Lolita fashion is a subculture from Japan that is highly influenced by Victorian clothing and styles from the Rococo period. A very distinctive property of Lolita fashion is the aesthetic of cuteness. This clothing subculture can be categorized into three main substyles: 'gothic', 'classic', and 'sweet' (Wikipedia).
Here are the list of products that you will be needing for this makeup look:
For Prep: Primer & Moisturizer
For Base: Foundation at least a shade lighter than your skin tone; Cream highlighters (but if you only have a powdered one, it’s fine); Concealer to brighten your under eyes; Another concealer to cover your blemishes (one that almost matches your skin tone); Powder to set your face
For Eyes: Eyebrow pencil; A bunch of unnatural fake eyelashes and eyelash glue; Eyeliner (black or brown, whichever you like); Eye shadows; Eyelid Primer
For Cheeks: Preferred Pink BlushFor Lips: Any Dark Lipstick
Base
Start with putting on the necessary pre-makeup routine to ensure that you will have a perfect base for your heavy makeup. The pre-makeup basically just starts off with your daily moisturizer to make sure that your face is having enough moisture when you are layering your makeup later. Next, apply some primer that makes your makeup stick together and last longer especially when you’re in tropical places where the sun hits like there's no tomorrow, making you sweat a lot that may cause your face to oil up a lot, bothering your makeup.
After you have made sure that you have prepared your skin for your makeup, start by applying concealer on your under eyes to lessen the dark under eye circles that are present there. We are starting with an under eye concealer to make sure that your canvas (which is your face) is matte and flat. Flat here doesn’t really mean a bad thing as the goal here is to make sure that your face is likened to that of a Gothic doll, the inspiration for this makeup look (since we are going all out with this look). Once you have brightened up your under eyes with your concealer, start with patching up your blemishes with your concealer again. Using a concealer brush for this method is the most efficient way to make sure that no concealer is wasted while still optimizing, making sure that the application of the concealer is still clean on your face. After taking care of the blemishes on your skin, take your highlighter products and apply it on the apples of your cheeks. It is nice if you have a cream highlighter for this one as we are going to layer on top of this foundation. It is fine however, if you only have a powder highlighter. To continue, take your foundation of choice. This foundation should at least be a shade lighter than your complexion but not as light to the point where it doesn’t match your skin tone anymore. The purpose of having a shade lighter than your skin tone for your foundation is key to creating a porcelain-like skin that is on par with that of a doll. After all, the Gothic Lolita aesthetic is not only reminiscent of the spooky and grotesque style of fashion, but it is also reminiscent of the Victorian clothing style, only mixed with dark elements that make up the Gothic fashion.
Once you have chosen the right shade of foundation that you will be applying on your face, have a beauty sponge ready and damp it. Slowly apply your foundation by placing it on your face through dotting them and then start blending it by tapping motions while using your already damp beauty sponge. We are using a beauty sponge to blend the foundation since we want to create a non-cake base foundation to again achieve that porcelain-like skin. It is alright to use a foundation brush when applying foundation when you don’t have a beauty sponge, but it is optimal that you use a beauty sponge just so we are not leaving unnecessary streaks on our face.
Once you have achieved flawless coverage for your foundation, apply a light dust of powder on your face. The powder has to be uncolored in order to avoid the possibility of dusting your face with unnecessary tints. Strategically apply the powder on your T-zone where you get oily the most, and then under your under eyes, and then cover the rest of your face with just a very slight amount that you just need enough to make your foundation stick on its place.
Brows
Just like the trends of the kawaii, Japanese makeup, the way you’re supposed to draw your brows for this makeup style is of no difference. In fact, all you need to do to achieve the eyebrow look befitting of this style is simply to fetch a good eyebrow pencil that you are used to using, and the one that you are comfortable with. But before doing your brows, just make sure that both brows are trimmed so that we are not dealing with messy brows as that would ruin the look for this specific aesthetic. Using a spoolie, you clean your brows, combing it in one direction then you can start drawing on them.
When drawing your brows, it is important that you draw straight brows and not your usual everyday brows. This is to still retain the kawaii element in makeup and having straight brows is one. Just continue to fill in your brows until you are satisfied, just make sure that your brows do not leave a strong impression as we want to keep it subtle to place the attention on the other colors of your case, specifically the blushes and the eye makeup.
Eyes
And now to the fun part of the makeup, and that is applying colors on your eyes. Always remember that the goal is to make your eyes look bigger, like that of a doll, so the techniques that you do when applying your eyeshadow makeup should make sure that it satisfies that goal.
Let’s play around the eyes in two ways: first, we apply a monochrome-like color for the lids with the color black, browns, and some white, and; second, we use dark colors.
For the first eye makeup, making use of monochrome dark colors which centers on the color black. We apply an eyelid primer first just so we can have a clean base for our colors, especially when dealing with dark colors. If you don’t have an eyelid primer, a thin layer of concealer on your eyelids is sufficient as an alternative. Start with applying a dark brown eye shadow color and top it on the white eye shadow just not going over the crease line. This will be the base for the black later. Then, apply a little amount of black eye shadow on your crease spreading out of the eyelid. Don’t make it so that it flatters around your eye. The reason for this is just so we are not concentrating too much black on our eyes to the point that you almost got your face punched, that’s not flattering!
Next, go under the lower lash line and brush some black eye shadow there, just don’t go throughout the lower lash line - from the middle to the outer lash line is enough. And then, get some white, shimmer eye shadow and place it on the inner corner of your outer lash line to the middle lash line extending a little below the eye. You can also define the effect to this by applying a light brown eye shadow using an angled brush, outlining the edges of the white shadow that makes an illusion of eye bags. Add a simple black eyeliner on top of your lids. You can add some other designs on your face if you like after this step.The second eye makeup is on how to make use of other colors to your makeup.
You can actually just go for the usual colors that you use for your eye makeup sans the pastel or bright ones. First, go with a nice white, shimmer eye shadow all around your lid. Then, apply a soft brown color on your inner crease just so it creates a depth effect for your eyes, making it seem hollow. And then, darken the outer part of the crease by applying a darker brown shadow. Be sure to blend these shadows well. On the outer lid of your top lid, apply a soft red eye shadow that spreads out to the outer crease. Then, bring the red eyeliner to the outer lower lash line up until the middle lash line, blending it. And apply the same white shimmer that we applied on the first eye makeup on this eye makeup. Apply your desired eyeliner.Now, the eye makeup wouldn’t be complete if we’re not placing eyelashes on. And, I am not only talking about the simple fake lashes, I am talking about layers of eyelashes until you achieve that doll-like look for the aesthetic. It is recommended that you use the most unnatural eyelashes when choosing for the right lashes. Apply these lashes on both the top and bottom lash line and then your eye make up is done!
You can add additional glitters and shimmers on your eyes just as long it looks doable for the aesthetic.
Cheeks
Now you don’t really need to do anything for your cheeks since the eyes and lips of the makeup look would set the mood for the aesthetic, but it wouldn’t hurt to place a very light pink blush on the apples of your cheeks, or in any place of your cheeks that you think the blush would sit best that will still flatter your face while still subtle. Or, you can go all out by making use of the red eye shadow from your eyes and connecting a blush makeup that suits its style,
Lips
And last but not the least, probably the appropriate makeup for the lips would be to stick to the darker colors, I’m talking about black, grays, dark greens, dark red, as this is still Gothic makeup that we are dealing with. But, if you are not comfortable with these shades, then doing a gradient lip is sufficient to complete the makeup look.
When you are not sure yet on how to do your makeup, here's a YouTube video by Mei Yan that you can follow:
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And here ends the guide! Do think you have what it takes to recreate the Gothic Lolita Makeup? Do you have any tricks that you can share for when doing your makeup for this aesthetic? Tell us what you know by writing on the comment section down below!
