Ethereal Essence Makeup

Ethereals pull off a surprising amount of makeup.

They don’t need to wear a lot—or any.

But with their supernatural beauty, Ethereals are harmonious in makeup that goes beyond a minimal, fresh-faced look.

Ethereal Style Essence Makeup

Overall Vibe

As an Ethereal, your best makeup will mirror your soft, mystical, angelic beauty.

The vibe will be:

• Dreamy—unique and like a fantasy, rather than down-to-earth

• Luminous—filled with light-reflective, shiny finishes

• Gentle yet subtly striking—lightweight enough to feel like a peaceful dream, but intense enough to embody the emotionally-charged notion of “fantasy”

Here’s some of your best specific makeup elements:

Eyes

Eyeliner

You have several good options here:

1. Skip eyeliner for an airy, open eye look

2. Do very thin, blended eyeliner in a color similar to your own eyelashes (or to your mascara) that follows the shape of your eyes or extends just slightly beyond them:

3. An option that can be even better: delicate winged liner!

Wings easily feel graphic and bold. So the key to an Ethereal wing is eschewing thick, angular lines.

Instead, use eyeliner (or eyeshadow and a small, stiff brush) to draw a very thin, long, curved wing:

Another trick is to use a medium or medium-light shade.

The angle of your wing can be a continuation of the curving line created by your lower lashline:

Optionally, you can blend to create a super-subtle finish:

But, winged liner can also be used to mimic the look of an extra eyelash. So it’s one of your only Ethereal makeup elements that doesn’t need blending.

Why This Works

Winged liner elongates the eyes and adds curving detail, suiting Ethereal’s iconically long, curved shapes.

Plus, “wing-like” elements are fantastic for Ethereal’s celestial, heavenly feel.

Lower Liner?

Lower eyeliner is optional—a light application can emphasize the lashline without feeling heavy.

Instead of eyeliner, you can also use a thin line of eyeshadow on the lower lashline, for very subtle definition.

Light colors work well.

Medium and dark shades can also work.

To avoid a harsh feel, be sure to blend.

Colors

Your ideal eyeliner will feel gentler than the conventional dark, liquid wing.

Though your specific best shades depend on your color season and personal coloring.

If you have deep or high-contrast coloring, very dark eyeliner may suit you. You can also experiment with medium and light neutrals, which will tend to be best for medium-contrast coloring.

If you have light or low-contrast coloring, you may want to focus on medium-light or light neutrals.

Non-neutral colors are riskier, but we’ll discuss making them work when we talk about:

Eyeshadow

Eyeshadow is made for Ethereal, easily feeling dreamy, hazy, and blended.

One of Ethereal’s best styles is light shimmery eyeshadow all over the lid.

You can also add a light-medium or medium matte shade in the crease:

A shimmery finish is great, and so are other textures that reflect light, like glowy, creamy, or frosted.

Ideally, you want the edges to feel diffuse, and the two colors to transition seamlessly into each other—blend well!

Shimmer can also be applied at the inner eye corners and optionally brought above the crease, following the shapes of the eyes. If you want to add a medium matte eyeshadow, apply it above the lids toward the outer corners of the eye area, while concentrating the shimmer on the lids and inner halves of the eye area.

Why Add a Medium Crease Color?

Why not use only light colors? A few reasons:

• Ethereal loves gentle color transitions, like gradient or ombre. Adding a darker crease color creates a gentle transition with the lighter lid.

  • Plus, a darker matte crease can help the lighter shimmery lid stand out more.

• Blending out your matte crease color can also create a subtly smoky effect—fantastic for Ethereal’s hazy, dreamlike nature.

  • The catch is that you want it to feel relatively delicate, often achieved by choosing light-medium or medium crease colors, and blending very, very well.

• Adding eyeshadow beyond the lid can also add horizontal length to your eyes, and elongation typically suits Ethereal.

This also relates to Ethereal’s best colors and how Ethereal can handle darker colors and higher contrast than is commonly believed.

Colors or Neutrals?

Neutrals are “safer” and stunning, especially if you include metallics like gold or silver.

But you can also try some of Ethereal’s favorite colors, like purple and blue.

Last time, we observed that Classic loves blue in fashion but not in makeup, since blue eyeliner or eyeshadow easily feels unique.

For this same reason, blue—and purple—can be perfect for an Ethereal eye:

Here, neutral Ethereal eyeshadow on the lids is complemented by blue eyeshadow applied along the lower lashline.

This can be a subtle way to experiment with color.

Mascara

Length

Long upper lashes are perfect for creating a fantasy feel:

Lash emphasis in general suits Ethereal, since eyelashes feel inherently curved and detailed. So it’s completely ok if your lashes don’t look ultra-long.

Long lower lashes work, too, but are more skippable—be careful they don’t get clumpy.

Thickness

Go for thin, lightweight upper and lower lashes.

Thick lashes aren’t ideal, since they can start to feel blocky and graphic.

Falsies or Extensions

Optional—they can add length that matches Ethereal’s otherworldly, fairytale feel.

You’ll want to choose thin, lightweight versions.

Applying falsies on only your outer lashes is also great, creating a “butterfly” shape (butterfly sunglasses and eyeglasses also suit the essence!)

Tightlining

Dark tightlining isn’t ideal—too bold.

Tightlining with a very light shade, such as white, cream, or champagne, is optional. It can make the eyes appear wider, enhancing Ethereal’s deep, soulful gaze.

You can experiment with the color—bright white sometimes feels harsh, whereas something like champagne may create a more wearable effect.

Brows

Ethereals’ best brows tend to be:

• Horizontally long

• Set high above the eyes

• Thin or medium

• Light (relative to your coloring)

• Gently curved, subtly arched, and tapered

• Feathery and delicate, rather than dense

It works for Ethereal to still see some of the brows’ individual hairs.

You can optionally “fill in” your brows to cover all the bare spots, though it’s not necessary. If you use brow pencil, you may want to experiment with a lighter shade than your real brow color.

Lips

Texture

One of Ethereal’s most stunning lip finishes? Metallic:

A metallic lipstick connects to Ethereal’s light-reflecting nature.

Frosted lipstick is also great.

Lip gloss and lip balm work well, too—they’re more conventional and not quite as iconically Ethereal, but they still reflect light in an Ethereal way.

Best Color

Drumroll—purple!

Ethereals have dreamlike beauty and shine in unique makeup.

If that sounds unwearable, then the consolation is that Ethereals are also extremely flattered by nude and light pink lips.

You can still look amazing as an Ethereal even if you wear zero purple cosmetics.

If you do want to try purple but are hesitant, you could use a diffuse finish (like purple lipgloss), or apply a lipstick lightly so that it has the texture of a lip stain.

You can also try a color like mauve, which is a blend of pink and purple—fairly conventional, but still great for Ethereal.

Lip Liner

Optional—if using, blend well until the line is no longer visible.

Face

Foundation

Glowy foundation is amazing, giving you an Ethereal lit-from-within aura:

If you want something less shiny but still workable, try satin foundation.

Blush

Optional—for best results, choose a light, subtle color and blend very well:

Blush adds softness and dreaminess, but you don’t want it to feel heavy.

Matte blush is good, since it can still have a diffuse, blended feel.

For extra Ethereal, choose a creamy, satin, or even shimmery finish.

Contour

Matte contour can help your light-reflecting textures stand out more.

Apply following the shape of your cheek, ideally creating a somewhat long, curving, diffuse line.

Contour can even extend a bit past the hollow of the cheek vertically. This suits Ethereals’ elongated shapes and can also make the cheek appear more prominent on the face relative to the jaw and chin, which arguably matches Ethereal’s soft, delicate feel.

Highlighter

This is the ultimate light-reflecting product and one of Ethereal’s most flattering.

You can be generous, highlighting not just along the tops of your cheeks but also on other points of the face that catch light, like the nose bridge, upper lip, or chin.

As with Ethereal’s other makeup, blurring the edges slightly creates an even gentler, softer finish.

Contrast Level

“Contrast level” can be defined as:

• How light and dark your makeup colors are relative to one another

• And how much your makeup colors stand out relative to your personal coloring

Ethereal’s best contrast level tends to be low or low-medium.

But, there’s exceptions, especially if your personal contrast level is higher.

The Typical Ethereal Contrast Level

Ethereal’s best makeup tends to feature mostly light or light-medium colors—on the lips, cheeks, and eyes.

The result can be a natural match for people with low-contrast coloring, especially if you have a pale skin tone.

Adjusting Your Contrast Level to Your Personal Coloring

But you also have other options for contrast level, especially if you have medium-contrast coloring, high-contrast coloring, or a deep skin tone:

• Option 1: Use mostly light makeup colors.

  • Since our style type tends to influence our vibe more than our color season, low-contrast makeup can still sometimes work for high-contrast people.

  • In some cases, you might even find that creating a makeup look with light (or very light) colors can read as medium or high contrast in the context of your coloring.

    • For instance, (very) light makeup colors may contrast intensely with your own dark skin tone, eye color, or hair color.

    • So, by creating a makeup look with mostly light colors, you may end up creating a look that feels contrasting relative to your own coloring.

    • And contrast is beautiful for Ethereal. As covered in our essences’ best colors series, Ethereal has both a peaceful and powerful aura. And Ethereal’s powerful side suits higher-contrast.

• Option 2: Use darker makeup colors than the stereotypical Ethereal look.

  • For example, you could pair light eyelids with medium-dark eyeshadow in your creases, and very dark eyeliner and mascara.

    • The key is to keep your textures as Ethereal as possible and blend well.

  • You can also experiment with doing medium colors on both your eyes and lips, or even medium-dark colors on both your eyes and lips.

    • As discussed when exploring Classic’s best makeup, pairing a medium eye and medium lip can actually read as lower contrast than a medium eye and pale lip, because there’s less difference between the two colors.

    • So this could potentially be a way to incorporate the depth of color that flatters your color season, while not feeling overly intense for Ethereal. Again, the key is choosing Ethereal textures and blending very well.

• Option 3: Simply match your contrast level primarily to one of your other essences!

There isn’t a single right option—you may find that one works best or that you can do all of these.

Color Season

Ethereal makeup can suit any season.

Cool tones may be more stereotypically Ethereal. But if you have a warm season, then wearing your warm colors in Ethereal makeup will be amazing on you. It can evoke sunlight and the “golden hour.”

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That’s the overview of some of Ethereal’s most flattering makeup!

Ethereal can also do makeup beyond what’s covered here, including very creative makeup. That may be a future post.

Another key point is that based on your specific essence ratio, you might find that not all the above elements suit you, even if you’re highly Ethereal.

In that case, simply choose the elements that work, and modify or omit the ones that don’t.

Here’s extra detail on Ethereal makeup:

Isn’t This Kind of a Lot of Makeup?

Yes, and it’s crucial to note—Ethereals are stunning without makeup.

They exude otherworldly, angelic beauty, even with a bare face.

And a “no makeup” look can have a connection to Ethereal’s delicate, airy vibe.

So Ethereals definitely don’t need to wear a lot or any makeup.

The reason they pull off surprisingly high amounts is that they have fantasy-esque, otherworldly beauty.

And by making luminous, shimmery, and sometimes unique makeup choices, they echo what’s already inherently beautiful in their features.

In fashion, too, Ethereal is flattered by generous embellishment and detail. Ethereal fashion also tends to feel dressed-up, further explaining why a “made-up” look can work so well.

But it’s true that it’s a balancing act, and that Ethereal’s best look won’t usually appear “heavy”.

If your Ethereal makeup is feeling too bold, you might try making the darkness of your colors more similar to your personal coloring; using less product; or blending more.

Should You Match Your Makeup to Your Facial Features?

This often seems to be the safest choice.

For instance, if you’re an Ethereal Natural with Ethereal eyes and Natural lips, then the safest choice for creating harmonious makeup is do Ethereal eye makeup and a Natural lip.

But, sometimes it can be fun to apply makeup that suits your overall blend, even if it’s not technically the perfect fit for your individual features.

So, if you’re an Ethereal Natural with Natural lips, you still might want to try an Ethereal lip.

Why? One reason is that it gives you more varied and versatile options for makeup. It can also change up your look, making your overall vibe appear more Ethereal than your bare face typically does. So, it can be a fun creative exploration.

And many people may still find the results harmonious, because you’re still doing makeup that connects to your general vibe.

Future posts may discuss this further.

How to Tell which of Your Features are Ethereal?

Ethereal features are fascinating, because they can encompass opposite-seeming qualities.

For instance, heavy-lidded eyes are often Ethereal, and hooded eyes can be Ethereal, too.

The Ethereal stereotype is a face of elongated ovals—high curving forehead, long curving nose and cheeks.

Ethereals often do have these features. But, you can absolutely have none of those features and still be highly Ethereal.

You might have Ethereal as horizontal elongation, such as horizontally elongated eyes, brows, or lips.

It’s often difficult to discern a feature’s essences with the naked eye.

This seems especially true for Ethereal, since the essence is defined by oval shapes. And to the naked eye, most humans seem to have some “ovals” in their features. Yet, by many accounts, Ethereal is one of the less common essences.

To determine which of your specific features are Ethereal, you could try testing which of your features appear harmonious in Ethereal makeup.

Ethereal Makeup Inspiration?

For more makeup inspiration, try searching for “glowy makeup,” “dreamy makeup,” or “angelic makeup.” Or even just “ethereal makeup”!

These terms won’t always lead you to makeup that’s 100% Ethereal in a style essences’ sense, but they can be a great jumping-off point.