Crabapple Red

The purplish-red hue of weeping crabapple blossoms, both charming and elegantly refined

HEX#DB5A6B
RGBrgb(219, 90, 107)
HSLhsl(352, 64%, 61%)
HSVhsv(352, 59%, 86%)
CMYKcmyk(0%, 59%, 51%, 14%)
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RGBArgba(219, 90, 107, 1)
HSLAhsla(352, 64%, 61%, 1)
OKLCHoklch(78.7%, 0.094, 9)
LCHlch(73.9%, 23.7, 2)

🎨 Color Palettes

Analogous2-3 adjacent hues (≤60°)
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Triadic3 hues spaced 120° apart
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Split ComplementaryMain color + colors adjacent to its complement
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Complementary2 hues spaced 180° apart
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Tetradic (Rectangle)4 hues forming a rectangle
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MonochromaticSingle hue with varying saturation and lightness
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♿ WCAG Contrast Colors

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High Contrast Text
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Suitable for body text, headings, and primary content, ensuring readability for all users
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Standard Text
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Suitable for regular body content, meeting WCAG AA standards
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Large Text / UI Components
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Suitable for large text (≥18px bold or ≥24px), icons, UI component boundaries
Aa14px Body
Decorative / Dividers
#6DDB5CRatio 2.1:1Fail
Suitable for decorative elements, dividers, non-essential text
Lightness VariationFixed hue and saturation, proportional lightness scaling 30%→100%
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Saturation VariationFixed hue and lightness, proportional saturation scaling 40%→100%
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Lightness + Saturation Mixed VariationSimultaneous lightness and saturation proportional scaling
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Hue Fine-TuningFixed saturation and lightness, stepwise hue fine-tuning ±15°
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💡 Use Cases

🍶

Chinese Wine Vessels

Used in the bottle design of new Chinese-style fruit wines or plum wines, Crabapple Red reflects the tipsy romance of low-alcohol drinks and the feminine-oriented liqueur culture of the East.

👘

New Chinese-Style Attire

Reformed qipaos or high-waist blouses use Crabapple Red as the base, paired with gold and silver thread embroidery, elegant and eye-catching, exuding the aura of a Republican-era socialite.

💐

Mother's Day Bouquets

Arrangements of carnations and crabapple branches, with a flower language of gratitude and beauty, given to mothers to reflect gentleness and dignity settled through the years.

🪞

Vanity Boxes

Ancient-style makeup loose powder containers or lipstick tubes, not as glaring as true red, yet adding classical refined beauty more than nude pink tones.

📜 Origin & History

The crabapple flower holds a very high status in traditional Chinese aesthetics, praised as the 'Immortal Among Flowers' and 'Imperial Concubine of Flowers' because it possesses both the charm of plum blossoms and the vibrancy of peach blossoms. Its flower color is colder and deeper than peach, thus Crabapple Red carries an additional touch of noble, aloof elegance.

The Tang Dynasty court particularly favored crabapples. Emperor Xuanzong once compared his intoxicated consort Yang Guifei to 'a crabapple flower not yet fully awake from sleep.' This famous 'Crabapple Spring Slumber' allusion gave Crabapple Red the dual classical imagery of alluring sensuality combined with languid, delicate weakness.

Song Dynasty literati highly esteemed the weeping crabapple. Lu You wrote the poem, 'Although glamorous, without a vulgar air, truly the richest and noblest,' distinguishing Crabapple Red from worldly garishness, viewing it as the embodiment of a noble personality—rich but not arrogant, glamorous yet not licentious.

On Ming and Qing porcelain and silk fabrics, Crabapple Red was often combined with magnolia, peony, and osmanthus to form the traditional auspicious pattern 'Jade Hall, Wealth and Honor.' Beyond its decorative beauty, it entrusted the literati-official class's worldly pursuit of career success and family prosperity.

In modern times, author Eileen Chang famously lamented one of 'life's three regrets: the crabapple flower has no fragrance.' This slightly regretful aesthetic pushed Crabapple Red into the realm of melancholic literature, representing unparalleled beauty ultimately accompanied by inevitable imperfection.

🧠 Color Psychology

Glamorous Yet Not VulgarAlthough high in saturation and impactful, the coolness from its purple undertone creates an elegant, refined, and noble maidenly quality.
Languid & DelicateEvokes the image of a beautiful lady waking from drunken sleep, with hazy, dreamy eyes, easily inspiring feelings of affection and a desire to protect.
Wealthy & AuspiciousAs the core of the 'Jade Hall, Wealth and Honor' composition, Crabapple Red inherently carries the dignified opulence and joyful, complete atmosphere of an ancient official's grand mansion.
Bitter Love & Parting SorrowIn literary color theory, the scentless crabapple often symbolizes fruitless love, rendering a beautiful yet faintly tragic atmosphere.
Cold Elegance & Aloof PrideMixing a purple-red coldness, it possesses a mysterious magnetic field that keeps people at arm's length yet irresistibly compels them closer to explore.
Classical RefinementPrecipitated by millennia of poetry and praise from literati, this color inherently carries a bookish aura, like a faded Song Dynasty court lady painting.