July 2017 archive

Fantastical Beauty: Iris

As I mentioned, I had placed an order with Kati at Fantastical Beauty. I commissioned a guide for the Iris subtype as an early birthday present for myself. I had written about Iris and why it appeals to me a couple of months ago. Once subtype commissions opened up, I knew that they wouldn’t be available for very long, so I decided to just eat the cost and commission it on my own.

In commissioning Iris, I wasn’t looking for something that perfectly fit the style I already have. When I saw on her Facebook page that Iris would pull from Dragon Princess as an influence, if anything, I knew that it wouldn’t be 100% in line with my tastes and what I already do–and that’s exactly what i wanted. I wanted something that would expand my vision for myself. When I got the Wood Puck guide, it appealed to me, but it didn’t offer me anything new. It contained what I was doing before I ever discovered Kibbe or color analysis.

So I wanted something different, something that would help me stretch my boundaries. I am in love with the story of Iris how Kati sees it, and the color scheme, especially, resonates with me (Iris is the rainbow, so I think you can infer what her colors look like!). Being a bold and bright communicator is as close as you can get to my own mythology.

I think I will still attempt a pure Iris look, mixing it with Cat. But to make it seem more manageable to me, I would like to bring in some different elements, too. To that end, Kati posted the video on Fae and its subtypes a couple of days ago:

Fae was one of the first Fantastical Beauty types I considered, and while my s-curve is on the subtle/moderate line, I don’t think that my face is linear–more balanced/full. The lines of the recs do fit pretty well, but it’s mostly not anything that I can’t get from my Animal Familiar. The imagery of Fae and playing tricks didn’t seem right for me either.,

Puck is a subtype found in all three linear face types. I knew all about Wood Puck from the guide, obviously, but I knew very little about Puck in Fae. Here are the notes I took:

-Artistic, firecracker
-Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
-Spunky Cupid
-High energy
-Romantic in a sassy/spunky way
-Romantic in a bright way, intensity
-Mischievous
-Lives in the clouds; appearing and disappearing world
-Wings/ability to fly through magic

I found a lot of common ground between Iris and Fae Puck. Both are winged beings living in the clouds, bold and intense, acting as a kind of intermediary between the gods and man. A Midsummer Night’s Dream uses an Ancient Greek setting. In some versions of the myths, Iris is actually Eros’s (Cupid’s) mother. I see a real through line from Iris to Fae Puck, even if it’s not official.

While we don’t have a guide for Fae Puck and we won’t for a while, I can see how adding a little Puck influence can bring Iris to something that suits me perfectly. Short hair, oversized sunglasses, and small touches of sass are just some examples things that Iris is really lacking and a Fae subtype could provide. I think the core would still be Angel/Iris–“duality” and “messenger” are really my key ideas, but I think maybe even a Fae lean would provide the little extra sass and whimsy I need.

Have Kati’s subtype videos given you any clarity on your place in her system?

What I Got at the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale

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Yesterday I went to the first day of early access for the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale, and as you can imagine, it was a madhouse. I picked up three things, but I only got one of them while I was physically in the store.

After wandering through the little walled-off sections of clothes, I went to the accessories section, where I found these sunglasses. I needed sunglasses that I could wear when I had my contacts in, since my sunglasses have prescription lenses, and these looked good on me.

They are my answer to Audrey’s sunglasses in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

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There was a dress that I had seen in the presale catalog that I had really wanted, but the catalog had mentioned a “Rust” colorway and the store only had Blue/Gray, plus they didn’t have my size. I was sad, but I knew I could get it on the site. But the site was so overloaded that they gave everyone 10X THE NORDSTROM POINTS if they made a purchase yesterday, so it basically took me all day, and Rust was nowhere to be found, even online. I guess that the production of Rust didn’t work out, but I liked the dress enough to buy it, even if it’s not exactly in my season. Rust may appear in the future, but $50 was too big of a discount to pass up.

Betsey Johnson Asymmetrical Dress, $104.90, $158 after sale

Betsey Johnson Asymmetrical Dress, $104.90, $158 after sale

I was a little concerned when I saw it in person because I wasn’t expecting it to be a knit and they are generally not my friends, but this one has enough construction and a thick enough material that it smooths over lumps and bumps anyway. I think it really fits the Cat recommendations and the puffed shoulder detail brings in that Angel quality.

The last thing I picked up I just ordered a little while ago, after deciding to browse the coats on the website on a whim. I didn’t really like any of the coats my store had in stock, but I saw that the one I liked the most actually came in a color that suited me. My store only had light gray, but the site also had a dark bluish green.

coat

Halogen Asymmetrical Zip Boiled Wool Blend Coat in Green Ponderosa, $129.90, after sale $199

This probably falls into my usual fashion habit of going too yang, but I really needed a wool coat because I donated all of my winter coats when I moved. I had black jacket in a similar style from Zara that I loved and wore for many years, so this seemed to be like a replacement for that. I think I will also buy a coat in a higher level of dress from Boden when all of their winter clothes come out and they send me an email with a discount code. But for now, this will be good for casual cooler fall/warmer winter days.

Have you gotten anything at the Nordstrom sale yet? Has anything caught your eye?

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Summer Makeup: RMS Lip2Cheek and NARS Tinted Moisturizer

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At this point, my collection of Dark Autumn makeup is fairly extensive. I can go into Sephora and leave emptyhanded, because I don’t feel like there’s anything I really need, save two products that had remained elusive for me–until now.

Back before I had discovered color analysis, and even into my color analysis explorations, when I thought I was a Light Spring, one of my favorite products was Benefit Posietint, a liquid lip and cheek stain in a light, clear, and warm pink. It was something I could just throw on when I wasn’t doing a full makeup look to add some color into my face without doing much work.

While makeup as a whole seems to have been tilted in the Autumn direction for a while now, this kind of product is still mainly found in Spring colors. I had no hope of finding anything to replace my beloved Posietint until I came across this post on one of my favorite makeup blogs, Killer Colours. A lip/cheek stain in a burnt plummy rose? Exactly what I’d been searching for.

RMS Beauty Lip2Cheek in Illusive is blendable and buildable, and comfortable to wear–unlike Posietint, it actually feels like a balm on the lips. This is the kind of color I like for daytime wear in summer–burnt rose/orange/red but sheer–and when winter comes, I’ll probably pick this up in Diabolique, which is Burgundy and ehading towards Dark Winter. (I think Soft Autumns might like Illusive as well.)

I still had to find the other product I had been searching for, however. I’m very pale, and there aren’t many foundation ranges that make a shade light enough for me, and this goes double for tinted moisturizers, where the sheer nature of the formulas allows brands to feel like they can release a very limited range of shade. I’ve had store employers swear up and down that a shade is very light and have it look okay in stores, only to come home and discover in normal lighting that I looked like I had applied self-tanner.inally,

So I went to Ulta and swatched every light shade of tinted moisturizer I had. Tarte, Urban Decay, Philosphy… No dice. Finally, I went to the teeny-tiny NARS display, hoping they’d decided to include the tinted moisturizer. NARS is one of the only brands that makes a good foundation for people who are very pale, yet more yellow than pink, so I was hopeful that their tinted moisturizer range would include a good shade for me. Funnily enough (probably just to me), I was too light for even Finland, which caused the self-tanner effect, but Terre Neuve was perfect, and my search was over.

rms_nars

I am very happy to have found products in these genres that actually work for my season and skin tone. And as much as I roll my eyes at the term, these products paired together create a great “no-makeup makeup” look.

What are your favorite summer makeup products? What makeup products have thus far eluded you in your season?

Fantastical Beauty Animal Familiar: Cat

I know it’s been a long time since my last blog post. I was in the middle of a major move, and my mind was occupied with other things. But now I’m all settled in, and I hope to return to blogging regularly, as well as going through my archived posts and reworking some things so that there isn’t any misinformation about Kibbe’s system or anything else.

Today I’d like to talk about something I commissioned a couple of weeks ago: The Cat Animal Familiar in Fantastical Beauty. If you’re new to this system, I’d suggest going to Kati’s site and signing up for her mailing list so that you can receive the PDF that lays out the different elements of her system. In Fantastical Beauty, your Animal Familiar is the element that covers the particulars of your lines and facial features. It doesn’t have anything to do with vibe or personality.

The best way to figure out your AF, in my opinion, is simply to go through the list and rule out the ones that could not possibly apply to you. Unlike in, say, Kibbe, there’s no wiggle room for things like height. “Looking tall” doesn’t matter; only people who are literally tall will end up in a Tall Animal Familiar. So, for instance, in my process, I knew I wasn’t going to be “Tall” at 5’4″, so I eliminated Hawk, Snake, Panther, Wolf, and Lion immediately. Looking at what was left, it was pretty easy to come up with Cat: medium-short, medium-small, full and sharp mix of features. A collage with the Cat celebrities seemed to prove me right:

cat_collage

Unlike the Fantastical Beauty 9 types, however, since AF is really the literal lines and shapes that suit you, I couldn’t do much with this information. There wasn’t even a Pinterest board. So I decided to commission a guide, along with two other women who split the cost with me. What I wanted to see was how well I fit into the type, and whether it would deviate or replicate the line information I had from Flamboyant Gamine.

You can see the Pinboard that accompanied the guide here, but basically Cat is very similar to Flamboyant Gamine, but the physical description resonates with me more. In the back of my mind, while I couldn’t really see any other Image ID actually working, I had been questioning Flamboyant Gamine, because I have small hands and feet and my length is in my torso, not my legs, my shoulders are tapered, etc. My body lines are too yang for SG, and so is my face, but I wasn’t sure if I was quite yang enough for FG. And SN was always on my mind, since the text of the book description seemed to fit.

I’ve had some realizations in the past few weeks, though. Being inspired to try a more Gamine style has really altered my whole image, and I realized that a lot in the Gamine description fit. I felt secure that wherever I ended up exactly, the Gamine group contained the only Image ID themes that would work for me. This was only compounded by a comment David Kibbe made when I posted a picture of my haircut in the FG group on Facebook, wherein he mentioned Mia Farrow to me:

Mia Farrow
(Source)

Mia is a Kibbe Gamine in the book, and she’s one of the ones he hasn’t yet moved to either SG or FG. I think I could see an argument either way, but looking at a bunch of pictures of her, I think I’d go FG. Anyway, I don’t think he would have brought her up to me if the Gamines weren’t the right Image Identity family for me, so I’m really focusing on making sure that I don’t go too yang, as I am wont to do, as my friend’s very astute husband pointed out, and respecting my own place on the yin/yang scale, where my juxtaposed yin and yang are almost equal, with yang coming out on top just slightly, and being able to pull from a wide spectrum of Gamine ideas. The Cat physical description seems to hit right at that spot, too, so it’s good “custom” guide for me.

Have you checked out Animal Familiars? Have you found a perfect spot for yourself?