Light Spring and Flamboyant Gamine

I’m back to thinking of myself as a Light Spring after realizing that Light Spring makeup colors and neutrals suit me best. One of the issues with the spring seasons in general for me is that when season and personality are conflated, I don’t really fit into spring at all–especially Light Spring, which tends to be thought of as the most ethereal of probably all the seasons.

The other side to this is what a spring is supposed to look like. Not coloring-wise–with my light golden blonde hair and very fair-yet-warm skin, I have that part down. But as a Flamboyant Gamine, the typical image of a Light Spring is definitely in conflict with the stereotype of my season. You can read Christine Scaman’s post on spring makeup here. Light Spring’s makeup is supposed to be light in application and texture, not just color. This completely contradicts Kibbe’s makeup recommendations for Light Spring:

Makeup is your finishing touch. It provides the elegance and sophistication your Image Identity requires to be completely coordinated, head-to-toe. A “smoky face,” which combines deep, sultry colors with a touch of vibrancy around your eyes, strong cheeks, and a deep lipcolor, is your best look. Don’t choose shades that are overly bright; just a hint of color is necessary to bring out your flamboyant spirit. Stick to matte colors for the day, with a simple addition of sheer sparkle most effective at night.

Avoid: Pastel colors (too matronly on you). Watercolor blended edges (too aging on you). Only neutrals (too stark on you). Overly ornate or glittery face (too unsophisticated on you).

This is just one example of what can happen when your season and your Kibbe type don’t really seem to work together. (Let’s not even get into how most Light Spring Polyvore sets and Pinterest boards are completely irrelevant to my life and style. Most Light Spring inspiration looks something like this.) The real question here is how much your season does or doesn’t affect the way you interpret your Kibbe.

My way of interpreting Flamboyant Gamine is to simply try to buy clothes in Light Spring colors, and then putting them together the exact same way a, say, Bright Winter FG would. The end result is something like this post on Light Spring Punk: take Light Spring “black” and Light Spring “white,” and do the same thing a winter season would. But some would argue that my delicate Light Spring coloring requires some more delicacy that corresponds to my coloring.

For me, though, I think it works best to keep the intensity of FG, and just do it in my own colors as much as possible. If I want to a dark lip, I will find the color that is as deep as my palette goes. I know that a deeper coral will look as bold on me as a stark blood red on someone with stronger coloring.

I’m still trying to figure this out. I know that my FG recs WORK, and I know that I feel that this allows me to cheat somewhat with colors, that I can do bolder looks than, say, a Light Spring Romantic. But I am cheating the beauty of my coloring by doing so?

8 Comments on Light Spring and Flamboyant Gamine

  1. Nouveau
    October 24, 2014 at 8:36 pm

    Thank you for this interesting post!

    I’ve recently switched to Light Spring, too (instead of True Spring) – and so far it’s a good fit.

    My Kibbe type is Soft Natural; and after I first discovered my Kibbe, I set it aside for awhile.

    Then I spent a few months deciding on my personal style intentions, and finding ways I wanted to incorporate my personality traits, physical traits, lifestyle, and creativity into my own unique style.

    Then I came back to Kibbe’s Soft Natural with my new intentions.

    I’ve developed my own unique style that incorporates some of the most of the important principles of Kibbe’s SN with my own personalized unique style. I’m very happy and comfortable with it.

    I don’t use every single one of Kibbe’s Soft Natural recommendations. Some of them are just plain not “me”.

    (Also, I think some of Kibbe’s specific recommendations were more relevant in the 1980’s than they are now.)

    If you tweak Flamboyant Gamine with your own unique characteristics – your own unique stamp – could you find ways to mesh it with your Light Spring palette … without feeling that you’re compromising on either your colors your style?

    Your personal style and color palette should feel joyous and natural, like you’ve just clicked into who you really are – not like you have to cheat or compromise to make it work.

    I hope you can find a way to make those two major elements – color and style – work together symbiotically!

    Reply
    • stylesyntax
      October 24, 2014 at 10:51 pm

      That seems like a good way to go about it–step back for a bit and get to know yourself style-wise before jumping into anything.

      I don’t know if I actually feel like I’m compromising on my colors. It’s more that I just don’t really mesh with the stereotype, and the way Light Spring is presented isn’t very “me,” either. So sometimes I get frustrated when I’m reading blogs and things on facebook; I really feel like figuring out how exactly to make LSp work for me is something I have to kind of trailblaze. 🙂 I don’t find the colors difficult to work with–I especially love the neutrals and warm colors on the palette–but I’m still testing the limits and experimenting in terms of makeup, etc. and figuring out the proper levels, so to speak, of color. I also only really wore black for ten years or so, so it’s definitely a whole new territory for me!

      Reply
  2. Molly
    October 26, 2014 at 3:34 pm

    Lucky you – I think that light spring is one of the lovliest palettes. Your line “am I cheating the beauty of my coloring…” really resonated with me. I think that there are some style/color combos that fall so neatly into place, and others demand more compromise. I am some kind of a summer, and probably an N. Most N looks seem to be very autumn to me.

    Reply
    • stylesyntax
      October 26, 2014 at 6:48 pm

      Yeah, most types seem to have a “default” color scheme that most of the clothes in that style seem to come in. For FG, I think it’s Bright Winter. FN is the autumns, although SN might be more summer, actually.

      Reply
  3. Chiara
    December 2, 2014 at 10:45 am

    I knew my color palette first, LSpr. I still feel kind of stunned that’s my palette, love the colors, and it immediately made sense of why I’d felt so bleagh in my clothes choices. But it also quickly became clear that something was still off…which led me to read about style types, and Kibbe types. Dramatic was the only possible type that worked but how to reconcile that with my colors?!? I’m confident with that now, but the makeup is still something I find tricky. I also need good contrast in lips, particularly. But not brightness. Matte is very very bad, a light gleam is best. But there is a seriousness or stillness in the Dramatic face which means you can’t have too much color, shine, glitter or LSpr girliness. Anyway, I’ve found using light, rather then creating shadows, is more important when creating focus with makeup with this coloring then maybe with other color types. For instance, I’ll line the eyelid with a very pale gold, non glittery highlighter and then apply a darker color next to that. This kind of mimics what my skin does naturally and heightens the effect. Peach bronzer as an eye contour also works, I find this heightens my eye color but is not too colourful (I’m a warm leaning LSpr though, cooler types might want to try a pinker color). The trick is to play up the ethereal quality of the coloring, without trying to look like a fairy…

    Reply
    • stylesyntax
      December 4, 2014 at 8:47 pm

      I’m still not 100% sure of my season, although spring seems to be the general consensus. Drapings can reveal an unexpected result, however. I do have a problem with that etherealness, though, since it’s not very in line with who I am.

      Reply
  4. Criss
    January 17, 2016 at 8:32 am

    Maybe you’re a true spring with darker eyebrows. According to truth is beauty, true springs can balance lots of contrast and depth.

    Reply
    • stylesyntax
      January 17, 2016 at 8:55 am

      No, it makes me look ill, albeit in a different way than Light Spring does.

      Reply

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