What Color is Chartreuse?

Chartreuse is halfway between green and yellow, but the spectrum within the color ranges from bright lime to light green and even mustard.
According to Etsy, chartreuse is the official color of the year 2020. This is ten years after former first lady Michelle Obama made the color famous with a gorgeous chartreuse gown and jacket during her husband’s 2009 Inauguration Day.

If it's the first time you are hearing about the color chartreuse, you are not alone. Despite being around for centuries, chartreuse is not exactly a word you hear every day, even though it's something you see daily. Instead, most of us refer to it as yellow-green, avocado color, or lime.

So what exactly is it? Chartreuse is the perfect combination of yellow and green. The Domestic Monthly defines it as “a delicate, pale green with a yellow tinge.” You see it inside a perfectly ripe avocado, on the belly of a love bird, and inside a green apple or peach. This yellowish-green color is vivid, electric, and exciting.

History of Color Chartreuse

As it turns out, the color chartreuse is not new at all. Chartreuse was named after a popular French liquer made by Carthusian monks in the 1600s. The secret blend of 130 plus herbs formed a vibrant yellowish-green medicinal beverage that people loved. Thanks to the popularity of the drink, the color chartreuse quickly made its way to women's fashion and décor in the 1800s.
Unfortunately, the chartreuse dyes used during that time was made with arsenic, causing the death of the color. It wasn't until 1920 when chartreuse made a comeback in fashion because it was seen as a bold and rebellious color. Since then, the color has waxed and waned, hitting peaks in the 1980s and then again in 2010 and now in 2020.

Shades of Chartreuse

Essentially, chartreuse is a mixture of yellow and green colors. However, it has an expansive range of shades ranging from spring-like green to muted yellowish hues. Chartreuse can be a warm color or a cool one depending on whether green or yellow is dominant in the shade. Nature alone has an expansive array of this color, including pears, lettuce, green apples, lime, avocado fresh, pistachios, and tourmaline.

Because of its brightness, the color chartreuse is used in tennis balls, reflective safety vests, and fishing lures. In some states, a sort of fluorescent chartreuse green is used as the color of fire engines, so they are easily visible at night.

Psychology of Chartreuse

According to color psychology, the color chartreuse represents;
•    Enthusiasm, happiness, growth, and youth.
•    Energy, inspiration, and motivation, which is why it’s recommended for offices and creative spaces.
•    Focus, concentration, and creativity.
•    Highly creative, enthusiastic, and positive people who make friends easily and love adventure.

On the negative side, people who love chartreuse struggle to find balance in life because they are caught between the excitement of yellow and the calmness of green.

How to Use Chartreuse

If you want to incorporate Chartreuse in a room, consider it for an accent, not the primary color. Chartreuse brings out other colors very well, and it works better as an accent color to draw attention to a particular area. Grey and any dark shade of blue go extremely well with Chartreuse, especially if you are doing home décor or fashion pieces. The color is also exceptionally good for bringing attention to certain pieces when designing an app or a website.

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