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Quickening Lovage Turquoise

#38eadd
Notes

Quickening Lovage Turquoise (#38EADD) is a true cyan with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (176°, 81%, 57%) places it in the highly saturated band at a mid lightness. Best used in small doses, like logos, CTAs, focus rings, or highlight text, where its saturation becomes a feature rather than noise. For a confident two-color system, pair it with its complementary red. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#38eadd
RGB
rgb(56, 234, 221)
HSL
hsl(176, 81%, 57%)
HWB
hwb(176 22% 8%)
OKLCH
oklch(84.9% 0.138 187.4)
P3
color(display-p3 0.4597 0.9047 0.8643)
HSV
hsv(176, 76%, 92%)
LAB
lab(84.43% -45.82 -6.25)
LCH
lch(84.43% 46.25 187.76)
CMYK
cmyk(76%, 0%, 6%, 8%)

Etymology

Quickening
adjective

Old English cwic, living / lively — present-participle of quicken. As a color modifier, quickening implies a saturated-and-coming-alive-and-active quality where the hue accelerates visual engagement. Sits at the bright-and-active end of the grid, parallel to animated and invigorating in usage.

Lovage
modifier

Latin levisticum, medieval-physic-garden-herb. As a color modifier, lovage implies a medieval-physic-garden-and-celery-leaf quality, the visual register of medieval-physic-garden-and-Cluniac-lovage hand-medieval-physic-garden-and-celery-leaf medieval-physic-garden-and-Cluniac-lovage-and-Benedictine-Saint-Gall lovage-and-medieval-physic-garden-and-celery-leaf surfaces under medieval-physic-garden-and-Cluniac-lovage-and-Benedictine-Saint-Gall Cluny-and-Saint-Gall-physic-garden medieval-monastic-light. Sits at the modifier-and-flavor end of the grid, parallel to savory and catnip in usage.

Turquoise
noun

The hydrated copper-aluminum phosphate mined in Persia and the American Southwest for thousands of years — the firuze of Iran, the chalchihuitl of Mesoamerica, the heart of Pueblo and Navajo silverwork. The color refers to a fine Sleeping Beauty turquoise from Arizona: a saturated, slightly green-shifted blue with the slight matrix of host-rock veining. Brighter than persian, lighter than cerulean.

Closest matches

The nearest named color in three reference sources, ranked by perceptual distance (ΔE76 in CIELAB). ΔE < 1 is imperceptible to most viewers; ΔE > 10 is clearly different. When two sources point to the same hex they’re merged into one tile; click any to open that color’s page.

Variations

Click any swatch to explore

Harmonies

Accessibility

Color-vision simulation

How this color appears to viewers with the four major color-vision-deficiency types. Computed via the Machado (2009) physiologically-based model. If a tile matches the original, the color reads the same to that viewer.

#38eadd
Original
#dddddd
Protanopia
#c5cbdf
Deuteranopia
#00f0e6
Tritanopia
#c3c3c3
Achromatopsia
WCAG contrast

The color used as foreground text against pure white and pure black, with the contrast ratio and WCAG 2.1 grade. Aim for AA (4.5:1) for body text and AA Large (3:1) for 18 pt+ headlines; AAA (7:1) is the gold standard for long-form reading surfaces.

The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
Failon White
1.50:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AAAon Black
13.98:1

Wide gamut

Display P3 representation

The CSS Color 4 wide-gamut form of this color. Both swatches render the same color on every display — the P3 form only diverges from sRGB when a designer pushes channels outside sRGB's reach.

sRGB hex
sRGB hex
##38EADD
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.4597 0.9047 0.8643)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.138

Moderately saturated colors gain a small bump in P3 — the difference is usually visible side-by-side on wide-gamut hardware but won't change the character of the color.

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