Vil and Makeup

Vil says that “all fashion is rooted somewhere,” and he was influenced strongly by his father, who taught him that “makeup is not meant to be a yardstick of beauty, nor is it any sort of mystical art form. It adheres to a very strict logic that allows you to become whatever you want to be. Beauty isn’t an inherent trait; it’s something we create. It is an ideal that one finds for oneself and eternally works toward perfecting.”

Vil says, “THAT is why I love cosmetics and fashion. I love the way that I am.”

Vil does seem to enjoy cosmetics and fashion very much, with Ace commenting during Tapis Rouge, “don’t think I’ve ever seen Vil so happy.” Jamil follows with, “you don’t often see that expression on his face back at school.”

When Azul reacts with surprise, saying that he would have thought Vil would be used to wearing fine clothes, Vil responds, “Naturally, wearing fine, hand-crafted clothing like this is an everyday occurrence for me, both in my professional and private lives. But that doesn’t mean I’m inured to the experience; far from it. Fashion and makeup are my great joys in life. And when it comes to selecting makeup, clothing, a hairstyle, or jewelry…I always ask myself the same question. ’Am I the fairest in the land?’” (Ace: “if someone else said something like that I’d be majorly creeped out, but from you I totally buy it.”)

When Rook tells Vil that his beauty is not so faint that he needs makeup to shine Vil says, “Of course I don’t. But I don’t dare miss an opportunity to accentuate it further!”

It is not unusual to hear of Vil giving makeup-related advice to other characters: Jade says that Vil taught him how to do makeup that brings out the color of his eyes, while he also advises the prefect: “For outerwear with a distinctive silhouette, you’ll want monotone makeup with a mysterious air. Color coordination is essential, lest you let your clothes wear YOU.”

Vil describes Pomefiore’s vampire makeup in detail during Halloween, and personally instructs representatives from each dorm on how to do makeup to best suit their Halloween costumes.

When the characters argue that they are capable of doing makeup on their own Vil encourages them to try, but none succeed.

Vil says that they all fundamentally misunderstand what makeup is, and their attempts to apply their daily makeup techniques to Halloween costumes is “like using plastic cups at a five-star restaurant—a criminal act!”

The other students concede and Vil gives everyone personalized advice on how best to do makeup for their individual costumes of skeletons, pirates, werewolves, dragons and mummies, even doing Floyd’s makeup for him as an example.

Floyd says that he has never seen Vil without perfect makeup (except during Beanfest), and Kalim has a similar comment about Vil’s makeup always looking amazing.

When Vil leaves the room to prepare souvenirs from the Cloudcalling tournament for Epel and Rook Epel murmurs, “…Is Vil making us cosmetics from scratch? Oh no, I hope he’s not going to lecture us on how to use them…”

Vil compares chocolate cake to makeup in his Master Chef vignette: “This jam is the primer, while the chocolate will be our foundation….Just like using foundation to further smooth out an already primed surface“

Vil says that, while he had no magic-based training or education prior to NRC, “crafting makeup is something akin to potionology. So in that sense I suppose I HAD begun my studies before enrolling here.”

During Tapis Rouge Vil purchases new cosmetics that were made to commemorate the film festival that he is attending, saying that it will enable him to “create a look that is both intellectual and beautiful.”

Vil says, “It’s an utter crime they never give us enough time between classes to touch up our makeup.”

Vil’s tsum’s interest in cosmetics is what convinces Vil of its pursuit of beauty. The tsum refuses to accept anything but his favorite, “best of the best,” cosmetics.  Vil observes, “it could teach some of our other students a thing or two about skincare-some of them do it wrong or skip it entirely.”