Trends and taste, hairstyles and make-up, how clothes fit and how outfits are put together.
Talk about fashion mixes old words with very new ones. 气质 and 品位 are long-standing compliments that praise a person rather than their clothes, while 颜值, roughly “looks rating”, and 穿搭, an outfit, come from online talk. Two characters do a lot of work: 发, hair, read fà in 发型 and 染发, and 妆, make-up, in 化妆 and 淡妆. Note that 显 before an adjective means “makes you look”: 显瘦, 显年轻.
The words
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Verb (8)
化妆to put on make-upVerb4
她每天早上化妆要花半个小时。She spends half an hour doing her make-up every morning.
搭配to match, combine; a combinationVerb5
白衬衫跟什么裤子搭配都好看。A white shirt goes with any trousers.
Also of food and words: dishes or words that go together.
护肤skincare; to look after one’s skinVerb5
冬天天气干，要特别注意护肤。The air is dry in winter, so take special care of your skin.
染发to dye one’s hairVerb5
他四十岁就有白头发了，所以经常染发。He had grey hair by forty, so he often dyes it.
烫发to have a permVerb5
烫发对头发伤害比较大。Perming does quite a lot of damage to your hair.
保养to take care of (skin, health, a machine)Verb5
她五十岁了，皮肤保养得很好。She is fifty, and her skin is very well looked after.
Also servicing a car: 保养汽车.
整容to have cosmetic surgeryVerb5
他觉得没必要为了好看去整容。He doesn’t think there is any need to have surgery just to look better.
撞衫to turn up in the same outfit as someoneVerb5
真尴尬，我跟同事撞衫了。How embarrassing — my colleague and I turned up in the same outfit.
Literally “to collide in clothing”.
This list belongs to Shopping, clothes and money — seven lists and 282 words that can also be practised as a whole.
Practise this list
Multiple choice and gaps, drawn from exactly these 40 words. Whatever you get wrong comes back tomorrow.