How to Make Auburn
Strong red-brown - the natural colour of auburn hair and rich red-brown leather.
Recipe: Red + Yellow + Blue (5:2:1)
Mix red and yellow at 5:2 - very red dominant. Add blue at one-eighth of the total to push the saturated red-orange into the brown range. The result is a strong red-brown that distinguishes it from the warmer chestnut and the deeper mahogany. Earth-pigment shortcut: cadmium red medium plus burnt sienna plus a touch of ultramarine. For copper auburn (more orange), increase yellow and decrease blue. For deep auburn (the Wikipedia darker auburn value #6E1F1F), add a touch more blue and a drop of black. For light auburn, add white sparingly - auburn loses its saturation quickly with white.
What Is Auburn?
Auburn is a strong red-leaning brown that takes its name from the Latin alburnus (whitish), borrowed into Middle English and shifting in meaning toward reddish-brown over centuries. Today auburn most commonly describes a natural hair colour: a red-brown that is not as red as ginger or copper but more red than chestnut. In the Andre Walker / Fischer-Saller hair-colour scale, auburn corresponds to Level 5 to 6, between medium brown and light brown with red highlights. In paint, auburn appears in equestrian art (the auburn horse coat between chestnut and bay), in autumn landscape (sumac and red oak leaves), and in leather reference (the rich red-brown of natural-tan saddle leather). CSS lists brown at #A52A2A, which Wikipedia notes is closer to a natural auburn than to most named browns; this site uses #A52A2A as the canonical auburn value and reserves the warmer chestnut value (#954535) for the chestnut page. The shade was historically the dominant hair colour of pre-Roman Celts and is the most common natural redhead-brown in Northern European populations today.
Variations of Auburn
Copper Auburn
#B66A40
Red + Yellow (3:2) + Blue (small)
Dark Auburn
#6E1F1F
Auburn + Ultramarine + Black drop
Light Auburn
#C16E5A
Auburn + White + Yellow Ochre (4:1:1)
Making Auburn in Different Media
Acrylic Paint
Full guide →Cadmium red medium plus burnt sienna plus a touch of ultramarine at 3:2:1. Liquitex Cadmium Red Medium Hue is a non-toxic substitute that mixes auburn cleanly. Add white sparingly - auburn drops saturation fast with white, shifting toward pink-brown rather than light auburn.
Oil Paint
Full guide →Old Holland Indian Red plus Cadmium Red Medium plus a touch of French Ultramarine. Oil auburn benefits from the warmth of Indian Red, which is a high-iron-oxide pigment closer to natural auburn than synthetic cadmium reds alone.
Watercolour
Full guide →Daniel Smith Burnt Sienna plus Quinacridone Red plus a touch of French Ultramarine at 3:2:1. For brighter auburn, Daniel Smith Quinacridone Burnt Orange alone gives an auburn-adjacent shade at medium dilution.
Food Colouring
Full guide →For auburn-themed buttercream (autumn-themed cakes, equestrian-themed sugar work): 6 drops red + 2 drops yellow + 1 drop blue per cup of frosting, plus a half-teaspoon of natural-colour cocoa. AmeriColor Maroon plus a drop of Egg Yellow is the closest gel-only single-bottle starting point.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- 1Treating auburn like chestnut - chestnut sits warmer and more brown; auburn sits redder and brighter. Their hex values are visibly different.
- 2Using alizarin crimson as the dominant red - shifts auburn toward burgundy or maroon. Cadmium red medium or Indian Red is correct.
- 3Adding too much white for light auburn - desaturates the mix toward pink-brown. Add a touch of yellow ochre alongside the white to preserve the warm auburn character.
- 4Mistaking auburn for ginger or copper - ginger is more orange and yellow; auburn is more red. They are visibly different at the same value.
Try It in the Mixer
Caramel
RGB(210, 108, 106)
Paint mode uses an approximate RYB subtractive model. Results are a close approximation - actual pigment mixing varies by brand and opacity.
Pre-loaded with the Auburn recipe. Adjust the sliders to fine-tune.
Related Shades
Colour recipes are approximations. Real pigment mixing varies by brand, opacity, and surface. Always test on a sample first.