In-person analysis is more precise, especially on borderline colouring; a careful online analysis gets most people to the right season, or a neighbour, free in minutes. Here is an honest comparison.
In-person analysis
What it is: a trained analyst drapes fabric in different colours under your chin in controlled neutral light and watches how each one affects your face.
Strengths: the analyst sees your skin react in real time, in person, with no camera in between. This matters most for people who genuinely sit on a border between two seasons, and for very deep or very neutral colouring that photographs inconsistently.
Trade-offs: it costs money, needs a booking, and the result quality depends on the individual analyst and their training. Availability is patchy outside large cities.
Online / photo-based analysis
What it is: you upload or take a photo and software measures your skin, eye, and hair colour, corrects for lighting, and scores you against each season.
Strengths: free, instant, private, and repeatable. The tool on this site runs entirely in your browser — your photo is never uploaded. You can re-run it in different light to see how stable your result is.
Trade-offs: it is only as good as your photo. Coloured or mixed lighting is the main source of error, which is why the photo guide is worth reading first.
A sensible plan
- Take a proper neutral-light photo and run the free analysis.
- Re-run it once more in different daylight. If you get the same season both times, trust it and use the palette.
- If you land on a different season each time, or always on the border between two, that is the case where a paid in-person appointment is most likely to be worth it.
Either way, start with the free result — it costs nothing and usually settles the question.