JOCELYN: May 2009

Geisha Make-Up

The origins of white face make-up in Japanese culture is largely disputed. It has been said that in the middle ages, the white make-up was discovered when a Japanese traveler returned from Europe with stories of "pale faced" beauties. Which this sounds pausable, it is also been said that it originated from China and was adopted by the ladies of the Japanese court. Considering that the use of white make-up in Japanese history can be dated back as early as the Heian Era (794-1185 AD), a time when Japan was largely influence by the Chinese culture.

The way you apply Geisha make up is:

First the wax or oil substance, called bintsuke-abura, is applied to the skin.
Next the white powder is mixed with water into a paste and applied to the skin. The white powder is applied with a bamboo brush starting from the neck and working upwards.
The white make up covers the face,neck, and chest with a two or three whitened areas forming a w or a v shape, usually a traditional w shape left on the nape, to accentuate this traditionally erotic area and a line of the bare skin around the hairline, which creates the illusion of a mask.
After the foundation layers is applied, a sponge is patted all over the face, throat, chest the nape and neck to excess Moister and to blend the foundation. Next the eyes and eyebrows are drawn in.
The eyebrows and edges are colored black with a little bit of red. Traditionally they could have used charcoal, to darken them but today the cosmetics is more likely to be modern in their places.
Last but definitely not least are a her lips. The lips are filled in using a small brush. For their first year, Maiko paint only a little bit of colour on her center lower lip. This appears to originally originate from the fact that in Japanese history very small lips where once considered sensual and attractive.
After their first year, Maiko start to colour their top lip, but never filling in the entire lip. When they become geisha, they continue to paint their lips smaller but eventually over time as her make-up becomes more clear and distinct, she starts to paint in her full lips.