“Venus”

Romantic Ethereal Classic (REC) Ava Gardner

In the rom-com "One Touch of Venus," Romantic Ethereal Classic actress Ava Gardner plays the titular love goddess.

The casting directors probably didn’t know Ava’s style essences. But they did know that visually, she was perfect for the role of Venus, thanks to her passionate, otherworldly, and classical beauty.

That’s what RECs embody: the polished and timeless beauty of the goddess of love.

Romantic Ethereal Classic Celebrities

Romantic Ethereal Classic celebrities are on Pinterest here and listed below:

Angelababy
Ava Gardner (with Dramatic as 4th essence—I debated featuring Ava so prominently in this post, since she does have a touch of Dramatic. But I decided that her starring role in “A Touch of Venus” is too good an embodiment of REC beauty to ignore. Plus, her Dramatic is quite small in amount)
Bibi Andersson
Chrishell Stubbs
Elizabeth Taylor
Erica Durance
Isabella Rossellini
Jamie Gunns
Katherine Langford
Liv Ullmann
Marcheline Bertrand
Marion Cotillard
Nayeon
Neha Sharma
Nicola Peltz
Nicole Wallace
Samantha Logan
Sherilyn Fenn

Romantic Ethereal Classic Fashion

If you’re an REC, the “goddess” aesthetic isn’t just something to channel on Halloween. It’s also your everyday attire.

A shorter, tunic version of this dress might work as everyday wear!

Romantic Ethereal dress, plus conventional heels that add Classic.

Your passionate, otherworldly, and timeless beauty evokes the Greek love goddess, Aphrodite.

So Grecian-inspired fashion (like dresses that sort of have a “glam toga” feel) are perfect for you.

Grecian-inspired fashion will often be highly Romantic Ethereal, like this wrap dress. Here the conventional sleeve style also suits Classic.

If you’re an REC with a very small amount of Classic, you can pair Romantic Ethereal dresses with Classic accessories or footwear, like polished, minimalist sandals:

If you have a higher amount of Classic, an easy option is to pair sexy and dreamy Romantic Ethereal tops with Classic dress pants or pencil skirts.

Or you can wear a highly Classic outfit and bring in Romantic Ethereal in hair, makeup, and accessories:

Long, very narrow chain detail embodies Ethereal and helps elevate a simple Classic button down and dress pants.

The long curls work for Romantic. (Make sure your curls appear at least somewhat full and brushed out, rather than very tightly-coiled. Tight ringlets usually read as Ingenue.)

Is it possible to channel a glamorous goddess and still look casual?

Yes! While REC fashion is iconically dressed-up, yoga pants or similar bottoms can flatter Romantic Ethereal:

High-waist fitted pants in soft fabric often have Romantic sensuality, with flared legs creating long Ethereal curves.

Pair with a simple Classic top. (This tank is too cropped and tight to be fully Classic, but it works for Romantic Classic.)

Romantic Ethereal Classic Hair and Makeup

Just like their outfits, REC’s best hair and makeup will be goddess-like—sensual, mystical, and polished:

I didn’t intend to feature Ava Gardner so much in this post (after all, she does have a little Dramatic). But this soft, smoky, glossy, gently shimmery, refined makeup was just so mesmerizing, and so perfect for REC.

Ava’s hair also fits the REC aesthetic—full Old Hollywood Romantic Classic curls.

Another celebrity whose makeup often feels goddess-like:

REC Katherine Langford’s soft and smoky makeup is so good for her formal essence blend, it’s almost enough to distract us from the casual sweater.

The sweater reads more as “Aphrodite on her day off”—which could work amazingly for a Romantic Ethereal Natural Classic!

Here Katherine nails the “formal” aspect of her essence blend:

So much of this is breathtaking—the velvety texture and cinched waist for Romantic; the elongated tulle hairpiece for Ethereal; the narrow Ethereal waves framing her face.

The makeup isn’t bad, either. Optionally, the eyeliner could be softer and more blended, but the smoky shadow embodies Romantic.
The angular neckline does add Dramatic, but everything else is so flattering, it’s not too noticeable.

REC Eye Makeup

Romantic Ethereal Classic eye makeup can be tricky, since REC’s best look will incorporate elaborate and restrained elements, and “elaborate restraint” can seem like a contradiction.

Another complication is that when we think of eye-emphasis, we often envision graphic elements, like liquid liner, which don’t tend to be ideal for Romantic and Ethereal.

Unblended eyeliner can work for REC in a simple, Classic application:

REC Marion Cotillard pulls off simple eyeliner and moderate-length (Classic) wavy (Ethereal) hair.

So, precise eye makeup can work for REC.

But RECs are also highly flattered by makeup with a more diffuse texture and elaborate feel:

This makeup really emphasizes Marion’s REC beauty. (Especially imagining it with a different hairstyle and not these retro-feeling, short Ingenue curls!)

With REC, you’re striving for a tricky balance: you want your makeup (and overall aesthetic) to appear alluring and dreamy, but you also want it to look like you exercised some restraint.

It can take some experimenting to find the makeup that feels just right—not too much and not too little.

Often Mistaken For?

RECs can easily be mistaken for having Ingenue, since:

It’s often clear that RECs have highly “yin,” curving features
The circular curves of Romantic, combined with the gentleness of Ethereal, can mimic the circular, gentle shapes of Ingenue

REC Nayeon. Her high round bun, glowy makeup, and narrow shimmery jewelry are awesome for REC. So are the large curvy flowers (one in her hair and most on the ground!)

There’s so much here that works for Nayeon’s REC, I hardly notice that the dress appears more flattering for a face that also has a lot of Ingenue.
Plus, spaghetti straps do flatter Romantic, and understated plaids work for Classic (admittedly this one doesn’t feel fully “understated” in the iconic Ingenue hue.)
It would be easy to see how harmonious she looks here and conclude it’s because she’s highly Ingenue—but in my view, she looks great because of the romantic and dreamy makeup, hair, jewelry, and backdrop. And since spaghetti straps flatter Romantic, and simple plaids work for Classic, the dress is pretty good, too.

With REC’s Classic, they can also be mistaken for having Gamine, since Classics and Gamines are both great in tailored pieces and can sometimes appear to have shortening in their facial structure.

But RECs look most authentic in elaborate, high-maintenance styling, rather than playful Gamine:

REC Neha Sharma

Wow—this hair (Ethereal long braid, Romantic volume, simple Classic half bang) and makeup (Romantic fluffy lashes and Classic minimalism, bit of Ethereal glow on the cheeks) are pretty much perfect for REC Neha Sharma.
If you cover the fun Gamine print of the dress, you may even better be able to see how good the rest of the styling is for her. What we can see of the dress adds playfulness that isn’t found in her face.

Modern and Casual REC Style?

REC’s best outfits are highly formal and “yin.”

In contrast, modern fashion is highly casual and “yang,” with a deluge of Natural and Gamine.

If you want to fully embrace your REC aesthetic and dress like a goddess 24/7—that’s amazing! Do it!

But if you’re interested in ways to honor your REC aesthetic while looking more casual (at least sometimes), you might try some of the following:

Lean into Classic—Classic fashion often feels less high-maintenance than Romantic Ethereal fashion, and Classic structured pieces can also have a more yang-adjacent feel
- Classics can even harmoniously wear jeans! Look for the most formal, polished-appearing styles possible—high waist, straight legs, narrow but not skin-tight fit, not especially long or short. Choosing denim fabric that appears tailored, sturdy, and somewhat thick can also help your jeans look more Classic
Lean into the most casual Romantic styles—revealing Romantic fashion can look modern and sometimes casual, especially trendy styles like high-waist cropped leggings and scoop neck crop tops that hit at the waist
Lean into the whimsical side of Ethereal—above, we saw how Ethereal chains accessorized a pair of Classic pants. I can also envision gauzy Ethereal scarves being used as belts or in other creative ways. Ethereal has an unconventional side that can feel innovative, sometimes even trendy

Timeless Beauty

Somehow we’ve made it this far without reflecting on perhaps the most famous Romantic Ethereal Classic, and one of the most famous Old Hollywood stars:

REC Elizabeth Taylor, exuding goddess-like vibes

Beauty icon Elizabeth Taylor is a good example of how Romantic curves + Ethereal gentleness can sometimes mimic the sweetness of Ingenue:

Elizabeth Taylor’s curvy and angelic features could be mistaken for Ingenue.

But while she’s beautiful in anything, this dainty, highly Ingenue dress isn’t her best look. The dress’s youthful vibes clash with the figurative maturity and formality of her beauty.

What does work in the above photo is her hair (though you may have to cover the dress to fully appreciate it!)

Elizabeth Taylor often wore her hair short. But since she has so much Romantic, her most flattering hairstyle is arguably longer waves, like we see above.

That said, sometimes when you don’t emphasize one of your essences in styling, that can actually draw more attention to that essence.

What do I mean? Short hair isn’t iconically Romantic. Romantics tend to be most flattered by hair at least a few inches past the shoulders (especially faces with such high amounts of Romantic, like Elizabeth Taylor).

But when Elizabeth Taylor wears her hair short, we might actually be struck by the contrast of the short, more practical hairstyle paired with her alluring, glamorous features—so the short hair might actually emphasize her glam Romantic features, by helping them really stand out:

These curls’ short length is more suited to Classic. But something about them being so short like this, and her top being so Classic, almost seems to emphasize her Romantic beauty just as much as, or even more than, longer waves. (Plus the full curls do embody her Romantic.)

If you have a ton of an essence and want to emphasize it, it makes sense to experiment with wearing outfits, hair, and makeup that are highly consistent with that essence.

But something else you might want to try is styling yourself in ways that are more consistent with the essences that you don’t have as much of. So, if like Elizabeth Taylor, you’re an REC with a lot of Romantic, you might experiment with wearing a more moderate, chin- or shoulder-length Classic hairstyle, or more simple, highly Classic outfits. This may make your Romantic features really stand out, because of the contrast.

Importantly, you only want to do this technique by using essences that you already have.

So to emphasize your Romantic as an REC, it makes sense to experiment with wearing highly Classic fashion.

What you wouldn’t want to do is wear highly Natural or Gamine fashion, because while your Romantic would stand out in comparison, it would stand out in a jarring way, in a way where your fashion clashes with your face.

Goddess Beauty

Of all the types, RECs best embody Venus and Aphrodite, the classical goddesses of love.

Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter whether the glam goddess aesthetic is on trend or consistent with modern fashion, because it will always be perfectly consistent with RECs’ amazing beauty.

Romantic Ethereal Classic