How To Feel Like A Cottagecore Girl

Many of us have heard, or want to be a part of the Cottagecore community – I mean, why wouldn’t you with its sweet, romantic and nostalgic themes? But living in a city, having limited access to money, working in corporate, and many other lifestyle factors make it feel difficult to achieve the aesthetic fully. But it doesn’t have to be difficult!

The Cottagecore lifestyle is all about simplicity and encouraging sustainability, so there are many ways you can feel like a Cottagecore Girl with what you perceive as limitations! If you don’t have a lot of expendable money, save a little every week and take trips to your local thrift stores or upcycle the clothes you currently own to be more what you want. If you work in corporate and have strict dress codes, work around them with accessories, colours and your mood.

We’re here to help you find a way you can feel like a Cottagecore Girl, no matter your situation.

What Is A Cottagecore Girl?

A Cottagecore Girl is someone who identifies as a member of the Cottagecore aesthetic community. There are no strict rules, simply guidelines to help inspire your true self. Those in the Cottagecore community pride themselves on a few core beliefs: sustainability, simplicity, self-sufficiency and the romanticization of life.

The aesthetic is heavily influenced by a romanticised interpretation of western agricultural life; harmony with nature, domestic labour, caring for people and animals, and all things you might expect a grandma to love (knitting, baking, gardening, etc.).

Cottagecore Fashion

If you want to achieve the Cottagecore fashion, no matter your situation, we suggest focusing on the aesthetics visuals, rather than going all out with the clothing items such as overalls, puff sleeves, and princess dresses.

A few of the key visuals of Cottagecore include:

• Flowers: this is possibly the most common visual for the entire aesthetic. Think floral designs, floral pins, fresh flowers in your hair, floral embroidery, and so much more. There are endless ways to add floral accents to your outfits without breaking confining rules set in different situations (work offices, schools, etc.).
• Natural Colour Palette: When building outfits, always come back to the basic Cottagecore colours such as natural greens, forest greens, beige, pastels, off-whites, and floral colours.
• Vintage: A great way to add a Cottagecore flare to your wardrobe is by choosing vintage pieces. This may not be in the budget for all, but it is truly a fantastic way of incorporating the Cottagecore aesthetic into your life without going all-out with dresses and linen.
• Handicrafts: One of the common threads of Cottagecore members is knitting and sewing clothing pieces. Self-sustainability is a major component of the aesthetic, therefore you can use this to your advantage when building your wardrobe – knit/crochet your own headbands, scarves, tops, and cardigans, add patches to rips in clothes rather than throwing them out, or maybe even make your own clothes from scratch.
• Layers: Adding layers is a great way to bring some Cottagecore touches into your outfits. This could include socks, blouses, vests, cardigans, scarves, and so much more.

Use these few visuals to achieve the Cottagecore aesthetic while staying within the confines of any situation!

Cottagecore Beauty

There is not much to Cottagecore beauty; simply focus on skin-care, and keep things natural (with maybe small pops of colour). No matter where you’re going, if you don’t want to stay bare-faced, simply follow our 4-Step Makeup Routine!

All you need to do is:

1. Create a moisturised, glowy base with moisturising products, dewy foundation and low-coverage concealer with a rosy-toned blush and subtle bronzer to achieve the ultimate sun-kissed appearance.
2. Achieve the fluffy brows of your dreams, encourage them up with a spoolie, and keep them in place with wax, soap or gel. If you have bald spots, simply go over with a brow pencil in small, hair-like strokes.
3. Accentuate your eyes with a neutral brown in the crease, and a pink-tone on the lid. You can choose whether you add a thin line of black or brown liner on the lash line. Finish with natural mascara.
4. For your lips, we highly recommend a peach-toned lip stain or gloss.

Cottagecore Lifestyle

To achieve the Cottagecore lifestyle, there are only a few simple steps you should try to achieve:

• Vintage Furniture: You can feel like you live in a cottage in the forest no matter where you live! If you’re in the city, close your blinds, decorate with vintage furniture pieces and lots of plants (even if they’re fake) and add lots of mood lighting to come home from work to a Cottagecore escape welcoming to any runaway Princess.
• A Garden: Even if you live in a city, you need a garden to feel like a Cottagecore Girl. Whether it’s a full backyard garden with vegetables, herbs and flowers or a few pots of herbs on your windowsill, the act of caring for and tending a garden will help you achieve the aesthetic in itself.
• Baking: An integral part of the Cottagecore experience is baking. Each week bake yourself something sweet, or learn how to make sourdough (like everyone else did during lockdown). You can even do something simple like making banana bread when you’re banana’s are too ripe.
• Grandma’s Hobbies: Knitting, crocheting, sewing, cross-stitching, are all things that will help you connect to the Cottagecore aesthetic.
• Kindness: Possibly the most important aspect of any Cottagecore lifestyle is kindness. At Cottagecore Girl, we believe anyone can be a Cottagecore Girl as long as they treat everyone (and everything) around them with kindness and love.

Finally, remember that you don’t need to be like the aesthetic Cottagecore Girls you see on Instagram and TikTok: the idea of Cottagecore is to find yourself in a simplified lifestyle away from technological advances. It is intended to help you feel happy within yourself, no matter your appearance or situation.