You are a Clear Winter type if there are very high contrasts between your eyes, hair, and skin, and your colors are very clear. When you look in the mirror, the first thing you notice are your high contrasts and clear colors. If you’re unsure whether you’re a Clear Winter, feel free to book my Online Course for your DIY Seasonal Color Analysis.
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Clear Winter is the clearest color type within the dark and cool Winter palette. Its main characteristic is ‘Clear,’ with secondary characteristics being ‘Dark’ and ‘Cool.’
Sometimes determining your color type isn’t straightforward because you may not possess all the “typical characteristics.” That’s perfectly normal. If you are having problems, try my online course “DIY Seasonal Color Analysis“.
Characteristics of the Clear Winter:
If you need help determining your characteristics, click here.
Clear Winter leans a bit towards Spring. The most important criterion is the high contrasts between skin, eyes, and hair. The hair is usually very dark.
Skin: light or neutral beige, pale olive, milk white, black, or dark brown; often translucent, with a glassy shine in dark skin
Hair: black, black-brown, medium to dark brown – weak warm highlights may occur, very rarely whitish-blond
Eyes: radiant blue, violet-blue, emerald green, radiant Hazel Eyes, radiant whites of the eyes
The Colors of the Clear Winter
Colors to avoid for Clear Winter:
Clear Winter types should definitely avoid muted colors. They will never be able to borrow colors from the Summer palettes. Even though the Summer types are cool: the colors would not only be too muted but also too light. The same applies to the Autumn palette. These colors are dark, but besides being muted, they are also too warm. The clear but warm colors of Warm and Light Spring also do not work. Although they are clear to varying degrees, both palettes are too warm and have the brightness of colors as their main or secondary characteristic.
Color types from which Clear Winter might borrow:
Clear Winter types can borrow from Deep and Cool Winter as long as the colors are clear enough. Colors can also be borrowed from the sister type Clear Spring palette as long as they are not too warm. Here, surely all blue, petrol, and pink tones are suitable.
After this wealth of information, you’re probably wondering how you can put it all into practice. Read on here about make-up and clothing for Clear Winter!
Digital Color Palette 12 Seasons
Color Type: Clear Winter
incl. VAT
Clear Winter Make up
The optimal Clear Winter makeup includes clear, dark, and cool colors with very high contrasts to each other. On many other color types, it would be perceived as exaggerated, but on the Clear Winter type, it looks natural and corresponds to its clear overall appearance with very high contrasts and rather cool colors. Avoid bronzer and colors in gold, yellow, and peach tones, as these are too warm for you and stand out unnaturally.
*In this post, you’ll also find product suggestions that suit your color type. Please note that there can be no guarantee that all the suggested products will universally flatter you. Often, certain features may be a little “atypical” – for example, you may be clearer or lighter than average. So, choose your favorite products from my suggestions, taking your uniqueness into account. If you’re unsure, it’s better to order sample sizes first or take my online course to find out if you’re atypical.
Foundation & Concealer
Choose foundation and concealer according to your skin tone. Clear Winter types usually have a neutral to cool skin tone. Often, a neutral or cool shade of beige with pink undertones works. Foundations with yellow or peach undertones may not work. They are too warm for your cool appearance.
Finishing Powder
Choose a finishing powder that matches the tone of your foundation. If your favorite brand doesn’t have neutral or cool tones, choose a translucent powder.
Bronzer, Contouring & Highlighter
Unfortunately, typical bronzer doesn’t suit Clear Winter types. Bronzer is supposed to highlight the warmth in the skin. Since there is no warmth in the Clear Winter type, bronzer will make you look sick. If you still want to use one, look for a bronzer with a cool undertone. For example, the company Mineralissima has some. Use a highlighter in a cool color if you want to highlight specific areas.
Product Recommendations for Clear Winter Makeup Base*
*To keep the number of products manageable, I recommend only selected brands that I particularly like. If you prefer other brands, you can surely find corresponding colors with a little research. When you click on the link, you will be directed to my Pinterest board where I have listed the products for you. On the computer, you can hover over your desired product with the mouse and click on the link that appears. On your mobile device or in the app, first click on your desired product, and after it opens, click on “Visit”. This will open the corresponding shop in a new window. If you make a purchase, I will receive a small commission as a thank you for the recommendation. You won’t incur any extra costs, and I can maintain my free offering on color types.
Eyeshadows
Use cool, well-pigmented eyeshadows that complement your appearance. Warm and soft colors can make you look quickly painted or sick. For accents, you can use the accent colors, for base colors, use your neutral colors from the Digital Color Palette. Further suggestions can be found on the makeup card above. Generally, your eyes are very radiant and intense. So be careful not to use too much intensely pigmented eyeshadow. That would be too much of a good thing.
Mascara
Your best choice for mascara is black. It provides the necessary high contrast. If you want to experiment with other colors, make sure they are clear and cool. Avoid warm brown tones and choose a cooler black-brown instead.
Eyeliner & Kohl
The best eyeliner or kohl always harmonizes with the eye color. You can find suitable, cool colors on the makeup card for Clear Winter. You don’t need to be cautious; all bold colors suit you.
Product Recommendations for Clear Winter Eye Makeup*
Blush
The choice of your blush depends on how dark you are and whether you are more cool or more neutral-cool. If you are a lighter Clear Winter, orient yourself towards the lighter coral and berry tones. If you are a darker Clear Winter, choose the darker tones. For more neutral skin, the top three coral tones are more suitable, while for cooler skin, the berry tones are more suitable.
Lipstick
Bold lip colors are perfect for the Clear Winter type. What looks exaggerated on other color types brings harmony to your face. Fuchsia, cherry red, magenta, and purple are your choice. Avoid ‘Nude Lips,’ they are not intense enough.
Product Recommendations for Clear Winter Cheeks and Lips*
Daytime Makeup
Your natural look has little to do with a ‘Natural Makeup Look.’ This usually uses many nude, brown, and taupe tones. Instead, choose the gray and ice tones from the makeup palette. As a rule of thumb, remember that you should emphasize your eyes and lips equally strongly. Focusing only on one part would upset your natural harmony.
Use colors from your palette that harmonize with your natural coloring. However, don’t use too many different colors, as that would be too much and could make you look like a clown.
Evening Makeup
Classic smokey eyes with the gray tones of your palette, black eyeliner, and stronger colors for the lips create a dramatic look for the Clear Winter type. Winged eyeliner or cat eyes are perfect. Don’t mix too many different colors here either. You can also simply orient yourself to the daytime makeup and emphasize the eyes a bit more or choose a bolder lipstick.
You can learn how to put together clothing, accessories, and jewelry suitable for your color type below.
Clear Winter Clothing and Accessories
The main features of the Clear Winter type are the very high contrasts and clear colors. Color selection and combination of Clear Winter clothing and accessories should reflect and complement these main features so that the Clear Winter type looks vibrant.
This works best if you combine the colors of your color palettes that are opposite each other on the color wheel. So your choice is complementary colors.
You can also combine ‘only’ dark colors with light colors, but very high contrast flatters you better. Black and white theoretically have a high contrast, but this combination is too ‘colorless’ for your intense colors.
Color Combinations You Should Avoid
All color combinations that have low contrasts to each other, such as monochrome and analogous colors, are not suitable. Monochrome is ‘tone on tone,’ and analogous colors are directly adjacent on the color wheel.
You should also avoid combining exclusively light or exclusively dark colors from your color palettes. Since you are a dark type, this combo does not flatter you.
I have described which colors you should generally avoid further up.
Patterns and Prints for Clear Winter Clothing
For patterns and prints on Clear Winter clothing, the same applies as for color combinations. Patterns that consist exclusively of Clear Winter colors are best. If only a very small part of the pattern consists of a color from a disharmonious color palette, the pattern will surely flatter you as well. Avoid patterns with a predominant proportion of colors that come from other color palettes.
Large patterns with very high contrasts between the colors suit you best. Low contrasts and delicate patterns make you look washed out. It’s best to choose geometric patterns or abstract prints. If you like floral or nature patterns, choose very stylized ones instead of natural representations.
You can find examples of patterns and prints in your Digital Color Palette.
Appropriate Clothing
You’re best off choosing appropriate clothing with the help of a color palette. You always have your Digital Color Palette with you. Simply place it on the garment you’ve chosen and see if the colors harmonize. At first, this may be a bit difficult for you, but over time, you’ll develop a good eye for which colors match and which don’t.
For color combinations and matching patterns, my Digital Color Palette also help you further. If you want regular suggestions for clothing that suits your color type, feel free to follow me on Instagram.
Jewelry
Clear Winter types usually have many neutral undertones, so silver and gold jewelry suit you. The most important thing is that the jewelry shines. Matte, brushed, or antique metals do not match your clear appearance. Silver, platinum, white gold are very suitable.
Suitable gemstones are diamond, ruby, emerald, amethyst (dark).
If you want to set up your wardrobe sustainably and always find something to wear, my article on the capsule wardrobe or minimalist wardrobe will help you.