Gamine Ingenue

“The Mod”

So far I’ve found just four famous Gamine Ingenues, and they all happen to have remarkable beauty—the kind that inspires news headlines and song lyrics:

Actress Bette Davis is renowned for her expressive, extraordinary, extra-large eyes. They were even the subject of the 1981 hit song “Bette Davis eyes.” In modern day, the phrase “Bette Davis eyes” still signifies that a person has an alluring, captivating gaze:

Actress Aimee Lou Wood’s refreshingly different smile has garnered attention from fans and news outlets. With a closed-mouth expression, her front teeth often remain slightly visible, creating an endearing and innocent quality:

Ingenue Gamine Aimee Lou Wood

Aimee also has an Ingenue Gamine sister, **Emily Wood**, a makeup artist who styles herself in colorful, creative, highly Gamine looks on her Instagram page.

Sasha Cohen has a uniquely compact, narrow stature, which facilitated her achievements as an Olympic medal-winning figure skater:

What gives Gamine Ingenues such remarkable beauty? We explore below.

Beauty of Neoteny

Gamine Ingenues have neotenous faces.

This means that they look youthful and retain many child-like physical characteristics as adults.

Neotenous traits can include:

Large foreheads
Large or round eyes
Full, plump cheeks
Small or short noses
Overall short bone structure and face shapes
Short, narrow body stature

Neoteny is widely considered attractive, with various theories about why:

One theory is that youthful-appearing faces easily inspire affection and endearment, because such faces provoke people’s care-giving instincts.
Relatedly, neotenous faces tend to read as cute and non-threatening, which can make them appear trustworthy and likable.
Neotenous traits also have a connection to conventionally feminine beauty, since women (on average) have larger-appearing eyes, fuller-appearing cheeks, and shorter bone structure than men.

Given all this, neoteny is generally seen as a highly desirable beauty trait.

Can Gamine Ingenues Appear Sophisticated and Seductive?

So neotenous beauty is generally desirable.

But Gamine Ingenues may at times resent their youthful looks, especially on occasions when they want to appear more mature or sophisticated.

The good news is, it’s very possible for this essence blend to exude more mature vibes.

To understand how Gamine Ingenues can transcend essence stereotypes and appear sophisticated and even seductive, let’s consider a woman with some of the most famous eyes in history:

Bette Davis

Bette Davis is primarily Ingenue, with secondary Gamine, and no other significant essences.

She’s flattered by Ingenue curls and Gamine matte lips, and she overall has neotenous (childlike) facial proportions.

But when you hear how people commonly describe Bette Davis’s appearance, it’s very tempting to try to assign her a different style type.

This is because Bette Davis, and especially her extra-large eyes, are frequently described as appearing commanding, striking, and seductive.

Those terms are most commonly associated with Dramatics and Romantics—and yet those essences aren’t significant for Bette:

In oversized Romantic Dramatic fur, her face doesn’t connect.

Interestingly, though, I do think you could call her eyes striking here. Are they striking in a Dramatic way, no—they aren’t narrow or sharp-feeling. If anything, they’re striking because of the exact opposite: because they appear so round and large.

Bette has also been described as having a uniquely hypnotic gaze, which might make us think of Ethereal. But she also doesn’t appear flattered by Angelic styling:

In some photos, Bette has a vibe that could be considered dreamy—gentle Ingenue and Ethereal can look similar, especially for people with delicate coloring.

But this highly Ethereal, gently draped, drop-waist, long swirling lace gown doesn’t feel connected to her youthful beauty and compact face.

So despite that Bette is often described as striking, dreamy, and seductive, she doesn’t have the style essences that are stereotypically associated with those qualities.

She really seems look most authentic in demure, highly Ingenue styling.

I like tiny curls, small circular earrings, and soft blue for Bette Davis. Though the “piled on top of the head” aspect of the curls and the glam bracelets are making this feel a little bit like “playing dress-up” on her. Her face has an innocence that’s not totally echoed in the styling. The outfit could also use some Gamine. But overall, this isn’t bad for her dominantly Ingenue beauty.

So Bette has purely youthful essences… but then why do people so commonly view her as having intense visual qualities?

How Bette Davis Defies Essence Stereotypes

To be honest, I don’t have a conclusive answer as to why Bette Davis seems defined by having a striking, seductive, and commanding presence.

But I do have some theories that I’ll detail below.

My overarching theory is that all the style essences, including Gamine and Ingenue, are more nuanced and versatile than commonly acknowledged.

Explanation 1: Bette Davis is a phenomenal actress

It could be as simple as this: Bette makes intense facial expressions in films, and that leads people to see her as having a commanding or even intimidating vibe, despite the gentle and playful nature of her Ingenue and Gamine:

Bette certainly looks intense here. And intriguingly, I don’t think her expression embodies Dramatic intensity, because it’s not the intensity of narrow, angular, elongated shapes. It’s almost an opposite kind of intensity—the intensity of extremely soft, rounded eyes casting an emotionally-charged or accusatory gaze.

This photo is polarizing for me. One part of me is very tempted to describe it as “little girl playing dress up,” because that’s kind of the vibe. But it isn’t the whole vibe. Bette’s facial expression combined with the dark eye makeup and the confident body language does feel pretty intimidating. And again, intriguingly, it’s not a form of intimidation that seems related to Dramatic facial features, or even to highly Dramatic fashion. It perhaps primarily relates to Bette’s powers as an actress who can appear commanding despite her highly Ingenue beauty.

So Bette’s capabilities as a star actress plausibly contribute to why people see her as having such intense visual qualities.

But I don’t think that’s the entire story.

Explanation 2: Ingenue and Gamine can be seductive

While not as associated with sensuality as Romantics, Ingenues do embody strongly feminine, soft beauty. And to many people, that will read as seductive:

Sometimes Ingenues even have “bedroom eyes,” where the eyes appear quite large, heavy-lidded, sensual, and slightly drowsy.

Since Bette’s eyes are so round and large, it makes sense that people would be struck by their alluring, “bedroom eyes” nature.

Gamine can also read as seductive, perhaps especially when combined with a soft “yin” essence:

Gamine’s playful vibe has a strong relationship to teasing and even flirtation.

Plus, Gamines can handle some of the heaviest makeup of all the essences, like thick eyeliner, chunky eyelashes, and bold matte lips. This can further create a sensual feel.

Since Bette has exaggeratedly large eyes, it’s not surprising that people are struck by their overall soft, feminine, sensuous quality.

And having Gamine allows her to project a playfully flirty vibe, especially combined with her conventionally feminine Ingenue features.

Explanation 3: Ingenue can feel hypnotic

Since Ingenue eyes are sometimes so exaggerated in size and shape, they can have a mesmerizing, hypnotic quality, like you could fall into them:

And because Bette has only Gamine and Ingenue, the largeness of her eyes stands out even more against her relatively compact face.

Explanation 4: Gamine can feel intense

Gamines get some the most intense-feeling, boldest makeup and fashion of all then types, rivaled mainly by Dramatic (and perhaps Romantic).

Mod fashion, which features sharp lines, bold geometric prints, mini skirts, and color-blocking, is fantastic for Gamine:

Mod also sometimes incorporates Ingenue with elements like flared skirts, circular patterns, and an overall cropped and youthful feel.

So maybe that’s part of why Bette Davis, and Ingenue Gamines in general, can appear visually intense and commanding: because Gamine, despite its playfulness and youthfulness, is one of the most intense essences.

Bold Gamine stripes on an Ingenue fit-n-flare dress silhouette.

I do think at least sometimes in movies, Gamines are typecast as villains, because their pointy features can appear mischievous, especially on a skilled actress.

Explanation 5: Ingenue can be intensely sweet

This relates to what we covered above about how Ingenue in faces can appear seductive, because of the essence’s stereotypical femininity and very curvy shapes.

Similarly, in fashion, Ingenue can have a paradoxical intensity: intensely soft, feminine, youthful, and sweet, as we see on this highly Ingenue flared dress with a bit of Gamine from the piping.

There are more ways of being intense than just appearing striking and Dramatic, or passionate and Romantic.
Ingenue can have its own gentle intensity.

Explanation 6: A combination of all of these and more

Reflecting on Bette Davis—and on her famous eyes, and her famously seductive, commanding beauty—has been been a fantastic challenge to stereotypes about the style essences’ vibes.

The truth is that these stereotypes can have a lot of legitimacy.

In faces, Ingenue and Gamine do tend to look very youthful.

And Ingenue tends to look soft, sweet, innocent, and demure.

And Gamine tends to look playful, fun, lively, and light-hearted.

And I think we can see these qualities in many photos of Bette Davis.

But just because a resting face is capable of projecting certain qualities doesn’t mean that it’s not capable of projecting other, seemingly opposite quailities, like seduction or striking intensity.

As described above, I do think that Ingenues and Gamines can appear seductive and hypnotic, that Gamines can appear intense, and that Ingenues can possess a type of intensity in their own gentle way.

Bette Davis is a compelling reminder that if there are times when you want to defy the visual stereotypes of your essence blend, you may find that it’s very possible.

You might even find that you can project completely opposite qualities of your essences’ most stereotypical traits.