Discover your color palette and your style type.

Why I Love Being a Natural

6/26/2017

I'm an Ethereal Natural. I love my style identity -- both halves of it.

Discovering you're strongly Natural can feel like a bummer, for a couple of reasons:

- Natural is a masculine essence, and we woman often feel that if we look "masculine," we're unpretty

- Natural feels so unexceptional. What's there to get excited about?

To the first point: Gisele Bundchen. Very strongly Natural, and stunning. Google her.

To the second point: Here are some of the reasons I love, love, love being a Natural...

I love that comfortable clothes actually look good on me. I can't stand being constrained or buttoned up or confined, and, as a Natural, I don't have to be.

Same with shoes -- the most comfortable shoes are actually flattering on me. Thank goodness! Heels drive me nuts.

My clothes are less expensive, because the less expensive fabrics tend to be Natural fabrics.

Nothing I own gets dry-cleaned.

It's unfortunate but true: women with very feminine faces are sometimes taken less seriously and given less respect. I think the Natural elements of my face make it easier for me to be heard.

If I'm in a hurry, I can skip jewelry without worrying that it's ruining my look.

Similarly, if I'm in a hurry, I can throw on some gloss and blush and know that I'm looking my best.

I can keep my hair very, very low-maintenance and know that it looks right for me. I just comb it when I get out of the shower; that's literally all I do.

This is the stuff I remind myself of if I ever find myself wishing I was a more "exciting" or "feminine" type.

But that doesn't happen too often, now that I've had several few years of practice being comfortable with who I am.

I want that feeling for you too! <3

14 Comments

Rachel

6/27/2017 01:49:24 pm

So true! Thank you for posting this! One more benefit: my face naturally looks open and friendly. I like that I look approachable to people, without even trying.
And big ditto to comfortable clothes and being low-maintenance!

Jennifer

6/27/2017 09:38:45 pm

Rachel, I wanted to ask if I have a combination type, how do I know how much natural I have? To me, the other essences kind of makes it harder for me to tell when mixed together. Is it true that just about all women can look natural if they have no makeup on? I got the calculator but still feel unsure if my facial features lean a little more toward natural or toward feminine since my features are definitely unique and I just want to understand my look a little better. The feminine features seem easy to classify, to me though it's hard to distinguish "masculine" natural features on a woman that still looks feminine and not nessecarily like a man really. I see what you mean about Giselle, she's a good example, but what is it that makes her a natural? If a person has a bit of ingénue and a bit of natural, how do they decide which one is dominant? I think you look beautiful, by the way. I wouldn't feel bad about your look, I see a lot of beautiful natural woman, even models too. Thanks Rachel if you are able to get around to answering my question.

7/2/2017 11:20:41 am

Hi, Jennifer!

I want to recommend to you something I've recommended to other people, which is to ask a friend to complete the calculator for you. It might actually be better if it's not someone you''re super-lose to, because the judgment of those people can be influenced by what they know about us personally.

6/28/2017 07:53:50 pm

Even if I wasn't Natural, I'd figure out a way to wear cheap and comfortable clothes, avoid heels and dry cleaners, and have low maintenance hair and makeup. But perhaps my strong preferences for those things is in themselves a sign that I'm Natural?

7/2/2017 11:19:08 am

Hi!

Although it's not always the case, I do often find that people are instinctively drawn to what's best for them long before they discover their style identities. It could be a sign in your case. :-)

Stella

6/28/2017 11:04:45 pm

I am really happy that you posted this. Naturals are so pretty for their uniqueness and their friendly faces. I am so confused about my style. I got the calculator, and I wasn't really confident with the result, because there were so many blends, (one of them being natural). I feel more confident that if I were to get analyzed and end up with a larger amount of natural, I too would feel confident about it, especially after reading this post.

7/2/2017 11:17:23 am

Hi! Style confusion can be so disorienting. If possible, I suggest getting a close friend to complete the calculator for you, using your face (or a picture of your face) as the reference. It's often difficult for us to tell what looks good on ourselves.

Mary Ellen

7/2/2017 04:07:14 pm

I am a Natural/Ingenue needing ingénue details around my face but more natural body lines. Your post about dressing for our faces was very helpful. So, I feel that I have the best of both words: I can wear the pretty, dainty jewelry that I love around my face while enjoying the comforts of natural clothing and shoes. LOL

7/8/2017 08:15:34 pm

Many people who work in the entertainment business like actors are naturals (that friendliness and openness in a natural's face is very valuable to have in Hollywood), and yet I find it sad that natural features may be perceived as lesser than any other type--Natural beauty is very unique and effortless.

With that being said, do you sometimes feel as if celebrities who originally have Natural features who go through certain surgical features for whatever reason (especially models and actors, most of whom have plastic surgery) are not able to convincingly change into another type?

Like Bella Hadid--her face right now looks nothing like her old one. I thought she used to be quite pretty, and she still is, but sometimes, at certain angles, I still see a bit of her old face.

Obviously, people can change physically and their types can reflect that--I know a girl who in high school I would've thought to be a straight up ingenue because she's rather short and had round cheeks and cute features. However, when I saw her in college she completely changed but due to weight loss, losing the baby fat on her face, other major facial structural changes. I guess some people are late bloomers (pretty sure she didn't have surgery, because nothing was enhanced, she just looks older and different, if that makes any sense). I would now sort her as being a dominant Ethereal, because she has none of those youthful ingenue features at all.

But I feel like the natural woman has a harder time changing her features than, say, a Classic or an Ingenue because natural faces have these great, strong features. It's just an observation I have. Thanks for another informative post!

7/8/2017 08:24:19 pm

Sorry for the disjointed comments, but maybe it's because Naturals look best in light makeup or none at all? And usually, changing one's features (even for fun!) requires a lot of makeup, which isn't a Natural look? Also, to clarify, I am not suggesting that any woman of any type SHOULD feel the need to change their features. Personally, I just like to change up my face into a more Romantic/Dramatic style look if I go out in the evening or have a special formal event to go to, even if I don't have any Romantic or Dramatic, and it doesn't mean that I hate the type that I am.

7/10/2017 11:29:18 am

Hi!

Honestly, I haven'y thought at length about whether some style types have more difficulty than others changing into other types through surgery. This is an interesting line of thought, though. I'm going to keep it on my radar.

It's certainly true that people can change in their style identities -- with weight gain or weight loss, with age, with surgery, etc.

Katrina

8/17/2017 05:52:43 pm

I know this is an older post but I have just read it again because I was initially surprised about my results on the Style Calculator. In my mind's eye, I'm an ethereal goddess wearing flowing drapery, so when I learned that in reality I'm a Natural with some Classic and Ethereal, I had some disappointment. For some reason the preppie style indicated by Natural Classic just sets my teeth on edge, and it's take me a while (weeks) to realize that I can settle into the Natural without wearing the stripes and boat shoes of the Classic.

Anyway, this post is very helpful (and very ME!) - thank you! Now I need to find out how to incorporate just a bit of Ethereal into my style without overdoing it.

Rosetta

8/26/2017 10:45:23 am

"If I'm in a hurry, I can skip jewelry without worrying that it's ruining my look" - this caught my eye, as I really don't think of myself as a Natural, but I do skip jewellery on most days, in fact I tend to wear jewellery only on special occasions..! And i didn't know that's a sign of Natural! (I thought that's Classic, actually, minimal jewellery...) But I guess if I have any Natural, it's my 4th essence (less than 20%, probably). It is true that not usually wearing jewellery is one thing that doesn't seem to fit R, E or I, my main essences...

(My friends and loved ones usually say I'm ornamental enough without any jewellery, which is a lovely thing to say, but I guess some Natural influence might be a better explanation ;))

Mae

9/27/2017 03:30:37 am

I'm booked for a style analysis in October... I hope I'm a Natural. I'm sure I have a lot of feminine essence though. I definitely feel weird wearing Dramatic or Gamine. I tried Classic, still not perfect.

Truth is Beauty

Why I Love Being a Natural

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