Disclosure: Republished with permission from AwesomeShit.Ninja
It’s amazing how much effort people put into their LARP makeup and outfits more than their everyday looks. Ironically, my boyfriend and I were walking through a department store the other evening and he kept pointing to things if I liked them or not. Most of my responses were no, and he replied, “I’m just gonna follow you and stay quiet.”
“Why?” I asked.
“I have no idea what you actually like to shop for!”
He had a point. Anything clothing related always went back to my LARP attire and purchasing corsets at the renaissance faire. As I mentioned in my previous article, November 1st: A LARPer’s Christmas, most of my clothing I wear out in public or that I picked out from my closet. Essentially, my characters have better wardrobes than I do. Which isn’t a terrible thing… I should go through my clothes though now that I think about it…
Anyhow! This month we’re gonna have a quick discussion regarding make up. You have an awesome persona built up and a badass outfit, but do you really think you can just walk into a game without any make up? Possibly, but that’s extremely rare. If you’re portraying a human, then most likely not. But there are those who do for either situations that are occurring in game, which may force them to wear devil horns if they’re possessed, or simply because they want to.
The photograph below is someone who is portraying a human from a Viking-Spartan-inspired kingdom of Jotunbrud, one of the kingdoms in Seventh Kingdom IGE. He plays a warrior and is a chosen of a specific religion and was recently appointed “Jarl” or general of his warband, but there are no rules specified saying he needs to wear make-up. This is a picture of his second stage of make up to look more like Floki (pictured above) from the hit show Vikings.
Now, each game has rules specifically for make-up. For example, because I am a Wild Elf at both 7K and Faeglen, I am to have the colors brown and color shown on my face and if I want to go the extra mile, have vines down my arms. And of course, elf ears. Spirit gum is the biggest pain in my ass, so I’ve stopped wearing my ears over a year ago. F it. I have no nice words about spirit gum, but seriously, it’s the only thing that works. I don’t like the stickiness of it and I have very little patience dealing with make up to begin with, which is primarily why I don’t wear it. But please, if you have elf ears, horns, or other prosthetics to wear, spirit gum is the answer.
Sidebar for a moment, there was moment in July where I was role-playing with one of the staff members – she was portraying and introducing herself as my aunt, an elder clan leader. Anyway, at one point, a friend of mine who was listening in on our conversation noted that we were absolutely related because we had the same type of ears: non-pointy elf ears, a.k.a. our ears we were born with IRL.
Now back to the actual subject at hand. Many people do find inspiration for their make up through film, everyday patterns, or coming up with one on your own. Ashlynn’s make up was inspired by Keira Knightley’s warrior make-up in King Arthur. It is a terrible film and two hours of my life I’ll never get back, but I did get something positive out of it so I’m grateful for that. For Ashlynn, I use liquid eyeshadow eyeliner pencils. Like I said, I don’t have the patience.
Now, for full body make-up. Kryolan’s Aquacolor. That’s pretty much all I’m going to say. This is a water-based make-up that is easy to apply and stays on the applied areas for long periods of time, like an entire LARP weekend! I don’t use the product that often to tell you the epicness of it, but I will share this video featuring my friend Nana of Shenanagin, who is one of the staff members of 7k and a veteran player.
December is upon us and it’s time to start your holiday shopping. If you have a LARPer in your life and no idea what the hell to get them, LARP Girl is here to assist you!
