Meet Water Lily (#B2A8EB), our new Color of the Season. Water Lily captures the gentle sway of periwinkle petals at overcast dusk, when lilac light softens every edge and the world feels briefly unhurried. It has the hazy glow of a lake just before the evening hits, floral without becoming sugary, luminous without demanding the whole frame. Consider it a palette cleanser for brain rot: a deeper signal beyond the scroll.
For designers, Water Lily is an invitation back to instinct. Back to outdoor wandering, naive marks, crooked stems, loose sketches, and ideas made before the inner critic gets too loud. It creates room for attention to settle and imagination to reopen. Like water lilies, it stays grounded while holding light at the surface, reminding us that some of our strongest ideas arrive when we stop forcing them and let the mind drift for a minute.
Meet Water Lily
To make sure you’re working with the same color, we’re providing equivalencies in hexadecimal, CMYK, and RGB systems below.
HEX: #B2A8EB
RGB: 178, 168, 235
CMYK: 27, 32, 0, 0
Looking for a refresher on the various color codes, what they mean, and their applications? Make sure to check out this article where we explore the differences and technical details you need to know.
How to Apply Water Lily
Use Water Lily as a bright background in wellness branding, editorial templates, stationery, packaging, or digital experiences that need that sense of calm. Pair it with cloudy cream, moss, oat, fog gray, or muted clay for an outdoorsy palette with a softer feel. Ink black brings definition, while cobalt, citron, or brushed silver can bring out its more futuristic side.
Typographically, it works especially well with naive headline typefaces, soft serifs, and humanist sans serifs with open counters. Try oversized lowercase headlines, loose tracking, irregular baselines, or hand cut lettering. Add translucent floral layers, watercolor bloom, paper grain, blurred photography, or botanical linework to highlight its aural haze without crowding the composition.
Featuring Petals Garden Collage Kit by NatPurple, BLOOMSHIFT Glitch Floral Backgrounds by alenaganzhela, Abstract Blurry Floral Backgrounds by lanaelanor, Flower Dust Overlays Paper Texture by Nat_Purple, and Whimsical Floral Script Font Trio by laramai.
Technical Qualities and Psychological Associations
Water Lily is built from RGB values 178, 168, and 235. In HSL terms, it’s between 249 degrees, with 63 percent saturation and 79 percent lightness. That places it between periwinkle and lilac, with enough blue to feel airy and enough violet to create depth. Its high lightness allows it to cover large areas without feeling dense, and its moderate saturation keeps it from dissolving into “just another pastel”.
Color research suggests that brightness and saturation often shape emotional response more consistently than hue alone. In lab testing, brighter colors were associated with greater pleasure, while higher saturation increased arousal (Valdez & Mehrabian, 1994). Water Lily combines generous brightness with restrained chroma, which helps explain its gentle energy: present and noticeable, but less visually urgent than an electric violet.
The floral reference matters, too. A study of 670 participants found blue flowers among the most relaxing options, while also showing that personal color preference can create its own restorative response (Zhang, Dempsey, & Cameron, 2023). Water Lily does not scientifically switch off stress, and color meanings are never universal, but its blue leaning base, floral context, and softened intensity make it a strong candidate for calmer visual environments. Broader color psychology research also tells us that responses shift with culture, setting, and learned association, so context remains part of the design decision (Elliot & Maier, 2014).
Vibrant Palettes Using Water Lily
Wondering how to apply Water Lily in your next project? These palettes complement our Color of the Season and are ready to use. To download the free SVG file, make sure you’re signed into your Creative Market account.
Try our Color of the Season
Download color palettes using Water Lily
Download our set of color palettes in SVG and start using them in your favorite design app.
Download the palettes
Our Water Lily Collection
We have curated inspiring Creative Market products that are already using our Color of the Season or slight variations of it. Check out the full collection, featuring some of these outstanding assets:
References
Elliot, A. J., & Maier, M. A. (2014). Color psychology: Effects of perceiving color on psychological functioning in humans. Annual Review of Psychology, 65, 95–120.
Valdez, P., & Mehrabian, A. (1994). Effects of color on emotions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 123(4), 394–409.
Zhang, L., Dempsey, N., & Cameron, R. (2023). Flowers: Sunshine for the soul! How does floral colour influence preference, feelings of relaxation and positive uplift? Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 79, 127795.