Palettes · · 4 min read
The Clean Girl color palette, five shades
Cream, Sand, Peach, Honey, and Plum. How to keep the first four easy, and how to use Plum without turning the outfit into a costume.
The five shades
Clean Girl in the quiz is Cream, Sand, Peach, Honey, and Plum. The first four sit close to daylight. Plum is the closing accent.
If every piece is Cream, the picture looks unfinished. If every piece is Plum, it is no longer this style.
Build from Cream and Sand
Cream is the knit, the wall, the sheet. Sand is the trouser, the bag, the floor. Peach is the warm note: lipstick, a ceramic, or a light shirt. Honey is the metal or the wood, used once.
Coastal palettes start paler still, with Foam and a real blue. If your "clean" outfit depends on a sea color, you are borrowing Coastal, and that can be the secondary rather than a mistake.
Use Plum once
Use Plum on the smallest object in the frame. A claw clip, a glass, a thin strap. It should be visible in a photo and easy to miss from across the room.
Two plum pieces start a different outfit. One is enough.
What this palette refuses
Neon, a loud logo, and a head-to-toe match all fight the point. So does a heavy navy, which belongs to Old Money. You can still wear a navy shoe. Just know you have stepped into the neighboring style.
The quiz separates those neighbors with pictures of ease versus pictures of tailoring. Trust the picture you pick twice, not the caption under it.
Related styles
Keep reading
Questions
Where does Plum go?
On one small thing: a bag, a scrunchie, a glass, a cushion. It is the accent, not the outfit.
Can I add blue?
A washed blue moves you toward Coastal. Treat it as a secondary color, or Coastal becomes the lead.