Fantastical Beauty Personal Color Analysis

Fantastical Beauty takes your most flattering personal colors and applies them to your Archetype in very specific mini palettes in order to enhance the mood of your type while still enhancing your personal coloring. Each of the guides has descriptions of type coloring as well as specific sample palettes as well as visual examples of how to use the palette for the particular type, based on the four seasons color approach. 

If you're not yet familiar with seasonal color analysis, the basic four seasons color system goes thusly:

Winter: Cool and Saturated and Deeper
Spring: Warm and Saturated and Lighter
Summer: Cool and Muted and Lighter
Autumn: Warm and Muted and Deeper

 

This is pretty good. It allows us shorthand labels, while providing a lot of give and room to play. The colors attributed provide a sense of mood as well (to be covered in a future post).

While most people can find a color base from the four, human coloring is sometimes more complicated. For example, let’s say that your best neutrals are definitively warm, muted, and deeper (Autumn), but your best colors are sea-green, storm-green, and a slightly warmed mauve (Summer). Here is what that could look like (right).

In some systems, this exact palette would not be encompassed by a seasonal title, and this person would be given a palette that either had overly warm variations of their best colors, or overly cool variations of their best neutrals. In Fantastical Beauty, you come to your few absolute best colors and best neutrals (and their slight variations), and the seasonal title is a best fit depending on the vibe of the person (including their fantastical beauty archetype) and the mood of their unique palette. 

Let’s say our Summer-Autumn person is SJPish in coloring (this palette was not made with her in mind, so it’s not perfect, but it will do for our purposes here). Our pretend person is Fae in fantastical beauty archetype, and she could go earthy brownie fae or she could go more sparkle pixie. While she has a bit of earthy sensuality that she could channel, she seems to really shine in sparkle pixie. We’ll use the bit of earthiness as accent touches.

To play up the sparkle pixie vibe, we’ll focus on her rich cream as neutral, her sea-green, and her storm green as main color blocks. We’ll leave the mauve for her best lip color, and we’ll use the two browns as accents, finding ways of using them that are true to Fae (sparkly, diaphanous, ethereal, spunky) while hinting at earthy sensuality (Nymph). Let’s see if tigers eye will do this well.

 

 

Now that we have a full visual for this person, we see color from Summer, color from Autumn, and a spritely feeling (generally attributed to Spring). I’m dubbing it Sea Tiger Summer (fit for a Fae!), as Summer colors are our larger blocks. If we had found a shimmery, floaty bronze top and almond crop pants, and chosen pops of teal or rose, it would work, but the feeling of autumn (even a floaty, shimmery autumn) wouldn’t enhance her energy quite as well. 

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Special Challenge:

If you can find a celebrity who might work with a Sea Tiger Autumn palette, I’ll create a Fantastical Beauty capsule for them and we can see how emphasizing the inverse of the palette works on another FB type.

 

If you’re ready to learn your Fantastical Beauty and Animal Familiar types and have a custom palette and capsule made special for you, select a style service today.

 

An Overview of and the Role of Yin/Yang in Fantastical Beauty

An Overview of Yin/Yang Style Systems

In the tradition of Belle Northrup, Harriet McJimsey, David Kibbe, John Kitchener, and others; we have a very different system to draw on, using style concepts of Yin and Yang.

While the specifics vary by author, in this tradition:

  • Yin is generally described as: small, delicate, round, soft, flowing, light, low-contrast, gentle/yielding.
  • Yang is described as: large, long, angular, striking, dark, high contrast, strong/firm.

These terms are used to describe physical features of people, personality features, mannerisms, fabrics, patterns, shapes, and more.  

These ideas of Yin and Yang are then categorized into 5-7 style types/identities for women and their best and most authentic personal aesthetics.

The consistently used types are:

Dramatic - Extreme Yang

Natural - Soft Yang

Classic - Balanced

Gamine - Combination of Yang and Yin

Romantic - Extreme Yin

The variously used types are:

Angelic/Ethereal - Yang (in size) that has yin features (light, flowy) and is not overtly sexy

Ingenue/Youthful - Yin that is not overtly sexy, and has an innocence

Style theorists use these concepts and types in differing ways, either seeing people as a blend of types, or a discrete type. They also have different (sometimes completely opposite) ideas about who (celebrities, for example) belongs in which type.

The Role of Yin/Yang In Fantastical Beauty

Yin/Yang style systems were not a part of the development of Fantastical Beauty, and are not a part of the Fantastical Beauty typing process. This was done explicitly. Having studied Yin/Yang style systems in depth, I saw both their strengths and their weaknesses, and felt a dire need for an alternative tradition.

That said, if yin/yang were considered in Fantastical Beauty, each of the Fantastical Beauty types would be Yin. The personalization of type includes visually incorporating the particulars of the small amount of Yang in each woman. In the Taoist understanding of Yin and Yang, Yin is inherently female, and Yang is inherently male. The Yin/Yang symbol shows how they are interconnected, with one incorporating a small amount of the other, and the two nestling together. This is how Yin/Yang would be considered in Fantastical Beauty. Each Fantastical Beauty type elevates the type of Yin in each woman, and personalizes and integrates the bit of yang in each woman. For typing of men, it would be reversed.

Yin yang

The Role of Yin/Yang Systems In Fantastical Beauty

 

Visit the pinboards to see examples, and consider being typed today!

The Role of Personality in Fantastical Beauty

The Role of Personality in Fantastical Beauty

Continuing our Fundamentals series, let's look at personality and vibe in Fantastical Beauty. If you need to, review the articles on

Face types

and

S-Curve types

.

By now you have narrowed it down to two or so types you think you might be, but may be unsure of how to fully decide. After all, maybe your face is both full and linear? Or you are in between a subtle and moderate curve? How do you decide which is most prominent? The lovely news is that you don’t have to!

We are now at the point where it’s time to look at the role of vibe. All of the types have mood boards that you can look at here.

I encourage you to look through all of them and make note of which resonate with you.

A fun example of the role of the importance of personality are Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. While they are physically very similar, it's instantly apparent that these two have different personalities. It is evident not only in their fashion choices but in the way they carry themselves. So, let’s figure out their archetypes together.

Ashley Mary-Kate Olsen 2011 Shankbone 3

(Left: Ashley. Right: Mary-Kate)

Do you see both length and balance? We will eliminate the full Face category, because they are lacking the fullness/width to carry it off. If you look at photos, you will see that we can also eliminate the Major S-curve category, as they are lacking the body lines to carry those type's off as well. This brings us down to Fae, Magic Queen, Nymph, and Angel.

Ashley Olsen tends toward lighter colored clothing and hair than her sister. She is also more frequently photographed smiling and has a lighter, sugary air about her. Which of the four types are more obviously supporting this and which are in more obvious opposition? This vibe can be found in any of the 9 types, but of the four we are considering, it it a more natural match for Fae and Angel, and a less obvious match for Magic Queen and Nymph.

What do you see for Ashley Olsen? Revisit the Face and Body categories, also weighing visual personality, coloring, and mannerisms.

Mary-Kate Olsen favors darker colors in her clothing, hair, and makeup, and she wears them well. She is drawn toward more drama than her twin. In comparison, Mary-Kate comes across as more serious and reserved in facial expressions and mannerisms. 

Which of the four types that we are considering are more obviously supporting of these features and which are in more obvious opposition? This vibe can be found in any of the 9 types, but of the four we are considering, it it a more natural match for Fae (Nixie) and Magic Queen, and a less obvious match for Angel (though Dark Angel is not uncommon, the vibe is somewhat different than Mary-Kate's) and Nymph.

What do you see for Mary-Kate Olsen? Revisit the Face and Body categories, also weighing visual personality, coloring, and mannerisms.

QUIZ: Which Fantastical Beauty type did you come to for Ashley Olsen? Which for Mary-Kate? What was the deciding factor(s) for you? Share your thoughts before the answers are revealed.

S-Curve Types in Fantastical Beauty

S-Curves in Fantastical Beauty (If you missed face types, find the article here)

Revisiting our 9 type chart here, we see that there are three S-curve designations: Subtle, Moderate, and Major.

The second aspect of narrowing in on your type is to look at your body’s S-curve. S-curve refers to the shape of your torso when viewed from the front. S-curves are formed by the horizontal difference between your bust, waist, and hips. You may find that you fall in-between two of these and that is okay! Your type will be further modified by personality, mood, essence, and your personal coloring (the topic of the next post).

All the types are curvy, and all of the types are feminine. S-curves are simply how pronounced your body’s curves are from a front facing view and are only a small part of what makes you the type that you are. S-curve degree can also change with weight gain/loss and child-bearing, which is why they are only a small part of figuring out your type. Unless your S-curve is extremely obvious, there will be an argument for two s-curve types.

Like Face designations, S-curve designations are used to get you in the ballpark of your type, rather than delivering you a type on a mathematical platter, and by the end of this article, you should have narrowed your personal type possibilities down to four at the very most.

S-curves are mainly about horizontal measurements, but are modified by visual impact. If you have an extreme difference between the horizontal measurements of your waist and hips, but you are tall and your hips are more oval than round, the visual impact of S-curve will be lessened. Similarly, if you don't have much of a difference in measurements, but you are short with a high hip, or you have large breasts, the visual impact of S-curve will be more than measurements alone indicate. Visual impact is just one of the potential tools you might want to use (or choose to ignore in favor of stronger factors) when looking for your type.

Generally speaking a person will be put in the S-Curve group that is their most obvious fit, but you will find examples in each of the nine types that are in non-obvious S-curve groups for reasons of gestalt. The only thing you won't find regarding S-curve types, is someone who has an obvious Major S-curve in a Subtle type (Valkyrie, Fae, and MQ), nor an obvious Subtle S-curve in one of the Major types (DP, Mermaid, and Seer) 

On to the examples:

Helena Bonham Carter is a sultry example of a subtle s-curve.

Helena Bonham Carter, 2011

Madonna is a sexy example of a moderate s-curve.

ExpressYourselfUnderGround cropped

Marilyn Monroe is a seductive example of an extreme s-curve.

Marilyn Monroe in Niagara

QUIZ: What S-Curve designation would you give Blake Lively?

BONUS QUESTION: Now that you also know the face types, what final type would you give Lively based on these two factors as well as your vibe intuition about the Fantastical Beauty type pinboards?

Blake Lively 2010