No color makes everyone look younger. Two things make a face read as younger: features that stand out clearly from the skin, and skin that looks even. The colors that help are the ones that keep both true for your own coloring, which means they match your depth, your clarity and your undertone. For one person that is soft rose, for another cobalt blue.
The colors that do this for you are, more or less, your color season’s palette. If you don’t know it yet, the Color Season Quiz finds it from twelve questions.
What makes a face read younger
Two lines of research point the same way. Porcheron, Mauger and Russell (2013) measured the faces of 289 French women aged 20 to 69 and found that the contrast between the features (eyes, brows and lips) and the skin around them tends to decrease with age. When they raised that contrast in photos, observers judged the faces younger; when they lowered it, older. The study covered one population, and the authors caution against generalizing beyond it.
Earlier work by Fink, Grammer and Matts (2006) found that faces with more even skin color were judged younger than the same faces with patchier color.
Clothing cannot change your features, but it changes the setting they are seen in. A color that adds shadows, redness or a sallow cast makes skin look less even. A color that overpowers the face draws the eye away from the features. A color that suits you does neither.
Why “light and bright” is only half right
Most lists of youthful colors recommend light, bright shades near the face. For some people that works: light, clear colors bounce light onto the skin and keep shadows soft. For others it fails twice.
On soft, blended coloring, bright colors are stronger than anything in the face, so the eye goes to the clothes and the skin looks dull beside them. On deep coloring, very light pastels look chalky and make the face look darker. The useful rule is not “lighter and brighter” but “as light, as deep and as bright as you are”. The three ways a color can miss are set out in colors that make you look washed out.
Colors that keep your face clear, by season family
All colors below come from the season palettes on this site.
| Your season type | Colors that keep features clear | Colors that tend to flatten |
|---|---|---|
| Light (Light Spring, Light Summer) | Peach, light coral, aqua, powder blue, lavender | Black, heavy earth tones |
| Bright (Bright Spring, Bright Winter) | Hot coral, emerald, electric blue, hot pink | Dusty, grayed colors |
| Soft (Soft Summer, Soft Autumn) | Rose, mauve, dusty blue, sage, muted teal | Neon, bright jewel tones, stark black and white |
| Deep (Deep Autumn, Deep Winter) | Brick, forest, burgundy, sapphire, emerald | Light pastels |
| True warm (True Spring, True Autumn) | Coral, golden yellow, warm turquoise, rust, pumpkin | Icy colors, cool pinks |
| True cool (True Summer, True Winter) | Raspberry, cornflower, true red, royal blue | Orange, mustard, gold-based warm colors |
Does black age you?
It can. Black under the chin absorbs light, so shadows under the eyes and around the mouth look deeper, and on light or soft coloring it becomes the highest-contrast thing in view. The full explanation, and what to wear instead, is in why black makes some people look tired. On deep, clear, cool coloring, black has the opposite effect and sharpens the face.
There is no age at which a color becomes wrong. What does change over time for many people is contrast: hair lightens as it grays, and colors that matched dark hair may start to overpower. The guides to contrast level and gray hair and your color season show how to check where you are now.
Makeup does more than clothes
The authors of the 2013 study draw the link to makeup themselves: typical cosmetics raise the contrast between features and skin, which is the cue that made faces look younger. A lip color from your palette, brows defined to match your hair, and lashes darkened a little will do more than any top.
Keep the effect proportionate to your coloring. Low-contrast faces look best with a moderate lift, such as a rose-brown lip or a soft brown liner, while high-contrast faces can carry a clear red or a black liner.