Holiday Review: MAKEUP IS NOT (JUST) MAGIC

The strangest josei manga we got this year was also technically another nonfiction manga in the same vein as something like My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness or The Bride Was a Boy.  This one is far less emotionally fraught than those two, focusing instead on more straightforward instruction.

MAKEUP IS NOT (JUST) MAGIC: A MANGA GUIDE TO COSMETICS AND SKIN CARE (Meiku wa Tada no Mahou ja nai no: Beginners), by Ikumi Rotta.  First published in 2019 and first published in North America in 2020.

PLOT:

Before Ikumi Rotta was a mangaka, she was a beauty consultant at a store.  Now she's using her skills to help people understand makeup, going over everything from cleansing to priming to more specific things like eye and lip makeup.

STORY:

This is a tricky one to review because there is no story here to cover.  At most, Rotta scatters a little bit of her own backstory with makeup throughout the book.  Otherwise, it's basically an advice column in manga form.  

That's not to say that she doesn't make this format work.  Her tone is light, conversational, and encouraging.  She's not trying to sell specific products, focusing more on clarifying different terms for different types of products and demonstrating some easy techniques for cleaning and application.  It's also organized into chapters, which are themselves organized in a fairly logical manner.  She starts with purchasing advice (with a detour into determining skin type), followed by cleaning skin prep, which in turn is followed by general application, eye make-up, lips and blush.  

Of course, the true test of this manga was to put some of Rotta's advice to the test.  I focused more on the makeup tips than the skincare, since the latter would need days (if not weeks) to get any sense of change.  I took bits and pieces from around the book: advice on concealer use, tips on applying blush and mascara, and the steps to get a good ombre look from an eyeshadow palette.  I can now say from experience that Rotta's advice does work.  The results were a definite improvement on my own efforts (particularly where concealer was concerned, as someone with big, dark eye bags that have been hard to subtly conceal in the past).  While Rotta made this primarily for a young female audience, I can see this being useful to anyone who's looking to get a better understanding of makeup and makeup techniques regardless of age.

ART:

Instructional manga like this have some unique challenges when it comes to their art.  They need to clearly communicate their points and processes while bringing some degree of their own style to it.  Rotta manages this balance fairly well.  Her art style is sweet and perky (if not particularly unique), and she lends charm to what are otherwise rather straightforward layouts.

RATING:

Makeup Is Not (Just) Magic does precisely what it sets out to do: to gently guide and instruct readers on basic makeup and skin care techniques with a bit of shojo style.  Speaking from experience, it's just as useful for a grown woman in her 30s as it would be for a teen just getting started with makeup.  If anything, Seven Seas needs to license Rotta's sequel book as soon as possible.  Maybe then I'll finally figure out how to draw that perfect eyeliner wing or how to properly shape my eyebrows at home.

This book is published by Seven Seas.  It is currently in print.

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