Warm Autumn Color Palette

The Warm Autumn color palette

The Warm Autumn color palette on this page has 30 reference shades: the 8 colors of the True Autumn palette that the selfie analysis in the Wearton phone app uses, and 22 shades we chose as styling examples. Most are warm, earthy midtones of medium chroma; cream is the lightest neutral and chocolate the deepest.

Seasonal color analysis describes colors by three qualities. Value is how light or dark a color is. Temperature is how warm or cool it is; many color analysis guides call this quality hue, although hue in color science means the color family, such as red or blue. Chroma is how saturated a color is. Warm Autumn colors are warm and medium in value and chroma: richer than Soft Autumn colors, lighter than Deep Autumn colors and earthier than Warm Spring colors.

Warm Autumn and True Autumn are two names for one season in the 12-season system. Some 16- and 17-season systems use the two names for two separate palettes, so check which system a guide uses. The Wearton app uses 12 seasons and shows this season as True Autumn.

Seasonal color analysis usually recommends warm, golden, earthy shades for Warm Autumn, and counts cool, icy or stark shades as harder to wear near the face. These are styling recommendations, not measured effects on your skin.

Below are 30 reference shades with names and hex codes. A hex code shows how a color looks on a screen. Fabric looks different in different light, so use the swatches as a guide when shopping, not as an exact match.

See the difference

Color analysts test colors with a plain fabric cape under the face, in the same light. Drag the handle to compare icy blue, which is harder to wear for many Warm Autumns, with teal from the palette.

Teal

Icy blue

‹ ›

Warm Autumn neutrals and browns

Warm Autumn neutrals are golden browns and creams. Cream and warm beige are the light neutrals, camel and caramel the middle ones, and saddle brown and chocolate the dark ones. They take the place of white, grey and black, and coats, trousers, boots and bags in these colors go with the rest of the palette.

Warm Autumn greens

Greens are yellow-leaning and earthy: khaki is the lightest, olive and moss are the everyday greens, and forest green is the darkest. Warm jade is the palette's blue-leaning green. Mint, lime and cool emerald are lighter, brighter or cooler than the palette.

Warm Autumn blues and teals

Warm Autumn blues lean green: warm turquoise, teal, peacock and petrol. They give the look of blue while staying warm. Icy blue, cobalt and royal blue are lighter, brighter or cooler.

Warm Autumn reds and oranges

Reds and oranges are the largest family of the Warm Autumn palette. Warm coral and pumpkin are the lightest and brightest, burnt orange, terracotta and rust the earthy middle, and tomato red and brick red the reds. Blue-based reds like cherry and raspberry, and neon orange, are cooler or brighter than the palette.

Warm Autumn pinks and purples

The palette has few pinks and purples, and they lean brown: rosewood and warm plum. Baby pink, lavender and fuchsia are lighter, cooler or brighter.

Warm Autumn yellows and golds

Yellows are golden: marigold, goldenrod, ochre and mustard, with antique gold and bronze as the metallic shades. Lemon yellow, pale butter yellow and neon yellow are lighter or brighter than the palette.

Colors to avoid for Warm Autumn

Optic white, jet black, icy blue, baby pink, fuchsia, cobalt, lavender and cool grey are harder to wear for many Warm Autumns, because they are cool, icy or stark. They are not forbidden. Each one has a warmer swap in the palette. If you love one of them, wear it away from the face (trousers, shoes, a bag), in a small amount, or with a palette color between it and your face, such as a camel scarf or a rust collar.

• →Optic white → Cream #F0E0C0
• →Jet black → Chocolate #5C3A21
• →Icy blue → Warm turquoise #2E8A84
• →Baby pink → Warm coral #D4734F
• →Fuchsia → Rosewood #93524C
• →Cobalt → Petrol #2A5A66
• →Lavender → Warm plum #6E3B45
• →Cool grey → Camel #B8894F

Can Warm Autumn wear black, navy or white?

Warm Autumn can wear black, navy and white with some care: black away from the face or under a warm layer, a soft warm navy below the waist, and cream in place of optic white. Each question below has a short answer first.

Can Warm Autumn wear black?

Yes, Warm Autumn can wear black, but most guides count it among the hardest colors for this season, because it is darker and cooler than the palette. Chocolate, saddle brown and moss give a dark base with the warmth of the palette. To wear black you love, keep it below the waist, or add a camel, rust or gold layer near your face.

Can Warm Autumn wear navy?

Yes, Warm Autumn can wear a soft, warm navy, but guides suggest keeping it away from the face. Bright or stark navy is further from the palette. Petrol and teal give a similar dark blue look and are in the palette.

Can Warm Autumn wear white?

Optic white is cooler and starker than the rest of the palette. Cream and warm off-white give a fresh light color that suits the golden range. A cream shirt under a camel or rust sweater is a typical Warm Autumn pairing.

Can Warm Autumn wear grey?

Yes, Warm Autumn can wear grey when it is warm, such as a charcoal with a brown cast, but the palette's neutrals are browns and creams. Cool greys and silver-greys are further from the palette; a warm scarf or gold jewelry helps if you wear them.

Can Warm Autumn wear pink?

Yes, Warm Autumn can wear pink in warm versions that lean toward coral or brown: warm coral and rosewood. Baby pink is lighter and cooler, and fuchsia is cooler and brighter.

Can Warm Autumn wear purple?

Yes, Warm Autumn can wear purple in warm, brownish versions such as warm plum, in small amounts. Lavender, lilac and bright violet are lighter and cooler.

Can Warm Autumn wear pastels?

Icy pastels are among the hardest colors for many Warm Autumns, because they are light and cool. The same hues in warm versions are in the palette: warm turquoise instead of icy blue, warm coral instead of baby pink, marigold instead of pale yellow.

Can Warm Autumn wear silver?

Yes, Warm Autumn can wear silver, but guides agree that warm metals are easier: gold, bronze, brass and copper. Some guides advise against silver, others accept brushed or softened silver in small pieces, away from the face.

Warm Autumn clothing and outfits

Color combinations

Seasonal color guides usually describe Warm Autumn coloring as low to medium contrast, and suggest outfits whose colors are close in depth and all warm. A simple formula: one warm neutral, one main color and one golden accent. Very stark pairings, like black with optic white, are further from the palette.

• Rust + Cream + Chocolate
• Olive + Camel + Goldenrod
• Teal + Caramel + Cream
• Terracotta + Khaki + Moss
• Pumpkin + Saddle brown + Warm beige
• Brick red + Camel + Forest green

Outfit ideas

Four outfits built only from the palette. Under each one are the colors it uses, so you can rebuild it from your own clothes.

A Warm Autumn capsule wardrobe

Twelve pieces in palette colors. The five tops and four bottoms make 20 top-and-bottom combinations, each worn with the boots; the coat and the bag go with all of them.

• Wool coat, camel
• Silk blouse, cream
• Knit sweater, rust
• Turtleneck, mustard
• Fine-knit sweater, teal
• Shirt, warm beige
• Tailored trousers, chocolate
• Corduroy trousers, moss
• Midi skirt, brick red
• Chinos, khaki
• Leather boots, saddle brown
• Leather bag, caramel

Prints and fabrics

Prints in warm, earthy colors with soft contrast sit closest to the palette: paisley, tartan in rust and olive, leopard print in golden browns, and botanical or ikat prints on a cream or camel ground. Black-and-white prints and icy pastel florals are further from it. Suede, leather, corduroy, tweed, linen and chunky knits in palette colors fit its earthy look; for evening, try silk or satin in teal, rust or bronze.

Am I a Warm Autumn? How to tell

A season describes how your overall coloring works with color: its depth, how warm or cool it leans, and how soft or clear it looks. It is not tied to one skin depth, ethnicity, eye color or hair color. People with fair, medium and deep skin can all be Warm Autumn.

Skin depth and undertone are different things. Depth is how light or dark the skin is. Undertone is whether it leans golden, pink or neutral. Warm Autumn is about the warmth of your overall coloring, hair and eyes included, so it can occur at any skin depth.

Skin

Any depth, from fair to deep, often with a golden, peach or bronze undertone rather than pink.

Eyes

Often warm green, olive, hazel, amber or golden brown, but guides also name blue and dark brown eyes.

Hair

Often copper, auburn, chestnut, golden brown or warm dark brown, with warm tones in daylight. Dyed or grey hair changes the picture, so look at roots, brows and older photos too.

Contrast

Usually low to medium: hair, skin and eyes blend rather than stand out against each other.

A side-by-side comparison

Use clothes or fabrics you already own. Sit by a window in daylight, with no makeup or a light base and your hair pulled back. Compare one pair at a time, and change nothing else between them.

1. Temperature: a warm and a cool color of similar depth, such as rust against a cool raspberry.
2. Chroma: a clear and an earthy version of a similar color, such as bright orange against pumpkin.
3. Depth: a medium and a deep version of a similar warm color, such as camel against espresso.

For each pair, note which one makes your skin look more even and your features more balanced. Taking photos in the same light, or asking a friend, helps. Clothes at home rarely differ in only one quality, so treat the results as a rough guide, not a diagnosis.

If warm, earthy and medium win most of the time, Warm Autumn is a reasonable starting point. If warm wins but the clear, bright colors look better, look at Warm Spring. If the dusty colors look better, look at Soft Autumn. If the deep colors look better, look at Deep Autumn. If your comparisons give mixed results, use Warm Autumn as a starting point, not a fixed label.

Two quick tests are weaker than they seem. Jewelry: guides disagree about silver for Warm Autumn, so a gold-or-silver test alone does not settle a season. Selfies: light and camera settings change how a photo shows color. Wearton's selfie analysis is a starting point too; check it against real clothes in daylight.

Warm Autumn vs similar seasons

Warm Autumn shares borders with three seasons, so it is not always clear which one fits. The table compares it with its two autumn neighbors, Soft Autumn and Deep Autumn, and with Warm Spring, the other warm season.

The qualities and the sample colors of each season come from the Wearton app: its season descriptions, and the first three colors of the palette it uses for each season. The table follows the 12-season system. Names differ between systems: Warm Autumn is also called True Autumn, Warm Spring is also called True Spring (the Wearton app uses that name), Deep Autumn is also called Dark Autumn, and 16- or 17-season systems split the seasons further.

Warm Autumn vs Soft Autumn

Both are autumn seasons, but Soft Autumn is softer, a little lighter and less golden: its colors look greyed, like dusty olive and muted terracotta. Warm Autumn colors are richer and more golden: rust, ochre, goldenrod.

Compare a rust and a dusty, greyed terracotta of similar depth in daylight. If rust makes your skin look more even, Warm Autumn is more likely; if the dusty color does, Soft Autumn is more likely.

Warm Autumn vs Deep Autumn

Both are warm, but Deep Autumn is darker: depth is its main quality. Its main neutrals are chocolate and espresso, where Warm Autumn's are camel and caramel. If deep colors like chocolate and oxblood look balanced on you and medium colors look light or flat, Deep Autumn is more likely.

Warm Autumn vs Warm Spring

Both seasons are warm; the difference is chroma. Warm Spring colors are clear and bright, like coral and golden yellow. Warm Autumn colors are earthier and softer, like rust and mustard. If bright, clear warm colors make you look fresher, look at Warm Spring.

Best hair colors for Warm Autumn

Hair color does not decide your season, and you can wear any hair color you like. If you want a color that works with the Warm Autumn palette, warm, golden shades close to your natural depth are the easiest. Ash blonde, platinum and blue-black are cooler than the rest of the palette.

Does red hair mean Warm Autumn? Not on its own. Some guides call red hair typical for Warm Autumn, but others warn that comparing colors near your face is more reliable than matching your hair or features. Natural dark brown or black hair does not rule out Warm Autumn either. For greying hair, warm lowlights in golden brown or copper are one option we suggest; keeping your natural grey is another.

Warm Autumn makeup

Warm Autumn makeup follows the same idea as the clothes: warm, golden and earthy. The shades below are our suggestions to try, not rules, and not one shade for everyone. Choose the depth that matches your skin: a shade that looks rich on fair skin can disappear on deep skin, and a deep shade can look heavy on fair skin.

Lipstick

Our suggestions for fair to light skin: warm nude, warm coral, terracotta. Medium skin: terracotta, brick red, tomato red. Deep skin: brick red, deep rust and warm brown-red. For a bold lip, try a warm tomato red at any depth.

Blush

Our suggestions for fair to light skin: peach, soft coral. Medium skin: warm coral, terracotta. Deep skin: deep terracotta and rosewood. Blend it well so it looks like a warm flush.

Eyeshadow and eyeliner

Our suggested eyeshadow colors are bronze, copper, olive and moss; on deep skin, try deeper versions too, such as chocolate and deep bronze. Test the depth and opacity of a product on your own skin. Brown, olive or teal eyeliner and brown mascara are the usual advice, but black mascara is fine if you prefer it.

Nails

We suggest rust, terracotta, olive, teal or a warm nude matched to your skin depth. A warm cream is softer than optic white.

Jewelry and metals for Warm Autumn

Seasonal color guides recommend warm metals for Warm Autumn: yellow gold, bronze, brass and copper. Some guides advise against silver, platinum and white gold; others accept brushed or softened silver in small pieces, away from the face. Stones in palette colors, such as amber, carnelian and tiger's eye, follow the same warm range.

Warm Autumn celebrities

Celebrity seasons are opinions from photos, not facts: lighting, makeup, hair dye and editing change how someone looks, and analysts often disagree. The people below are often typed as Warm Autumn: each name appears on two or more of the published lists we read.

• Jennifer Lopez
• Julianne Moore
• Julia Roberts
• Isla Fisher
• Beyoncé

Other lists name more people, each on one list only. We leave them out, because analysts often type the same person differently.

Warm Autumn for men

The same palette works for men. Suits and trousers in chocolate, saddle brown, olive, moss and camel give a dark or middle base with more warmth than black or grey. For shirts: cream, warm beige, khaki, rust and teal. Brown leather shoes and belts, a gold or bronze watch and knitwear in mustard, rust or forest green complete the palette.

When does autumn start and end?

Weather services in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Japan and South Korea count autumn from September 1 to November 30; calendars use the September equinox to the December solstice. In the Southern Hemisphere, autumn starts in March. Some countries use temperature or their own calendars instead (table below). Warm Autumn itself is a color season, not a time of year: you can wear the palette in any month.

The answer depends on the hemisphere, and on which of two definitions your country uses.

Meteorological autumn

Three whole calendar months, used for weather records: September 1 to November 30 in the Northern Hemisphere, March 1 to May 31 in the Southern Hemisphere.

Astronomical autumn

From the equinox to the solstice. The dates move by a day from year to year, and the day can differ by time zone.

Where two days are given, the day depends on your time zone. The Americas can be one day earlier than East Asia and Oceania. The map below shows where autumn usually starts in September, where it starts in March, and the tropics, where many places have no autumn.

Warm Autumn colors work in every season. In a warm place or a hot month, wear the same colors in linen, cotton and light knits.

Common Warm Autumn mistakes

Typical Warm Autumn mistakes are using black and grey as the only neutrals, choosing icy or blue-based colors, and wearing only browns.

1. 1

   Treating black as the only dark neutral

   If you own black clothes, you can keep wearing them; chocolate and saddle brown are dark neutrals with the warmth of the palette.

   Instead: Chocolate, Saddle brown

2. 2

   Choosing icy pastels

   Icy blue and baby pink are light and cool. The palette has warm versions of the same hues.

   Instead: Warm turquoise, Warm coral

3. 3

   Picking cool, blue-based reds and pinks

   Cherry red, raspberry and fuchsia lean blue, so they are cooler than the palette. Warm Autumn reds lean orange or brown.

   Instead: Tomato red, Brick red, Rosewood

4. 4

   Optic white near the face

   Optic white is cooler and starker than the palette. Its light neutrals are cream and warm beige.

   Instead: Cream, Warm beige

5. 5

   Bright cool silver everywhere

   Bright, cool silver is the metal most guides count as hardest for Warm Autumn. Gold, bronze and brass sit closer to the palette.

   Instead: Antique gold, Bronze

6. 6

   Cool greys as everyday neutrals

   Dove grey and light cool grey are further from the palette than warm browns and beiges.

   Instead: Camel, Khaki

7. 7

   Going neon

   Neon orange and lime are much brighter than the palette. Its brightest colors are pumpkin and marigold.

   Instead: Pumpkin, Marigold

8. 8

   Wearing only browns

   An outfit of only browns and beiges can look flat. Greens, teals and reds of the same warmth add color to it.

   Instead: Teal, Olive, Rust

Warm Autumn FAQ