R173 I think you're probably a Soft Summer because Cool Summers can pull off many of the dark colors of Dark Winter, only heathered (dark charcoal gray instead of black, burgundy instead of maroon, heathered navy).

However, if you have dark, cool but ash hair and look like a storm cloud rolled in over your coloring (cool, shaded but with distinctive contrast) you should go Cool Summer. The only real difference is in the eyes, your eyes should look gray, stormy, cool but not icy. Yes, this makes a difference because higher contrast would put you in Winter. However, both are Cool seasons so you won't really go wrong in any of this palettes but I'm sure you'd like to know your "magic" colors, the ones that lead other people to be mesmerized by your appearance.

Here's French actor Fu'ad Aït Aattou. I would classify him as a Cool Summer, though some might think he leans more Soft. But what's noticeable is a sort of enigmatic haziness. Summers (of all ethnic and racial backgrounds) all share these kind of diffuse, medium to low contrast combos.

When there's a slight blur to someone's lines, people actually soft-focus the person in their impression of them, they're more romantic about describing the person. This has actually been revealed in studies about visual impressions; people project an emotional impression based on aesthetics, which is why sharp featured, high contrast Winters so often get assigned qualities of competence and sophistication: People associate intensity with Winter feature aesthetics and color contrasts and associate intellect with the same. Springs get associated with energetic exuberance; Autumns, earthy sensuousness. And it doesn't even matter if your actual personality is completely opposite of this, people's initial visual impact reaction to each season is often pretty predictable. I'm searching for the precise study but anyone who teaches Cognitive Psychology can pop in any time and post it first, if they know the one I'm talking about.

This is part of the reason Marilyn Monroe was seen as so dazzling onscreen. She was already a soft lined Light Summer, so visually she would come across slightly hazy-lined on film, plus, she refused to remove a blonde downy fuzz she had on her face and the rest of her body (most actresses would just have it all depilated when they went through the Hollywood makeover machine). This reflected light, as well and furthered to the visual image that read as "soft, ethereal". Most casting directors and model reps know this either consciously or instinctively and cast prospective cast members and models accordingly.

Anyway, back to Cool Summers, which come across visually as the most mysterious looking ones because that cool, shady coloring can be seen as foggy, otherworldly.