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Autumn Foliage

DARK AUTUMN

WARM+ DARK

Also referred to as Deep Autumn is the WARM+DARK season. Their colors are dark and intense. Think deep and burnt colors from late autumn evenings.

Color Dimensions

You are a Dark Autumn or a Deep Autumn if your features create a light and dark type of contrast. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to have light skin and dark features, you can have dark skin and be a dark type.

 

A common misconception is that people with dark skin tones will always be a Dark Season, but that is not correct. Taking into account both of the premises stated above, to see if you are a Dark Autumn what you want to look at is how intense and dark your hair and eyes look against your skin. The main color aspect of a Dark type is its Value level, in the sense of how deep their features are.

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If you remember when we were talking about color dimensions, you will remember that you can alter the Value of a color by adding white into the mix (tint) or adding black into the mix (shade). Since we are talking about Dark types, their colors will be deeper shades of a color.

VALUE AND CONTRAST

Dark types are other high contrast type, along with the Clear types. This will typically mean that your contrast level will be high because your dark hair and eyes look very intense against your skin.

 

This doesn’t always mean that your skin will be several shades darker than your other features, they just need to look deep and intense against it.

SATURATION

The default is a medium chroma (saturation) level, depending on the coloring of the person it can be slightly brighter or muted, but since it is a tertiary feature, it won’t be a lot.

HUE AND TEMPERATURE

As a warm season, you will look your best in warmer colors. If you are neutral warm, then your colors will be warm, but not extremely warm and you can also wear some cooler colors.

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If you feel like this might be your type you must be able to wear dark colors. See if you look good in colors such as burnt orange, claret, and mustard. Since you are DARK + WARM, the opposite would be LIGHT + COOL, try to see if your worst colors are periwinkle, icy pink, and baby blue.

Is this the right season for me?

DARK AUTUMN  VS. DARK WINTER

Your sister palette is the Dark Winter palette, you can borrow the warmer colors from it. Let's also remember that since your two main color characteristics are WARM and DARK, when you want to wear colors that are not from your palette, they should match one of those. For example, if you want to wear a cool color, it should be dark, and if you want to wear a light color, it should be warm, still, these won't be the best hues for you; also, try to avoid wearing them near from your face.

DARK AUTUMN VS. CLEAR SPRING

We already established that Deep Winter is your sister palette, now let's talk a bit about your cousin palette, Clear Spring. They are both the high contrast types of their respective seasons, but the colors of a Clear Spring will be brighter and a bit lighter, and the colors of a Dark Autumn will have more depth and be a bit more toned down. For example, red vs burgundy or yellow vs mustard.

More resources for Dark  Autumns

DYI color season guide

Hire me as your stylist

Colors for Deep Autumns

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  • What you want to do is replicate your warm undertone and the depth of your features in your colors. This is why your colors will resemble the richness of spice-like colors.

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  • If you can wear very dark colors without being swallowed by them, you are definitely a Dark Autumn. However, Dark Autumns with darker skin will still need to add a few pops of either lighter colors or brighter colors because this is still a high contrast type. Your colors will also appear to be brighter, but that is because of the warmth in them.

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  • Even if your colors are deep, you still have light neutrals. But you want to use them as complementary colors, not as the primary color. Your neutral colors will be part of the ivory and brown scale.

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  • Your accent colors are a mix of forest greens, all sorts of wine shades, and a wide range of spicy oranges and yellows.

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Image by Aaron Burden

COCOA STYLING'S
DARK AUTUMN
EXAMPLES

*Keep in mind lighting affects how skin might look, so we might move some celebrities to the cooler or warmer counterpart. It’s very useful when they post their makeup routines because they mention their foundation shade letting us know if they are warm, cool, or neutral.*

GABRIELLE UNION

NAOMI CAMPBELL

JASMINE TOOKES

ANGELA BASSET

SOLANGE KNOWLES

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SELITA EBANKS

TOCCARA 

CHANEL IMAN

KEITH POWERS

WILLIAM J HARPER

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SAMUEL L. JACKSON

KANYE

MORRIS CHESTNUT

WILL SMITH

DEV PATEL

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JAMIE CHUNG

GONG LI

SAMANTHA AKKINENI

RANI MUKERJI

NINA DAVULURI

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