Some style essence guidelines seem too obvious to ever question.

Like, of course Romantic’s best lip color is red. Right?

Well…

Previously, we explored pervasive style essence myths. Here’s some more:

Myth: Romantics are Best in Red Lips

Almost everyone seems to believe that Romantics are amazing in red lips and less so in neutrals or gentle pinks.

But after a lot of observation, I think the truth is the exact opposite:

Romantics tend to be better in either nude (meaning colors close to your own skin tone) or light pink lips than reds.

Why do I believe this blasphemy?

I didn’t, at first. Like most people, I assumed Romantic’s defining color in fashion (passionate red) would also be their perfect lip shade.

But then I realized that some of the most famous highly Romantic celebs, from Beyoncé to Kim Kardashian to Selena Gomez to Angelina Jolie, wear nude or pink lips much more frequently than reds:

There’s about 20 photos of Beyoncé through the years on Wikipedia. In nearly all of them, she’s wearing a pink or nude lip.

The same is true of her Instagram over the past 6 months—there’s a few pics of her in red lips, and 20+ of her in light shades or nudes.

Some Romantics even gravitate to extremely pale lips:

Kim Kardashian is highly Romantic and a Dark Autumn (clue she’s not a Winter: cool-toned lips feel a bit disconnected from her).

Based on her Deep color season, and based on stereotypes about Romantics (and Dramatics, since Kim has notable D), Kim should in theory be her best in deep reds. But, if you look at her Instagram over the past 6 months, she basically *never* does a red lip.

Of course, celebrities don’t always wear their ideal makeup. So I’ve tested their controversial choice using photo editing apps. The result: neutral or light pink lips read as more Romantic than red lips, even when you keep every other factor constant.

How can this be? Here’s some likely reasons:

1) Eye Emphasis

Romantics’ iconic eye makeup is dark and smoky.

So, neutral or pale lips emphasize Romantic eyes, because of the contrast:

Takeaway: compared to bold reds, neutral lips actually make your smoky Romantic eyes more noticeable—and thus more captivating and alluring.

2) Lip Emphasis

By the above logic, nude lipstick actually highlights the lips, too.

Why? Because a Romantic smoky eye and nude lip are so different-looking:

The smoky eye has a heavier feel, plus more intense colors
In comparison, the nude lip feels strikingly lightweight (especially since Romantics’ best lip is also wet-looking and glossy)
- So, this sort of lip appears contrasting, noticeable, and alluring when paired with Romantic smoky eyes

But, if you do:

A highly-pigmented smoky eye
Plus a highly-pigmented red lip
- There isn’t as much contrast between them, and so the result is somewhat flat, because of the sameness. Both features are emphasized with a similar depth and heaviness—especially compared to the smoky eye/nude lip combo, which feels more contrasting and dynamic.

This is probably where the conventional wisdom, “you should emphasize eyes or lips, not both,” comes from: paradoxically, you’ll emphasize both your eyes and lips more when one of them is deemphasized.

Takeaway: a neutral or a pale lip actually highlights the lips, because it contrasts with the eyes and can be a unique, rather extreme choice.

But, as we see on people like Beyoncé and Selena Gomez, if you have a lot of Romantic, it won’t look out of place on you.

It will look exactly right, and it will emphasize both your smoldering eyes and lips.

3) Dimension and Softness

Qualities like dimension (e.g., features appearing 3D and curvy, rather than flat and linear) and softness are key to Romantic beauty.

And it’s very easy for neutral or light lipstick to have a dimensional and soft quality.

Comparatively, red lipstick more easily feels flat or harsh—that is, Dramatic.

It’s also very easy for medium red lips to feel conventional and Classic, or for vivid red lipstick to feel playful and Gamine:

With the right eye makeup, Selena is flattered by bold red, especially since it also suits her Gamine. But on a non-Gamine face, pairing these bold eyes and lips might feel overly playful or staccato.

Takeaway (and big disclaimer!): medium red lips do sometimes really suit Romantics, especially in a glossy texture.

After all, red is amazing for Romantic in fashion, and this can translate to makeup, too.

But what tends to be even more flattering is nudes or your lightest palette pinks.

Plus:

Is Romantic’s Best Color Actually Red?

What if, in a shocking plot twist, Romantic’s best color in fashion isn’t red?

What if it’s actually…

Your personal coloring’s version of “skin-tone” or “nude.”

That might sound a little wild, but here’s the logic: Romantic has obvious associations with passion and (shocker) romance.

So, clothing that shows skin is often Romantic.

And therefore, so is clothing that approximates the color of bare skin.

So, is red actually Romantic’s best color? It tends to be one of their best, for sure.

But flesh-toned neutrals might be a serious competitor, and when it comes to lipstick, I think they win.

Myth: “Yang” Essences Shouldn’t Wear Much Makeup

Reality: the essences that pull off the most visible and intense makeup are…

Dramatic and Gamine!

Maybe Romantic, too. But Dramatic and Gamine can handle more severe, unblended textures.

Consider supermodel Karlie Kloss—she’s highly Dramatic, with notable Gamine and some Classic:

DCG Karlie Kloss. Stunning in simple makeup. But as we’ll see, she has tremendous range.

Karlie has delicate-appearing coloring. She could even pass for being highly Ethereal:

From the side, Karlie’s face looks softer, and her striking Dramatic becomes harder to see.

(That’s one reason it’s helpful to reference straight-on photos in style analysis—the face sometimes looks wider and/or softer from the side.)

But despite her delicate coloring, Karlie is famous for pulling off high-fashion looks, including graphic, bold, and unique makeup:

Do these looks all perfectly match her season and style type, no. But there’s a ton of connection between the bold makeup and her powerful vibe.

This should seriously call into question the idea that “yang” essences have anything to do with traditional masculinity, since it’s not exactly traditionally masculine to wear bright lipstick or heavy eyeliner.

And while Naturals are flattered by comparatively lighter makeup, another myth is that “Natural” makeup means “no makeup.”

In fact, you can harmoniously wear a full face of makeup as a Natural—if you’ve ever seen a “minimal makeup” tutorial, you know that lightweight, natural beauty looks are sometimes created by piling on 10+ products.

Myth: Ethereals and Dramatics Must Have Vertical Elongation

Reality: many Ethereals actually have vertically short faces. For these Ethereals, the essence can manifest as horizontal elongation of the eyes, brows, or lips.

The same is true for Dramatic. Probably the most stereotypical Dramatic facial feature is long, sharp, modelesque cheekbones—but you can have a moderate-length or even short face shape and still have Dramatic.

How? Because you might have bold Dramatic brows; sharp Dramatic eyes; or striking Dramatic lips that appear horizontally long

We see this with some Dramatic Classic Gamines:

These celebs have the powerful, playful, polished DCG vibe. But do their faces have obvious vertical elongation—maybe not.

Their Dramatic might be present in their bone structure, but it might also be present in their eyes, lips, or brows. Even if you have no vertical elongation, you can still have notable Dramatic.

So, after talking about how essences can manifest in individual features, let me try not to contradict myself too much by saying:

Myth: You Can Type Someone Just by Looking at Their Individual Features

If style analysis is so much about the shapes of the features, then why can’t you just look at a person’s nose or eyes or eyebrows and immediately know what essence is there?

Sometimes, you can. But ultimately, this isn’t an accurate analysis method for most people to use (including me!). This is for a few key reasons:

People’s individual features often blend more than one essence—In my Makeup Analyses so far, clients almost always have some blended features—like having Romantic Ethereal eyes or Dramatic Gamine bone structure.
In fact, for nearly all my makeup analyses, clients have had at least two essences in their eyes, and sometimes three. This is often true of brows, lips, and cheeks, too.
That’s one reason it’s surprisingly hard to look at an individual facial feature and immediately discern its essence. A lot of times, the answer to the question, “What essence is this,” is “It’s not one essence—it’s a blend.”
The essences manifest in features in diverse ways—This means there’s no one way that Ingenue eyes or noses or lips or any other feature, or Gamine eyes or noses or lips or any other feature, look.
For example, sometimes Ingenue eyes appear rather small or moderate. But other kinds of Ingenue eyes appear quite large.
Another example is that some kinds of Ethereal eyes appear rather narrow in vertical space. But other kinds of Ethereal eyes seem to appear wide in vertical space, sometimes even very wide or protruding.
This makes sense—while there’s only 7 style essences, there’s way more than 7 exact, specific eye shapes that we see in human faces. This diversity is wonderful, but it makes it impossible to define a single specific look for any essence.
Style analysis is ultimately more about vibe than literal features—For instance, a person’s eyes can be fully Dramatic even if they’re not characterized by completely angular, straight lines.
So, trying to type someone’s features based on their literal shapes can easily produce misleading results.
With all that said, it is possible to isolate a person’s individual features and virtually drape them to determine their true essences (this is what I do for makeup analyses).
It’s also possible to make reasonable guesses about which essences are in each feature, after you’ve already typed the face as a whole. For example, if you’ve analyzed a person’s best fashion and determined they’re highly Dramatic, then it’s reasonable to guess that the Dramatic might be present in their angular-appearing hairline or bone structure.
It’s just that trying to type individual features before you know their overall essence blend is a recipe for mistyping.

Myth: Fourth Essences are Rare

Reality: …I’m not sure! But lately I’m thinking they aren’t.

If you’ve seen my recent Pinterest pins, you may have noticed that many celebrities I’ve typed lately have four significant essences. Like probably at least half of them, maybe even more.

So… is having a fourth essence actually really common? Even more common than having a third?

The short answer—I don’t know! It’s hard to determine this, because celebrities’ types don’t necessarily represent those of the average person.

The longer answer is, most of the celebrities I’ve typed recently are either a. people who I was asked by others to type, as in, people who likely have tricky essence blends or b. people whose essence blends were very intriguing to me, because they seemed complicated or c. people who I thought had a good chance of having fourth essences (since I am actively trying to get more examples of four essence blends).

So, the number of four essence celebrities I’ve typed recently might not reflect the amount of people with a fourth essence in the general population.

I’ve also been going through past celebrities who I only verified up to their third essence, to see if they have a small amount of a fourth. So far, some of them do (and I’ll indicate who on Pintrest, and I’m going to start doing so in future blog posts, too), but most don’t.

So, I still think it’s likely more common to have three essences than four. But I also think four essences are probably more common than I once thought.

How common, and how do you know if you have one? And what is the “Romantic Classic connection,” the phenomenon that I think (maybe) explains why Romantics may be more likely than other types to have a fourth essence?

Future post! : )

Huge Style Essence Myths, Pt. 2