Whenever you Google the words ‘revenge make-up’, the outcomes mostly discuss with the concept of showing an ex-lover what they’re missing through the beautifying effects of a makeover. Many cite achieving a ‘glow-up’, which seems intrinsically tied to the before-and-after makeover scene often depicted on film, from Pretty Woman (1990) to The Princess Diaries (2001). 

There’s one other form of makeover scene though, often linked to a unique form of revenge, or sometimes representing melancholy, ecstasy, or rage. It all the time signals character development, not necessarily from bespectacled and dowdy to blowdried and desirable, but perhaps from vulnerable to armoured, or from human to monstrous. 

The rituals surrounding beauty are sometimes described as types of self-care – which, in fact, they absolutely will be –  but they will also be expressions of darker emotions and harder transformations. Whether it’s a drastic haircut after a devastating break-up or a concealer which hides a dark past in addition to a pimple, these are makeovers which explore our relationship with beauty beyond looking or feeling good. These scenes have more in common with Michelle Pfeiffer’s zonked-out secretary suiting up as Catwoman in Batman Returns (1992) or the tragic body horror of Chris Walas and Stephan Dupuis’ Oscar-winning prosthetics and make-up in The Fly (1986).

Here, we unpack alternative takes on each step of your beauty routine as depicted on-screen.

SKINCARE 

“I exploit a water-activated gel cleanser, then a honey almond body scrub, and on the face an exfoliating gel scrub. Then I apply an herb-mint facial mask which I leave on for ten minutes while I prepare the remaining of my routine.” Patrick Bateman, the homicidal investment banker played by Christian Bale in Mary Harron’s American Psycho (2000) is introduced to viewers while undertaking a really excessive morning routine (lotion before the shower?!). While the multiple moisturisers indicate the greed and superficiality of the Nineteen Eighties setting, the regime also captures Bateman’s metamorphosis from sociopath to Wall Street yuppie. He sculpts his flesh to suit the socially accepted mould of fit, healthy and handsome, with arguably probably the most chilling removal of a peel-off mask ever captured on camera.

FACE

The protagonists of Jennifer’s Body (2009) and Young Adult, (2011) played by Megan Fox and Charlize Theron, spend much of their respective movies looking like women who’ve already been revamped. In truth, it’s a plot point in each movies that the characters are exceptionally beautiful. Nevertheless, each women in these Diablo Cody-penned movies feature in micro-makeover scenes: Fox’s Jennifer as she readies herself for the college dance and Theron’s Mavis as she prepares to reconnect along with her highschool boyfriend. Despite their perceived status as ‘hot girls’, neither is working at full power – Mavis because highschool is gone and her ex is now married with a baby, and Jennifer because she is a succubus who feeds on the flesh of minor boys. In each scenes, the ladies stare upon their very own reflections to use a thick layer of foundation, smoothing away their imperfections and maybe their humanity as well. An excellent base, Cody appears to be telling us, covers a large number of sins.

CHEEKS

There may be an unforgettable scene in Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 revisionist war film Inglourious Basterds where Mélanie Laurent’s character Shosanna awaits the culmination of her plan to destroy the Nazis who murdered her family. As she prepares for the crucial moment, which is to happen at a movie premiere, she swipes rouge across her cheeks along with her fingertips to the strains of David Bowie’s Cat People. This is not any subtle YouTuber daub of color, nevertheless – Shosanna smears it over her cheekbones like warpaint. No matter her outwardly glamorous appearance (she also fills in her eyebrows and hues her lips), Shosanna’s makeover signifies her steely resolve and presents her as a heroic figure – she, and we, know she will probably be victorious. Very similar to the Rocky-esque sports montage, it is a makeover which means business.

EYES

If eyes are the windows to the soul, surely any crisis of morality must be reflected in a single’s selection of eye make-up? In a transient but much-regrammed scene in Terrance Malick’s 1973 neo-noir Badlands, Sissy Spacek’s Holly, on the run along with her murderous boyfriend and temporarily holed up in a treehouse hideout, doodles round her eyes with kohl. Liberated from her controlling father and embarking on a lifetime of crime with Martin Sheen’s Kit, this moment of girlish experimentation is each charming and sad – despite her misdeeds, Holly remains to be just a young person. Eye make-up would later take centre stage in Park Chan-wook’s 2005 thriller Lady Vengeance. After completing a jail sentence for a criminal offense she didn’t commit, Lee Young-ae’s heroine Lee Geum-ja greets an acquaintance, her eyes lined with crimson. “Your style has modified. What’s with the blood-red eyeshadow?” they ask. “I don’t need to look kind-hearted,” comes the reply. It’s value noting that red-ringed eyes (and vengeance) enjoyed a renaissance that 12 months due to My Chemical Romance’s utilisation of comparable make-up within the promotion of their album – you guessed it – Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge.

LIPS

Lipstick, particularly red lipstick, is probably probably the most significant variety of make-up depicted on screen. Even in additional conventional makeover scenes, it’s all the time coded as seductive and slightly bit dangerous. In Abel Ferrara’s 1981 rape/revenge film Ms 45, Zoë Lund plays a mute seamstress named Thana who’s repeatedly attacked and assaulted. Once Thana seeks retribution, the camera lingers on her mouth as she applies a heavy coat of ruby-hued lipstick. As we near the climactic scene, which takes place at a dressing up party, she completes her makeover by donning a nun’s habit. The moment acts almost like an inversion of a pivotal scene in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s Black Narcissus (1947). Sister Ruth, played by Kathleen Byron, overcome with jealousy and on the point of madness, removes her nun’s habit and, in glorious technicolour close-up, runs red lipstick across her mouth to the horror of Deborah Kerr’s Sister Clodagh. Each scenes explore the virgin/whore dichotomy by juxtaposing the neat purity of ecclesiastical dress with the gory sensuality of the make-up (a glance so striking that it was recently recreated on HBO TV show Euphoria).

Lipstick will also be a conduit for all-out mania, as with Natalie Portman’s Nina in Black Swan (2010). Disturbed ingenue ballerina Nina steals a talismanic red lipstick from the dressing room of her retiring predecessor and applies it before confronting her director, biting him when he kisses her, the lipstick giving her the bloody mouth of an animal. Later, she exits a rest room stall to seek out ‘WHORE’ scrawled across the mirror in the identical shade of scarlet. More hysterical still is Diane Ladd in David Lynch’s Wild at Heart (1990). Her character, Marietta Fortune, going out of her mind with guilt, rubs a scarlet lipstick over her wrist like a make-up artist swatching for color. Later, as she calls Harry Dean Stanton’s character Johnnie Farragut to admit to her crimes, she turns towards the camera revealing her entire face, neck, and hands at the moment are painted with the color.

HAIR

Hair will be literally weaponised – see Pam Grier’s Coffy concealing razor blades in her hair within the 1973 blaxploitation film of the identical name – however it’s the cutting of hair that usually carries probably the most symbolic weight on film. From Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) to Interview with the Vampire (1995), self-inflicted haircuts have often been employed to point the manifestation of a desire for change. Outside of cinema, we’d like look no further than Frida Kahlo’s Self-Portrait With Cropped Hair from 1940 (recreated by Salma Hayek within the 2002 biopic) and, more recently, Britney Spears public head-shaving in 2007. Hair has held powerful connotations throughout history, from Samson to Rapunzel, and the removal of hair will be seen because the removal of power, not to say a type of desexualisation. Nevertheless, when it’s the character themselves, often a lady, cutting off her own hair, it might be read as a reclaiming of agency and assertion of control over her own image.