TruHue
TruHue
YAY picks · Soft Summer
Soft Summer skin glows with cool, muted, and soft shades. Here are 12 mascara picks across drugstore and prestige that score YAY for your palette.
Last updated June 2026
Rimmel London
Quick Answer
The best mascara for Soft Summer sits in the true black and blue-black range. Soft Summer is cool-toned — blue sits underneath, gently — and runs medium in value and low in saturation, so a shade matching all three reads as part of the face rather than as product sitting on top of it. Avoid bright, warm or high-contrast shades; against this colouring the wrong direction looks either too severe or too washed out. Every pick below was scored against its measured hex value, not its shade name.
These four words decide every pick on this page, and they are used loosely almost everywhere else. Here is what each one means precisely.
Undertone. The colour sitting underneath skin, hair and eyes, constant regardless of tan or makeup. Soft Summer is cool: blue sits underneath, gently. This decides whether a mascara flatters or fights the face.
Value. How light or dark a colour is, measured independently of what colour it is. Soft Summer sits medium in value, which is why shades far outside that range read as borrowed from someone else.
Chroma. How pure or saturated a colour is. High chroma is clear and vivid; low chroma is greyed or dusty. Soft Summer is low, and this is the dimension most shade guides skip entirely.
Contrast. The distance between the lightest and darkest features. Soft Summer is low contrast, which sets how much pigment a mascara needs before it registers at all.
$13 at Amazon
A top match for Soft Summer — this shade sits right in your palette's sweet spot.
Shop at Amazon →KIKO Milano
$30 at Amazon
A top match for Soft Summer — this shade sits right in your palette's sweet spot.
Shop at Amazon →
Maybelline
$16.98 at Amazon
A top match for Soft Summer — this shade sits right in your palette's sweet spot.
Shop at Amazon →
Maybelline
$16.98 at Amazon
A top match for Soft Summer — this shade sits right in your palette's sweet spot.
Shop at Amazon →
Maybelline
$16.98 at Amazon
A top match for Soft Summer — this shade sits right in your palette's sweet spot.
Shop at Amazon →
Tarte
$28.00 at Amazon
A top match for Soft Summer — this shade sits right in your palette's sweet spot.
Shop at Amazon →
Maybelline
$10.82 at Amazon
A top match for Soft Summer — this shade sits right in your palette's sweet spot.
Shop at Amazon →
Maybelline
$16.98 at Amazon
A top match for Soft Summer — this shade sits right in your palette's sweet spot.
Shop at Amazon →
Maybelline
$16.98 at Amazon
A top match for Soft Summer — this shade sits right in your palette's sweet spot.
Shop at Amazon →
Maybelline
$16.98 at Amazon
A top match for Soft Summer — this shade sits right in your palette's sweet spot.
Shop at Amazon →
Dior
$35.00 at Amazon
A top match for Soft Summer — this shade sits right in your palette's sweet spot.
Shop at Amazon →
Dior
$35.00 at Amazon
A top match for Soft Summer — this shade sits right in your palette's sweet spot.
Shop at Amazon →Not sure you’re a Soft Summer? Take the free color quiz — it takes about 2 minutes.
Your coloring pulls cool, muted, and soft shades. When mascara matches that profile, your lashes frame your eyes naturally instead of fighting your overall palette. The picks above sit in that sweet spot — they work WITH your coloring instead of against it.
Skip bright, warm, or high-contrast shades — they can look off against your muted, cool coloring. Stick with colors that complement your natural palette.
Soft Summer pulls cool, muted, and soft shades. For mascara, that means colors that complement your natural eye framing without clashing with your overall palette.
Maybelline, L'Oréal, and Covergirl all carry shades that score YAY for Soft Summer in the $5–15 range. Black and brown mascaras tend to be universal winners.
Skip bright, warm, or high-contrast shades — they can look off against your muted, cool coloring.
Not sure if you’re a Soft Summer? Take the free TruHue color quiz — 2 minutes.
Find your season →Shop the products in this post
Some links in this post are affiliate links. When you shop through them, TruHue earns a small commission at no cost to you — it's how we keep the app free.
Scan any lipstick, blush, or foundation and see if it works on you — YAY, OKAY, or NAY, matched to your color season.
Get My Color Matches — Free →