Dazzling Cochineal
Dazzling Cochineal (#DC5CA6) is a true magenta with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (325°, 65%, 61%) 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 teal. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.
Etymology
The progressive participle of dazzle, to overwhelm with brightness — used as a color word since the seventeenth century for hues that read as intense enough to be momentarily blinding. Dazzling white, dazzling pink: the implication is luminance pushed to the extreme. Sits at the bright-bucket extreme alongside electric.
Dactylopius coccus, the Mexican scale insect cultivated on prickly-pear cactus and harvested for its deep red carminic-acid dye. Shipped to Spain by the conquistadors, cochineal became the second most valuable export from the New World after silver. The color refers to fresh cochineal pigment: a saturated, slightly cool deep red with the brilliance of a dye thirty times stronger than kermes.
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 exploreHarmonies
Accessibility
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.
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.