Sabrina Carpenter’s Surprising Style Type
At first glance, the style type I’ve assigned Sabrina Carpenter makes it seem like I’m actively trying to get her essences wrong.
Dramatic Gamine? How can Sabrina Carpenter, with her round-appearing features, have the most angular essence combo possible?
One reason: Dramatics and Gamines stun in bold brows, graphic liner, and matte lips—and so does Sabrina:
Sabrina’s superpower is that despite her delicate-seeming color season, she pulls off dense brows and dark eyeliner—
—and simultaneously rocks a vibrant Gamine lip.
Bold and matte textures that can feel flat on other faces seem perfect for her.
Here she’s arresting in even bolder brows and liner (ignore her hairstyle for now):
These brows and eyeliner are intense, and Sabrina’s vibe matches. She looks spunky, confident, striking, and playfully teasing. Again, despite her gentle coloring, the vibe I get from Sabrina’s features isn’t delicacy—it’s boldness and intensity.
Does Sabrina have Dramatic and Gamine?
Graphic brows and liner work so well for Sabrina, it’s easy to forget how challenging they can be to pull off, especially when you have delicate coloring.
For instance, based on virtual draping, Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter are both True Springs and are both generally best in their lightest, gentlest palette colors (the True Spring shades close to Light Spring). And Taylor actually has a similar style type to Sabrina—Dramatic Gamine Ingenue.
But would Sabrina’s ultra-bold brows flatter Taylor?
Taylor and Sabrina have similar personal coloring and a similar style type—but if we photoshopped Sabrina’s bold brows onto this picture, they could easily overpower Taylor’s Ingenue.
Why do emphatic brows work so well for Sabrina and not as well for Taylor, despite that Taylor also has Gamine and Dramatic?
Answer: Sabrina Carpenter has a lot of Gamine and Dramatic, evidenced by how in spite of her rather gentle color season, she pulls off bold, playful, and graphic makeup.
Does Sabrina have Romantic or Ingenue?
So it’s not outlandish to say that Sabrina has Gamine and Dramatic.
But it is hard to fathom how she has only those essences—especially since she’s known for her full Romantic curls and glam and glittery outfits.
The catch is that her signature styling doesn’t match her face:
As we saw above, Sabrina is capable of looking much more authentic than this. Her face is still beautiful here, and her outfit and hair are fun, but this styling probably isn’t going to get a place in the dictionary next to “visual harmony.”
The question is, what about Sabrina’s hair and outfit connects to her striking features—to her bold brows, angular nose, and eyes that are sharp enough to be flattered by graphic makeup?
My answer is that there isn’t much of a connection. On the “Costume to Authentic Meter,” this is pointing right at “Costume.”
Of course, appearing costume-like isn’t inherently a bad thing—it can make a statement and be eye-catching, surprising, memorable, and fun.
That may be why popstars often favor costume-like over authentic-feeling styling.
Sabrina has so much playful Gamine. You can really see that with this teasing expression—her playful smile matches her facial geometry. What doesn’t match is the full curls, sweetheart neckline, and ruffles. Rather than harmonizing with her teasing expression, it feels like they’re being teased by her expression.
I also don’t think any of the above yin elements alone are ideal for Sabrina (like even if you cover her outfit so you just see her face in the curls, or cover her hair and the glitter so you just see her in the ruffles, or cover the ruffles and hair so you just see her in the glitter).
Even small amounts of Romantic or Ingenue seem to clash with her inherently bold beauty.
Sleek hair, plus mostly matte makeup, better matches her face’s vibe:
Sabrina comes to life in sleek hair and overall matte makeup (in spite of it not totally matching her color season), including generous, straight, heavy Dramatic contour. There’s intense highlighter here, but that’s actually ideal for Dramatics, who can rock a “hard shine” or “matte sheen” in both fashion and makeup. The key is to do heavy, strobe-like highlight, rather than gentle glow or subtle shimmer.
Compared to how Sabrina appears in ruffles, sparkles, and long curls, she looks much more authentic and visually consistent here.
What about Ethereal and Natural?
When first analyzing Sabrina, one type I considered for her was Ethereal Natural Gamine.
But Natural fashion feels too casual for her intense beauty, and Ethereal elements like wavy hair and braids are also incongruous:
Sabrina’s beautiful face clashes with this context. And I don’t think it’s just a color season issue (though the sweater feels much too muted—huge hint she’s not an Autumn).
This makeup isn’t ideal for Sabrina’s color season—which makes it all the more remarkable that it doesn’t seem to overpower her facial geometry. What doesn’t connect to her essences are the carefree braids. The hairstyle looks borderline messy on Sabrina, despite that it would give breathtaking earth-goddess vibes on an Ethereal Natural.
What about Classic?
As with most non-Classics, Classic fashion isn’t “bad” on Sabrina Carpenter—it just doesn’t feel exciting or unique enough for her.
Classic is the beauty of very specific, typical elements, including facial features that feel moderate and proportionate in their sizes and spacing.
But you can still have proportionate-appearing beauty even if your face lacks Classic.
Sabrina is a great example of this. Compared to the average face, her proportions feel shorter. But her features still appear pleasing, harmonious, and proportionate with one another—they just don’t have the ultra-specific qualities a face typically needs to have Classic.
Why Sabrina Carpenter is Hard to Type
I was honestly shocked that Sabrina has no meaningful “yin” essence. Even after confirming she has Dramatic and Gamine, I really thought she’d have some amount of Romantic, Ethereal, or Ingenue.
I’m open to idea that she may have a very small amount of any of those essences. But based on my analysis, she doesn’t have a significant amount—meaning, if she does have a third essence, it’s so small, she doesn’t need it in her styling to look her best.
I’m now confident she’s Dramatic Gamine, but it still to this day surprises me. Here’s why:
Sabrina defies Dramatic Gamine stereotypes—stereotypes I’m guilty of perpetuating, like that Dramatics and Gamines will have obviously angular facial features. Sometimes they do, but sometimes they don’t.
The reality is that even though some people are purely Dramatic Gamine, no one has eyes or lips that are completely defined by straight, angular lines. This is why style analysis can’t consist solely of looking at a person’s literal features and saying, “Ok, they have oval eyes and oval lips and an oval forehead and oval cheeks…. wow, they have a ton of Ethereal!” The truth is that if we typed people only by their literal facial features, we’d be seeing a lot of ovals, and the majority of people would probably be highly Ethereal. Which conflicts with a common observation that Ethereal seems to be one of the rarer essences.
So ultimately, a person’s style essences are less about the shapes of their literal features and more about how their features interact with different fashion. This is similar to how a person’s color season isn’t determined primarily by how their skin tone appears to the naked eye but rather by the interaction between a person’s skin tone and different color palettes
Color season confusion—Sabrina is a True Spring with rather delicate-appearing coloring—she appears most flattered by her lightest True Spring shades. In contrast, stereotypical Dramatic Gamine colors are bolder and deeper.
So Sabrina’s color season makes it harder to recognize the intensity of her facial geometry. Her True-bordering-Light season can make her style type seem artificially gentle.
Dramatic and Gamine can break the rules—out of all the essences, Dramatics and Gamines tend to have the easiest time breaking their own style guidelines, simply because both have a kind of rule-breaking vibe (Dramatic feels imposing and capable of exerting its will; Gamine feels playfully mischievous).
Body type vs. style type—Sabrina has a curvier body than the stereotypical Dramatic Gamine. Sometimes the vibe of a person’s body type can be mistaken for the vibe of their face. But as discussed previously, body type and style essences aren’t always an obvious match.
(Though one way Sabrina does fit Gamine stereotypes is that she’s petite, about 5 feet even).
Filler—Sabrina’s lips appear to have become more voluminous across time. This makes it even harder to fathom how Dramatic and Gamine can be her only two essences.
Does Filler Influence Style Essences?
Filler definitely has the potential to change a person’s style type.
But in my (maybe controversial) view, it typically doesn’t.
Why not?
One way to think about it is with an analogy to weight.
Both weight gain and filler can add volume to the face, especially the cheeks—yet weight gain doesn’t typically seem to change style essences
One reason is that weight gain can sometimes be subtle enough that it doesn’t fundamentally impact the nature or “essence” of the features.
Similarly, subtle lip filler doesn’t tend to change style essences.
And even dramatic weight gain doesn’t typically seem to change essences. Why? Potentially because bone structure and the overall contours of the face have greater relevance for essences than facial volume.
As discussed above, a facial feature doesn’t need to be literally angular to read as figuratively imposing. Thus, it’s possible to have, say, Dramatic cheeks even if your cheeks aren’t literally sharp.
A similar thing could be true for the lips: even if you markedly change the volume and apparent shape of the lips with filler, enough of their inherent size and contours might still be preserved that the filler doesn’t influence style essences.
Possibly Wrong Hypothesis
It also might be that even if a person has an extreme amount of lip filler, it registers to my eye as an addition to the face (kind of like a piercing or makeup), rather than an authentic part of the face.
For example, if I analyze a non-Ethereal face wearing shimmery eyeshadow (an iconically Ethereal makeup look), I won’t see the person as appearing authentic in Ethereal fashion, despite that they’ve technically added (temporary) Ethereal to their face via the eyeshadow.
I think my eye “ignores” (subconsciously) the eyeshadow because it’s not truly a part of their face and not authentic to their face. It’s possible the way I perceive lip filler is like that: even if the filler is so extreme where it ostensibly adds a new essence to the person’s face, my (subconscious) sensory perception doesn’t register it that way, because it doesn’t look authentic—so, the filled lips aren’t really assimilating into the face. Instead, the lip filler looks like makeup or an artificial addition.
Importantly, that’s just a hypothesis, and it could be wrong. But I do think it might explain why, for instance, I don’t see Kylie Jenner as having “yin” essence even with her dramatically plumped lips.
This could also explain why doing super thin eyebrows won’t necessarily change your essences, even if they aren’t consistent with your style type. The brows might register more as makeup or an addition to the face, rather than an authentic part of it.
Again, that’s all just speculation and might be wrong.
But whatever the mechanism, even extreme amounts of filler don’t typically seem to alter style essences (though there could certainly be exceptions).
Dramatic Gamine Beauty
This is one million percent speculation, but it’s possible that Sabrina’s stylists are intentionally trying to “soften” her vibe by relying on stereotypically soft elements like full curls.
Again—totally could be wrong. The reason I mention it is that regardless of whether it’s true for Sabrina, I think many of us can have the tendency to want to possess the qualities that are absent or less obvious in our face—if we have soft features, we want straighter ones; if we have angular features, we want softness.
But Sabrina Carpenter’s popular looks show that there’s so much beauty in angularity—even when paired with “soft” styling, her intensity pushes through. Dramatic Gamine embodies striking, stunning, bold, attention-arresting, modelesque beauty. It’s an amazing blend.
Conclusion
Ultimately, people are still beautiful in essence-inconsistent style. Wearing unharmonious elements doesn’t magically erase Sabrina’s, or anyone else’s, beautiful face.
But for those who want to emphasize and enhance their inherent beauty, styling yourself based on your essences is one of the most powerful ways.
