PARTLY

Partly true: the '5 color combos for your new website' are usable brand pairs, but three of the five fail WCAG contrast if you use them as text on background, which the reel never mentions

Facebook · Oct 2026

The claim'Save this for later! 5 color combo for your new website.' On screen, five hex pairs each over a site mockup: #18191A + #87482D (an architecture site), #F8F9F3 + #C6FE56 (a wealth-management site), #28282A + #F5E8D3 (a watch collection), #EEEEEE + #FF5E4E (a consulting site), #152E40 + #CEFF52 (a creative agency).

The combos are fine as mood pairs and the mockups show them used sensibly: a dark base with the second color as an accent, or a light base with the second color as a highlight block. That is where the honesty ends, because the reel presents them as 'color combos for your website' with no word on how to use them, and the numbers do not survive contact with text. Computing WCAG 2 contrast ratios for each pair: #28282A on #F5E8D3 is 12.2:1 and #152E40 on #CEFF52 is 12.1:1, both excellent. But #18191A on #87482D is 2.5:1, #EEEEEE with #FF5E4E is 2.6:1, and #F8F9F3 with #C6FE56 is 1.1:1, which is near invisible. WCAG AA requires 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text, so three of the five pairs cannot carry body copy in either direction. They work only as accent-on-neutral with a third color (usually white or near-black) doing the reading, which is exactly what the mockups quietly do. The 'save this' line is engagement bait and the page sells its design services and audience; there is no course attached here. A two-color palette is also not a website palette; real work needs a neutral scale, a text color, a link color and state colors. Take the pairs as inspiration, then run them through a contrast checker before any of them touches a word.

What holds up

Reel read frame by frame: five hex pairs are shown as swatches over mockups (Assembly Atlas, 'A New Standard in Wealth Management', Velmont Collections, 'Turn complexity into decisive growth', a 'MAKE' agency page). No guidance on text use, accessibility or a third neutral.
WCAG 2 contrast computed Oct 2, 2026 for each pair: 18191A/87482D 2.51:1; F8F9F3/C6FE56 1.12:1; 28282A/F5E8D3 12.17:1; EEEEEE/FF5E4E 2.60:1; 152E40/CEFF52 12.06:1. AA needs 4.5:1 for body text, 3:1 for large text.
In the mockups the failing pairs are used as accent on neutral, with white or near-black doing the text work; the reel never says that is the only way they pass.
The hook is 'save this for later' engagement bait from a design page; the sell is the page's audience and design work, no product link.

What doesn’t

Three of five pairs fail WCAG AA for text in both directions; one is 1.1:1, effectively unreadable.
'Combo' implies the two colors work together as text and background; they only work as accent and base with a third neutral.
Two colors is not a site palette; no neutral scale, text, link or state colors are discussed.
'Save this for later' is a reach hook; the post is portfolio marketing.

The catch

The pairs look great as swatches and the two dark-base ones genuinely work, but if you type #C6FE56 onto #F8F9F3 your visitors will not be able to read it. Treat the bright color as an accent, pick a real text color, and check every pairing against WCAG before it ships.

How to actually do it

Pick one pair, then add a near-black text color and a white or off-white surface; the bright color is for buttons, highlights and headings on the dark base only.
Run every text-on-background combination through a WCAG contrast checker and keep body text at 4.5:1 or better, large headings at 3:1 or better.
Build the full token set before coding: base, surface, text, muted text, accent, link, success, warning, error. Two hex codes is a mood, not a system.

The five palettes are attractive and the two dark-on-cream pairs pass accessibility easily, so the tip is not worthless. But the reel hides that the other three only work as accent colors; used as the reel implies, they fail readability, and no real website palette stops at two colors.

Confidence: High
Posted by: a UI/UX designer's page (about 12k views on this reel); reel sent to Buddy Tue Sep 29, 2026, ~8:00 AM

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