Your Makeup Is Running

She can fix it in about ten seconds flat.

Nostalgia Critic: You weren't even wearing mascara. How is it running?
JesuOtaku: [confused] I don't know!

— The Nostalgia Critic, "Digimon: The Movie"

When someone is wearing heavy makeup they run the risk of it getting smudged. This is especially true if they start crying or otherwise get their face wet. Their makeup will start to run down their face in heavy, inky, colorful rivers; mascara especially. The black lines streaming down the face are very striking visually and make a very visible sign of sadness. A Sub-Trope of Inelegant Blubbering. Often played for humor as well, especially if the character crying would never be expected to wear makeup, such as a Manly Man or even an animal.

Some characters may purposely invoke this effect by applying makeup in this way as a sign of continued grief, kind of like wearing black to a funeral. Be very careful, because these characters are generally carrying their sadness with an equal yearning for bitter revenge.

May sometimes overlap with Cosmetic Catastrophe, especially if it happens during production. May wind up being the result of Guyliner if it happens to a male character. See also Makeup Is Evil and Excessive Evil Eyeshadow.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Narrowly avoided in Kimi ni Todoke. Sawako's friends spend quite some time applying makeup to her face in preparation for her New Year's Eve date with Kazehaya. The date goes so well that she's on the verge of Tears of Joy — but she tries not to do this so her friends' efforts won't be wasted.
• In One Piece, Bentham has this happen during his final talk with Luffy and co. after they went through the Gate Of Justice towards Marine Ford. Only in the Anime though.
• In Princess Jellyfish, this happens to Tsukimi several times after Kuranosuke dolls her up, though the second time it winds up being averted since he used waterproof mascara, a fact he comments on.
• Agni's Philosophy: In WITCH Chapter 0 [cry], Agni cries profusely because of the horrors of the previous demo. It's hard to notice until the demo zooms in close, but it also shows makeup running around her eyes.
• A Black Comedy example happens in Death Parade with Mayu, a Gyaru Girl whose face is caked in makeup. While playing a violent version of Twister, she gets frozen, then melts, then starts sweating as the ground beneath her turns to lava. All of this couple with her tears has smeared her makeup all around her eyes by the end of the episode.

Comedy

• Dylan Moran describes gin as "mascara thinner" for 40-something women, in his show Monster.

Comic Books

• The Batman Strikes: The tenth issue follows a trio of college students fleeing through Arkham Asylum during a fight between Batman and Man-Bat after the latter escapes during a field trip to the asylum. The only girl of the group has smeared mascara due to her Tears of Fear after seeing how vicious Man-Bat is. The tears also seem to be tears of guilt, as she helped Man-Bat escape to repay a favor to him for preventing her from getting expelled over a Noodle Incident back when he was a college professor.
• Alice in Batwoman has this happen to her twice, in both cases showing one of the drawbacks of such elaborate makeup. Given her general aesthetic is a blatant in-universe-reference to Alice in Wonderland and the associated tropes this may have been deliberate on the part of the character herself.
• Occurs to Eyeda, a minor character attending the same school as Sabrina the Teenage Witch. When Eyeda is accused of cheating during a hex exam, she breaks into tears pleading innocence. Since Eyeda has a single huge eyeball in place of a head, her mascara stains both upper and lower lids, plus the front of her outfit. Clearly, Eyeda applies mascara by the pint.
• At the beginning of X-Men: Blue, Jean Grey scans Magneto's thoughts. What she sees in his mind causes rivers of mascara to flow down her cheeks.
• In Superman storyline Who is Superwoman?, Supergirl used to fly up to the Sun when she wanted to mourn her father in private without one entire city worth of people listening. She stopped going, though, when she noticed her tears were ruining her makeup.
  Kara: I came out here the first time to cry. It's next to impossible to feel like you have any privacy in a city where everyone has superhearing. In space, though, no one can hear me grieve. My tears would boil, then instantly freeze in the vacuum. No evidence of weeping for anyone to see... I miss my dad. Last week, I caught a glimpse in the mirror as I made my way back to the city. The boiling tears were wrecking my makeup, so I stopped making the trip up.
• Future Foundation: It happens to Julie in the Fantastic Four #11 backup after the break up with Karolina in Runaways (Rainbow Rowell).

Fan Works

• Anger Management:
  • Exploited when the soda that sprays on Lola makes her makeup run, so Lynn convinces her to fix her makeup rather than attacking Lynn.
  • When Ronnie Anne cries, some mascara runs down, surprising Lincoln as Ronnie Anne usually doesn't wear makeup. It turns out that Carlota put it on her.
• Happens to Marinette in Fermeture when she breaks down in tears after returning home from seeing Adrien again, ruining a pillowcase with her mascara.
• In the Miraculous Ladybug story, A Small but Stubborn Fire, Marinette’s mascara runs while she is having a panic attack.
• In I Hope You're Prepared For An Unforgettable Wedding!, as Agnes is crying over her son leaving the nest, her makeup begins to run.
• A Mother's Touch: After Yoko tears Himika for how she is just as responsible for what befell the Sakaki family by not telling Reiji to fess or actually doing the deed herself, Himika starts crying and mascara streaks down her face.
• In Of Rocks And Robots, when Cass starts crying into Krei's shoulders about her grief concerning Tadashi's death, Krei tries to stifle tears over fear that they'll "both have runny makeup", only to burst into tears himself right as he finishes his sentence.

Film — Animated

• Happens to Captain DuBois in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted at the end of her rendition of "Non, Je ne Regrette Rien", as well as to her male subordinates.
• The Matchmaker from Mulan after Mulan accidentally sets her dress on fire.
• This happens to Charlotte early on in The Princess and the Frog.
• In Steven Universe: The Movie, Spinel's more villainous-looking form has three black lines running down each of her eyes that resemble running mascara.
• Done by Taffyta, twice, of the racers in Wreck-It Ralph when Vanellope announces they're all to be executed for being mean to her when they forgot she was the world's princess thanks to Turbo. And earlier, when she falls off the track with two others in the last race.
  • The same thing happens to her in Ralph Breaks the Internet when she cries after Sugar Rush gets unplugged.
• In Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, during his own funeral, Puss tries to do a reprise of his "I Am Great!" Song, but then he starts blubbering in despair while eyeliner runs down his face.

Film — Live-Action

• Dramatically used to great effect with Winona Ryder's character Beth in Black Swan, who's all smeared mascara and smudged eye-liner.
• Dance of the Dead: Jennifer puts on a lot of makeup before going to the prom. It's running down her face (directly under her tear ducts) when the heroes find her hiding in the bathroom, having witnessed the deaths of most of her classmates.
• Head Office: After Frank's secretary is falsely told that he's dead to explain why his office is being emptied out, he finds her with smudged makeup.
• Dakota in Planet Terror as seen in this poster◊.
• A very dramatic example in the railroad car scene Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. Laura and Ronette's smeared makeup and dripping eyeliner lend them the appearance of clowns, adding to the grotesque horror of the scene.
• The Apartment lampshades this when word of Mr. Sheldrake's previous affairs leaves his current mistress, Fran Kubelik, in tears:
  Fran: You'd think I would have learned by now — when you're in love with a married man, you shouldn't wear mascara.
• The Windmill Massacre: When Nicholas has his vision of the patient who died on his operating table, she is wearing mascara that has smeared and run down her face. Quite possibly this how she looked the last time Nicholas saw her.
• Life Blood: When Brooke finds the mostly naked Carrie on the floor cringing away from Warren, her mascara has run most of the way down her cheeks.
• American Mary: After Mary is raped by Dr. Grant, there is a scene of her riding the elevator to the ground with her mascara running from her tears.
• Mad Love (1995): When Casey has a breakdown in a fancy restaurant, she cries mascara down her face.
• In Nightmare at Noon, a woman ingests a substance that turns her into a mindless killer, and attempts to murder her daughter. Julia cries mascara when she shoots the woman in front of the girl.
• Daylight (2013): In a flashback, streaks of makeup run down Rosita's face as she begs Ageeth not to take her daughter Anna away.
• The Sex Trip: Eddie is wearing a full face of makeup for a charity fashion show, when he and Jess have a fight over Matt and whether or not Eddie is lying about his curse. Jess ends their friendship, and the next scene shows Eddie running ungracefully down the runway, with their mascara streaking down their face.

Literature

• In Henry Zhou's Warhammer 40,000 novel The Emperor's Mercy, after aristocrats are rounded up in a raid, the women are crying with their black make-up running.
• In the first chapter of I'm Ok (2018), Ok notes that the woman face-to-face with him has her cheeks streaked with mascara from her crying.
• John Putnam Thatcher: In Brewing Up a Storm, "tears and tissues" smear the makeup the victim's secretary is wearing when the police interview her. She only wears mascara on half of her face, making her smeared makeup more disconcerting.
• Journey to Chaos: After her tearful reunion with Eric in Looming Shadow, Kasile's makeup is a mess. Eric has a laugh at her expense.
• When Ma’s mother from Room cries after seeing her daughter for the first time in seven years, Jack mentions her tears are black. Prior to that, he thought it was just a TV thing, as he had never seen someone cry while wearing makeup before.
• In Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, during her ordeal Jessica cries so that her make-up runs.
• Marianne from Saving Max weeps mascara at the sight of her son's autopsy photos.
• Sharon from I Think I Love You wears mascara for the first time in her life on the day of the David Cassidy concert. She cries when she learns that Petra entered Gillian as her partner for the David Cassidy Quiz instead of Sharon, making her look like a baby playing with charcoal.
• In Harmonic Feedback, mascara streams down Kari's cheeks as she cries over Naomi's unconscious, meth-overdosed body.
• In Eye of a Fly, Ernest sees an underage prostitute with a bruise on her cheek and big streaks of mascara running from her eyes.
• Asperger Sunset: When Angela holds Russ and Baldy at gunpoint and demands to know which of them murdered her boyfriend, her face is streaked black with mascara.
• In Eye Contact, Chris Kolchak's mother cries mascara when she appears in the news after Chris's disappearance.
• Rats, Bats and Vats: A female general's attempt to condescendingly sneer at Van Klomp becomes unintentionally comical due to how her makeup is running in the rain.
• In Tornado Brain, Tess's friend Mia comes over because she's upset about someone drawing on one of her flyers. Frankie sees her with mascara under her eyes and wonders why she bothers to put on so much makeup if she's just going to cry it off.
• In the Bounders novel Fractured Futures, a photographer catches Jasper and Lucy sneaking outside the hotel. Frustrated with herself for letting them get caught, Lucy sheds a Single Tear, which leaves a trail of mascara down her cheek.
• The Silence of Murder: Rita cries in court, mascara streaking her cheeks like tribal paint, when Keller reveals that Coach Johnson was Jeremy's biological father, and Jeremy knew about it because he heard Rita and Coach Johnson arguing.
• The Roosevelt: When Jeremey's mom confesses to him that she's depressed too in Carry the Ocean, her mascara runs down her cheeks. She wipes it with a tissue, making streaks.
• In Touch (2017), Caspar and James have a fight in the early chapters. Caspar starts crying, which messes up the makeup that he wears to hide the signs of his Abusive Parents. This immediately softens James' anger, because he also wears makeup to hide the fact that he's a rape victim.^note In this setting, a "Mark of Purity" appears on your face when you lose your virginity.
• On the Spectrum: After Clara's dad breaks the news to her about her mom's Career-Ending Injury, Clara cries, and tastes the mixture of salt and mascara.
• In The Schizogenic Man, Cleopatra listens to Charmion play a sad song on the lyre while she whispers the names of former lovers who have died. She sheds a tear, which trails a line of kohl down her cheek.
• The Syrena Legacy: In Of Triton, Emma's mom cries trails of mascara down her cheeks when she's reunited with Grom, her lover who she thought was dead for seventy years.

Live-Action TV

• In the Sabrina the Teenage Witch episode "Sabrina the Teenage Boy," Sabrina's mascara starts running while she cries in male form, indicating that the spell is wearing off.
• Mimi on The Drew Carey Show had some pretty spectacular versions of this considering how much makeup she tends to wear.
• On That '70s Show, Jackie puts makeup on Kelso to give him the "androgynous David Bowie look", only to have it go wrong.
  Jackie: Kelso. Your mascara's running.
  • In an episode where Red was unemployed because the car part factory shut down, he becomes addicted to soap operas, and has an Imagine Spot where Kitty reveals that Eric is the son of one of the doctors she works with, and when she cries after the revelation her mascara runs.
• The Colbert Report: The inauguration of Barack Obama caused Stephen to cry with massive amounts of mascara running and snot hanging from his nose.
• Discussed in Soap when everybody is going to find out if the courts find Jessica guilty or not for Peter's murder when Mary (Jessica's sister) is unable to talk because she's holding back her tears. Burt tells Jessica she's trying not to cry because her make-up will run and she'll look like a raccoon.
• Played for Laughs in Hannah Montana with Miley encouraging an emotional Lilly to find another boyfriend at the beach, after thinking Oliver is cheating on her. It doesn't work well for Lilly. Similarly to the above Soap example, she is compared to a raccoon.
• Elliot on Scrubs has this happen to her on one occasion, causing her to remark that her running mascara made her look like Alice Cooper.
• Rae on My Mad Fat Diary, when she was stood up and started crying as a result (and then smudging whatever stayed on deliberately).
• In the final episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, Played for Laughs with Pearl's mascara when the S.O.L. engages re-entry protocol.
• The visual effect was inadvertently used in an episode of Angel when people started going crazy due to a weird shift in cosmic forces and the intention was for them to start "crying blood." The DVD commentary lamented how the make-up design looked more like red mascara running.
• Pretty much inevitable on RuPaul's Drag Race given that the contestants are all Drag Queens. The Untucked behind the scenes episodes in particular often feature this. And it was once invoked by a challenge where the queens had to cry on cue, and several of them deliberately did this.
• Annie in Community learns the hard way that Stop, or I Will Shoot! works better with a gun than pepper spray. Running into your own pepper spray tends to have this effect.
• Played straight in Vikings. Floki wears kohl around his eyes, and it runs (to great effect) when he's sitting by Torstein's body early in the third season.
• In the "Friendface" episode of The IT Crowd, Roy reluctantly meets with a girl he used to date, who wears too much makeup and it runs when she gets upset, causing her to look like the Joker.
• Black Mirror:
  • "Nosedive": Getting to the wedding gives Lacie this effect. It's a very powerful effect because the black tears seem to represent tears of resentment as she uses the speech to tear into her Alpha Bitch friend, and also her realization about society.
  • "Playtest": When Cooper seemingly returns home to America at the end of the episode, he finds his mother (who he has been neglecting to contact) crying her eyes out over trying to phone him, and worse for poor Cooper, she has contracted Alzheimer's in his absence and doesn't recognize him standing right in front of her.
• Averted in Lucifer, the titular character wears black eyeliner, but it doesn't seem to smudge or run when he cries.
• Power Rangers Ninja Storm: After Marah's pet fish dies, her mascara runs down her face and she goes through several dozen tissues crying after her pet fish dies. In another episode, both Marah and Kapri have their makeup smeared when they get sprayed with a hose.
• In a "Church Lady" sketch on Saturday Night Live Jan Hooks portrayed Tammy Faye Bakker at the height of the scandal surrounding the Bakkers' Praise The Lord ministry. Tammy Faye was known for wearing heavy makeup including mascara which sometimes ran when she cried. Hooks was shown on-camera applying a black liquid to simulate runny mascara. It's unclear whether this was supposed to be seen by the TV audience or not.
• In the fifth episode of Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters it happens to Yellow Buster, following her emotional breakdown over Ryuji's overheating and going berserk.
• Stranger Things: Nancy Wheeler's makeup often runs when she's in a scary situation.
• The Crowded Room: Ariana is shown wearing heavy eye makeup which runs when she cries multiple times.

Music

• In Porcupine Tree's "Blackest Eyes":
  "It's so erotic when your make up runs"
• The Non-Appearing Title of the Foo Fighters song "Cheer Up Boys (Your Makeup Is Running)" references this, in a likely Take That! at the emo scene.
• The Julie Roberts song "Men and Mascara" refers to "little black rivers running down her face" in addition to its hook line, "men and mascara always run."
• Cherry from the animated band Studio Killers looks like this all the time.
• The Decemberists' The Tain: "Darling dear, what have you done?/Your clothes are torn, your makeup runs."
• Franz Ferdinand's "Walk Away": "mascara bleeds a blackened tear".
• Marina Diamandis In "Shampain", Marina has mascara and tears running down her cheeks from a night of heavy drinking on her own.
• Imelda May's "Black Tears" (on the 2017 album Life Love Flesh Blood) is a Break-Up Song built around the image of mascara running.
• Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Go Robot" has the lyric "She cried so hard, you know she looked like Alice Cooper", comparing this trope to Alice Cooper's signature stage makeup.
• The cover art to Stabbing Westward's Self-Titled Album features a model with running eye shadow giving a Kubrick Stare.
• Taylor Swift: In the music video for "Blank Space," Taylor's mascara starts running as her psychotic maneater persona slowly loses it.
• Midway through the video for the ballad "I'll Be There" by The Escape Club, lead singer Trevor Steel has quite the stream of makeup running down his cheeks.
• Joni Mitchell's "People's Parties":
  Photo Beauty gets attention
  Then her eye paint's running down
• Mentioned in Sia's "Big Girls Cry":
  I may cry ruining my makeup
• Carrie Underwood's song "Cry Pretty" mentions wasting mascara, since it runs when she cries.
  You can't turn off the flood when the dam breaks
  When all your mascara is going to waste

Video Games

• This is how Mimi made fun of Peach before one of their fights during Super Paper Mario: "Better not cry, or all your pretty makeup will run!"
• Mass Effect 2 has this happen when you romance Jack/Subject Zero. During her romance scene, she will begin to cry and her black eye makeup will run down her face which you can fully enjoy here.
• In Batman: Arkham Asylum Dr. Young's mascara is ruined when she starts crying after she's nearly killed by Zsasz.
• Resonance of Fate: Leanne exploits this trope, mentioning at one point that she wears makeup as a reminder to stay strong because if she cries, she'll ruin the makeup.
• Peri from Fire Emblem Fates frequently lets her makeup run whenever she is crying or about to cry when things don't go her way.

Webcomics

• Miho in MegaTokyo here
• Happens to Tesa in this page of The Meek, accompanied by this in The Rant:
  Next time you're at a dinner party at which you are accused of murdering the host's wife, remember to wear waterproof mascara! Rookie error.
• Gunnerkrigg Court: Kat, trying to get the makeup to work
• In Cucumber Quest, Princess Piano's make-up is ruined after her kidnapping; the image makes it clear that it's from crying.
• Ménage à 3: When Zii hits a low point after destroying her own band, this trope kicks in.
  Erik: You look... like you joined a death metal band.
• Sequential Art: [[Mary the art student]] gets hit with it after her mannequin-girlfriend is abducted.
• In reference to anime-style eyelashes being over-blown the author of Surprising Octeal treats these like makeup in the comic.
• Lovely People: Peony's makeup starts running when she cries after unfriending her two best friends.
• Pixie Trix Comix: Zadie gets a bad case of running mascara during her tearful confession scene here.

Web Videos

• During a crossover with JesuOtaku, The Nostalgia Critic is puzzled after he has running makeup crying over characters from Digimon: The Movie.
  Critic: How did that even happen? You don't wear makeup!
  JesuOtaku: [confused] I. Don't. Know.

Western Animation

• Blue Eye Samurai. A flashback shows that Mizu put aside her Roaring Rampage of Revenge after her mother married her off to a disgraced samurai. He was a gentle man that she fell in love with, but he wanted to see her demonstrate the sword skills that she learnt. Unfortunately, she wins the subsequent sword fight and he doesn't take it well, so she dresses in a kimono and applies makeup to her face so she'll look like a proper Japanese wife should in the hope of appeasing him. Unfortunately, bounty hunters turn up instead, and when she realises her husband summoned them, first the white makeup—and then red in symbolic Tears of Blood—flows as she proceeds to slaughter all of them (including her husband).
• Done repeatedly in Harley Quinn (2019), particularly in flashbacks to pre-series Ivy when she was still in Arkham, show the contrast to her current calmer state. But also whenever either of the main characters cry.
• Helga's older sister Olga in Hey Arnold! has her mascara run whenever she cries.
• Happened to Luanne in King of the Hill when she cried.
• A recurring joke in Drawn Together is that whenever Captain Hero cries, his mascara runs. Happens to Xandir too.
• Happens to Mai at one point in Avatar: The Last Airbender.
• Eska wears this as she tries to catch up to Bolin in The Legend of Korra. Even more unsettling since up to then she was The Stoic.
• Caitlin from 6teen is prone to crying, and whenever she bawls her face becomes a mess with black liquid running under her eyes.
• Misery's cousin Morose from Ruby Gloom, like the rest of her family, has endless trails of tears running from her eyes. Due to wearing heavy dark eyeshadow, they appear as thick black streams instead.
• A rare male example would be Xiaolin Showdown's Jack Spicer. However, this has only happened once.
• The Flintstones: In an episode, Wilma uses makeup to make herself look more tired than she really was to guilt Fred into hiring a maid. Fred points out that her makeup is running, proving he knows she's faking it. Fred laughs at her and she breaks down and cries. Eventually, he gives in and hires a maid.
• In the Futurama episode "Crimes of the Hot", due to the excessive heat Linda the newscaster has this in the same scene that gave rise to the "WINDMILLS DO NOT WORK THAT WAY!" meme.
• In The Loud House, whenever Lori Loud, the eldest sibling, cries her mascara runs down her face.
• Moonbeam City: Both Pizzaz and Rad. Pizzaz's crying is used for dramatic effect, while Rad's is wacky comic relief.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: When Rarity cries, this usually accompanied by her mascara running copiously down her face — although this doesn't leave any lasting smudges afterward.
• Wander over Yonder: Lord Dominator's signature look is black makeup dripping from her eyes like tears.
• Steven Universe: Spinel has three black streaks on her face that could be argued are eyelashes, but ate most likely to represent mascara running down her face, symbolizing her broken heart and the tears she's shed after realizing that she waited for eons for a friend who had long forgotten about her.
• SpongeBob SquarePants: In "Girls' Night Out", Mrs. Puff's mascara runs after a bout of Ocular Gushers.
• Centaurworld: In "My Tummy, Your Hurts", Wammawink's mascara gets ruined when she's emotionally defending herself from accusations of abandoning Glendale again, even though she doesn't normally seem to be using makeup.
• "Galloping Gals," an early MGM solo effort by Bill Hanna, features a soiree of gossipy race horses. As the race is nearing the finish line, it is announced it will be a photo finish. One of the horses freaks out because her mascara is running.

Real Life

• This was something of a trademark of Tammy Faye Bakker, wife of televangelist Jim Bakker. There is a story that she was once asked why she wore such heavy makeup since it invariably ran when she (invariably) wept; she is supposed to have replied that it was so that people could see her cry.
• Invoked by Sir Michael Redgrave to take revenge on fellow actor Geoffrey Edwards. Redgrave was playing Horatio to Edwards' Hamlet and was required to grieve while cradling Hamlet's body. Always able to cry on cue, Redgrave turned on the waterworks so that "a large splash of warm mascara fell on Hamlet's chin."
• Behind the scenes on Pee-wee's Playhouse, Paul Reubens kept the Playhouse set refrigerated in an effort to defy this. Remember that 1) as Pee-Wee, he did an awful lot of running around, and 2) taping each episode took a 16-hour day—in TV land, time is money, and the less time having to run back to the makeup chair, the better.

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