Geisha why white face

It is still possible to spend time with a real Geisha today. It is a great chance to see these charming and beautiful entertainers up close. The origins of this unique tradition can be seen across the pond in China. During the Heian Period to A. This included beauty trends and practices. Chinese courtesan women took to wearing thick white makeup because it looked better in the light, particularly if they were to perform to or entertain nobles.

Of course, in this period, there was no artificial lighting to enhance a face or a figure, only candlelight. Both Chinese courtesans and Geishas took to wearing white makeup and creating a porcelain look, for the purpose of creating prominent facial expressions which could be clearly visible.

This was especially important as Geisha women were mainly entertainers, dancing and singing for their clients way into the evening and therefore could not rely on natural sunlight. It was incredibly important for their faces to be visible and recognizable.

Nowadays, we live in a world where brilliant lighting effects and top-notch filters are accessible to everyone with a smartphone. We can take a picture of ourselves tired and hungover on a Sunday morning and still make ourselves look perfectly pruned and flawless. For this reason, perhaps it is easy to overlook the fact that until relatively recently, a significant amount of makeup was needed to create a certain appearance.

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All About Geisha Makeup History When someone thinks of a Japanese Geisha, they think of a glorified prostitute or call girl, but this is far from the truth. The makeup process begins with application of bintsuke-abura, a special kind of oil. This is then followed with the white powder like substance is mixed with water and is applied to the skin with a special bamboo brush.

The white substance covers almost all visible part of the skin, including chest and neck. The nape of the neck has the typical W or V shape of clear skin which has no white makeup. The hairline too is not painted white so as to give an illusion of a mask. The white powder now used does not contain lead and is not toxic like it was used to be in earlier days. After the white base is applied, the excess material is removed with patting of a sponge. Now the eyebrows and eyes are drawn, with traditional charcoal or modern day cosmetics.

They used to remove their brows and paint them straight, false eyebrows high on their forehead and coloured them in thick black. The eyebrows and the corners of the eyes are colored black. The Maiko also has red around her eyes, which is another feature in this makeup that distinguishes a Maiko from an established Geisha.

The lips makeup used to be pretty interesting the traditional lip color has crystallized sugar in it.