Top 10 Cycle Tips

Lucy here! With cycle 4 coming up, I thought I should once again share my top tips for cycle outfits. I've included examples with 'grades' and explanations to help you figure it out!

1:Short OR behind-the-doll Hair Is Best

Long hair often covers over important outfit details, making it difficult to judge your outfit. If we can't see the details, we'll automatically lower your scores.

If you are using the Plaza, it's ideal for you to use Tress Up if you don't want to change your actual hair. Remember, while it's nice to have facemasks and fancy makeup, this is a fashion styling cycle. The only things we judge are your outfits, not faces or design skills.

2:Avoid Unnecessary Poses

Most poses only distract from the outfit, not add to it. If the pose covers your styling up too much, or dominates the outfit, your score will go down. 

3: Branding Isn't Everything

Just because it's LE or a Tribute doesn't mean it looks good. We don't care about the logo on it, just how you style it.

4: Inspiration is Important

The Inspiration pictures are chosen because they are meant to show ways that you could complete the task, so look carefully! They're intended to inspire you, whether that means colours, shapes, item combinations or print combinations. There's a lot to be learned by looking at our inspo.

5: Learn Form Your Mistakes

Listen to the judges - if several of them are saying the same thing, especially if they say it in more than one round, you should take note and follow their advice! It's not hard to try, and we like seeing you improve - but you can't get any better if you aren't willing to listen to our advice.

6: Check Your Screen

This might sound weird but hear me out - if your screen brightness is down too low, you won't be able to tell what colours look like quite so well. My biggest pet peeve is when people put a whole load of colours together that don't quite match, because it looks so messy and rushed. So make sure your screen brightness is high enough that you can tell exactly what makes sense together.

7: FOLLOW OUR INSTRUCTIONS

If you don't follow the instructions for a task, you're pretty much guaranteed to be eliminated. 

8: Ask Questions!

You may want to clarify the rules, confirm an item falls within the guidelines, that sort of thing. We will answer, and we don't bite, promise!

We cannot and will not tell you how to improve your outfit, however. 

9: Ask you friends!

You can't ask us judges - but you can ask your stardoll friends what they think! Chat with them within the site, or on places like Stardoll's Most Wanted to get some great opinions on your looks. 

10: Use Neutral or Matching Makeup

Although we want to focus on your outfit, a distracting and clashing makeup look will absolutely cost you points. It's hard to judge a look when the face looks wrong with it.

A neutral makeup - browns, blacks, whites and greys - will not contribute to your score. A matching makeup look will likely be commented on by judges, but again, will not improve your score.