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Pleasant Margarita

#bdb66e
Notes

Pleasant Margarita (#BDB66E) is a true yellow 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 (55°, 37%, 59%) 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 blue. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#bdb66e
RGB
rgb(189, 182, 110)
HSL
hsl(55, 37%, 59%)
HWB
hwb(55 43% 26%)
OKLCH
oklch(76.6% 0.094 103.5)
HSV
hsv(55, 42%, 74%)
LAB
lab(73.16% -7.95 37.48)
LCH
lch(73.16% 38.31 101.98)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 4%, 42%, 26%)

Etymology

Pleasant
adjective

From the French plaisant, pleasing — used as a color modifier since the fifteenth century for hues that read as agreeable, the kind of color that wears well over a long viewing without becoming demanding or fatiguing. Pleasant green, pleasant rose: moderate saturation combined with optical comfort. Sits at the crisp-bucket alongside easy and calm.

Margarita
noun

The Mexican-American cocktail of tequila, lime, and triple sec — invented in the late 1930s on the Mexico–US border and served in a salt-rimmed glass. Margarita color refers specifically to a fresh-poured margarita in a coupe: a soft, slightly cool warm yellow-green with the optical clarity of citrus-and-spirits.

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

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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.

#bdb66e
Original
#c2b168
Protanopia
#c4b571
Deuteranopia
#c8ada4
Tritanopia
#b2b2b2
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
2.08:1
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
10.08:1

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