DARK WINTER

COOL + DARK

Also referred to as Deep Winter is the COOL + DARK season. Their colors are dark and intense. Think deep forest colors in a dark evening.

Color Dimensions

You are a Dark Winter or a Deep Winter if your features create a light and dark type of contrast. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to have light skin and dark features, you can have dark skin and be a dark type.

A common misconception is that people with dark skin tones will always be a Dark Season, but that is not correct. Taking into account both of the premises stated above, to see if you are a Dark Winter what you want to look at is how intense and dark your hair and eyes look against your skin. The main color aspect of a Dark type is its Value level, in the sense of how deep their features are.

If you remember when we were talking about color dimensions, you will remember that you can alter the Value of a color by adding white into the mix (tint) or adding black into the mix (shade). Since we are talking about Dark types, their colors will be deeper shades of a color.

VALUE AND CONTRAST

Dark types are other high contrast type, along with the Clear types. This will typically mean that your contrast level will be high because your dark hair and eyes look very intense against your skin.

This doesn’t always mean that your skin will be several shades darker than your other features, they just need to look deep and intense against it.

SATURATION

The default is a medium chroma (saturation) level, depending on the coloring of the person it can be slightly brighter or muted, but since it is a tertiary feature, it won’t be a lot.

HUE AND TEMPERATURE

As a cool season, you will look your best in cooler colors. If you are neutral cool, then your colors will be cool, but not extremely cool and you can also wear some warmer colors.

If you feel like this might be your type you must be able to wear dark colors. See if you look good in colors such as emerald green, cobalt blue, and byzantium purple Since you are DARK + COOL, the opposite would be LIGHT + WARM, try to see if your worst colors are pastel yellow, light peach, and melon orange.

Is this the right season for me?

DARK WINTER VS DARK AUTUMN

Your sister palette is the Dark Autumn palette, you can borrow the cooler colors from it. Let's also remember that since your two main color characteristics are COOL and DARK, when you want to wear colors that are not from your palette, they should match one of those. For example, if you want to wear a warm color, it should be dark, and if you want to wear a light color, it should be cool, still, these won't be the best hues for you; also, try to avoid wearing them near from your face.

DARK WINTER AND SOFT SUMMER

We already established that Deep Autumn is your sister palette, now let's talk a bit about your cousin palette, Soft Summer. They are both the softest/more toned down and darker types of their respective seasons, but the colors of a Dark Winter will have more depth and be a bit brighter, and the colors of a Soft Summer will be more muted and be a bit lighter. For example, periwinkle vs grape, sapphire vs cornflower, or seafoam vs dark marine blue.

More resources for Dark Winters

Dowloadables

DYI color season guide

Cocoa Styling

Hire me as your stylist

Colors for Deep Winters

What you want to do is replicate your cool undertone and the depth of your features in your colors. This is why your colors will have a mystical forest vibe.

If you can wear very dark colors without being swallowed by them, you are definitely a Dark Winter. However, Dark Winters with darker skin will still need to add a few pops of either lighter colors or brighter colors because this is still a high contrast type.

Even if your colors are deep, you still have light neutrals. But you want to use them as complementary colors, not as the primary color. They will also be slightly more muted. You can go for the regular black, white, and greys.

Your accent colors are a mix of forest greens, all sorts of blues, and a wide range of purples and pinks.

180+ Color Guide with codes and names

COCOA STYLING'S
DARK WINTER EXAMPLES

*Keep in mind lighting affects how skin might look, so we might move some celebrities to the cooler or warmer counterpart. It’s very useful when they post their makeup routines because they mention their foundation shade letting us know if they are warm, cool, or neutral.*