Excessive Evil Eyeshadow

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
"What's that shopkeep? Out of eyeshadow you say? Not if you want to live."

Villains and evil characters tend to wear excessive, dark colored makeup on and around their eyes. The key word here is "excessive", as in "singlehandedly keeps a cosmetics company in the black" (no pun intended). There's a few ways for the character to apply the Evil Eyeshadow: there's always some on the eyelid accompanied with mascara to darken and lengthen the eye lashes, and the "excessive" extra can be applied as upper or lower eyeshadow... or both to go the extra villainous mile. The color isn't restricted to just black, but just about any color as long as it's sufficiently dark.

Considering villains tend to go overboard, this is usually also accompanied with lots of extra creepy makeup, and some pale foundation and a dark wig or hair dye to make the character really look like Cesare. Finishing this fearsome facial are Evil Eyebrows, either natural or (probably) plucked and stenciled on.

By now the villain has so much product on their face (and hair too probably) that they will have a very real aversion to water... not because it's their Weaksauce Weakness but because a good splash means Your Makeup Is Running. Heroes are advised to avoid making them cry or splashing them, as the resulting fury won't be pretty (Pun intended).

This is a favored feature of makeup in Daddy's Little Villain. Usually accessorized with Femme Fatalons. Compare Black Eyes of Evil. See also Paint It Black and Evil Costume Switch.

Despite the Trix girls being the page pic, guys can wear Excessive Evil Eyeshadow, usually in the form of Guyliner. They also tend to be a lot... quirkier... than other guy villains. It's also worth noting that this Sub-tope of Obviously Evil is so exclusively villainous it's rare to see even Anti Heroes use Excessive Evil Eyeshadow. If the character also wears a lot of makeup in addition to the excessive evil eyeshadow, expect him/her to be a Monster Clown. When the darkness is natural, rather than from cosmetics, it's Creepy Shadowed Undereyes.

Examples of Excessive Evil Eyeshadow include:

Anime and Manga

  • Yuda from Fist of the North Star.
  • Kodachi Kuno in Ranma ½ wears a lot of eyeshadow and while not being evil per se, is certainly the one of his suitors that is least likely to play fair or be rational (and in that series that is saying something) and is certainly treated as one of the bad guys.
  • Orochimaru from Naruto.
  • Sesshomaru and Naraku from Inuyasha, also indicating their nobility.
  • Drocell Caines from Black Butler (anime only).
  • In Bleach, Filler Villain Muramasa has large fields of purple eyeshadow in a fancy shape. He is fairly reserved, but definitely bold, mysterious, and unsettling. Although being the spirit of a zanpakuto weapon, it could just be part of his anatomy.

Comic Books

Film

Literature

You're not a witch, are you? He said, fumbling awkwardly with his pike.
Of course not. Do I look like one?
The guard looked at her occult bangles, her lined cloak, her trembling hands and her face. The face was particularly worrying. Magrat had used a lot of powder to make her face pale and interesting. It combined with the lavishly applied mascara to give the guard the impression that he was looking at two flies that had crashed into a sugar bowl. He found his fingers wanted to make a sign to ward off the evil eyeshadow.

Live-Action TV

Tabletop Games

  • Munchkin has a card called Evil Eyeshadow. It gives +1 bonus, too.

Video Games

Web Original

  • Prince Jazan subverts in the Neopets Ancient Egypt-themed "Lost Desert" plot. For most of the plot he's played as a villain, with heavy guyliner. (That is, heavier than other characters.) Later on he's revealed to have been controlled by the real Big Bad, and makes a Heel Face Turn. He never stops wearing the guyliner.
  • Dark Nella from The Nostalgia Chick reviews. It even gets lampshaded.

The Chick: You're wearing lipstick!
Dark Nella: I know, and eyeliner.
The Chick: Where are your glasses? *GASP!* You're evil!

  • Sara Waite of the Whateley Universe isn't a villain, but she has this as part of her "scary goth girl" character design. Lampshaded in her introduction; the narrative describes her as "wearing enough make-up to deflect low caliber projectiles at close range". It's not actually makeup though—her face just looks that way.
  • Mocked in "Marik's Evil Council of Doom nº 2.

Bakura: Yes, nothing says "Evil" quite like womany eyeliner.

Western Animation

  • Pictured above, the Trix Girls from Winx Club.
  • Master Cyclonis from Storm Hawks wears a ton of eyeshadow and eyeliner. Then again, with the liner, it's hard to tell whether or not that's just the animation style...
  • Wuya in her human form from Xiaolin Showdown appears to have eyeliner, as does Jack Spicer.
  • Ember from Danny Phantom
  • The Joker has this in Filmation's version of Batman, which was produced in 1968.
  • Harley Quinn has this in her 2019 series, wearing blue eyeshadow over her right eye and red over her left.
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