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Citrine Silk Muted
Color detail

Citrine Silk Muted

Yellow · Hue 60
Hex
#BCBC9F
RGB
rgb(188, 188, 159)
HSL
hsl(60, 18%, 68%)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 0%, 15%, 26%)
Metrics
S 18% · L 68%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white
1.9:1Fail
on black
10.8:1AA
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Citrine Silk Muted (#BCBC9F) belongs to the yellow family — hue 60°, 18% saturation, 68% lightness. Copy the hex, RGB, or HSL value above, or paste the CSS custom property below into your stylesheet to reference this color directly.

CSS
:root {
  --colorarchive-citrine-silk-muted: #BCBC9F;
  --colorarchive-citrine-silk-muted-hsl: hsl(60, 18%, 68%);
  --colorarchive-citrine-silk-muted-rgb: rgb(188, 188, 159);
}

AI Color Names

Let AI suggest alternative poetic names for this color in English and Chinese.

Design Context

GentleHopefulFresh
Common in

Baby Products · Organic Food · Stationery

Pairs well with

Lavender for whimsy, soft gray for sophistication, mint for freshness

Design tip

Excellent for backgrounds that need warmth without weight. Be cautious with text readability — always ensure sufficient contrast.

Cultural context ▶

Pale yellows suggest gentleness and new beginnings. Associated with spring, youth, and innocence in Western cultures.

Color Origins

Yellow family

The color of attention, sunlight, and contradiction.

Heritage

Yellow ochre is, with red ochre, one of the two pigments humans have used continuously for the longest time. Indian Yellow — historically made from the urine of cows fed only mango leaves — reached its peak in 17th–18th century Mughal painting before falling out of use. Cadmium yellow, introduced in the 1840s, gave Van Gogh his sunflowers; chrome yellow gave him the wheat fields he died in. Modern PY83 (a hansa yellow) is the durable workhorse of contemporary printing.

Across cultures

In Imperial China yellow was the emperor's color, off-limits to commoners. In medieval Europe yellow was simultaneously sacred (gold halos) and stigmatized (forced-yellow garments imposed on Jews and 'heretics' — the precedent the Nazis revived). In Japan yellow is courage; in Egypt it was the color of mourning. Few colors carry such contradictory meanings across regions.

In the wild

McDonald's golden arches were calibrated for highway visibility — the M is yellow because yellow is the most-recognized color at distance. The Yellow Pages, the New York taxi, the school bus, and the Post-it note are all the same engineered yellow (PMS 116) for the same reason: maximum legibility at minimum cost. Coldplay's 'Yellow' put the color into the cultural mood vocabulary in 2000. IKEA pairs yellow with blue in a deliberate echo of the Swedish flag.

How it reads

Yellow demands attention more aggressively than any other color — the eye's L-cones and M-cones both peak nearby, so yellow appears bright at lower luminance than other hues. It works as an accent, a warning, or a child-friendly primary; it almost never works as a body-text color (contrast against white is too low). At low saturation yellow becomes cream, butter, parchment — quiet and warm; at high saturation it becomes a hazard sign or a sport drink.

This particular tone

A grounded mid-tone — sober, considered, well-suited to body text accents, editorial layouts, or any context where restraint reads as quality.

Lightness band: At mid-lightness the hue carries its full character. This is the band where most identity colors live: bright enough to be distinctive at small sizes, deep enough to sit cleanly on a white canvas.

Saturation band: The low saturation pulls this color toward earthen, vintage, or editorial palettes. It reads as confident and grown-up rather than playful, and it tolerates being used in large blocks without becoming visually noisy.

Brands using a similar color

Within the public brand-guidelines reference catalog, these are the closest matches to #BCBC9F.

  • Glossierprimary
    Glossier Pink · #F8D6CD
    →
  • Starbucksneutral
    Warm Neutral · #D4E9E2
    →
  • Aesopneutral
    Cream Paper · #EFE4D2
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #BCBC9F.

  • ScandinaviaOat Beige
    #D5C7A7 · Linseed oil-treated pine
    →
  • China (Traditional)Celadon (青瓷)
    #9CB48F · Song Dynasty Longquan kilns
    →
  • EgyptPapyrus Tan
    #C1A36F · Cyperus papyrus reed paper
    →

Tonal strip

All lightness levels at this hue and saturation. Click any to navigate.

Palette moves

Instead of stopping at one swatch, use nearby, opposite, and tonal neighbors to branch into a broader palette.

Lighter companion
Citrine Bloom Muted
#CDCDB7 · hsl(60, 18%, 76%)
Darker companion
Citrine Tone Muted
#ABAB87 · hsl(60, 18%, 60%)
Complementary counterpoint
Iris Silk Muted
#9F9FBC · hsl(240, 18%, 68%)
Analogous lead
Olive Silk Muted
#B2BC9F · hsl(80, 18%, 68%)
Analogous echo
Apricot Silk Muted
#BCB29F · hsl(40, 18%, 68%)
Triadic +120°
Aqua Silk Muted
#9FBCBC · hsl(180, 18%, 68%)
Triadic +240°
Fuchsia Silk Muted
#BC9FBC · hsl(300, 18%, 68%)
Split-comp +150°
Sapphire Silk Muted
#9FADBC · hsl(210, 18%, 68%)
Split-comp +210°
Plum Silk Muted
#AD9FBC · hsl(270, 18%, 68%)
Export preview
Base: Citrine Silk Muted #BCBC9F
Lighter companion: Citrine Bloom Muted #CDCDB7
Darker companion: Citrine Tone Muted #ABAB87
Complementary counterpoint: Iris Silk Muted #9F9FBC
Analogous lead: Olive Silk Muted #B2BC9F
Analogous echo: Apricot Silk Muted #BCB29F
Triadic +120°: Aqua Silk Muted #9FBCBC
Triadic +240°: Fuchsia Silk Muted #BC9FBC
Split-comp +150°: Sapphire Silk Muted #9FADBC
Split-comp +210°: Plum Silk Muted #AD9FBC

Compare

See how Citrine Silk Muted compares side by side with related colors.

vsCitrine Bloom MutedvsCitrine Tone MutedvsIris Silk MutedvsOlive Silk MutedvsApricot Silk MutedvsAqua Silk Muted

Nearest neighbors

The closest archive matches by hue, saturation, and lightness.

Search by hex
Nearby match
Citrine Silk Faint
#B6B6A5 · hsl(60, 10%, 68%)
Nearby match
Citrine Silk Dust
#C3C398 · hsl(60, 26%, 68%)
Nearby match
Canary Silk Muted
#BCBA9F · hsl(55, 18%, 68%)
Nearby match
Citrine Tone Muted
#ABAB87 · hsl(60, 18%, 60%)
Nearby match
Citrine Bloom Muted
#CDCDB7 · hsl(60, 18%, 76%)
Nearby match
Citrine Silk Soft
#C9C992 · hsl(60, 34%, 68%)

Accessible pairings

Archive colors that meet WCAG contrast standards when paired with this color. Use as text-on-background or background-on-text.

Contrast checker
AAA7.2:1
Iris Shadow Clear
#21216E
AAA7.7:1
Iris Shadow Vivid
#13137C
AAA7.8:1
Iris Shadow Bright
#0B0B83
AAA7.8:1
Iris Shadow Pure
#060689
AAA7.2:1
Iris Nocturne Muted
#2A2A3C
AAA7.6:1
Iris Nocturne Dust
#262640

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#BCBCA8
Protanopia
#BCBCA7
Tritanopia
#BCACAE
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