Soft Gamine Epiphany!

This morning is my big “AHA!” moment, for real.

Oh my gosh. Maybe it’s a bit weird to be so excited, but I DO get excited when I recognize myself in something. And I most certainly recognize myself in Soft Gamine!

I got approval to the SG facebook group yesterday afternoon, so I spent a lot of time on there absorbing information and reading conversations amongst women of this type (or at least suspecting themselves to be, like me). I saw discussion about hips (gosh, have those in spades!), where weight gains (hips down, hey), the fact that so many weigh more than they look to others (almost 140lbs. here, and most people think I’m joking when I admit to it), and “sturdy” calves.

Gosh, y’all, it’s ME!

So now I can understand why I was initially so very attracted to Soft Classic when I first started this Kibbe typing journey several years ago. SC a lot of the same or similar elements as SG, but on me, Soft Classic was a bit staid and boring. I think I need a little more character to really be me and look well in clothes. Literally the ONLY thing that kind of makes me sad is no long skirts for Soft Gamines. I still haven’t figured out how to hold myself to my personal modesty standard and do this style in its entirety. I’ll have to think about that for a while…

And because I like photos, I’m going to pull together a couple of looks or pieces I’d like to try out (or at least, decent facsimilies thereof) when I can afford to start shopping for clothes again.

These are called “ear crawlers” and they’re recommended by Kibbe for SG types.

This is ADORABLE! It has the combination of soft and hard lines that’s supposed to be for SGs, with just a touch of cuteness and whimsy.

So cute and whimsical! I don’t know if it’s just me, but the little red rondelles look almost like ladybugs to me, and that’s what I thought they were at first!

If you couldn’t tell, I LOVE accessories, especially cute jewelry! I chose these because I have always been attracted to Soft Classic’s classy (ha!) pearls recommendation, but they always kind of looked like a little kid playing with mommy’s jewelry on me. This is an idea for doing pearls while not being SC. More visually interesting and cute to boot!

These pants! Also any style that’s cropped and fitted, as well as shapes called “cigarette pants” are supposed to be good on SG.

Likely one of my most favorite top combinations, EVER. I love the cute cardigan look. I’d do full length sleeves or 3/4 length, because Florida.

Cute flats with scalloped edges and cutouts (scallops are a SG shape, from my understanding).

I would probably wear this entire outfit (except the bag, which is too big for me)!

Last but certainly not least, my dream haircut. This is what I’ll be getting done next week, when I get paid at my new job! I’ve always looked my best with shorter hair. I don’t know HOW I could have thought I was SN, the classic long-haired chick!

Exploring Soft Gamine & Ingenue

Over the last couple/few days, I’ve been giving my Kibbe type a real workout. I’ve been told by many to explore Soft Natural (SN for the purpose of this blog), and I have done so at length. I do like the looks of a lot of SN, but there are glaring inconsistencies in how it actually translates to my person when I try to wear it. For example, SN is meant to be loose(ish) and flowing, so I bought a waterfall-style open cardigan. Super comfortable, yes. But flattering? Eh. It kind of makes me look like a straight box with huge hips and bum. …and really, I don’t want to look like I have a huge bum and hips.

So on one of the color & style yuku boards, I posted some of my concerns. Can I really be SN when I’m so obviously short (at four feet and eleven inches)? Just how important IS height in these systems, because I’m so darned short I don’t register on most of the scales?! Can I really be SN when I seem to need a bit more structure (but not TOO much, ie: close-fitting but not cinched waist definition)? Can I really be SN when I can’t do long hair at all, and short and wavy looks SO much better?

The first person to comment suggested Soft Gamine (SG for short, and sometimes called Ingenue in other systems), and maybe a nod toward SN (which I’ve already been HIGHLY questioning).

Soft Gamine?

Huh.

Let’s check that out.

So off to the world wide web I went, looking up all kinds of information on SG, browsing through pinterest boards, and perusing forums. And a lot of it…really kind of appeals to me.

Now, I don’t entirely feel like my energy is as upbeat as SG seems to be, but a lot of the elements are those I’ve been quite attracted to. Especially close-fitting cardigans, tiny romantic details, capri pants, strappy but cute sandals. And let’s not even get started on haircuts! My absolutely, 100% favorite personal hair style is SG all the way! When I wear my hair like that…gosh, I feel so good, so alive, so like myself!

And now I wonder…is it time to give Soft Gamine a go? I think maybe so!

Here’s my pinterest board of SG styles (not necessarily colors) I’m drawn toward or think would do well on me:

Playing With Zyla

So yesterday and the day before, I made a few collages based off Zyla’s official pinterest boards, mostly just for fun, of course, but there are still a couple of archetypes that I vacillate between. Really, I mostly can’t make up my mind between Soft Winter and Dusky Summer, but I do have one surprise palette, which is Antique Winter. Someone suggested it on one of the Zyla facebook groups, and while I’ve not given it much consideration based off the personality part, I figured why not make one.

So here they are!

Like I said before, you can click on the pictures to see the full-sized version…which in the case of these is VERY large!

Zyla Reworked

This is the new palette I made with guidelines from Zyla’s Color Your Style book, as well as comparing from a couple of the Zyla facebook groups. I try to be sure to post a picture of myself with my palettes because then viewers can see the overall harmony of the palette (hopefully!). I’m very pleased with this in general, although I’m wondering now if I ought to have given myself a brownish alternate energy/tranquil spread. My eyes do look very green in certain lighting, but they’re really brown-gray hazel. I chose the greens and green-grays because, frankly, they’re kind of my favorites.

This is the palette all by itself.

Soon, I’m going to start working on a pinterest board for these. It should be fun…but probably tricky. I did contemplate making that absolutely fabulous Vin Rouge (how could I not add that here?!) in as a Romantic color, but it’s very obvious in my hair when you look at it versus the photo, so I went with 2nd Base instead. I was also wondering if I could go darker with the Romantics, but…I tried a lot of them and wasn’t entirely satisfied. I may update this later if I find some that seem to work, otherwise, this is it!

My Latest Palette.

I have a lot of fun when I’m making palettes, whether they’re for myself or for someone else. My latest is styled somewhat after the idea of Beauty Valued, in that I went with skin, hair, eye, flush, and vein colors to get the palette. I was quite surprised at how well it came out, and when I shared it on one of my facebook groups, one of the girls there asked for help to make one, and I offered to do it for her.

Here are the palettes.

The first one, shown directly below, is my personal palette I made for myself. I knew there would be a lot of brown and green (because of my brown hair and hazel eyes), but I was actually quite surprised at how much purple came out in these, even in my hair! I’ll be honest, I really don’t care for purple for personal reasons…but I’m starting to think I may have to reconsider. They just look so good with the rest of this palette! Since this is actually mine, I have no problem posting my face with these colors.

My absolute favorite and most surprising color of all of these was the Behr Vin Rouge (second down, second in, if you can’t read the text well). Oh. My. Gosh. It is just amazing! (Click the photos to enlarge them. After that, you can hit your browser back button to finish reading.)

And the next palette is my friend’s. I’m not going to name her because I don’t have permission to do that, but the palette is too fabulous to not post. A lot of yellow-green-grays and honey golds came out in this palette, but I think it actually all blends quite well! I tried to find her some good blues, but either the teals or the purples went better. Any real blues (aside from those couple of cornflower-ish ones) just felt wrong, so I decided to leave them out.

Palette-making is a very intuitive process for me. I do it through looking at the colors versus the person, of course, but a lot of it is just that gut instinct of “Yes, this is perfect!” or “No, that’s not good; let’s move on, here.”

The Big Move!

So I completed the Big Move today. Horray!

Before this, I had been kinda-sorta journaling my color journey on Livejournal. It suited the purpose I needed for a while, but after a while, I started getting bored of it, and saw my interest in it drop off. After I got my other blog ( Viridian Soul ) going this past week or so, I decided to switch over my color blog to the WordPress platform as well, and I must say that I’m quite happy with the result!

Here’s the new blog format, layout, and colors.

Lovely, lovely!