You are a Cool Winter type if your hair, skin, and eyes exhibit distinctly cool undertones and contrasts. When you look in the mirror, the first thing you notice are your cool colors. If you’re unsure whether you’re a Cool Winter, feel free to book my Online Course for your DIY Seasonal Color Analysis.
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Cool Winter is the coolest color type within the clear and cool Winter palette. Its main characteristic is ‘Cool,’ with secondary characteristics being ‘Clear’ and ‘Dark.’
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 Cool Winter:
If you need help determining your characteristics, click here.
Cool Winter is closest to the basic Winter type. The most important criterion is the cool colors. Warm undertones are almost nonexistent. High contrasts between skin, hair, and eyes are also characteristic.
Skin: rosy-beige, neutral beige, light olive, or black, tans slightly, no warm undertones
Hair: blue-black, dark to medium brown, silver-gray, white-blond, absolutely no golden or red highlights.
Eyes: lead gray, blue, violet-blue, dark brown without gold or warm Hazel Eyes
There are also many atypical types among the Cool types. If you suspect you are one, or if the characteristics described above only partially apply to you but another color type doesn’t fit better, continue reading here: Atypical Cool Types
The Colors of the Cool Winter
Colors to avoid for Cool Winter:
Cool Winter types should definitely avoid warm colors. They will never be able to borrow colors from the Autumn palettes. While the Cool Winter is not as clear as the Clear Winter, the colors of the Autumn palettes would not only be too warm but also too muted. The same applies to the Spring palette. These colors are clear, but besides being warm, they are also too light. The muted and lighter colors of Light and Soft Summers usually do not work either. Although they are cool to varying degrees, both palettes are too light and have the mutedness of colors as their main or secondary characteristic.
Color types from which Cool Winter might borrow:
Cool Winter types can borrow from Clear and Deep Winter as long as the colors are cool enough and not too dark. So, the cool blue and pink tones are suitable. The red tones are not suitable. Colors can also be borrowed from the sister type Cool Summer palette as long as they are not too muted.
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 Cool Winter!
Digital Color Palette 12 Seasons
Color Type: Cool Winter
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Cool Winter Make up
The optimal Cool Winter makeup includes cool, clear colors with high contrast to each other. On many other color types, it would be perceived as strong, but on the Cool Winter type, it looks natural and corresponds to its cool overall appearance with high contrasts and rather dark colors. Avoid bronzer and colors in gold, yellow, and peach tones. 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. Cool Winter types usually have a cool skin tone with bluish undertones and/or a hint of pink. Often, a cool shade of beige works. It’s best to choose a foundation with a cool, pink undertone.
Finishing Powder
Choose a finishing powder that matches the tone of your foundation. If your favorite brand doesn’t have cool tones, choose a translucent powder.
Bronzer, Contouring & Highlighter
Unfortunately, typical bronzer doesn’t suit Cool Winter types. Bronzer is supposed to highlight the warmth in the skin. Since there is no warmth in the Cool 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 Cool 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 and 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 colors from the Cool Winter color pass; for base colors, use the colors from the Neutral Colors for Cool Winter color pass. Further suggestions can be found on the makeup card above or in your Digital Color Palette. For dramatic looks, you can also use black.
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. They do not harmonize with your cool eyes.
Eyeliner & Kohl
The best eyeliner or kohl always harmonizes with the eye color. You can find suitable, cool colors on the makeup card for Cool Winter. Avoid light, strongly luminous, or warm colors.
Product Recommendations for Cool Winter Eye Makeup*
Blush
Prefer cool colors in pink, purple, and plum tones for your blush. As always: Avoid warm colors here too. That would look very unnatural.
Lipstick
Cool pink and plum tones suit you best. The dark colors may appear very intense at first glance, but they harmonize with your natural overall appearance with high contrasts. Avoid ‘Nude Lips,’ they are not intense enough.
Product Recommendations for Cool 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, but these do not suit you. 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 coloring for your daytime makeup.
Evening Makeup
Classic smokey eyes, black eyeliner, and darker, bold colors for the lips create a dramatic look for the Cool Winter type. Winged eyeliner or cat eyes are perfect. When choosing lipstick, make sure it’s not too ‘radiant.’ This belongs to the palette of Clear Winter types.
You can learn how to put together clothing, accessories, and jewelry suitable for your color type below.
Cool Winter Clothing and Accessories
The main features of the Cool Winter type are its cool overall impression and high contrasts. Color selection and combination of Cool Winter clothing and accessories should reflect and complement these main features so that the Cool Winter type looks vibrant.
This works best with the combination of one of your neutral colors from your and an accentuating color from your Digital Color Palette. If you choose a light neutral color, combine it with a dark accent color and vice versa.
You can also choose only light or only dark colors, but contrast flatters you better. Just make sure the contrast is not too high – do not choose colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel. The combination of black and white also looks very good on you.
Color Combinations You Should Avoid
All color combinations that have low contrasts to each other, such as monochrome colors, and very high contrasts (complementary colors = opposite on the color wheel), Triadic or Tetradic color systems are not suitable. The latter consists of three colors evenly distributed on the color wheel.
I have described which colors you should generally avoid further up.
Patterns and Prints for Cool Winter Clothing
For patterns and prints on Cool Winter clothing, the same applies as for color combinations. Patterns that consist exclusively of Cool 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.
Patterns with high contrasts suit you well, but low contrasts make you look washed out. It’s best to choose geometric patterns or abstract prints. If you like floral patterns, try stylized large flowers.
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
Only cool jewelry suits Cool Winter types. Silver, titanium, and platinum work well. Avoid metals with yellow undertones and make sure your jewelry is shiny. This suits you better than matte. Suitable gemstones are ruby, diamond, hematite, sapphire (purple, blue, pink), and emerald.
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.