Tints & Shades
50
100
200
300
400
500
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700
800
900
Scale from white (50) through Mardi Gras (500) to black (900), interpolated in Lab color space.
Color Values
- HEX
- #880085
- RGB
- rgb(136, 0, 133)
- HSL
- hsl(301, 100%, 27%)
- OKLCH
- oklch(0.438 0.2 330)
- CMYK
- cmyk(0%, 100%, 2%, 47%)
--color-mardi-grasbg-[#880085]Accessibility
Score: 96/100On White (#FFF)
8.8:1
On Black (#000)
2.39:1
On Light Gray (#F5F5F5)
8.07:1
Best text color on this background:
Design Applications
background-color: #880085
color: #880085
bg-[#880085] text-[#FFFFFF]
border-left: 4px solid #880085
Color Harmonies
Complementary
Grass Green
#3F9142
Split-Complementary
Similar Colors
Color Meaning & Psychology
Purple was among the most expensive dyes in history — extracted from murex snails, requiring thousands to color a single garment. This scarcity created the enduring association with royalty, power, and luxury. Purple is rare in nature, which is why it feels special and mysterious. Red-purples feel passionate and romantic; blue-purples feel calm and contemplative; mid-purples feel creative and spiritual. Purple activates both warm (red) and cool (blue) emotional responses simultaneously, creating an ambiguity that different cultures interpret differently — wisdom in Asia, mourning in parts of Europe, magic in fantasy contexts, lavish excess in baroque design. Its deeper, richer tone gives it gravitas and sophistication, making it well-suited for primary brand colors, typography, and contexts where authority matters.
Industry Usage
Common contexts and industries where Mardi Gras is applied in professional design.
- Luxury beauty and cosmetics brands
- Premium consumer products and packaging
- Spiritual, wellness, and meditation apps
- Creative agencies and design studios
- Entertainment and gaming (magic, fantasy)
- Anti-aging and prestige skincare
- Confectionery and indulgence brands
- Academic institutions emphasizing wisdom
Accessibility Considerations
Normal Text
Passes AA
4.5:1 minimum required
Large Text
Passes AA Large
3:1 minimum required
UI Components
Meets 1.4.11
3:1 for non-text UI
Mardi Gras is a dark color. Use white (#FFFFFF) text on top of it for maximum readability (8.80:1). Avoid small black text on this background.
CSS & Code Examples
Background
background-color: #880085;Text
color: #880085;Border
border: 2px solid #880085;Box Shadow
box-shadow: 0 4px 20px #88008540;Gradient
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #880085, #bb45b5);Tailwind-style
--color-mardi-gras: #880085;Tailwind CSS Utilities
Use arbitrary value syntax in Tailwind CSS to apply Mardi Gras without a custom config.
Background
bg-[#880085]Text
text-[#880085]Border
border-[#880085]Ring
ring-[#880085]Fill
fill-[#880085]From (gradient)
from-[#880085]Via (gradient)
via-[#880085]To (gradient)
to-[#880085]Design Tokens
Ready-to-use Mardi Gras design token in CSS custom properties, SCSS, Tailwind v3/v4, and JSON formats.
CSS Custom Properties
:root {
--color-mardi-gras: #880085;
--color-mardi-gras-rgb: 136, 0, 133;
--color-mardi-gras-hsl: 301, 100%, 27%;
}SCSS Variables
$color-mardi-gras: #880085; $color-mardi-gras-rgb: 136, 0, 133; $color-mardi-gras-hsl: 301, 100%, 27%;
Tailwind v3 Config
// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
theme: {
extend: {
colors: {
'mardi-gras': '#880085',
},
},
},
};Tailwind v4 (@theme)
/* tailwind.css */
@theme {
--color-mardi-gras: #880085;
}JSON Design Token (W3C format)
{
"mardi-gras": {
"value": "#880085",
"type": "color",
"description": "Mardi Gras — #880085"
}
}More purple colors
View all →What Does Mardi Gras Mean? Color Psychology & Cultural Symbolism
Few colors carry the semantic density of purple. At #880085, Mardi Gras compresses luxury, creativity, and mystery into a single deep tone—a quality that has made the purple family the default language of premium, imaginative, and unconventional brands.
- Purple's historical scarcity (Tyrian purple was worth more than gold) embedded it permanently in the Western imagination as a royal, noble, and exclusive color. In contemporary design it bridges luxury (its historic connotation) and creativity (its association with the imagination and alternative thinking).
- In Japan, purple (murasaki) has been associated with nobility and spiritual power for centuries, and the tradition continues in contemporary culture. In Thai mourning traditions, purple is worn by widows—one of the few cultures where it carries grief rather than luxury associations.
- Mardi Gras's deep lightness (27%) shifts its psychological register: Deep violet and plum tones carry maximal luxury and mystery—positioned at the intersection of black's power and purple's creativity, excellent for premium and high-fashion applications.
- At 100% saturation, Mardi Gras reads as vivid—Vivid purples—electric violet, magenta-leaning—signal digital creativity, gaming culture, and technological imagination; they are the purples of sci-fi, crypto, and creative tools.
Mardi Gras earns its place in design the same way it earned it in history: through rarity, confidence, and the willingness to be extraordinary.
How to Use Mardi Gras in Design: Applications, Pairings & Best Practices
The design applications of Mardi Gras center on premium positioning. Whether in packaging, digital product, or brand identity, it signals that what's inside is worth more attention than the ordinary.
- UI components: premium feature highlights, creative mode indicators, luxury tier badges—Mardi Gras performs reliably in all these roles with its deep tonal character.
- Brand & identity: premium branding, creative agency identities, beauty packaging—contexts where Mardi Gras's vivid quality creates the right register.
- Typography: Mardi Gras works as a background behind white text but requires careful sizing—test at intended heading and body sizes before finalizing.
- As a dark tone, Mardi Gras creates maximum contrast with white and light neutrals—excellent for creating premium dark-mode sections, bold headers, and high-drama brand moments
- Proportional use: Mardi Gras's vivid saturation (100%) means small applications—accents, highlights, icons—deliver maximum impact without visual fatigue. Reserve large-scale use for intentional brand moments.
Mardi Gras earns its place in design the same way it earned it in history: through rarity, confidence, and the willingness to be extraordinary.
Mardi Gras Accessibility: WCAG Contrast Ratios, Color Blindness & Inclusive Design
Mardi Gras (#880085) achieves a 8.80:1 contrast ratio with white text, surpassing the WCAG 2.1 AAA threshold of 7:1. This exceptional contrast qualifies it for body text, UI components at any size, and all accessibility-sensitive interface contexts. Relative luminance: 6.9%.
- As text on white (#FFFFFF): 8.80:1 — AAA ✓
- As text on black (#000000): 2.39:1 — Fail
- Best text color on Mardi Gras background: White (#FFFFFF) at 8.80:1
- WCAG 2.1 luminance: 6.9% — low luminance (dark)—it provides strong contrast for white and light overlaid text, functioning well as a background in dark-mode and header contexts
- Mardi Gras qualifies for all text sizes including small body copy (AAA).
- Color blindness consideration: tritanopia (blue-yellow color blindness, ~0.003% of population) may affect how this color reads. While rare, for maximum accessibility supplement color signals with text or icon indicators in critical states.
Mardi Gras's WCAG profile makes it a compliant choice for most text applications.
Mardi Gras in Industry: Branding, Design & Market Applications
Across industry research, purple-family tones consistently outperform competitors in categories built on luxury, creativity, mystery, and wisdom. Mardi Gras is a deep expression of this advantage—best positioned in Beauty & Cosmetics and adjacent markets.
- Beauty & Cosmetics: Purple is the second most common color in beauty branding, projecting luxury, femininity, and transformative aspiration. It signals that a product is special, premium, and designed for moments of indulgence. (examples: Drunk Elephant, Tatcha, Rare Beauty) Lavender tones work for accessible beauty; deep violet and plum for luxury skincare and perfume.
- Creative & Agency Services: Creative studios, design agencies, and advertising firms use purple to signal imagination, unconventional thinking, and creative authority. It differentiates them from the blue-dominated corporate world while retaining enough gravitas to command respect. Works best when paired with a strong neutral (black, charcoal, or cream) to prevent it from reading as whimsical.
- Gaming & Entertainment: Purple dominates gaming, streaming, and digital entertainment branding because it signals the threshold between the ordinary world and an imaginative one. It's the color of portals, magic systems, and premium digital experiences. (examples: Disney+, Hulu, Netflix) Twitch's purple brand has made the color synonymous with live streaming culture—worth considering in adjacent spaces.
- Brand positioning: Mardi Gras is best suited for brands projecting luxury, creativity, imagination. Categories outside this positioning—mainstream corporate environments where it reads as unconventional—tend to see weaker results.
- Adjacent applications: Beyond primary industries, Mardi Gras works effectively in premium branding, creative agency identities, beauty packaging—contexts where creativity serves a secondary but reinforcing role.
Mardi Gras earns its strongest ROI in industries where trust and recognition compound over time: Beauty & Cosmetics, Creative & Agency Services, Gaming & Entertainment. Use it to build the kind of brand recognition that decades reinforce.
Accessibility & Design Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the hex code for Mardi Gras? ▾
- The hex code for Mardi Gras is #880085. Its RGB values are rgb(136, 0, 133) and its HSL values are hsl(301, 100%, 27%).
- What does Mardi Gras mean in design? ▾
- Purple was among the most expensive dyes in history — extracted from murex snails, requiring thousands to color a single garment. This scarcity created the enduring association with royalty, power, and luxury. Purple is rare in nature, which is why it feels special and mysterious. Red-purples feel passionate and romantic; blue-purples feel calm and contemplative; mid-purples feel creative and spiritual. Purple activates both warm (red) and cool (blue) emotional responses simultaneously, creating an ambiguity that different cultures interpret differently — wisdom in Asia, mourning in parts of Europe, magic in fantasy contexts, lavish excess in baroque design. Its deeper, richer tone gives it gravitas and sophistication, making it well-suited for primary brand colors, typography, and contexts where authority matters.
- Is Mardi Gras WCAG accessible? ▾
- Mardi Gras (#880085) passes WCAG AAA on white with a 8.8:1 contrast ratio. Its overall accessibility score is 96/100.
- What colors go well with Mardi Gras? ▾
- Mardi Gras pairs well with its complementary color Grass Green (#3F9142). Analogous colors like Blue Violet and Heliotrope also work harmoniously. Check the Color Harmonies section above for the full palette.
- What is Mardi Gras used for? ▾
- Mardi Gras is commonly used for: Luxury beauty and cosmetics brands; Premium consumer products and packaging; Spiritual, wellness, and meditation apps; Creative agencies and design studios; Entertainment and gaming (magic, fantasy).
- What are the CSS and Tailwind values for Mardi Gras? ▾
- In CSS, use `color: #880085` or `background-color: #880085`. The CSS custom property is `--color-mardi-gras: #880085`. In Tailwind CSS, use the arbitrary value class `bg-[#880085]` for backgrounds or `text-[#880085]` for text.