Virtual style analysis is more accurate than in-person analysis

I would strongly argue that virtual style essence analysis both works well and is superior to in-person style analysis. And not just because I only offer virtual style analysis, although that is a fortunate coincidence.

Style analysis is hard

Style analysis is hard because the shapes and vibes of the seven essences often appear extremely similar to one another.

For example, Ethereal shapes are curving and elongated, and Ingenue shapes are curving and shortened. But it’s often hard to tell on any given face whether the lines are “elongated” or “shortened” in the context of that face.

The same is true for the vibes of the essences. Ingenues can appear sweet and gentle, and Ethereals can appear mystical and gentle, and when you look at any given face and perceive a vibe of “gentleness,” it can be difficult to tell if you’re perceiving Ingenue gentleness or Ethereal gentleness.

image credit: "Diane Kruger César 2018 (cropped)" by Georges Biard is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

image credit: "Amy Adams UK Nocturnal Animals Premiere (cropped)" by Patrick L. is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Diane Kruger (left) is Natural Classic Ingenue, and Amy Adams (right) is Ethereal Natural Classic. They illustrate the sometimes extremely subtle difference between Ethereal and Ingenue.

Random typing methods aren’t highly accurate

This is why it’s not an effective typing method to compare a person’s face to different styles of clothing in random order.

If you use a random method, you might determine that a person with a gentle, curving face seems to look pretty good in Ethereal fashion.

Then later, when you compare their gentle curving face to Ingenue fashion, you might find that they look pretty good in that, too, because the gentle and curving vibes are at least somewhat harmonious.

But since Ingenue and Ethereal look so similar, it can be hard to be sure if a face has one or the other or both, especially if your eye isn’t trained to see the subtle distinction between Ethereal and Ingenue.

How to type accurately

What you can do to increase accuracy is to compare a face first to a purely Ethereal outfit for at least several seconds, and then immediately after (like without even a second break in between) compare that face to a purely Ingenue outfit for at least several seconds.

Then you can switch between comparing their face to only the Ethereal outfit, and then to only the Ingenue outfit, and keep doing this until your body relaxes when viewing the more harmonious outfit and tenses while viewing the less harmonious outfit. Your body will eventually give you this evident, palpable signal of which outfit is more harmonious. But this can only happen if you compare the face first to one outfit and then immediately to another outfit.

A visual example of how this typing process works:

To determine Kylie’s style type, part of the procedure is to compare her face first to the outfit on the left, then to the one on the right, and fairly quickly switch back and forth between the two outfits until I figure out which outfit is more harmonious. I might move her photo around on the screen to cover the outfit on the right while I compare her face to the outfit on the left, and then use her photo to cover the outfit on the left while I compare her face to the outfit on the right. (I can make her photo bigger or the outfits smaller to ensure the outfits are able to be covered.)

After I determine whether the outfit on the left or right is more harmonious, I would swap out the “losing” outfit with a photo of an outfit that has different style essences and again compare Kylie’s face back and forth between the two. I would continue to repeat this process until I’d gone through every possible blended combination of the 7 style essences and determined which type combination best harmonizes with her face.

This process works because it trains the senses to determine which essences are more harmonious than others. Your body will eventually tell you which outfit is more harmonious, especially if you practice.

The problem with in-person typing

If I were to try to do this process in-person, rather than virtually, it would be a logistical nightmare.

I could hire models to dress in different outfits to stand beside the person I’m typing, but I would need some way of covering one model’s outfit while I looked at the person I’m typing’s face in comparison to the outfit on the other model. Then I’d need to rapidly cover the other model’s outfit and reveal the first model’s outfit.

I would also have to make sure I’m not being influenced by the models’ faces, so they may have to wear bags over their heads or something.

Or I could hold up outfits on hangers astride the person I’m typing’s face and try to rapidly switch them, but if I was juggling that task myself, it would be hard to concentrate on the physiological response my body is experiencing. I’d ideally also have 63 different outfits available and ready, because that’s how many different style types there are.

Or rather, that’s how many total types there are of the one-, two-, and three-essence blends. With virtual analysis, I always let people know if they have a fourth essence, too.

So there’s even more than 63 types if you allow for four-essence blends.

There’s also the problem that it’s hard for a person to remain super still for a long time, and it’s much easier to type a still than moving image, simply because you can more accurately perceive a still face’s feature boundaries and shapes.

In summary, systematic typing is really difficult to do in-person. For many people, it just won’t be feasible, and even if you did somehow find a way to compare a live person’s face to 63 different styles of clothing in a systematic way, the transitions likely wouldn’t be as fluid as in a virtual setting, and visual distractions likely wouldn’t be as minimized as they are in a virtual setting, and the person’s face likely wouldn’t be as motionless as in a virtual setting. You’d also have to ensure you’re standing directly in front of them at all times so that their face isn’t being distorted by being at an angle. All these difficulties would likely reduce the accuracy of the results.

Do photos distort facial features?

They can, and that’s why when I type virtually, I will primarily use straight-on photos of a person’s face. Ideally the person in the photo will also have a straight face rather than smiling, because for some people, smiles can change their features and make it harder to determine their true shapes.

For example, Romantic Ethereal Gamine Alexandra Daddario’s rounded features are harder to perceive as rounded when she smiles her gorgeous smile:

image credit: "Alexandra daddario 2022 (cropped)" by Pansvalnac is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

"Baywatch Movie Launch Alexandra Daddario" by Eva Rinaldi is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

That said, even people like Alexandra Daddario who can look very different smiling vs. with a straight face can be typed accurately when they smile. It just tends to require a little more concentration.

Depending on the camera’s distance from our face when the photo is taken, a photo can also really change the look of a face. But in my experience, I get the same result when I type close-up selfies as I do when I type far-away paparazzi shots. The camera’s distance from our face does change aspects of our face, such as how large the nose appears in relation to the face, but it doesn’t change the face enough to change your style type.

Other benefits of virtual typing

The other great thing about virtual typing is that photos are easily modified to make typing easier. For example, if you’re typing a photo that depicts a person from the waist up, you can easily crop the photo so that only their head is visible. If you feel like the person’s hairstyle is influencing your typing, you can alter the photo so that most of their hair is no longer visible. Same with earrings or necklines or other aspects of the picture.

If you feel like the colors in the photo are influencing your typing (for example, people with autumny coloring may sometimes be mistakenly assumed to have the Natural style essence), you can even easily make a digital photo black and white to see if your typing changes when the image no longer exudes obvious warmth.

All these things are a lot harder to do in person.

If you’d like to use an accurate, systematic virtual typing method to type yourself or others, you can check out my self-type tool. If you’d like me to carefully complete this process for you, you can check out my virtual style analysis.