Every season has a red. The question is which one. Two things decide it, in order. First temperature: an orange-based red such as tomato for warm coloring, a blue-based red such as cherry for cool coloring. Then depth and clarity: the light seasons wear their red pale, the deep seasons dark, the soft seasons muted and the bright seasons clear. Put together, that gives twelve different reds.
If you know your season, skip to the table. If not, the Color Season Quiz places you in a few minutes, and the two-red test below shows you the first half of the answer in a mirror.
Step one: tomato or cherry
Find two reds of similar depth and brightness: a tomato red with visible orange in it, and a cherry red with a hint of blue or pink. Clothes, scarves or even two lipsticks work. Hold each under your chin in daylight, bare-faced, and look at your skin.
On the right side, the red makes your skin look clear and your lips look naturally colored. On the wrong side, a warm red on cool skin brings up redness around the nose and cheeks, and a cool red on warm skin makes the face look sallow or gray. Whichever red wins tells you your temperature.
Step two: depth and clarity
Within each temperature, the red has to match how light or deep, and how clear or soft, your coloring is.
- Light coloring needs a lighter red: light coral if warm, light rose if cool.
- Deep coloring needs a darker red: brick if warm, burgundy if cool.
- Soft coloring needs a muted red: terracotta if warm, dusty rose-red if cool.
- Bright coloring needs a clear, saturated red: hot coral or poppy if warm, true red if cool.
Temperature tells you which family of red. Depth and clarity tell you which member of the family.
The best red for each season, all twelve
| Season | Your red | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Light Spring | Light coral | Warm, light and fresh |
| True Spring | Poppy, coral | Warm and clear |
| Bright Spring | Hot coral, clear poppy | Warm-leaning and vivid |
| Light Summer | Light rose | Cool and pale |
| True Summer | Raspberry | Cool and softened |
| Soft Summer | Dusty rose-red | Cool-leaning and muted |
| Soft Autumn | Terracotta, salmon | Warm-leaning and muted |
| True Autumn | Rust, tomato | Warm and rich |
| Deep Autumn | Brick | Warm and dark |
| Deep Winter | Burgundy, cranberry | Cool and dark |
| True Winter | True red | Cool and clear |
| Bright Winter | True red, bright cherry | Cool-leaning and vivid |
The reds named here come from each season’s palette on this site, filled in with the nearest common name where a palette has no red of its own. Seasons are a styling framework, so treat each row as the center of a range rather than a single shade.
If you are between two reds
When tomato and cherry look about the same on you, your undertone is probably neutral. A true red that leans neither orange nor blue is your safest red, adjusted for depth: a deeper wine if you are dark, a softer rose-red if your coloring is muted. Neutral undertone covers the tie-breaker tests.
People on the border between two sister seasons can also use the red as the test. Burgundy against brick is one of the clearest ways to separate Deep Winter from Deep Autumn, and coral against rust does the same for True Spring and True Autumn.
Red on the lips
The same logic applies to lipstick, at smaller scale: a red lip is a concentrated drape in the middle of your face, so a wrong temperature shows quickly. Your clothing red is a good starting point for your lip red. Lipstick by color season gives the full range of shades for each season, from nudes to reds.