Photo in the color Cotton candy
Pictured: Cotton candy
rgb(255, 188, 217)
#FFBCD9

Cotton Candy #FFBCD9 RGB Color Code

Cotton Candy (#FFBCD9) is a moderately saturated, light pink. In RGB it is made of 100% red, 74% green and 85% blue (R 255, G 188, B 217). The red channel is the strongest. In HSL it has a hue of 334°, 100% saturation and 87% lightness. Its relative luminance is 0.622, so black text is easier to read on top of it. For print, a rough CMYK match is 0% cyan, 26% magenta, 15% yellow and 0% black. Check it against your printer's ICC profile before you print. It is a warm color. It goes well with cool blues and greens for contrast. For a matching look, use nearby warm tones.

Open in color picker
ConverterPalette generatorContrast checkerGradient builderUI previewSimilar names

Cotton Candy color codes

#FFBCD9 in every common color format. Click a value to copy it.

FormatValueNotesCopy
HEX #FFBCD9 Valid CSS
RGB rgb(255, 188, 217) Valid CSS
HSL hsl(334, 100%, 87%) Valid CSS
HSV / HSB hsv(334, 26%, 100%) Not a CSS format
HWB hwb(334 74% 0%) Valid CSS
CMYK cmyk(0%, 26%, 15%, 0%) Approximate (no ICC profile)
OKLCH oklch(86.47% 0.085 351.33) Valid CSS
OKLab oklab(86.47% 0.0841 -0.0128) Valid CSS
CIELAB lab(83.18% 27.98 -4.57) D50, as in CSS
CIELCH lch(83.18% 28.35 350.72) Valid CSS
Display P3 color(display-p3 0.9602 0.748 0.8463) Valid CSS
XYZ (D65) color(xyz-d65 0.7174 0.6224 0.7388) Valid CSS
Decimal 16760025 Integer (0xRRGGBB)

CMYK here is a rough screen match without an ICC profile. See CMYK and print. Relative luminance: 0.6224. Nearest web-safe color: #FFCCCC.

Mix Cotton Candy with other colors

See what #FFBCD9 makes with red paint, under a green light, printed with cyan ink and in a digital blend with blue. Click a picture to change the colors and amounts in the color mixer.

PaintCotton Candy and red paintOpen in the color mixer
LightCotton Candy and green lightOpen in the color mixer
PrintCotton Candy and cyan inkOpen in the color mixer
DigitalCotton Candy blended with blueOpen in the color mixer

Use Cotton Candy in your code

Ready to paste into CSS, Sass, Tailwind, iOS, Android and Flutter. Click the icon to copy a line.

WhereCodeCopy
CSS variable--cotton-candy: #FFBCD9;
Sass variable$cotton-candy: #FFBCD9;
Tailwind CSS v4@theme { --color-cotton-candy: #FFBCD9; }
Tailwind CSS v3 configcolors: { 'cotton-candy': '#FFBCD9' }
SwiftUIColor(red: 1, green: 0.737, blue: 0.851)
UIKitUIColor(red: 1, green: 0.737, blue: 0.851, alpha: 1)
Android XML<color name="cotton_candy">#FFFFBCD9</color>
Flutter and Jetpack ComposeColor(0xFFFFBCD9)

Accessibility and contrast

Black text works best on #FFBCD9 (13.45:1, AAA). Here is how #FFBCD9 does as a text color:

Large heading text
Body text at 16px. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
1.56:1 on white
APCA Lc 26
Fails AATry #A16580
Large heading text
Body text at 16px. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
13.45:1 on black
APCA Lc -77
AAA

Check this color against any background in the contrast checker. WCAG ratios and APCA Lc values measure different things, so one can't stand in for the other. Learn more.

How people with color blindness see Cotton Candy

#FFBCD9 next to its complement and its two triadic colors, as seen with each type of color blindness.

  • Normal visionhow most people see it
  • Protanopiano red cones, about 1% of men
  • Deuteranopiano green cones, the most common type
  • Tritanopiano blue cones, very rare
  • Achromatopsiano color at all, very rare

With protanopia and deuteranopia, #FFBCD9 and #BCD9FF look much alike. Don't use these colors alone to tell things apart, for example in a chart. Add labels, patterns or a difference in lightness. Try your own colors in the color blindness simulator.

About the color Cotton Candy

A crayon from 1998

Cotton Candy is a Crayola crayon that came out in 1998. The Wikipedia list of colors gives it as #FFBCD9. Crayola's crayon list now shows a slightly deeper pink, #FFB7D5, so treat both codes as screen guesses of the same wax color.

The candy behind the name

Spun sugar is white until dye is added. A dentist, William Morrison, and a candy maker, John C. Wharton, built a machine to spin it in 1897. They sold it as Fairy Floss at the 1904 World's Fair, as the Wikipedia article on cotton candy tells. Pink is one of the two most common colors for it in the United States. For other soft pinks, see carnation pink and lavender pink.

Cotton Candy in a user interface

A sample app screen with #FFBCD9 as the main color, on a light and a dark theme.

Light theme

Dark theme

Buttons and bars use #FFBCD9 as it is. On the light theme, #FFBCD9 is too hard to read as text (1.56:1), so links, the badge and outline text use #A16580 there (4.48:1). Build a full color scheme around it in the UI color preview.

Color harmonies for Cotton Candy

These schemes turn the hue of #FFBCD9 around the color wheel. Each swatch links to its own page.

Complementary

Two colors on opposite sides of the wheel. This gives the most contrast.

Open palette
this#FFBCD9#BCFFE2

Analogous

Hues that sit next to each other and look good together.

Open palette
#FFBCFBthis#FFBCD9#FFC1BC

Triadic

Three hues spaced evenly around the wheel. Bold, but still balanced.

Open palette
this#FFBCD9#D9FFBC#BCD9FF

Split complementary

A base color plus the two hues on each side of its opposite. Strong contrast that clashes less.

Open palette
this#FFBCD9#BCFFC1#BCFBFF

Tetradic (rectangle)

Two pairs of opposite colors. Let one color lead and use the others less.

Open palette
this#FFBCD9#FFE2BC#BCFFE2#BCD9FF

Square

Four hues 90° apart, spread evenly around the wheel.

Open palette
this#FFBCD9#FBFFBC#BCFFE2#C1BCFF

Monochromatic

One hue at different levels of lightness and saturation.

Open palette
#66002C#B90050#FF0D76#FF60A5#FFB3D4

Gradients with Cotton Candy

Four CSS gradients made from #FFBCD9. Copy the code, or open one in the gradient generator to change it.

Soft tint

From a pale tint to the full color.

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #FFF2F7, #FFBCD9);

Edit in the gradient generator

Deep shade

The color fading into a dark shade.

background: linear-gradient(180deg, #FFBCD9, #48323B);

Edit in the gradient generator

Analogous

Its two neighbors on the color wheel.

background: linear-gradient(135deg, #FFBCFB, #FFBCD9, #FFC1BC);

Edit in the gradient generator

Triadic

A bold blend with a triadic color, through a clean middle.

background: linear-gradient(135deg, #FFBCD9, #EFDFCC, #D9FFBC);

Edit in the gradient generator

Shades, tints and tones of Cotton Candy

Shades are darker, tints are lighter and tones are grayer. We make them in OKLCH so the steps look even. Hover a step to see its code, or click it to open it.

Design system scale (50 to 950)

Cotton Candy sits at step 200. Export the full scale as CSS variables or Tailwind tokens from the picker.

  1. 50
    FFF3F8
  2. 100
    FFE5EF
  3. 200
    FFBCD9
  4. 300
    E5AFC6
  5. 400
    CB8EA9
  6. 500
    AE718C
  7. 600
    915771
  8. 700
    76425A
  9. 800
    5D3247
  10. 900
    452433
  11. 950
    28171F

Closest RAL, Tailwind and CSS colors

The nearest match to #FFBCD9 in three color systems that designers and builders use.

RAL ClassicRAL 7047 Telegrey 4#CFD0CF, close (ΔE 8.7)Tailwind CSSpink-200 #FBCFE8, very close (ΔE 4.5)CSS color namespink #FFC0CB, very close (ΔE 2.5)

ΔE is the distance in OKLab: under 2 is hard to see, over 10 is a clearly different color. Browse all RAL colors, the Tailwind palette or the 148 CSS color names. RAL values on screens are only a guide, so check a real color chart before you order paint.

The named colors that look closest to this one (ΔE in OKLab). Browse all shades of pink or search the color library.