I got draped as a Bright Winter (or other season) in seasonal colour analysis. What would be my Sphere palette?
Every seasonal palette has a direct Sphere analog. In the case of Bright Winter, it’s the Cool-Neutral Bright (B1). However, since seasonal colour analysis covers only 1/3rd of the total range, the majority of people get draped into palettes that are less than ideal for them.
Still taking Bright Winter as our example, you might lean a bit warmer, in which case you’re going to need a Neutral Bright (C1) palette. Or you lean very cool and can easily wear the temperature of True Winter, but that was a little bit smudgy in places and so you got draped a Bright Winter instead because that looked fresher. That’s when you need a Cool Bright palette (A1).
You might also be a ‘not-so-Bright Winter’ (which is at least half of draped Bright Winters!), for whom there are several Sphere palettes that are moderately bright. Examples are the Cool-Neutral Bright-Light (B2), Cool-Neutral Bright-Dark (B3) and even the Cool-Neutral Median (B5). However, you could also have the Neutral temperature version of each of these (C2, C3 or C5), or the cool temperature (A2 or A3 or A5, although the latter two are more likely to get draped as a True Winter instead). So there are quite a lot of options.
Many people will be able to infer their Sphere palette based on their seasonal result, especially if they also remember their second best results, and/or if they have enough experience wearing colours from their palette to know if they lean warmer/cooler etc.
Of course, the best way to be completely sure is to sign up for a Sphere colour analysis (in person or online).
Why aren’t Sphere palettes seasonal?
I wrote a 12 part article series to explain how and why I moved away from seasonal colour analysis, after many years as an analyst trained in the Sci/Art method, and how I developed Sphere colour analysis instead. You can read it here.
Does Sphere colour analysis incorporate eye or hair colour?
Not for analysis. Your skin’s colour reactions are the most reliable part of you to use for analysis, because it is the most sensitive and specific. Analysing your eye or hair colour would in theory yield exactly the same result. However, in practice it is much less exact and makes analysis a great deal more complicated than it needs to be.
For a very similar reason, Sphere doesn’t use your skin’s actual colour to determine your palette. Skin consists of many colours at the same time, with super tight margins from palette to palette. Trying to find matches to these colours by eye would be an utterly imprecise method. Much more reliable is to look at the reactions your skin has in response to (clear) colours, like reddening, shadowing, brightening etc.
However, after we found your palette based on your skin’s colour reactions, you will find your eye and hair hues literally in the palette. (N.B. Human eye and hair colours are sub-Soft as a rule, as is skin. And so the colours, beyond just the hue families, are going to be in the Sphere extension rather than the classic palette, which will be released at a later date. The extension are currently under development).
How can each Sphere palette possibly contain every colour? I am a True Summer in seasonal colour analysis and I am very certain I can’t wear olive or camel, and rust brown was my absolute worst colour when I got draped.
There are two factors at play here: your palette and your affinities.
Every colour does in fact occur in every temperature and tonality, so yes, there is a camel, olive and rust brown that does work for you. As long as we match very carefully the temperature and tonality of the colours with that of your skin, the colour will work. That means that your skin is still able to capture and hold on to light when this colour is near it.
The rust brown that was so horrible on you, was probably much warmer, darker and/or brighter than the cooler, softer and gentler version you need, if you really are a Cool Soft-Light palette (C7, the direct analog of True Summer).
Then there is affinity, which are the colours from your palette that have that special magic. If you are a blue-eyed Summer, then it is possible that you have the most affinity with the green-turquoise-blue range of the palette. If that is the case, your affinity with camel or rust brown is likely quite low. Which means that you can wear these colours and your skin will look just fine, but they will never look so heartbreakingly special as your pastel blue might.
That said, there are Cool Soft-Light people who do have affinity with camel, olive and rust brown, and very little affinity with pale blues and greens. These people are as likely to be draped into Soft Autumn as True Summer, yet will never be able to settle in either palette. Seasonal colour analysis often ends up analysing for affinity, or tolerance, rather than harmony – a result of incorrect understanding of temperature, and also from the lack of options within colour systems.
What are orientation, affinity, tolerance and preference?
Your orientation is where your sweet spot of temperature and tonality sits relative to your palette. You might lean a bit warmer or cooler, softer or brighter, lighter or darker, or combinations of those. Knowing your orientation is useful when shopping, because it’ll inform you which compromises are the smartest.
Your affinities are the colours from your Sphere that look especially beautiful on you.
Your tolerances are the same colours as your affinities, but now from other palettes outside your Sphere (though ideally not too far away). If real-life shopping options are limited, these are the colours to look for.
Your preference are simply the colours that make you happy. Since Sphere palettes contain a full hue circle, your favourite colours are always included.
What is a Signature?
Your Signature are the colours from your Sphere palette that are curated, and it’s the final step in a Sphere colour analysis. A Signature is quite similar to how seasonal palettes have distinct colours, vibes and storytelling. Seasons have nothing to do with colour harmony, but what they do have is truly phenomenal storytelling. Since Sphere palettes contain a version of every colour, you can take any Season as your inspiration, or forget about seasons altogether and create your own storytelling.
Can I buy a palette without an analysis?
You can! At some point in the future there will be a web store for this specific purpose, but in the meantime, you can purchase a Sphere palette by emailing or use the contact form.
Palettes are 120 euro with EU VAT and 99,70 euro without EU VAT. (2026 pricing)
Which is better, an online or in-person appointment?
In-person is definitely the ideal option. It’s quicker and easier, and has the advantage that you, me and the colours are all in the same room, so we’re not dependent on cameras and screens. However, ‘easy’ is a relative term. For people living in different countries or continents, online might be their only option.
Online colour analysis certainly has its challenges, but I believe it can be done accurately because A) Sphere is true to how colours behave in nature (Seasons, despite their name, certainly are not) and B) an online Sphere analysis is a careful multi-stage process that involves your own feedback and sample cards for verification, before we commit to the final palette.
Does Sphere have custom palettes?
Yes and no.
The theoretical advantage of a custom palette is that there is no need to consider your orientation, since the palette would be centred around your specific temperature and tonality.
However in practice, because custom palettes are assembled on the spot and there is no time for careful calibration, you end up with a very spread out and messy palette. In my opinion, it is far better to have a consistent palette that is a small step offset from your ideal range (it is quite easy to navigate with), than to have to deal with the far greater spread from a custom palette.
What’s more, colour harmony is consistent, so there is no need to create a custom palette. Any single colour belongs to one temperature and one tonality only. Which means it harmonises with a whole host of other colours that have the very same temperature and tonality, and thus all belong within a palette, and not with any other colours that have different temperature and/or tonality. It is impossible for people to share only half of their colours.
So no, there are no custom palettes in Sphere. All palettes are predefined beforehand. Yet, since there are 45 of them, there will always be one that is a great, if not perfect, match.
At the same time, yes, there is endless opportunity for customisation with a Sphere palette. There are a great many colours in your Sphere, and you likely won’t be wearing all of them. Therefore, the final part of a Sphere analysis is about curating your Signature palette from your total Sphere. Your Signature contains those colours that look really amazing (your affinity) and that make you happy (your preference).
In conclusion, your Sphere palette isn’t custom because it doesn’t need to be. Your Signature absolutely needs to be custom, and so we spend time in your analysis doing just that.
What happens when I’m between palettes?
Given that both temperature and tonality happen on a continuum, it is possible that your sweet spot is right at the boundary between palettes.
For temperature, this is no problem at all. Sphere palettes actually overlap. The warmest colour on one palette is the coolest colour on its neighbour, which means there are no gaps. We simply pick the one which fits best. The temperature range within a palette is very precise and not too large. So you’ll be able to wear all of the colours beautifully, and simply know to compromise off one side only (towards your orientation).
For tonality, palettes touch their ranges (I have drapes that sit exactly halfway between neighbouring palettes, and they can easily be worn by either), but they don’t overlap the printed colours. In that case, it is possible that your sweet spot is somewhat brighter/softer/lighter/darker than the palette.
While it is not as satisfying than having your literal sweet spot on every palette card, this works out alright in practice. Shopping often comes with compromises far larger than the steps between palettes, if only because we’re also balancing size, comfort, occasion, body type and personal taste, alongside fabric and construction quality, on top of budget, plus time and energy spent searching.
What’s more, the purpose of a palette is to point you towards the right colours. As long as you know your orientation relative to a palette, and the palette itself is not too far off, it can still perfectly do that.
The analogy I like to use is that a palette is not quite a taxi that drops you off in front of the address you need to be. It’s more like a bus stop quite near where you need to be, and you walk the final few yards yourself. Some people are lucky and have a bus stop in front of the place they need to be. Most of us have a bus stop quite near and that is perfectly functional. An wildly wrong palette, in this analogy, would be a bus that takes you to an entirely different part of town that’s miles away, and at that point walking to where you need to be is not a feasible option.
Sphere is about giving you the tools to navigate colour space: first knowing where you need to be, and second, the easiest way to get there.