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Pearly quartz

#b495a2
Notes

Pearly quartz (#B495A2) is a true magenta with a warm character. It leans warm, pulling light toward red, orange, and yellow. Naturally inviting, it suits editorial and hospitality contexts. Its HSL profile (335°, 17%, 65%) places it in the muted 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 teal. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#b495a2
RGB
rgb(180, 149, 162)
HSL
hsl(335, 17%, 65%)
HWB
hwb(335 58% 29%)
OKLCH
oklch(70.2% 0.041 351.1)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6863 0.5889 0.6331)
HSV
hsv(335, 17%, 71%)
LAB
lab(64.81% 13.75 -2.47)
LCH
lch(64.81% 13.97 349.84)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 17%, 10%, 29%)

Etymology

Pearly
adjective

Old French perle, pearl — adjectival suffix -y. As a color modifier, pearly implies a pale-and-iridescent-and-soft quality, the pale color of Akoya-and-South-Sea freshwater-and-saltwater natural-pearl iridescent-aragonite-nacre surface-finish. Sits at the pale-and-soft end of the grid, parallel to waxen and opalescent in usage.

quartz
noun

Silicon dioxide — the most abundant single mineral on Earth's continental crust, occurring as everything from beach sand to gem-grade rock crystal. Quartz as a color refers to a polished pale-gray quartz crystal: a soft, very pale slightly cool gray with the high specular shine of a translucent silicate. Cooler than pearl, warmer than mist.

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.

#b495a2
Original
#989aa3
Protanopia
#9e9fa1
Deuteranopia
#b99499
Tritanopia
#9d9d9d
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
2.71:1
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
7.76:1

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
##B495A2
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6863 0.5889 0.6331)
Inside sRGBOKLCH chroma 0.041

This color sits well within the sRGB cube. P3 and sRGB share the gray axis and most desaturated tones, so a P3 display renders this identically to an sRGB display.

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