As promised, I have another Essence exploration video for you today. If you haven’t seen my previous video, I compared the Gamine and Ingenue Essence. Today, we’re adding another layer of complexity by looking at the Romantic Gamine versus the Natural Gamine Essences.

A Quick Disclaimer

Before I go into this video, I want to clarify that I am attempting to compare Essence combinations that I think are very evident in our lovely examples, but this is non-exhaustive. I am not going to discuss or list every aspect of their style or Essence types—that would hopefully be a series in the future once we go over the combinations and just the single Essences in isolation.

People have many Essences, and depending on styling, hair, and makeup, the priority or strength of those Essences can really shift. Style is really fun, and just note that this is more geared towards the McJimsey and Kitchener Essences, not as much towards the Kibbe Essences, although there is a lot of overlap between all three of those systems. We are looking more at the face rather than the silhouette or the body.

Romantic Gamine Essence

First, we have a mix of the Gamine, which has lots of compactness, a juxtaposition of roundness and angularity, usually wider-set eyes, broader but soft contours throughout the face, an overall shorter face, and a more upturned nose tip.

We are combining that with Romantic Essence. I picked Dorothy Dandridge here—who Halle Berry actually played in a biopic—because I think she is an amazing example of very strong Romantic Essence. She has lovely soft, elongated curves all throughout her face. There’s a little bit more space, which I call gentle openness, between her features. Overall, there is more elongation, especially through the nose, cheekbones, and chin, and more of a lightweight or delicate bone structure. It looks a little bit more hollow compared to the Gamine, which looks a little bit more robust—but not extremely more robust.

We also get a sense of lushness all throughout the face—very soft—whereas Gamine has a little bit more tautness.

When we combine those, I think lovely examples of this Essence mix are Carmen Ejogo and Halle Berry. They really embody that combination of Gamine’s compact roundness, broad contours, and a bit of shortness, with Romantic’s delicate soft elongations, softer flesh, and intricacy.

Natural Gamine Essence

Now, let’s compare that to the Natural Gamine Essence. Again, we have Gamine, but now we are adding a bit of the Natural features.

Elle Macphereson is a great example of the Natural Essence—broad or square contours are quite evident, the tautness of the face, a more robust-looking bone structure, and wideness in the features and the feature placement. There’s a wider mouth, wider-set eyes, and wider cheekbones. There are also heavier or straighter brows most of the time and more evident facial muscle tone.

That is kind of the opposite of Romantic Essence, where there is just so much softness on top of the muscle.

The examples I think embody this so beautifully are Jordin Sparks and America Ferrera. They have that youthful, compact Gamine animation in their face, with the lovely, more elongated, broad but taut contours of the Natural. They look a little bit more adult than the Romantic Gamine because the Natural Essence just has more of that mature look.

The Gamine and Ingenue are visually the most youthful, with Romantic coming a little bit after that. The Dramatic Essence is the most mature-looking, with Naturals being somewhere in the middle, a little after Classics.

Style for Romantic Gamine

The Romantic Gamine looks great when they combine very playful, small-scale geometry, compact segmentation, and dynamic details of the Gamine with the fluidity, softness, curves, and sensuality of the Romantic.

So you get that sensuous yin with that bold, theatrical, small-scale yang.

Style for Natural Gamine

The Natural Gamine, again, has that playful, crisp, vibrant Gamine energy, but with a more statuesque, broadly sweeping angularity, and more substantial shaping and fabric. The Natural Essence brings elongation and an off-duty, casual model look.

When you put them together, you get a very clear, clean, and obviously non-fussy style. It’s very crystal clear—there’s not too much intricacy or visual clutter that weighs it down, so both the dynamism of the Gamine and the Natural Essence can be accounted for.

When Romantic Gamine Doesn’t Honor Their Essence

When the Romantic Gamine wears something that is more linear, tailored, very elongated, and heavy, it constrains their bubbly curves—it pops their bubble, if that makes sense.

Whereas when they wear their more Gamine-Romantic silhouettes, they look very exciting and feisty. They have that mix of sensuality and sassiness. They really remind me of a Tinkerbell-type of fairy, which has this charming magnetism with a sense of mischief. It’s not like the Femme Fatale, which is heavier—it’s more like the Tinkerbell figure.

When Natural Gamine Doesn’t Honor Their Essence

When the Natural Gamine wears other styles, I don’t think it works as well.

For example, when we compare very expressive, vibrant, segmented, clean, crisp details that make Jordan Sparks look really exciting—she pops—versus a dress where she is wearing very intricate, constraining, and more tapered, sculpted, tailored styles that are a little more clingy, we don’t get that visual segmentation going on. It just doesn’t speak to her effervescent, dynamic, bold energy.

I think the Natural Gamine’s best looks are very refreshing when you look at them, like a really good, vibrant, bubbly cocktail—like a mojito, one of my favorite cocktails. It’s so refreshing and exciting—not too complicated, but not extremely simple either. There’s a zing to it. It’s not a classic, moderated simplicity—it’s more decisive and bold.

That was it for today’s Essence exploration! I hope this makes sense, and I hope you see it too. Please let me know in the comments if you have any celebrity examples you’d like to include in future videos. I have a growing list of recommendations or suggestions, as well as Essence combinations that you want to see.

And as always, if you’d like personalized style advice, check out my services.

Nona