Week 16: Designing a Pastel Mermaid Palette 🌊🧚

This week is all about trying new things and stepping out of your comfort zone.. For me, my hands always naturally reach for high-saturation neons or deep, muted earth tones. But I know the girlies love a pastel mermaid moment, so I wanted to see what I could come up with by working with a completely different palette.

I know that cool tones, aquas, and purples are always going to mix well together, and adding a little splash of pink always works to tie it all together. Here is how to lay out a five-color pastel look that keeps its dimension.

🌀 The Recipe [See the blend here!]

✶ Place to Be (Teal)

✶ No Collabs (Lilac)

✶ Stay In Your Lane (Pastel Pink)

✶ Mystic (Seafoam)

✶ Disco (White w/ Rainbow Tinsel)

The "Why": Tonal Balance in Multi-Color Blends

Why does a five-color mix like this stay clean instead of looking messy? It comes down to Value Matching.

Because all of these shades share a similar light, pastel value, they share equal visual weight. They don't fight each other for dominance. When you add Disco, the white fiber acts as a neutral canvas that bridges the cool blues and the warm pink. By keeping the blend light rather than over-mixing it, you prevent the different pigments from canceling each other out, giving you an organized, clean layout with maximum dimension.

Ways to Customize

Since this pastel base is incredibly versatile, you can easily shift the mood depending on your personal style:

✶ Cool it Down: Lean heavier into Place to Be and Mystic while pulling back on the pink. This keeps the look entirely in a cool-toned, deep-ocean family.

✶ Warm it Up: Maximize your Stay In Your Lane and No Collabs sections to push the final look into a sweeter, cotton-candy direction.

✶ Increase the Flash: Add an extra portion of Disco to lighten the overall palette further and increase the concentration of that rainbow tinsel throughout the braid.

The Takeaway

Stepping out of your usual routine is the best way to practice color placement and understand how different tones interact. Even if you aren't traditionally a pastel lover, breaking out of your comfort zone shows you just how much depth you can achieve simply by controlling how much you blend your fibers.

Grab your packs, think outside the box, and see what you can create this week!

- Hailee @haileekayhair