Light Spring Color Palette: Makeup, Hair, and Fashion Guide

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you make a purchase.

A palette that reminds us of a joyous and hopeful tomorrow filled with an array of colors charged with gentle sunlit warmth — this is what light spring is all about. 

It’s the gleaming early hours during the lightest days of spring when the sun is just about to show, its subtle rays shining on the most delicate petals and our furry friends

With just a few tones away from summer, these colors are reminiscent of the clearest waters and the freshest sorbets.

Allow us to walk you through a seasonal color analysis of spring’s truest and most neutral form: light spring.

Seasonal Color Analysis

Creating a trademark style that rates 100% and ticks everything you need for a well-harmonized look is more than just hanging trendy clothes in your closet and filling your vanity with hyped-up products. 

It requires assessing your natural features and knowing which category you belong in. 

Here is where seasonal color analysis plays a part. It helps you elevate your style based on the colors and the materials that can make your natural colors stand out. 

Light/Soft Spring Color Dimension

Hue

In the seasonal color palette, hue generally divides the seasons depending on their color and features’ warmth and coolness. 

A light spring carries the season’s warm-neutral hue despite being the last member of the spring family before the season transitions to summer. 

Meaning, there will be a few shades with a distinct blue undertone, but the yellow undertones will dominate.

Value

Each seasonal family has its light and dark sub-seasons, and by determining a color’s luminance, we move one step closer to deciding its designated sub-season.

Spring is a season known for its lightness, and light spring is no exception. 

Aside from its name, soft spring extends its lightness to the maximum level, and most colors, whether the palette or its physical attributes, are composed of light colors. But you can still see a few darker shades for balance. 

Chroma

The last dimension that completes the flow seasonal analysis or the identification of sub-seasons is the saturation or desaturation of colors, aka chroma. 

You see a plethora of pastel shades under the light spring seasonal color analysis because the sub-season’s chroma is neutral-bright. It is composed of brightness and lightness — the two ingredients to make light spring shades.

Light Spring Comparison

A neutral sub-season that stands in the middle of two main seasons, spring and summer, a light spring is entitled to the characteristics of both. This expands a light spring’s color choices and gives them a sort of flexible light spring palette.

Speaking of bordering two seasons, true spring and light summer are what we call your sister palette.

Light Spring vs True Spring

Being sisters from the same season, there’s only the slightest difference when it comes to your colors’ hues and chromas. But the contrast between these two seasons is entirely different. 

True or warm spring is entitled to brighter colors, while you can extend yours to shades that are not as bright. Meaning your colors won’t be as vibrant as true spring.

Almost a similar concept goes with value; yours goes all the way to the lightest end of the scale, while true spring starts from the neutrals and inclines just a bit to the lighter spectrum.

Light Spring vs Light Summer

Light spring and light summer are two of the most delicate sub-seasons in the seasonal analysis.

Because of their almost unnoticeable difference, you can easily get confused if you don’t know your way through the parameters of each season. 

They are both neutral seasons; light spring, however, leans more to the bright side. But since they are both light and they produce low contrast, it can be hard to tell them apart.

The summers, on the other hand, have colors that are relatively cool. Most of the colors on its palette have blue undertones and gray pigments. The springs have colors reigned by warmth. 

Light/Soft Spring Features

Skin

Common skin tones: Light ivory, warm porcelain, pale honey, classic ivory, peach, natural beige, rose beige, light golden brown

The light spring skin still possesses the peachy and golden undertone of spring and its warm characteristic. However, it deviates from the deep tones, making the usual skin color range from fair to medium. 

Eyes

Common eye colors: Light green, green, light blue, light brown, hazel

The eyes of a light spring will easily be recognizable from its seasonal sisters as the colors go milder and softer. It would still be clear and will enable you to see the typical sunburst pattern of its season. 

Hair

Common hair colors: Light golden blonde, light blonde, strawberry blonde, golden blonde, copper

This sub-season’s main color characteristic is lightness, which radiates from the natural hair color. The hair color shades range from light to medium golden blonde or golden brown, with some red hair or copper coming in between.

Brown or red is also possible, but whichever shade it is from those mentioned, a light spring’s hair color still has its season’s distinctive warmth and innate golden undertone or highlight.

Contrast

Given the following features mentioned, you may start to visualize that the light spring color analysis consists of low contrast. 

None of the features stand out from the others, but they also don’t look blended. 

The Light Spring Color Palette

Colors to Avoid

Not every color is your cup of tea. And to give way to the ones that belong to your palette, you must keep the cool and bright colors away; these contradict your naturally warm and light attributes. 

For a better view of which colors you should watch out for, we’ll break them down based on their dimensions:

• Hue — Since you carry neutral-warm tones, refrain from wearing cool colors if you don’t want to look unhealthy. They can dim the lightness of your best features, like your eyes, and make your lips appear purple. 
• Value — Dark colors can be the pivotal factor for your light spring color season as it opposes your primary aspect. Too many dark colors can overpower your features and look unflattering to your entire look and palette.
• Chroma — This sub-season retains the brightness of spring, and with that, colors that lean to the soft or muted side can make you look old and drain the definition from your face.

A color analysis of light spring suggests that mixing your lightness and warmth with colors having characteristics similar to what’s listed above unharmonized with your season. 

You should also be conscious of wearing colors that are cool and too dark, like dark shades of purple and blue. 

These can be just as harsh and overwhelming as white can be, while brightly saturated tones of burnt oranges, peacock, and slate gray drain your sparkly features.

Neutrals

The neutrals on the light spring color palette are delicate. The three color dimensions (hue, value, and chroma) must be carefully considered so the overall contrast can align with this sub-season’s vibe. 

The colors present in this sub-season should not go all the way to the true shades of black and white as that will go against all the seasonal characteristics of light spring and imply high contrast. 

Black can make you look way older, and white clashes with your warmth. 

Your best neutrals should come in these shades instead:

• Dark neutrals — Your palette welcomes a wide selection of neutral colors from the true shades of blue, greenish-grays, and medium dark brown.
• Light neutrals — Your light neutrals should preserve your freshness without falling too flat or too harsh. Colors such as ivory, peach, and cream can do just that.

Best Colors and Combinations

Light spring’s color palette is overflowing with lightness, but it is, indeed, colorful. This season also has low contrast, but its colors and features do not look blended and muted. 

Your best colors are the light and warm shades of major color families. 

But the best combination calls for the influence of your two dimensions: value and hue. They create specific contrasts that replicate what your sub-season has, and this will look exceptional when matched.

You can mix light and dark shades of the same base color or pair colors that sit far from one another in the palette. 

All-neutral and monochromatic combinations aren’t made for your season. The goal is to incorporate at least one accent color to brighten the look and align it with your season. 

Some of the best colors for you are under these base colors:

• Red, orange, or pink — Soft red, light red, orange-red, apricot, melon, watermelon, taffy, and grapefruit
• Yellow or green — Chiffon, banana, honey, daffodil, marigold, pistachio, lime, and mint
• Purple or blue — aqua, light mauve, heliotrope, blushed lavender, arctic, robin’s egg, and powder blue.

Again, cool colors should be used sparingly and as accent colors.

Light Spring Hair Dyes

The hair undoubtedly has the most impact on how the appearance will be perceived. Belonging to a certain season doesn’t restrict you from trying different looks. 

Light springs are naturally high in value, and it’s evident on the hair, but you have to be careful when switching hair colors; you wouldn’t want to jump over to the other seasons. 

Blondes must still be kept away from being too warm or too white. And reds should be maintained at gingery or strawberry blonde shades.

The best hair colors for light spring are pure diamond, light blonde, sunflower blonde, beeline blonde, medium champagne, golden brown, reddish blonde, and copper shimmer.

Light Spring Makeup

Light spring makeup is airy and sunlit. Your natural look appears like you have nothing on aside from a healthy and genuine flush of color. 

To achieve this, your eyes must be kept minimal; nothing too dark and heavily defined. The mascara and eyeliner will also remain subtle in shades of brown or gray. 

The addition of coral or peachy pink lip gloss or stain and a matching blush brightens up the look, topped with a dewy highlight to emit freshness and lightness. 

If you want more colors on the face while still looking natural, gently brush some light brown or cream-colored eyeshadow onto those lids. 

And to transform it to a dramatic look, switch the eyeliner to brighter colors and add more pigment to your lips.

Complexion Makeup

Nothing beats a base that accurately imitates the skin tone and makes it look even better. For light springs, this means aligning with your natural warmth and undertone and keeping the skin looking as if it’s glowing through the dewiness.

However, what you should avoid are opaque, cream foundations and concealers. These can overwhelm your sub-season’s glow and make your skin look heavy and unnatural.

Eyeshadow

The light spring makeup palette enhances your features’ natural freshness and lightness. And with that, your best eyeshadows come mainly from the brown, gray, cream, and beige shades of your neutral palette.

The soft, playful pastel shades of pinks, peaches, green, and blues in your light spring color palette will be useful as accent and highlight. 

The best natural-looking finishes may be sheer, but don’t neglect the pigments. A nice swipe of color on those lids wouldn’t hurt as long as the shade goes along with your sub-season’s attributes. 

Best eyeshadow shades for light spring are champagne, eggshell, hazelnut, ivory, apricot, peach, whitecap gray, alabaster gleam, bisque, agate gray, raw umber, strawberry cream, lavender, bluebell, atomizer, opal, sky blue, lettuce green, periwinkle, and mauve.

Eyeliner and Mascara

If there’s one color to be thrown out of your makeup stash, it’s black. 

And even if it’s hard to avoid black when it comes to makeup, this color should never go near your mascaras and eyeliners. It looks unflattering as it generates higher eye contrasts. 

Instead, you can recreate the dark shades in your palette and let them work as your best eye-defining makeup products. You can use your best brown and gray colors in place of black.

Best mascara shades for light spring are rawhide, chocolate chip, bungee cord, and castor gray.

If you’re going for a fun, outgoing look, you can use eyeliners in the light spring-appropriate shades of purple, green, and blue. This also blends well with the natural colors of your eyes.

But for your simple, everyday eyeliner, spicy warm shades of brown and gray are the darkest you can ever go. 

Best eyeliner shades for light spring are spicy mix, boulder, agate gray, castor gray, papaya, hot coral, teaberry, deep lavender, blue curacao, bud green, green-blue slate, amethyst, purple plum, warm gray, dark wood, umber, tobacco brown, and hazelnut.

Cheeks

For a healthy pop of color on the cheeks, corals and peachy pink shades are your strongest points. And there are minimal restrictions on them: just keep the colors warm, so they boost and get along with your feature’s value. 

Your blush should also be slightly shimmery and lightly dusted, so you won’t end up with a patch of color that opposes your face’s airy colors. 

Best blush shades for light spring are peach, apricot, melon, bubblegum pink, carnation pink, flamingo, candlelight pink, peach blossom, sun-kissed coral, tickled pink, pink sherbet, and strawberry pink.

Bronzer and contours are optional for this type of spring because they generally add weight to your face and give you an unflattering dimension, especially if you’re going for dark and earthy shades. 

But if you really want to experiment with your look, you can play with the bronzer.

Start with the peachy tones and adjust the shades as you work your way through. If your complexion is more tanned, you go a little closer to the browns by grabbing a warm medium gold bronzer. 

And never forget to keep the application as gentle as possible to avoid harsh lines. 

Best bronzer shades for light spring are blossom, lamb’s wool, and peach quartz.

As for the contour, applying it without looking heavy or dirty on you would be complicated, so we suggest skipping this step entirely. Let bronzers do the contouring.

Sheer coral and peachy highlighters heighten the radiance and ethereal effect of your spring season, and the dewy and illuminating finish to it is necessary to keep you fresh. 

Best highlighter shades for light spring are pale apricot, peach, and coral. 

Lips

Light spring is the season of airy freshness, and lip glosses and stains convey that. These are perfect for everyday and daytime looks. If you want more pigment, don’t go for the matte finishes.

And just like the cheeks, your lips look best when they look light and natural. The best shades of color are warm pinks, apricots, corals, and peaches. 

Adjusting the tone depends on the depth of your skin, so you’ll have to mix and match different lippies to find your perfect shade. 

If you’ve been eyeing red lipsticks, try a flamingo shade. But never lean toward the dark, muted, and brown shades. You don’t need bolder colors to stand out. 

The best lipstick or gloss shades for light spring are light peach, light salmon, tulip, burnt coral, fusion coral, living coral, sugar coral, peach blossom, bubblegum pink, flamingo pink, strawberry, camellia, watermelon, and teaberry.

Light Spring Nail Polish

Nail colors for a light spring are filled with delicate pastel colors in shiny finishes to complement or blend with the natural skin’s characteristics. 

The best nail polish shades for light spring are light yellow, cream, light taupe, light pink, cream pink, coral, lavender, space purple, moonlight, light mint, and green.

Inside a Light Spring’s Closet

Wardrobe Basics

Incorporating the appropriate light spring color swatches when deciding your wardrobe combination should easily make you tell that this sub-season is ruled by lightness and warmth. 

To start your virtual closet raid, we’ll pick denim dyed in light, solid shades of blue like turquoise, periwinkle, and swimming pool blue. 

You can never go wrong with creamy coffee brown for the perfect formal attire, but you also look stunning in champagne, golden beige, or light gray khaki.

The overall color and style of this entire season are never bland, so pick an article of clothing in your accent colors, and the combination should always be exquisite!

If you’ve been a fan of plastic jelly sandals and patented leather, you’re making good choices! The shine on these footwear complements your skin.

For other leather goodies, you can have them in shades of cream, light gold, and pale brown. 

A unique combination is wearing a leather jacket paired with shiny rose-gold loungewear or ripped jeans.

Black frames and lenses should not be paired with your season for eyewear. But you can freely choose between thick frames or frameless glasses. 

Thicker frames give off a bolder look, especially if you have them in the bright colors of your palette or the reflective metals of your season. Frameless glasses mimic your season’s clarity and will look good on you. 

Plastic materials look good if they’re transparent or clear rather than opaque. 

Prints and Patterns

If you’re planning to step it up, here are some tips for setting a light spring color palette and clothing pattern that will surely be a hit!

When looking at a piece of clothing, the play of colors has a significant role in how striking and appealing the patterns and prints will be.

Think about the colors that matter the most in your light spring palette– these should be the dominating aspect of the pattern/print.

Making the wrong shades stand out is disharmonious to your attributes and can impact your look negatively. 

Next, look at the proportion of the design layout. Which elements are represented by your sub-season’s color, and how much space does it take up?

The pattern’s details must be kept small and dense to fit your ideal pattern. Avoid big elements that look too crowded or stiff. Remember, color and sizes reflect the contrasts, so keep it low.

Ideally, creatively dotted or rounded geometric patterns and natural elements such as flowers, butterflies, and birds flatter you best.

Jewelry and Accessories

Neutrality is one of the most beautiful aspects of light spring. It makes room for golds and silvers to come into your sub-season, but wearing them as your jewelry and accessories must be under several conditions. 

To keep the lightness and luminosity on this type of spring, you should opt for shiny or brushed metal and nothing too chromatic or highly reflective, or else I’ll you’ll be wearing a bright spring.

Your golds must keep a good amount of yellow into it, but should not be too deep or too orangey. Rose gold is also this season’s show-stopper. 

If you like curating vintage jewelry, you can make it work by copping pieces with sparkle and not looking too old and rusty. 

The sea homes one of this sub-season’s best gemstones– pearls that come in an array of luminous colors, including mother of pearl, cream, pink, champagne, light brown, and the rare and expensive conch pearl. 

Another way to translate your lightness into an embellishment is by adding stones that allow light to pass through them evidently. Preferably have them in turquoise, amazonite, opal, chrysoprase, jade, and tsavorite.

Meanwhile, diamonds fit the stone description above, but they can be too cool for a light spring. Alternatively, you can reach for small tinted diamonds in yellow or rose gold.

FAQs

Can light springs wear red?

The true shade of red may appear too bright for light spring, but if you want to wear this color, you can reach for the kinds of red that are close to coral, strawberry, or apple red. 

If you’re planning to mix it with your outfit, make sure it’s not the dominating color; instead, it should be paired with your neutrals to create the perfect balance. 

Who are the famous personalities in this season?

Some of the light spring celebrities are Taylor Swift, Amanda Seyfried, and Blake Lively. With their light blonde hair, light-colored eyes, and fair skin, it’s undeniable that they’re part of this sub-season.

Can light spring wear navy?

100% yes! Since black is too harsh on you, adjusting your darkest shade to navy is a wise move to make as a light spring. 

Get to know your season and read more articles like this:

• Bright (Clear) Winter Color Palette: Makeup, Hair, and Fashion Guide 
• Deep (Dark) Winter Color Palette: Makeup, Hair, And Fashion Guide
• Cool (True) Winter Color Palette: Makeup, Hair, And Fashion Guide