colors
Back to gallery

Punchy Lipstick

#9d2685
Notes

Punchy Lipstick (#9D2685) is a true magenta with a jewel character. It carries the deep, saturated richness of a gemstone. Authoritative and slightly formal, it works well for type and heavy UI elements. Its HSL profile (312°, 61%, 38%) places it in the balanced band at a mid lightness. It works across type, buttons, and borders, saturated enough to feel deliberate but balanced enough to not fight the rest of the palette. For a confident two-color system, pair it with its complementary green. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#9d2685
RGB
rgb(157, 38, 133)
HSL
hsl(312, 61%, 38%)
HWB
hwb(312 15% 38%)
OKLCH
oklch(49.2% 0.184 337.6)
HSV
hsv(312, 76%, 62%)
LAB
lab(38.29% 57.49 -25.81)
LCH
lch(38.29% 63.02 335.82)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 76%, 15%, 38%)

Etymology

Punchy
adjective

A modern adjectival form of punch, to strike sharply. Used as a color word since the early twentieth century for hues that read as highly contrasting and visually loud. Punchy red, punchy yellow: the implication is full saturation combined with optical impact. Sits across the bold and bright buckets, near vivid and striking.

Lipstick
noun

Modern cosmetic stick of waxy carmine-and-iron-oxide pigment in vegetable wax base — particularly the deep-magenta MAC Russian Red and Chanel Rouge Allure shades that defined late-20th-century fashion-magazine cover art. Lipstick color refers to a MAC Ruby Woo matte lipstick on a fresh swatched arm: a saturated, slightly cool deep magenta with the matte finish of pigment-loaded vegetable-wax-and-castor-oil base.

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.

#9d2685
Original
#2b4e88
Protanopia
#536182
Deuteranopia
#a62d53
Tritanopia
#464646
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).
AAon White
6.89:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AA Largeon Black
3.05:1

Related Colors

Canvas