Brand colours · Beauty and skincare
Brand colours for beauty and skincare startups
A ready-to-use palette for a beauty and skincare brand, tested for contrast and shown on a real app screen, pitch deck and business card. Copy the hex codes, or use it to see what good looks like before you choose your own.
Meet the sample brand
To show the palette working, we built it for a fictional beauty and skincare company.
How it should feel
Millennial pink and minimal white dominate. Your shelf neighbours already look like that. So Saarva goes a different way, using turmeric glow as its signature and rose clay for the moments that matter.
Fonts: Cormorant Garamond for headings, Jost for body text.
The palette
Four colours, each with one job. Click any swatch to copy its hex code.
Turmeric Glow
#D9893B · RGB 217, 137, 59A golden turmeric tone tells the ingredient story at a glance.
Rose Clay
#D7A1A0 · RGB 215, 161, 160A soft pink for the sensory side of the brand.
Kohl
#231D1F · RGB 35, 29, 31Elegant near-black for type and premium packaging.
Muslin
#F7F0E8 · RGB 247, 240, 232A skin-friendly cream background.
A good split: mostly light, dark for text, primary for key moments, accent sparingly.
The palette in use
Colours only prove themselves on real things. Here it is on the three places a beauty and skincare startup shows up first.
App screen
Pitch deck slide
Business card, front and back
Contrast check
Text must stay readable. We checked each pairing against the WCAG standard, where 4.5 to 1 passes for body text.
| Use | Sample | Ratio | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Body text | Aa Saarva | 14.7 : 1 | Pass AA |
| Text on primary | Aa Saarva | 6.8 : 1 | Pass AA |
| Accent on dark | Aa Saarva | 7.5 : 1 | Pass AA |
| Primary on light | Aa Saarva | 2.4 : 1 | Avoid for text |
| Light on dark | Aa Saarva | 14.7 : 1 | Pass AA |
What to know about colour in beauty and skincare
The palette is only a start. These are the traps we see most in this industry.
What the category already owns
Millennial pink and minimal white dominate. Your shelf neighbours already look like that.
Avoid
- A palette with no dark colour, so the type looks weak on packaging.
- Colours that clash with the actual product texture in photos.
Photograph the real product texture (cream, serum, powder) on your light colour. The palette must flatter the product.
Choose your own in four steps
Use the sample as a reference, then make it yours.
Write your positioning
Colour follows strategy. Know who you serve and how you want them to feel first.
Map the competition
Screenshot five beauty and skincare competitors and note the colours they own. Pick a lane nobody holds.
Build four colours
A primary, an accent, a dark and a light. Check contrast before anything else.
Test it on real things
Your app, a deck slide and the place customers meet you offline. Fix what fails.
Questions
What are good brand colours for a beauty and skincare startup?
Start from a primary that the category does not already own. Millennial pink and minimal white dominate. Your shelf neighbours already look like that. The sample palette here uses Turmeric Glow (#D9893B) as the primary with Rose Clay (#D7A1A0) as the accent.
How many colours should a startup brand have?
Four is enough: a primary, an accent, a dark for text and a light for backgrounds. Use them roughly 60, 30 and 10 percent, with the accent the smallest share.
Can I use this palette for my own brand?
Yes, it is free to use as a starting point. Change at least the primary so it fits your positioning and stands apart from your competitors.
How does Astitva choose brand colours?
Astitva writes your brand strategy from a short brief, suggests a palette that fits it, checks the text contrast and then uses the same colours across your logo, brand book and pitch deck.
More for beauty and skincare founders
Every guide for this industry, in one place.
Get a palette made for your startup
Astitva writes your brand strategy from a short brief, picks colours that fit it, checks contrast, and uses them across your logo, brand book and pitch deck.
Start free with 50 credits