Clear Winter

Best Colours

Wear these closest to your face for maximum flattery.

Colours to Avoid

These clash with your natural undertone and can make skin look dull or sallow.

Styling Tips

• Your palette can handle icy pastels — unlike Cool Winter, Clear Winter can wear very light, clear colours successfully
• Avoid anything muddy, dusty, or greyed-out — these colours will make you look tired
• High contrast combinations (black and white, navy and bright white) are your signature
• Clear, vivid jewellery tones like sapphire, ruby, and emerald suit you in both fashion and actual gemstones
• Opt for bright, clear prints over muted or earth-toned patterns

Your Best Neutrals

Understanding Clear Winter

Clear Winter is the bridge between Winter and Spring on the colour wheel. It carries winter's cool undertones but borrows spring's brightness and clarity. This makes Clear Winter one of the most vibrant of all twelve seasons.

The key quality of Clear Winter colouring is contrast combined with luminosity. Where Cool Winter is cool and precise, Clear Winter has a sparkle to it — a quality that makes bold, clear colours come alive.

Clear vs. Cool Winter

Clear Winter and Cool Winter are both in the winter family and both have cool undertones. The distinction lies in clarity and contrast.

Clear Winter has a particularly high degree of contrast — often light, translucent skin with very dark, striking hair and bright, clear eyes. The eyes are often a notable feature: bright, clear, and noticeable even from a distance.

Cool Winter tends toward a more uniformly cool appearance throughout, while Clear Winter has that additional quality of luminosity that makes it more compatible with bright, clear colours (including the lightest icy pastels).

Dressing Clear Winter

Your best strategy is to embrace clarity. Every colour you choose should have a clean, bright quality — nothing muddy, greyed, or earthy.

• All the cool, clear colours of winter (cobalt blue, true red, crisp white, black)
• Vivid jewel tones with maximum saturation
• Icy pastels with a clear, cool quality
• Sharp high-contrast combinations

Unlike other winters, Clear Winter can successfully wear some of the clearest, most vivid pastels — as long as they maintain that cool, bright quality (think icy pink, not dusty rose; cool lavender, not muted lilac).