History Main / CosmeticHorror

Many women (and some men) put in a great deal of work and effort to constantly show their beautiful visages and bodies to the world.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' "Feat of Clay" -- A has-been actor who was disfigured in an accident began using an experimental cosmetic cream to help him look good again for roles. The stuff turns out to be addictive (with painful physical withdrawal symptoms), and when he tried to blow the whistle before it went on the market, Daggett's men fed him an overdose, turning him into Clayface.

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' subverts and plays with the trope. Katara and Toph are in a spa getting mud baths and facials. It's not considered horrifying until Toph uses earthbending to animate hers and freak out the spa employees.

* Played for Laughs in this McDonald’s [[https://youtu.be/MeMr2Ib_Yto Bionicle]] Happy Meal commercial. Towards the end of the commercial a figure of “Monster” walks into the Boys room while they play with the Bionicle Toys. The two boys look at each other and yell “Attack” and shoot a plastic laser toward the “Monster”. We see the toy laser hit a pair of pink Bunny slippers, cut to the “Monster” being their older sister in a bathrobe with a Beauty mask on looking annoyed at her brothers.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'', "Fly Boy", at the end of a night in which the entire town has become convinced a horror movie monster is real, Mrs. Turner comes out of the bathroom, backlit, in the CucumberFacial. Timmy and his father react as though she's worse than the {{Expy}} of ''Film/TheFly'' they were watching.

* Played for Laughs in this McDonald [[https://youtu.be/MeMr2Ib_Yto Bionicle]]. Towards the end of the commercial a figure of “Monster” walks into the Boys room while they play with the Bionicle Happy Meal Toys. The two boys look at each other and yell “Attack” and shoot a plastic laser toward the “Momster”. We see the toy laser not a pair of Bunny slippers, cut to the Figure being their older sister in a bathrobe with a Beauty mask on looking annoyed at her brothers.

* A series of early 2000s Creator/DisneyChannel commercials had children reacting to mundane situations with fantastic ImagineSpot. One[https://youtu.be/2QPlRrUHZS8] is a young boy who sees his older sister in a mud mask as a green-skinned monster. Played with when CuttingBackToReality, where the brother is happily letting his sister apply the same mask to him, as apparently [[FreakyIsCool looking weird and gross made him think it looked fun]].

* A series of early 2000s Creator/DisneyChannel commercials had children reacting to mundane situations with fantastic ImagineSpot. One is a young boy who sees his older sister in a mud mask as a green-skinned monster. Played with when CuttingBackToReality, where the brother is happily letting his sister apply the same mask to him, as apparently [[FreakyIsCool looking weird and gross made him think it looked fun]].

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* A series of early 2000s Creator/DisneyChannel commercials had children reacting to mundane situations with fantastic ImagineSpot. One is a young boy who sees his older sister in a mud mask as a green-skinned monster. Played with when CuttingBackToReality, where the brother is happily letting his sister apply the same mask to him, as apparently [[FreakyIsCool looking weird and gross made him think it looked fun]].

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

* Darla Dimple ([[CorruptedCharacterCopy a villainous Shirley Temple expy]]) wears a goopily dripping mud mask during the animal jam song in ''WesternAnimation/CatsDontDance''

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* FBI agent Grace Hart of ''Film/MissCongeniality'', who doesn't even own a hairbrush, needs to be made over to pass for a beauty pageant contestant. So she's taken to a warehouse, strapped down, and subjected to a barrage of bewildering beauty treatments, including [[PainfulBodyWaxing bikini wax]]. [[SheCleansUpNicely The results are impressive]].
* ''Film/Catwoman2004'' (the Creator/HalleBerry vehicle having [[InNameOnly little connection to the comics]]) has cosmetics that require constant use; otherwise, they damage the skin of the wearer in a horrific manner.
* Invoked in ''Film/MrsDoubtfire'' when Daniel, having removed his Mrs. Doubtfire face, smashes his face into a meringue to mimic a beauty treatment. The social worker visiting the home is startled at the resulting face mask.

* Frequently mentioned in the ''Literature/ConfessionsOfGeorgiaNicolson'' series, with Georgia's oft-bizarre beauty rituals freaking out the rest of her family. Even when they ''don't'' go horribly wrong.
* One short story mocking the ''Call of Cthulhu'' RPG featured a group of incompetent investigators exploring an old house, unwittingly murdering the inhabitants (taking a janitor's drunk gibberish for BlackSpeech, a BandageMummy for a real mummy, etc.) The climax was the meeting of the owner of the house, an old fat woman in CucumberFacial and hair curlers - which caused them to shoot her in a panic.

* ''Series/TowerPrep'': In the "Book Report" episode, Ian encounters students that correspond with monsters from Myth/ClassicalMythology. The student that corresponds to the hideous {{Medusa}} is a girl wearing a green facial mask and curlers in her hair.
-->'''Ian:''' Have you ever seen a girl like that before? I mean, it was terrifying.
* ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'':
** The AlmightyJanitor describes having seen one of the women of the Tipton hotel's staff "in her hair net" as frightening.
** In addition, the twins Zack and Cody mistook their own mother for a zombie seeing her in the midst of her mask-and-curlers.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Cassandra has taken this trope so far that there is nothing left but her face, (stretched over a frame to continue to simulate the illusion of youth) and the intelligence behind it, demanding, "Moisturize me!"
* ''Series/That70sShow'', Kelso sees Jackie without her make-up done and is promptly horrified.

* ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'':
-->'''Alex's mom:''' Want to go for makeovers?\\
'''Alex:''' You mean the place where snooty girls fake smile at us while they pluck our eyebrows until we scream and then say "you'd be so pretty if you took care of your skin"? Pass.
* ''Series/PairOfKings'': Girls run a spa that does the usual facials and seaweed wraps, but also [[LifeDrinker steals life force]], youthening themselves and aging their victims.

* Plastic surgery shows like ''Series/{{Botched}}'' show the surgeons fixing the sometimes horrific results of poorly done plastic surgery or cosmetic procedures. One notable patient appeared in several episodes as the doctors tried to figure out how to remove the ''cement'' she'd had injected in her ''face''.
* In one episode of ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' we see Shepherd Book with his usually carefully coiffed hair all loose in an Einstein-esque explosion. The unexpected sight causes River to recoil screaming.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{MAD}}'' has a short called "Celebrities Without Their Makeup" that implies no one is really as pretty as they appear, and that their true faces are either horrible or comedic.
--> Adrian Brody ''knows'' when it's time for a little touch-up! \\
[makeup brush clears away and reveals the Spy vs. Spy face]
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' "Feat of Clay" -- A has-been actor who was disfigured in an accident began using an experimental cosmetic cream to help him look good again for roles. The stuff turns out to be addictive (with painful physical withdrawal symptoms), and when he tried to blow the whistle before it went on the market, Daggett's men fed him an overdose, turning him into Clayface.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs1981'' episode "Hats Off To Smurfs", Vanity undergoes a horrible cosmetic transformation by splashing water on his face after he started wearing a magic yellow hat that was created by Gargamel.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'', "Fly Boy", at the end of a night in which the entire town has become convinced a horror movie monster is real, Mrs. Turner comes out of the bathroom, backlit, in the CucumberFacial. Timmy and his father react as though she's worse than the {{Expy}} of ''Film/TheFly'' they were watching.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'': In the episode "Weekend at Muriel's," Miss Finster is babysitting nine-year-old Spinelli for the weekend. When Spinelli is getting ready for bed one night, she is horrified to see Miss Finster wearing a facial mask and hair curlers.
* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'': In "Hook, Line, and Screamer", the campers have to survive on an island with a psycho killer (actually Chef in disguise), but DJ is out of the game before having an encounter with Chef because he was terrified by Heather in a facial mask.

* One Creator/JunjiIto story had a woman obsessed with beauty (a common theme in his work). This one, however, thought ''naked muscles'' were prettier, and peeled off her skin when at home.