A Makeup Archetypes Quiz Is Going Viral On TikTok, But Is It Accurate?

TikTok loves a good beauty system. Whether it's Kibbe body types or Kitchener essences, the platform has an endless supply of content revolving around how to determine your true personal aesthetic.

One of the newer and increasingly popular beauty systems is the Dear Peachie makeup archetypes quiz. Introduced by the beauty YouTube account Dear Peachie, this system consists of eight makeup archetypes based on face shape and other facial features. While other style systems focus on the body, Dear Peachie wanted to develop a system for styling the part of our appearance that people look at the most: the face.

Dear Peachie shared the system fairly recently, but TikTok users have already picked up on the archetypes as a new way to approach makeup. The Dear Peachie makeup quiz is now trending on TikTok, leaving many beauty fans wondering whether this new archetype system is worth exploring. And while no beauty system is perfect, the concepts featured in the quiz appear to be much more useful than the makeup tips of previous style systems.

The Dear Peachie makeup quiz was first introduced in a YouTube video. The makeup quiz is based on an archetypes system that emerged on Xiaohongshu, a Chinese social media platform. Using the video, you can analyze your facial features and determine your makeup archetype.

The quiz outlines eight makeup archetypes: romantic, elegant, ingenue, classic, natural, dramatic, modern, and gamine. Rather than lining these types on a linear spectrum, the makeup archetypes system uses a Y and X-axis, with visual weight on one axis and angularity on the other.

Visual weight isn't how much your face weighs, but rather how much mass and width your face appears to have. Examples of facial features with a higher visual weight include wide noses and broad jawlines. The angularity spectrum looks at how sharp or rounded your facial features are. Examples of sharp features include a highly defined nose tip or a distinctive Cupid's bow on your lips.

During the first section of the quiz, you add or subtract points based on the visual weight of your various facial features. Likewise, in the second section, you calculate a score based on the angularity of your face. Once you have your two scores, you can find your place on the Y and X-axis chart, which assigns archetypes to different regions of the chart. 

A refreshing change from other systems, Dear Peachie doesn't assign specific aesthetics for the archetypes, instead offering styles for different tastes. For instance, the gamine archetype has two examples: a fresh, airy look and a grungy, edgy style. Dear Peachie also suggests that people experiment with several archetypes to find the styles they like best.

So how accurate are these archetypes? Visual weight and angularity are certainly useful vocabulary words when discussing makeup, and while the archetype names are somewhat arbitrary, it's a helpful shorthand for referencing facial appearances. Since Dear Peachie doesn't insist on a strong commitment to a single archetype, the system is perhaps best used as an expansive collection of makeup advice, rather than a strict typing method.

It's helpful to remember that this system originates from East Asian beauty standards and trends. Even Dear Peachie gives a disclaimer in their video that while they try to be inclusive, most of their examples are focused on people from East Asia. However, despite the lack of diverse representation, most of the ideas are universally applicable. As with all style systems, some of the beauty standards that lie behind the Dear Peachie archetypes aren't necessarily fair or helpful, so trust your instincts if a beauty tip doesn't feel right for you.

With all that in mind, if you approach the makeup archetypes with the flexibility and creativity that Dear Peachie encourages, it's a fun and effective way to reinvent your makeup style.