Pastel Palettes
Pastels feel soft, friendly, and calming. These muted, low-saturation palettes work beautifully for modern, approachable brands.
Pastels are colors with high lightness and low-to-medium saturation. They feel gentle and welcoming, which makes them popular for wellness, beauty, kids’ products, weddings, and friendly tech brands.
Because pastels are inherently light, contrast is the main challenge. The palettes below pair multiple pastels with a darker neutral so text stays readable.
Spring Garden
Friendly, playful, and lifestyle brands
Cotton Candy
Beauty, fashion, and kids’ products
Muted Sorbet
Food, cafés, and seasonal campaigns
Calm Pastel UI
Soft, modern app and dashboard backgrounds
Best use cases
- Wellness, beauty, and self-care brands seeking a calm tone.
- Children’s products, stationery, and friendly illustrations.
- Modern apps that want a soft, low-stress interface.
Design tips
- Always include a dark neutral for text — pastel-on-pastel rarely meets contrast requirements.
- Limit yourself to three or four pastels so the palette feels intentional, not chaotic.
- Use pastels for large backgrounds and a single stronger color for key actions.
Frequently asked questions
What makes a color a pastel?
Pastels are light, soft colors — high in lightness and relatively low in saturation. Think of a vivid color mixed with a lot of white.
How do I keep pastel designs accessible?
Pair pastels with a dark text color and verify the contrast ratio. Pastel text on pastel backgrounds usually fails WCAG AA, so reserve pastels for backgrounds and accents.