Clear Spring and Warm Spring are siblings. Both are warm-undertoned. Both suit clear, bright colours. Both look good in coral, warm pink, and golden yellow. The difference is chroma: how saturated and vivid your colouring reads compared to how warm it reads.
Warm Spring is the warmest of the three Spring sub-seasons. Clear Spring is the one that borders Winter — which means it shares Winter's preference for brightness and contrast, but keeps Spring's warmth.
The key measurement: chroma
Chroma is how pure and vivid a colour is — the opposite of muted or dusty. Clear Spring has high chroma. The colours that work best are bright, clear, and saturated. Warm Spring has slightly lower chroma and is more tolerant of golden, peachy, and even slightly muted warm tones.
The contrast test
Stand in front of a mirror and hold two pieces of fabric near your face: a vivid, clear coral red and a deeper, more golden amber-brown.
- If the vivid coral makes you come alive and the amber-brown looks heavy → you're more likely Clear Spring.
- If both work and the amber feels comfortable and natural → you're more likely Warm Spring.
The palette differences
Warm Spring leans into the warmth: golden yellows, peach, warm coral, terracotta, camel, warm turquoise. The palette feels sunny and golden. Every colour has significant yellow in it.
Clear Spring has warm colours too, but they're brighter and clearer: vivid coral, warm red (not orange-red), clear aqua, bright warm pink, true green with warmth. Because Clear Spring borders Winter, it can wear some colours that are too bright for other Springs — a vivid true red, for instance, that Warm Spring might find harsh.
Black and white
This is the clearest test between the two. Hold true black near your face, then a warm ivory.
- If warm ivory is unambiguously better and black looks stark → Warm Spring.
- If black looks striking rather than harsh, and you can pull it off even if ivory is softer → Clear Spring. The Winter influence means you can handle higher contrast.
Hair and eye colour clues
Warm Spring typically has the warmest hair — golden blonde, strawberry blonde, copper, warm light brown. Eyes are hazel, warm green, amber, or golden brown.
Clear Spring often has slightly more contrast between hair and skin — sometimes darker brown hair with bright, clear eyes (hazel, true green, or blue-green). The contrast between features is higher than for Warm Spring.
The practical difference
If you're a Warm Spring trying Clear Spring colours, you'll find the brighter, sharper shades somewhat harsh — like they're competing with your face rather than harmonising with it. If you're a Clear Spring trying Warm Spring golden tones, they'll look fine but slightly muddier than they should. The app measures this gap precisely rather than asking you to approximate it from written descriptions.