The 80s are back, and this time they're booking flights. Colour analysis — the idea that everyone suits one of four seasonal palettes based on their skin undertone, hair and eye colour — has gone viral again on TikTok, and one travel writer has taken the trend a step further: picking destinations to match your season. Here's the short version, so you can work out where your features belong.
Summers sit in the cool, muted end of the spectrum — blue or pink undertones, ash blonde or mousy brown hair, soft grey or pale blue eyes. Their match is France: cycling through Provence, strolling Deauville's seaside promenade, or wandering Monet's garden in Normandy. Think low-contrast pastels, swans on lakes and hillsides dotted with pink wildflowers.
Autumns have warm undertones whatever their depth of skin — freckles, easy tanning, copper, chocolate or golden hair. That warmth points straight to Morocco: the honey-coloured alleyways of the Fes el Bali medina, a night glamping among the rust-toned dunes of the Sahara, a hands-on cooking class and the Roman ruins of Volubilis. Tip from the source: shoot your photos at golden hour to make your eye colour pop.
Winters are the high-contrast types — light skin, dark hair, the only palettes that can truly carry stark white and jet black. Their natural habitat is drama, so Iceland is the obvious pick: green aurora over snowfields, waterfalls, a hike across the Solheimajokull glacier, and a soak in the Secret Lagoon near Fludir, Iceland's oldest swimming pool, dating to 1891.
Springs glow in warm, bright colour — golden or peachy undertones, strawberry blonde or golden-brown hair, vivid blue, green or hazel eyes. Portugal is their playground, especially the yellow-washed medieval villages and wine houses of the Douro Valley. For extra credit, hop to the Azores, a nine-island mid-Atlantic archipelago of pineapple plantations, flower-strewn hiking trails and, apparently, the world's best pastéis de natas in suitably custardy yellow.
Is any of this scientifically rigorous? Not remotely. But it's a fun lens for choosing a trip, and a surprisingly practical one: matching your destination's palette to your colouring means you'll look good in every photo, and each of these trips doubles as a solid shortlist of genuinely worthwhile places. If you already know your season from the TikTok trend, you basically have your next holiday chosen. If not, a quick scroll through the trend's filters will sort you out in minutes — no professional draping session required.
Who is this for? Anyone torn between a handful of destinations and happy to let a bit of 80s pseudoscience break the tie — plus photographers, Instagram planners and anyone whose wardrobe already leans distinctly warm or cool.
Credit: Intrepid Travel Blog