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Fantasy Guide to Make-Up and Cosmetics

If I am to be completely honest with you all, I know nothing about make-up. Those little brushes and endless sponges mean nothing to me except the fact that they are really soft and sometimes shiny. I don't wear makeup so you can imagine how useless I am at modern make-up.

However, history is my jam and I know about what make-up they use centuries ago. So never fear @theflyingravenbird I got you.

Ingredients and Applications

Make-up and cosmetics of the past were usually sourced from natural ingredients. The more difficult the ingredients were the more expensive the cosmetic was. Natural dies such as red ochre and berries were used to stain lips or colour powder to use as blusher to add colour to the lips. For examples:

Geishas of Japan are probably the most recognizable make-up wearers in the world. Historically and in some more traditional okiyas, the geishas painted their faces with rice powder to give them that unbroken, white complexion. A popular recipe for their crimson lipsticks involved extracting pigment from crushed safflower petals.

Henna paste made from the eponymous plant can be used as hair dye and to trace designs on the feet and hands.

Kohl is a black powder that is famous for its popularity in Egyptian Cultures and even the Persian Empire. Kohl lines the eyes like modern eyeliners and is found when one grounds stibnite. Kohl actually had the luck of preventing eye infections which no doubt helped in the climate of Egypt and beyond.

The Phoenicians used powdered metals of gold, silver and other metals to dust their faces. This is reputably thought to denote their wealthy status.

Rouge or blusher has had numerous recipes throughout history. The Ancient Egyptians made rouge from red ochre and animal fat. The Romans made their rouge from lead and cinnabar, which sounds about as bad for you as you think it does. The Ancient Greeks made it from pressed mulberries or other fruits such as beet and strawberries. The Ancient Chinese made rouge from extracts of coloured flowers.

Ancient Chinese cultures used a mixture of gumarabic, gelatin, beeswax, and eggs to stain their nails. The colors were often used to denote social class. Gold and silver was worn by royalty or black and red. The lower classes were not prohibited to wear bright colours.

Lipstick has also a few recipes. Egyptians used pounded carmine, a kind of insect, to smear on their lips. Other ancient civilizations used red ochre. Vermilion (though toxic) was also used, along with crushed flowers with red pigment mixed with beeswax during the Elizabethan period.

During the late Elizabeth and then again in the Baroque period, women and some men began to paint their faces with white powder. The layer of white lead and vinegar, or ceruse was popular for tears despite the hair loss and death it caused.

Make Up Tools

Powderpuffs: the powderpuff was a pad of soft material meant to apply powder to one's face. They were made of feathers, cotton or sheep's fleece.

Brushes: Brushes have been been around for ever. They have been found in some of the earliest Egyptian tombs. The brushes were often made from animal hair with wooden or more expensive handles.

Pots of pigment, scents and ointments: Some early tombs excavated from ancient civilizations have included what amounts to a palette (thank you lil sis for that word). The pigments in the pots would be very expensive. Ointments and balms have also been found. Perfumes were very popular in antiquity and made a recurrence in Europe after the Crusades (which helped since some of the make up smelled awful).

Make Up and Social standing

Though make up is rather popular now, it had a rather uncertain rise to popularity.

Most Ancient civilizations wore some kind of cosmetic. The overuse of cosmetics in ancient times was frowned on as prostitutes and actors often wore dramatic make up however the elite often smeared themselves with powders to make them paler and redden their cheeks.

In the Middle Ages, makeup had a dual reputation. The Church frowned on it because it was again popular with prostitutes and actors but it was a common consensus that if the woman was scarred from smallpox or some other disease she was excused from being labelled as vain.

In the late Elizabethan period, theatres were getting more popular and as was makeup. Actors began wearing make up more frequently as did the elite. Elizabeth I herself was infamous for her milk-white skin. Make up became more sociably acceptable among the rich and noble at this point.

The 1700s probably saw the height of make up madness. Both women and men of the elite powdered themselves with white lead paint. They rouged their cheeks to high pigment and stuck small dots of felt to cover blemishes. The commons began to poke fun at the elite's strange obsession with looking like they've lost all their blood. Dandies and painted noblewomen were often poked fun at by pamphlets and satirical cartoons.

The Victorians frowned on make up, thinking it garish and common. Queen Victoria herself denounced make up as uncouth which lead the elite to abandon it in droves. However, most women prized a clear complexion so there was a lot of secret make-up-ing going on.

During the Edwardian period and the 1920s, make up began to get more popular. Older more respectable women began trying makeup to fresh their complexion. The younger generations began to experiment with makeup leading to the infamous smokey eye look.

This has made me think so much…and not entirely about my characters.

Writing Grief

I’ve heard from many places - and wholeheartedly stand by - the idea that the larger the scope you’re trying to portray, the smaller your focus should be. For example, if you’re writing about a village that’s been destroyed, you don’t focus on the destruction everywhere, you focus on a little child’s doll lying half-scorched in the street. The idea is to channel as much of the emotion as possible into the smallest details. That’s how it’s the most potent.

Grief is one of these big things. Grief rocks your world, and it’s grip doesn’t go away as soon as the next thing comes around. It strikes at odd moments.

The thing with grief is that everyone experiences it differently, and everyone’s got different memories surrounding it. Given this fact, I’m going to describe questions who’s answers you may incorporate into your narrative, but I cannot give you a “this is how to write your character’s grieving.” The questions I’ve listed below are likely going to be most relevant at or just after another character’s died, when things are freshest and at their most raw.

(note: “or” questions do not necessarily mean you have to choose one or the other. You can, but it’s also saying, “is at least one of these the case?”)

How does it feel externally?

Do things feel too rough, or too soft? Too squishy or too unyielding?

Are yoru character’s sleeves damp or wet from wiping away tears? are there balls of tissues held tight in your character’s fists?

Is the air too cold or too warm?

Is the space too tight, or too open?

How does it feel physically internally?

Is your character’s jaw clenched or their muscles tightened?

Do their eyes sting or feel puffy from tears?

Are they dehydrated and/or hungry?

Does their skin feel cold to the touch?

Do they crave physical contact such as hugs, or do they not want to be touched?

How does your character feel emotionally?

Are they angry, scared, sad, or unsure?

Do they feel emotionally empty like there is nothing inside of them (do they feel cold but aren’t physically cold)?

Are their thoughts coherant, or are they scattered?

What do they notice? Colors, shapes, patterns, sounds, movement, tactile sensations, smells?

Is your character craving a sense or normalcy, or a sense of difference that reflects the difference of someone dying?

How does your character physically react?

Do they start crying or showing other intense emotions?

Do they try to hold everything inside and/or not show other people?

Does their movement style change (they’re jerkier, slower, etc)?

Do they not seem to hear anything anyone else is saying?

Do they try to overcompensate and/or pretend that what happened didn’t really matter (showing intense emotions seemingly unrelated to grief)?

Nah. With song covers, many change the pronouns. There’s only a few that don’t. It’s different when it just came on the radio, I think. The again, I’m pan-ace so I wouldn’t know. There’s always speculation if you don’t change the pronouns (see: BTS). 

The Best Thing About Being Bi

Is that you can sing virtually any love song and not have to change the pronouns. 

The Fuck Is Happening?

So usually I suck—and I mean suck—at naming characters. It takes me forever and a plethora of research before I even get a working name. Now? I’ve come up with three off the top of my head, only looking up one name(Aysha) which is fair because of the rarity of it.  Though I came up with some…odd surnames. Greenbay and Greyborn. Like…what? Where did those come from? This is contemporary. Set in real life. 

Harry Potter: Introduction To The Wizarding World

So, we all remember the iconic “You’re a wizard, Harry” line. But I was thinking what would have happened if it wasn’t Hagrid who showed up to talk to Harry. Now, I’m not talking about some Voldy turning up somehow shit. I’m talking about Minerva McGonagall.  I was reading a fic where it said that it was Minerva’s job to do that, if it ever happens. This may or may not have been true, but it still got me thinking. What if it was her?  Would Harry have actually been in Slytherin? Would he still believe that all Slytherins are bad? Or would not much change?

What do you think?

My main problem as a writer is that I don’t write because “I have a story to tell”. I write because there are worlds I want to visit, ideas I want to explore, people I want to meet, conversations I want to hear, emotions that I want to express, and impossibilities I want to make real.

Which means that I still need a fucking plot.

Faerie friend of the damselflies. ink and watercolor on paper. there’s tons of damselflies around the stream. It’s very hot out but that doesn’t seem to bother them. hope everyone is staying cool. Instagram | Store

Apps For Writers I Wish I Had

So, as a writer who’s more lazy than my cats, I spend many a sleepless night thinking up apps for me to use to make the process much easier. These are a few of those. 

One: A app where you can enter a name and click ‘search’ and it will tell you if it’s okay to use in a project. You can specify wether it’s a person name, an establishment name, a place name, etc. to refine your search.  A possible name would be ‘Name Check’ or some variant.  Two: a face claim app. You can specify the basics of your character and it will pull up pictures/face claims matching the description. Eg. ‘hazel eyes’ ‘black hair’ ‘male’ ‘freckles’ and so on getting more and more specific. 

Three: an app for job research. You type in the job you have for your character and it pulls up real life accounts of people with that job. It would explain what the basics are, day to day routine, schooling necessary, hazards, time, etc. Note that this only applies to real life jobs, not fantasy

Four: a music app. You give the browser the themes, feelings, etc. of your project and it pulls up music that fits that. Also can define by genre. Also applicable for characters. 

Five: kind of goes along with face claim. A scene reference app. You give the feeling, genre, what you know about it, etc. and it pulls up pictures that match that for you to reference. To see it in front of you. 

Six: This one is sort of like three. Need to write a scene you’ve never experienced? This gives you kind of like a guideline Do’s and Don’ts, if you will. Someone who’s experienced it explains(to the best of their abilities) what they were feeling. You have to know your character well enough to change those feelings to fit your character.  Not for fantasy.   Seven: Character name checking. It’s a fucking pain to have to figure out if this awesome name is available to use in a book or anything that’s going to be written by you. With this, all you have to do is type in the name and if it turns green, it’s safe to use.