The word “mauve” doesn’t often roll off the tongues of Americans to describe a shade of pinkish purple. Some may even feel it synonymous with color palettes of the 1980s. But florists know mauve has always been a popular shade of flowers, even if it’s not referred to as such.

Rose growers have used the term for years, and florists are familiar. But consumers may be unaware of the shade that is actually referred to as mauve. Even Pantone can’t land on one definition of mauve, further delineating with Mauve Mist in a purply shade, Bleached Mauve in antique pink and Mauve Chalk, an even lighter pink!

So, we can’t fault a consumer using mauve incorrectly. There is a clear spectrum.

Defining the color.

Vogue magazine described mauve as “a soft purple that sits somewhere between pink and violet,” when they wrote about the intense popularity of the color in interior design lately.

The dictionary categorically defines mauve as a pale purple color. But we know consumers are seeing mauve with more attributes than purple, it can also be described as pink. But what is consistent is that mauve has a cool tone, and the shade is organic, found in nature, not artificially enhanced.

Mauve colors are often described as “antique” or with words referencing coffee, pointing to the muddy undertones in a way today’s trend-hungry consumers can understand.

Mauve has a light color value and a dusty quality. It sits between pink and purple on the color wheel and exudes romance and nostalgia.

Why is mauve popular?

Outside of neutrals and greenery, light pink and dark blue have been dominating wedding palettes for years. Mauve aligns with both. Brides may interpret the light purple as pink, and couples see how mauve complements dark blue well, making it popular by extension. 

Mauve has become a safe accent color for interior design, punching up furniture, accent walls, curtains and rugs to enliven the mostly grey walls popular in the past decade.

Mauve is seen often in makeup. A “cosmetic color” as Tom Bowling, AIFD explains, these colors don’t often scare consumers because of this familiarity.

How to find mauve

To help your shopping, our website allows you to shop by color, and mauve is one of them. We also put flowers in our mauve section that we know people may interpret as the color mauve, including sandalwood and rose veil. Unlike most websites, you can zoom into the flowers until they are nearly life-size to see the variation in the pink and purple blended petals.