Do you have a hidden yang essence?
Most people have some amount of yang essence—some Dramatic, Natural, and/or Gamine.
Why? One theory is that it’s because we have skulls.
When I look at human skulls—not something I spend a lot of time doing, but—I’m struck by how much they differ from human faces:
Above we see how a skull doesn’t really have eyes, nose, or lips—instead it has eye sockets, a nasal cavity, and, well, no lips.
So from a style essences perspective, a skull isn’t that helpful for understanding facial features like eyes, nose, and lips, because a skull kind of doesn’t have any.
But there is at least one facial feature whose overall shape is similar both on a skull and on a real live human: the jaw.
And a skull’s jawbone typically has some relatively straight, “yang” shapes:
And so do the jaws of real live humans.
So my theory is that because most people’s skulls have some straight shapes in their bone structure, most people also have at least some significant amount of yang essence.
The jaw is probably the most common place to have yang essence
Even highly “yin” faces (meaning highly Romantic, Ethereal, and/or Ingenue faces) commonly have at least a bit of yang. In fact, highly yin faces often have only a single yang feature—the jaw.
For instance, Marilyn Monroe has mostly rounded features (Romantic and Ingenue), but her jawline is angular and Dramatic. She’s been considered Romantic Ingenue, but based on virtual draping, she’s Romantic Dramatic Ingenue.
Another example is Romantic Dramatic Ingenue Kerry Washington, who has mostly soft and rounded features—besides her angular bone structure.
If you traced around Kerry Washington’s jawline, the shape would be closer to angular than to oval or circular. Kerry pulls off Ingenue curls but also sleek straight Dramatic hair and other Dramatic style elements.
The point
The point is that most people’s skulls have points: a human skull typically has some sharp, angular, straight, or straight-ish shapes, especially in the jaw. These shapes often read as Dramatic, Natural, or Gamine.
And these shapes seem to be present not just in skulls but also in real live faces.
Human skulls do look really different from live human faces—groundbreaking realization—because skulls lack eyebrows, eyeballs, nose cartilage, and lips, among other things.
But the jaw seems to be somewhat an exception. It seems to have a relatively similar shape both on a skull and on a face.
So it makes sense that most people have yang essence—it fits with the nature of human bone structure.
What about faces without yang essence?
But what about the many celebrities and non-celebrities who don’t have any Dramatic, Natural, or Gamine?
Elizabeth Taylor, for instance, is Romantic Ethereal Classic:
If you trace around her jawline, you’ll draw something closer to a half-oval than to a markedly angular shape. The contours of all her features, including her jawline, lack significant yang essence, and she’s not her best in angular or avant-garde fashion. (Her makeup and overall styling in the film Cleopatra is a good example of how she’s overwhelmed by Dramatic.)
Importantly, many other celebrities and non-celebrities don’t have any Dramatic, Natural, or Gamine—it absolutely is possible to have no yang essence.
But it seems rarer to have a jaw like Elizabeth Taylor’s than to have a more structured face shape.
And again, this is potentially because most human skulls have some angles or relatively straight shapes in their bone structure.
What about purely yin faces?
It’s also totally possible to be purely yin, without even any Classic—see Romantic Ethereal Ingenues on Pinterest. (Though some of these Romantic Ethereal Ingenues have a small amount of a fourth essence!)
Based on virtual draping, Lola Tung is Romantic Ethereal Ingenue. From her hairline to her jawline, most of her features have curving shapes. She also has a small amount of Classic as a 4th essence.
Intriguingly, I haven’t yet identified anyone who’s purely Romantic Ethereal, Romantic Ingenue, or Ethereal Ingenue. It’s definitely possible in theory to have one of these essence blends, but it seems really rare.
So if you suspect you’re purely yin, you might be—but especially if you’ve been told you’re purely RE, RI, or EI, it’s likely you have a third essence that’s been overlooked.
Do you have a hidden yang essence?
Especially in highly yin faces, yang essences are often missed.
And when it comes to determining whether you have a small amount of a hidden yang essence, your bone structure can provide big clues.
You may want to take a straight-on photo of yourself with a neutral expression (smiling can make it harder to see the true shape of your jaw) and ask yourself if your jawline appears more rounded in shape or seems to have some angularity.
The confusing part is that it’s not always possible to tell, based on the literal shapes of someone’s jaw, whether they have yin or yang there.
Why? Sometimes a face to the naked eye appears to have angularity, but that face doesn’t look its best in angular styling. This is especially because using contour, angles, or certain lighting on yin faces can mimic the look of yang essences.
And sometimes a face will appear to only have curving shapes, but that face actually looks amazing wearing some angular shapes in hair, makeup, and fashion.
If you take a straight-on photo of yourself and trace along the contours of your face and feature shapes, this can offer you clues to your style type. But to know your essences for sure, the only way is to determine the styling that’s most harmonious on you.
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Below are questions and answers that might arise from the jawline/yang essences theory.
What about body weight?
Can weight gain cause an angular jawline to become round, and does that affect style essences?
While weight gain can sometimes change the literal shapes of the face, I don’t think weight gain typically changes style essences.
As explained in a post on why filler doesn’t typically change people’s style types, filler has only limited ability to change the contours of your face, which is the main thing that determines your essences.
For example, long, narrow balloons that are filled with water don’t magically become round—they still have an overall long, narrow shape.
Above are some typical water balloons, and below are surgical gloves (specifically the finger part) that have been filled with water. The gloves’ overall shape is still long and narrow, rather than round or spherical like typical water balloons. Filling the gloves with water changed their volume a lot, but it had much less impact on their overall shape. No amount of water will make them resemble the rounder water balloons.
Similarly, weight gain can change the volume of your face, but weight gain won’t change its underlying foundation or structure (obviously it’s not actually changing the shape of your skull). So weight gain has much less ability to impact the fundamental contours of your face, such as by changing a jaw from relatively straight and blunt to relatively rounded.
It’s possible that a significant amount of weight gain or loss could alter your style type, but my guess is that the weight change would typically have to be drastic to do so.
Yin vs. yang?
Hopefully it goes without saying, but having or not having yang essence isn’t inherently more beautiful.
Stars like Romantic Ethereal Classic Elizabeth Taylor and Romantic Classic Ingenue Ingrid Bergman are considered timeless beauties, and they have very soft faces. But most people, including many modern celebrity beauty icons, have some degree of facial angularity, often in their bone structure.
Both softness and angles are beautiful.
Are there better terms than “yin” and yang?”
I previously mentioned not loving the terms “yin” and “yang,” and honestly I still don’t.
But I also think that if you’re going to try to take away people’s language, it’s most effective when you offer adequate replacement terms.
So while “yin” and “yang” might not be ideal words, they admittedly roll off the tongue better than, say, “curving” and “straight-lined.”
To me it’s important to remember that yin and yang don’t reflect biological, literal masculinity or femininity. Based on the theory outlined in this post, the fact that most people have “yang” essence simply reflects that human bone structure, especially the jaw, tends to have some straight shapes.
Can people have yang essence in other facial features, besides the jawline?
Absolutely! Based on observation, people can have yang essence in any feature.
This also illustrates how a feature doesn’t have to be literally completely straight or sharp to be yang. For example, most people’s eyes are literally characterized at least partly by curving shapes. But if eyes appear narrow enough, then they can be Dramatic or Gamine, despite that they aren’t literally composed entirely of straight lines.
(Model Karlie Kloss, a Dramatic Classic Gamine, is a good example of this—her eyes aren’t literally composed of entirely straight shapes, but they’re very narrow, which makes them read as Dramatic.)
The literal shapes of your facial features offer clues to your style essences. But when it comes to accurately typing yourself, the vibes of your features (the figurative feelings they communicate) are ultimately more important than their literal shapes.
A jawline that appears long, straight, and sharp will often harmonize with long, straight, sharp Dramatic fashion, but you’ll want to use virtual draping to be sure.
Summary
Based on typing many celebrities and non-celebrities, most faces have a significant amount of Dramatic, Natural, or Gamine
This might be because most people have relatively straight shapes in their bone structure, especially the jawline
It’s definitely possible to have no significant amount of Dramatic, Natural, or Gamine, but this is rarer than having at least one of these essences
Both structured and softer faces are beautiful
