autumn by their need for clear colors."
For Spring hair colors she includes Golden brown and Red-black (rare).

@1Smeegie 4 months ago

This is really good! Instructive, insightful, and eye-opening. Thank you! 🎉

@LindseyHenry-r2f 2 months ago

There is another lady I watch some who also clearly has a ton of experience and she said when you’re looking at older people sometimes you can really see their season pop out at you if you look at a photo with their natural hair color at early 20’s(especially for us natural blondes that turn darker after children and later in life). I have olive in my light skin and can be very difficult to match for foundations. I have dichromatic medium green eyes(green with dark gold star burst)that make them more warm. While my eyes alone look autumn my skin and hair have warm neutral BUT I haven’t found a yellow I look good in besides a neutral slightly warm pale yellow. Mustards and bright yellows look horrible,yet I look great with neutral light highlights that mimic when I was younger or even slightly warm light highlights. Pink Corals are great on me and warm mauves are also great as far as lipsticks,but straight cool light pink can look horrible. I’m probably a soft spring is my guess

@yitzhaklider8819 4 months ago

I think i was a bright spring and now ive gone more soft with age

@Eliiisabeth93 4 months ago

Interesting! I’m one of those people where I’m unsure if I’m light spring or soft spring. My coloring and features are quite close to Amanda’s. My hair especially as I’ve gotten older is more soft darker blonde than bright golden, my skin is very light and neutral-ish, and my eyes are light green similar to Amanda also. I know I’m probably light because I suit pastels the most, and I suspect I’m more soft because warm yellow and orange feel too bright and warm against me.
Would you say Taylor Swift and Elle Fanning are light spring or soft spring? Taylor to me with her natural darker blonde seems like she could be soft.

@Ghriangraf 2 months ago

I feel like I’m a combo of soft summer and soft spring

@mary6171 4 months ago

I had an in-person color analysis done several years ago using a 12 season system and received a true summer result. However, the analyst told me I have some warmth to me. How can that be? Isn’t true summer fully cool? My skin is neutral leaning cool, my eyes are gray green with gold around the pupil and I had light golden blonde hair until I turned 30, at which point it darkened to a bronde with an elusive red undertone to it. As I have aged, my hair has become very ashy and is graying. I have always wondered if I’m actually some type of spring but need more toned down colors than a typical spring. Some of the true summer colors just don’t do anything for me. The pastels of light summer wash me out and the grayed down soft summer do as well. My best colors have medium saturation and depth and are neither extremely warm or extremely cool.

@marydidyouknow5826 4 months ago

No wonder I'm still having trouble finding clothes that look good on me. I'm definitely a soft spring. I'm very similar to your soft spring example. I have blonde-ish hair ( my mother called it dishwater blonde), which was a huge disappointment after being a tow head as a child and then having medium blonde hair as I got older. My eyebrows are barely there and the same color as my hair. My lips are the same color as my skin. I have both golden and pink undertones and soft blue-green eyes with golden brown flecks. Between your videos and eye color videos, I've found out how rare I am. I always thought I was so ugly growing up. Now if only I can find clothing with the right fabrics, fabrication, color, and shape (Kibbe Romantic body with Ingenue and Ethereal essences). Most clothing is not made for my body type, or 10 other body types. It's really annoying. Thank you so much for your videos!!

@TruthLoveConnection 4 months ago (edited)

Hi. Mythical over here. I’ll go grab that on Patreon.

@KATT-p1d 4 months ago (edited)

Ive been enjoying your videos. Very educational. I do wonder why hair is so important because many people color their hair the wrong tone or shade, so wouldnt that throw it off? I sometimes use ash blonde in winter and golden in Summertime. If you look at me with either, I may fall into a new category. I am light spring.

@catherinepiper7830 3 months ago

I’m fair with ash blonde and hello 60.

@lapis_lazuli_gem 3 months ago

I think french TV host and Youtube cooking channel's owner Julie Andrieu (daughter of former actress Nicole Courcel) might be a great example of a soft spring.

@reettaelina 4 months ago

I am thinking my daughter could use spring colors because she looks so pale when she uses her Summer Colors

@soarpurpose 4 months ago

Most 16-palette seasons I've seen have "true" as the extra palettes.

My colouring is deeper than your examples. Depends on the lighting though, whether deep or soft appear more dominant.

@a.v.6158 7 days ago

I'm confused, it looked like Amanda was a soft summer in the first photo

@Petitearos 4 months ago (edited)

Not knowingly these ladies it quickly became confusing 😂
But I would say that the lady on the left had some ash to her hair color. And maybe, due to age, less color to her skin.

@estherpadgett8920 4 months ago

Subject: Natural blondes who turn into dark blondes/ beige/ light brown/ or leaning toward strawberry blonde. No artificial highlights. As a young senior, this person is surely a soft, but which of the three? The hair has some warmth. Not quite as old as the mother here, with just a teeny amount of gray or silver. She would be a better live model than a Hollywood star who gets her brows tinted and hair highlighted and dyed with spray tans. Maybe a neutral?