“Grunge Girl”

Is Dramatic Natural Gamine the coolest style type?

Natural and Gamine form the basis of modern trendy fashion (think roomy jeans and cropped tees).

So Natural Gamine style feels conventionally cool:

Natural and Gamine make it easy to embody an effortless, not-trying-too-hard aesthetic.

And when you add edgy Dramatic, it arguably amplifies the coolness:

This look doesn’t feel as effortless as a plain crop top and jeans.

But the vest adds trendy Dramatic edge.

DNG is the edgy-casual aesthetic that fits perfectly into modern fashion and stands out.

Dramatic Natural Gamine Celebrities

DNG celebrities are on Pinterest here and listed below:

Alana Haim
Alexa Chung
Anna Chlumsky
Ashley Tisdale
Ashton Kutcher
Awkwafina
Brie Larson
Cynthia Erivo
Demi Lovato
Eva Marcille
Geena Davis
George Clooney
Halsey
Hilary Swank
Jillian Michaels
Kelly Marie Tran
Khloe Kardashian
Kylie Jenner
Lacey Chabert
Lea Michele
Liza Weil
Meghan Markle
Millie Bobby Brown
Ming-Na Wen
Missy Peregrym
Mollie-Mae Hague
Nicki Minaj
Orlando Bloom (with Classic as 4th essence)
Zawe Ashton
Zayn Malik

Dramatic Natural Gamine Fashion

DNG fashion inspiration is on Pinterest here, largely featuring Kylie Jenner’s street style.

Previously I’ve talked a bit about why I think Kylie’s a gorgeous DNG. The biggest piece of evidence is definitely how amazing she looks in the edgy-casual DNG aesthetic.

DNG: How to Get the Look

If you’re highly Natural Gamine, the easiest way to do DNG style is to embrace modern fashion’s casual uniform:

Choose relaxed-fit or skinny jeans (see the many jean styles that flatter Natural and Gamine here), leggings, graphic Tees, oversized sweaters, sneakers, or ankle boots.

Then you can layer over Dramatic pieces, like angular edgy jackets or blazers:

Oversized, slouchy leather jackets are often Dramatic Natural.

You can also incorporate Dramatic in your hair (think long and straight or slicked back) or makeup (think dark matte eyeliner, especially with angular wings).

What if you’re highly Dramatic Gamine?

If you have more Dramatic and Gamine than Natural, you can go for extreme edge:

A very Dramatic Gamine outfit, with lots of leather, cropped silhouettes, and chunky combat boots. The slightly loose knit leg-warmers add Natural.

What if you’re highly Dramatic Natural?

If you have mostly Dramatic and Natural, focus on elongated silhouettes and mixing casual with avant-garde pieces:

A distressed denim shirt is iconically Natural. Tall platform boots add intense Dramatic.

The model also appears to be wearing shorts or a dress that could easily add Gamine with the very cropped silhouette.

What if you love wearing color?

Because DNGs have such an edgy vibe, wearing all neutrals can be a fitting choice.

But Gamines are also flattered by electric color-mixing. So if you’re highly Gamine, some of your best looks may be the opposite of monochromatic:

An extremely Gamine ensemble, with vibrant color-mixing, a playful graphic top, and a fun hat that lets you obscure most of your face, in case you don’t have much Gamine essence but are determined to look harmonious in this outfit.

The oversized, very wide silhouette also adds Natural, and the avant-garde feel adds Dramatic.

More DNG Inspiration

For more DNG fashion inspiration, you can explore Grunge style, which is iconically Natural, with its emphasis on distressed denim, loose silhouettes, and an overall undone feel.

Grunge also often has playful Gamine and sometimes edgy Dramatic.

As a DNG, you can also get a ton of inspiration from street style in general, although of course street fashion can have elements of all seven essences.

Searching for “casual street style,” “edgy street style,” or “casual edgy street style” will likely bring you inspiration more specific to your Dramatic Natural Gamine look.

Dramatic Natural Gamine Faces

How do DNGs pull of simultaneously edgy, powerful, and carefree fashion?

It’s because their faces mirror these qualities: striking and approachable-yet-edgy.

Famous DNGs include (l to r) Awkwafina, Missy Peregrym, and Alexa Chung.

Dramatic and Natural together tend to read as extremely strong and confident, and you can get that impression from DNG faces and fashion, too.

The confusing part: while Dramatic, Natural, and Gamine fashion is characterized by straight (or straight-ish) lines, a person can still be a DNG even if they have notably curving shapes in their face. This is because:

Most people don’t have truly straight shapes in all of their facial features
But a facial feature can still read as “yang” even if it’s not angular or straight—because our style essences are determined by our most flattering fashion. And ultimately, the fashion that most flatters your face is harmonious with your face, not necessarily literally identical to it, in shape or any other aspect

Some DNGs do have literally sharp angles in their cheeks, noses, and other features. But DNG faces also often have notable curves.

In fact, many Dramatic Natural Gamines have full or semi-full lips, because the Natural essence is often characterized by large shapes, including the contours of the lips.

For this and other reasons, it can be extremely difficult to tell whether someone is DNG just by applying the principle that “they’ll have straight shapes in their face.”

The only way to be sure whether a person is a DNG is to determine whether their best fashion (and hair and makeup) is a combination of bold and carefree grunge.

Dramatic Natural Gamine Makeup and Hair

Dramatic Natural Gamines have an amazing and unique makeup aesthetic.

We often think of makeup in terms of either “minimal” or more heavy/elaborate. But intriguingly, of all the style essences, Naturals tend to be flattered by the most natural-looking, understated makeup, and Dramatics tend to be flattered by the heaviest, boldest makeup. Gamine makeup tends to be somewhere in between.

This means that to look their most harmonious, DNGs will want to combine both heavy and understated elements in a single makeup look.

DNG Demi Lovato

Demi Lovato is stunning in makeup that blends elements of Natural (bronzer, long yet fairly lightweight lashes, light subtly sculpted lids) and Gamine (bright matte lip and thick unblended eyeliner).

The completely off-the-face hair and large geometric necklace add plenty of Dramatic.

DNG Brie Larson

I really like this minimal makeup and darker hair color for Brie Larson. Compared to the blonde she often sports, this hair looks more natural (and thus more Natural) against her skin tone.

The rich brown hue also helps echo the boldness of her Dramatic and Gamine.

DNG Nicki Minaj

Nicki Minaj is another DNG who’s gorgeous in a more natural-looking hair color. Sleek, extra-long blunt bangs are also a great style for Dramatic faces.

Nicki Minaj’s iconically avant-garde and playful aesthetic often suits her Dramatic and Gamine (she really pulls of the intense eye makeup here!). Natural elements usually aren’t prominent in her styling.

Straight hair in general tends to flatter DNG, although a very slight wave can work for Natural, and so can curly hair with a lot of overall width, like afros.

Hairstyles to avoid include elaborate curls:

Geena Davis has such a beautiful face, but her features don’t connect to these shiny glam curls (or to the shiny draped dress and diamonds).

Some movie stars look their most authentic in elaborate red carpet fashion, but this ensemble feels costume-like.

Straighter hair better fits Geena Davis’s vibe:

Straight hair with a bit of tousle and even wave, as seen here, flatters the casualness and playfulness of Natural Gamine.

This makeup is nice, too, generally emphasizing Geena’s Natural and including thick, short matte liner for Gamine.

Why DNGs are Hard to Type

DNGs are hard to type for many reasons:

1.The intensity of Dramatic combined with the shortness and flirtiness of Gamine can resemble other essences, especially Romantic.

(I thought Geena would have Romantic before typing her! But as we can see above, major clues that she doesn’t have Romantic are that elements like full curls, diamonds, and shiny, curve-emphasizing dresses don’t connect to her face.)

Despite having very different literal shapes, Dramatic and Romantic have a lot of conceptual overlap.

Of all the essences, they’re the most intense—and Gamine can feel quite intense, too, with its bold, energetic nature.

So Dramatic Natural Gamines may often be mistaken for Romantic blends.

2. DNGs can also be hard to type because Dramatic and Gamine, of all the essences, tend to have the easiest time pulling off styles outside their guidelines.

This is because both these essences have a rule-breaking quality:

Dramatic looks so intimidating, the essence (arguably) embodies how people with imposing personalities can sometimes successfully bend or break rules to get what they want.
And Gamine looks playfully rebellious, making it feel (arguably) somewhat authentic even when they wear styles that don’t suit their faces.

3. A final reason DNGs are hard to type is that many people, myself included, use simplified language when we talk about the faces of the different style types.

I often say things like “Dramatics have sharp, angular features”—and while it is true that we typically see some sharp, straight lines in Dramatic faces, observation suggests that a person’s facial features don’t have to be literally composed of straight lines to read as Dramatic. For example, almost no one’s eyes are literally composed of straight lines, but it’s still possible to have an intensity and narrowness to your eyes that reads as Dramatic.

This is true of all the other essences, too—the shapes in your clothing that flatter you won’t necessarily be identical to the shapes in your face. Finding clothes with shapes that are harmonious with the ones in your face doesn’t mean finding clothes with shapes that are identical to the ones in your face.

Similarly, in music, different notes can harmonize together, in that they sound good played together, despite not being the exact same note.

So the fashion, hair, and makeup that flatters your facial features is harmonious with your features, in that its beauty is complementary to and reminiscent of yours. But the shapes that flatter you in fashion, hair, and makeup aren’t always literally identical to those found in your face.

Yang Beauty?

Dramatic, Natural, and Gamine are sometimes referred to as the “yang” essences. This can be a useful shorthand, but I also think it’s important to note that this characterization seems reductive.

The irony is that “yang” is sometimes used to denote masculine qualities—and yet it doesn’t make too much sense when applied to Dramatics, who actually tend to be able to wear the heaviest, most visible and intense makeup of all the style essences (like thick and long lashes, heavy winged eyeliner, and very dark lips). There isn’t really anything conventionally masculine about wearing or pulling off a ton of makeup.

Plus, Naturals, Gamines, and Dramatics are all flattered by fashion that reads as iconically feminine, including various styles of skirts and dresses.

Most importantly, it’s clear to me that style essences largely don’t determine whether a face looks “masculine” or “feminine” in a literal, testosteronized or estrogenized sense. For example, actor Cillian Murphy appears to have rounder, heavier-lidded eyes and fuller lips than many women, and these features are commonly associated with appearing feminine. His nose is also rather soft, and he has notable volume in his cheeks—Cillian has a ton of Ethereal.

So if we’re going by stereotypes about yin essences, like that Ethereal makes a face look feminine, then this should mean that Cillian looks more feminine than many women. But he doesn’t—he is instantly recognizable as male and masculine.

Based on studying Cillian and many other male celebrities with highly “yin” faces, and on studying many females with highly “yang” faces, the obvious conclusion is that style essences aren’t the main determinants of whether a face looks masculine or feminine.

Many males have a lot of yin essence but are instantly recognizable as very masculine, and many females have a lot of yang essence but are instantly recognizable as very feminine.

In my view, it’s likely that subtle differences in facial feature shapes, sizes, and placements, as well as a person’s grooming and styling (e.g., hairstyle, eyebrows, and facial hair or lack thereof, plus makeup or lack thereof) are the primary things that contribute to a face being perceived as masculine or feminine.

That’s all to say: being a Dramatic Natural Gamine does not make you inherently unfeminine, or less beautiful than someone with “yin” essence.

You also don’t have to use the terms “yin” or “yang” at all if you don’t want to—again, these terms can be misleading, because style essences aren’t the main thing that makes a face appear masculine or feminine.

Extreme Cool

With their unique essence blend, Dramatic Natural Gamines can embody the strength and intensity of Natural and Dramatic, and the playful flirtiness of Gamine.

And while the “coolest” style type is ultimately a matter of opinion, DNGs get to rock edgy grunge that exemplifies our modern conception of cool.

Dramatic Natural Gamine