History Main / VainSorceress

[[folder:Real Life]]
* UsefulNotes/ElizabethBathory is the historical UrExample. She was a sixteenth-century Hungarian countess and serial murderer who believed she could maintain her youth and beauty by [[LifeDrinker drinking]] and [[BloodBath bathing in the blood]] of young women. She also heavily inspired the changing of the vampire myth from the [[LooksLikeOrlok hideous eastern-European rat-faced ghoul]] to the modern [[VampiresAreSexGods beautiful but deadly]] aristocrat. However, controversy over the charges leveled at her remains to this day. While she was certainly guilty of [[BadBoss beating her servants to near death]] ([[ValuesDissonance not an uncommon occurrence in that era]]), and she was probably ''not'' a very nice person, all of the other charges (that she [[BloodBath bathed in virgin's blood]] and [[NightmareFuel kidnapped and tortured young women and servants]], among other things) remain unverified. That many of the charges were claimed by her political rivals makes the whole thing a tad suspicious. And obviously, this being RealLife, any reputed blood bathing wouldn't have the type of rejuvenating magic effect that fiction would have it.
[[/folder]]

* Spoofed with Hogatha in ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs1981''; many of her beauty-related schemes are for her to "retain" her beauty even if they meant someone to get hurt or killed. The joke is; she's already hideous.

** Circe from "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueUnlimitedS1E5ThisLittlePiggy This Little Piggy]]" is another variant not centered on physical beauty. According to Medusa, Circe was always jealous of her cousins, the Sirens, and one of the first things she does once freed from the Underworld is proving her singing can compete with theirs.

* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}''. While second season BigBad Nerissa starts out as a 60+ hag with almost viper-like features, as soon as she has some power to spare she turns into a 20-something diva and casts a love spell on the school. Though in this case, the regaining of youth is presented as more of a side effect of Nerissa's power boost (albeit one she's certainly pleased with) rather than her ''primary'' goal. Power itself is her number one priority, hence her being willing to CastFromHitPoints in the first place and thus look even older than she naturally would.

* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}''. While second season BigBad Nerissa starts out as a 60+ hag with almost viper-like features, as soon as she has some power to spare she turns into a 20-something diva and casts a love spell on the school. Though in this case, the regaining of youth is presented as more of a side effect of Nerissa's power boost (albeit one she's certainly pleased with) rather than her ''primary'' goal. Power itself is her number one priority, hence her being willing to CastFromHitPoints and look even older than she naturally would in the first place.

* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}''. While second season BigBad Nerissa starts out as a 60+ hag with almost viper-like features, as soon as she has some power to spare she turns into a 20-something diva and casts a love spell on the school. Though in this case, the regaining of youth is presented as more of a side effect of Nerissa's power boost (albeit one she's certainly pleased with) rather than her ''primary'' goal. Power itself is her number one priority, hence her being willing to CastFromHitPoints in the first place.

* Inverted by classic ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' character [[PunnyName Witch Hazel]], who is very vain and obsessive about her ''ugliness''. In "Broomstick Bunny", she constantly consults her magic mirror to ensure she's still the "ugliest of all" and becomes jealous when Bugs shows up at her house on Halloween wearing a witch mask more hideous than she is. In the same cartoon, she's tricked by Bugs into drinking a potion that actually turns her into a beautiful woman, which causes her to FreakOut.

* The ultimate example may be the Wicked Queen from ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs''; moreso in the {{Franchise/Disney|AnimatedCanon}} version, whose character design was reputedly based on Creator/KatharineHepburn. This example also illustrates the primary paradox intrinsic to this trope: Why would an intelligent, powerful woman like the Queen be so crazily obsessed over something as seemingly paltry as mere physical appearance? Sure, vanity might explain part of it, but to go so far as to seek the death of a rival (who is not even aware of her grudge), and undergo a painful transformation to disguise herself so that she could personally carry out a murder plot? Seems a bit over the top, but then again, that's the warping nature of evil for you.

* Mother Gothel in ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'' completely embodies this trope, hoarding a magical healing flower to keep herself young and beautiful for centuries, and then kidnapping baby Rapunzel and raising her in a tower for 18 years when the flower's power is transferred to her. In addition, she often puts down Rapunzel and compliments herself.

Note: this trope doesn't have anything to do with shapeshifting, deceptive illusion, or the [[OneWingedAngel more drastic physical changes]] that a male or female magic user may undergo in their campaign against an enemy. This is strictly a vanity thing. (It's interesting to note, however, [[SexyDimorphism how much prettier and more human-looking a female mage's monstrous forms are]] compared to [[OneWingedAngel those of a male mage]].)

Note: this trope doesn't have anything to do with shapeshifting, deceptive illusion, or the [[OneWingedAngel more drastic physical changes]] that a male or female magic user may undergo in their campaign against an enemy. This is strictly a vanity thing. (It's interesting to note, however, [[BishonenLine how much prettier and more human-looking a female mage's monstrous forms are]] compared to [[OneWingedAngel those of a male mage]].)

* ''Literature/AzureBonds'' had one of these participating in a little conspiracy to create an obedient SuperSoldier/assassin. Her idea of this was to base their living construct ''on [[CloningBlues her own cloned body]]'' (after having to run out of one city due to bad publicity already) and garb in a [[ChainmailBikini chainmail with a "fashionable" gap on the chest]], albeit magically protected anyway. [[HighlyVisibleNinja While somehow expecting their creation to keep the low profile]]. Needless to say, such a "strategy" added extra attention to their other mishaps.

* BigBad [[spoiler:Dante]] from [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist the 2003 anime version]] of ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' turns out to be a several centuries-old {{Body Surf}}er who has routinely switched bodies, [[spoiler:and created a conspiracy to make the government create desperation that would drive people into making new Philosopher's Stones she can steal and use to fuel her repeated body-hopping,]] to keep herself from growing old and dying.

** The show's version of Morgan Le Fay drains youth from random {{Muggles}}... but it's not really a case of vanity, since her costume covers up her entire body except for her hands. Mostly it seems to be for the benefit of her son, Mordred, whom she cast a spell on to grant eternal life and eternal youth. Evidently, it fixed him at that age and can't be broken or altered [[spoiler:without causing him to [[ThisWasHisTrueForm instantly turn into a withered old man]]]].
** Circe is another variant not centred on physical beauty. According to Medusa, Circe was always jealous of her cousins, the Sirens, and one of the first things she does once freed from the Underworld is proving her singing can compete with theirs.

* Spoofed with Hogatha in ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs''; many of her beauty-related schemes are for her to "retain" her beauty even if they meant someone to get hurt or killed. The joke is; she's already hideous.

* Inverted in ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'': Lina Inverse, being something of a late bloomer, is always on the lookout for any magical item that will ''increase'' her apparent age (and with it, her bust and hip measurements).

* ''Literature/TalesFromTheFlatEarth'' has [[SorcerousOverlord the evil sorceress Queen Zorayas]] who summons and traps the Lord of Darkness, Azhrarn so that she can force him to fix her mutilated face (she normally wears a mask with a beautiful face and she already has a great body, so people think she's gorgeous under the mask). He takes it a step further and turns her into the WorldsMostBeautifulWoman. From then on, she becomes obsess with using her beauty to compel her victims into giving her their legendary treasures.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' has Queen Sorshen who was the Runelord of Lust, indulging in that particular sin and drawing enormous power through that path. While all the other runelords created monuments to themselves in the form of busts, Sorshen was vainer than the others and had full-body statues of herself placed throughout her kingdom.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
** Catherine Madison from Season 1's "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS1E3TheWitch The Witch]]", who stole her own daughter's body to relive her high school glory days.
* Not a mystic case, but the illusionist Candice of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' prefers to appear as Missy Perergrym, but as revealed in the second season, her real figure is about sixty pounds heavier.

* Vanessa Zeitgeist from the ''Series/MIHigh'' episode "Forever Young" is the scientific version of this trope.
* In the ''Series/KolchakTheNightStalker'' episode "The Youth Killer", Helen of Troy returns to drain the youth out of unsuspecting perfect victims, sacrifices for the goddess Hecate, in her quest for immortality.
* The power of the ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' [[MonsterOfTheWeek Freak Of The Week]] in "Redux" was to absorb LifeEnergy to retain her youth. Like most villains with this ability, RapidAging eventually caught up with her.

* Both versions of ''Series/TBag'', though it's Tallulah who's the more directly vain of the two, with Tabatha being more power-crazed. Tallulah Bag will preface her name with "the great" when introducing herself and has increasingly outlandish tastes when it comes to clothes and hairstyles. Slightly subverted, as in fact she is around 500 years old (according to the book ''The Amazing Adventures of T-Bag'') and has no magical way of staying young even though she constantly drinks enchanted tea. In quite a few episodes feminine charm fails to work on people. She has to resort to the sorcery part instead.
* Trakeena from ''Series/PowerRangersLostGalaxy'' was like this in the first half of the series; in one episode, she ordered the MonsterOfTheWeek to steal the beauty from the female inhabitants of Terra Venture to enhance her own. While that failed plot seemed like a one-shot deal, the conclusion of the episode quickly turned this into a major plot point, when her father Scorpius offered her a cocoon that would increase her powers exponentially through evolution - but cause her to shed her human form. Trakeena wasn't willing to make that trade and ran away rather than do it. Eventually, however, after [[TookALevelInBadass Taking a Level in Badass]] on her own (thanks in part to Villimax) she dropped this attitude and took over after Scorpius's death, and eventually ''did'' use the thing when facing defeat (unfortunately, while she was no longer vain after that, it pretty much cost her every bit of humanity she ever might have had, making her a cold-blooded demon who was worse than ever -- to be fair, [[MagnificentBastard Deviot]] had, as a last resort, dragged Trakeena into the cocoon beforehand and wound up merging with her, making her far more evil that she'd been prior).
* ''Series/PennyDreadful'' has Evelyn Poole, who made a DealWithTheDevil for supernatural powers and eternal youth. She is also seen [[BloodBath bathing in the blood]] of a murdered young woman, possibly as a part of her beauty regimen.

* One of Fiona Goode's top priorities in ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryCoven'' - one that she'll kill or betray for - is to preserve her youth and beauty. When she learns that a spectral serial killer has been stalking her since childhood, she's only upset because he allowed her to get old.
* An episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'' has a woman stealing her daughter’s youth using magic and impersonating her in high school. It is pretty much the same plot as the Buffy episode that introduces Amy.
* ''Series/LegendOfTheSeeker'': Shota is revealed to eventually be much older than her appearance suggests, having used magic to keep herself youthful-looking and beautiful. After he comes back from temporarily being made into a youthful version of himself, Zedd admits that he could do the same, but doesn't since being a youth once was enough for him.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'' has a divine equivalent in the form of the storm mothers. Unlike the other examples, there's no way to make one of them pretty, and their natural appearance is utterly hideous. They express their vanity by making it so that no woman prettier than themselves (which is pretty much every mortal woman) can crew a ship in the West without calling down their wrath. They do provide a [[TakeAThirdOption third option]], however, allowing women to become the "third-gender" Tya if they want to take to the sea.
** They also find it hard to affect red-haired women, due to the existence of a more powerful deity of sail who happens to be a redhead.
* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'':
** In the ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' adventure ''Feast of Goblyns'', the main villainess is a priestess who'd attempted to make herself more beautiful using corrupt sacrificial rituals. She'd already had a Charisma of 17, so must've been extremely vain not to have contented herself with being more attractive than ''almost'' any other human alive.
** [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsFifthEdition 5th Edition]]: Particularly vain men and women sometimes strike bargains with sinister powers to gain eternal youth, beauty, and immortality. They get what they wanted, for a time, but such bargains carry a heavy price: eventually, a powerful curse kicks in, and the person is forever transformed into a {{Medusa}}.
* Liliana Vess in ''Franchise/MagicTheGathering.'' She was once an "original" Planeswalker, essentially an immortal, godlike being, and had [[ImmortalityBeginsAtTwenty eternal youth]] to go with it. However, when a CosmicRetcon depowered the Planeswalkers and reduced them to being "merely" very powerful universe-hopping mages, she lost her power and began to age. When she, as an old lady, made a DealWithTheDevil (four demons, to be exact) to regain her powers, you can ''bet'' she asked for her youth and beauty back as part of the deal.
* ''TabletopGame/ArsMagica'': [[GenderInvertedTrope Gender-Inverted]] with the magus Imanitos Mendax, an [[ItsAllAboutMe amoral]], [[TheHedonist hedonistic]], womanizing ManOfWealthAndTaste who even designed his LongevityTreatment to preserve his good looks more effectively than his health.

* This is also a running gag for the sorceress Marjolly, from the Creator/NipponIchi ''Marl Kingdom'' games (''VideoGame/RhapsodyAMusicalAdventure'') and cameos in ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}''. Same with "Beauty Queen" Etna.

* In the FanRemake of ''VideoGame/KingsQuestIIRomancingTheThrone'', Hagatha's motivation is that she's a wannabe Vain Sorceress. She's a hideous old hag who wants to be young and beautiful but hasn't managed to find a way to accomplish that yet.
* ''VideoGame/IcewindDale'' featured a minor villain, a witch living near a village of skinners and furriers. Their primary source of income was mink fur. She [[spoiler:turned children into...''minks'', somehow using that energy to remain not only young and beautiful but immortal]].
* Deneb from ''VideoGame/OgreBattle'' willfully staves off aging using [[GrandTheftMe underhanded means]]. ''Allegedly''. And if you're female, she taunts you and then tells you you'll get wrinkles if you frown. Averted in the same game by the great witch Mango, who is 120 years old and entitled "The Great and Beautiful", even though she looks like any other [[PaletteSwap old witch]] in the game.
** So allegedly that Deneb's "death quote" in both ''VideoGame/TacticsOgre'' games is more irritation than despair, and you can have her possess suitable hosts multiple times after dying in ''Tactic Ogre: Knight of Lodis''.
* Melody, one of the Prophets in ''VideoGame/{{Wild ARMs 3}}'' strives to become a demon so that she can stay beautiful forever. One of the heroes, Clive Winslet, mocks her for her vanity whenever they meet, and she carries a grudge against him for it.
* ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'':
** Even though Fall-From-Grace probably isn't of this type (despite being able to change her shape to appear as she desires), and as a [[SuccubiAndIncubi Succubus]] there's no reason to think that her true form would be anything but beautiful, ActionGirl Annah frequently uses the idea to try to insult her. Pointedly, she does ''not'' try to hide the wings that mark her as a demon.
** Ravel, on the other hand, is a subversion; she keeps her ancient, shriveled hag appearance despite the fact that changing her looks is as easy as breathing to her. She does assume the appearances of your female companions to tempt you [[spoiler:and she reveals that she actually was three specific people you encountered at certain places in the Hive]] but resumes her old self after that. The especially interesting thing about Ravel is that while she does have extensive shapeshifting powers when she assumes the appearances of Grace and Annah it's only an illusion that doesn't extend past sight, as is revealed when she kisses you. [[FridgeBrilliance Maybe she's making a comment on the nature of beauty]].
* In ''VideoGame/{{Archon}}'', while they're designed (in the original version) to be fairly blank slates to let players feel free to use LightIsNotGood and DarkIsNotEvil, the iconic pieces for the Light and Dark spellcasters are still visually suggestive. And in the piece descriptions, we have "An ancient man of vast supernatural power" contrasted with "The equal of the old Wizard only in power, the eternally young and ever beautiful Sorceress is his counterpart in all ways." Make of it what you will.
* An odd male, more or less benign version: Anji Mito from ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'', who greatly dislikes the mere idea of growing older. [[spoiler:One of his GGX endings has [[MagnificentBastard That Man]] [[WeCanRuleTogether offering him]] the chance [[FaceHeelTurn to join him]] and get his wish to stay young forever. Anji's reply is not shown, but this is later confirmed to be his canon GGX ending as he's shown working for That Man.]]

* The evil queen in ''VideoGame/CurseOfEnchantia'' kidnaps Brad (the player's character) as a final ingredient for her spell of constant youth.
* Sophia Leigh from ''VideoGame/TombRaiderIII'' is a modernized version. She's Really700YearsOld, a beauty-obsessed owner of a cosmetics company and of a magic sceptre, powered by a neatly-carved piece of MagicMeteor. It's implied that she uses that sceptre to meddle with her company's experiments, and picks the best results for herself. In the script, she's described as "a woman who pays much attention to her looks".
* A factor in [[spoiler:Lobelia's]] FaceHeelTurn in ''VideoGame/DuelSaviorDestiny'' long ago was that she was bitter over how ugly her scarring was. When it finally came down to fight against her former ally, she ended the fight by stealing her more beautiful body.
* ''Franchise/TouhouProject'''s Byakuren Hijiri was once a youkai-fighting Buddhist nun, who secretly took pity on her targets, teaching them virtue and releasing them where they could not harm humans. Then her little brother Myouren died and Byakuren, horrified by the reality of growing old and dying, sold her humanity to become a Magician youkai herself so that she would remain young and beautiful forever. To this day, while she's still an AllLovingHero to youkai, she specializes in body-enhancement spells. Akyuu also notes that magician-immortality ''doesn't come'' with any de-aging, so Byakuren's first act upon becoming a youkai was to grant herself youth out of vanity.
* ''VideoGame/AdvanceWarsDualStrike'': Kindle, who is somehow able to do this via the Black Crystals, which leach minerals and supplies from the planet.
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': Queen Azshara. Her in-universe nickname is even "the Vainglorious".
* ''VideoGame/KirbyTripleDeluxe'': Queen Sectonia is obsessed with beauty and used her magic powers to alter her appearance to become more beautiful before the events of the game. [[spoiler: However, she wasn't always like this. She was once a kind and fair ruler until [[VideoGame/KirbyAndTheAmazingMirror Dark Meta Knight]] corrupted her.]]

* In ''VisualNovel/SyrupAndTheUltimateSweet'', Butterscotch uses her magic to make herself look thinner and prettier to others. This backfires when her constant use of magic to maintain this illusion completely saps her powers at the exact time she and Syrup get trapped inside an ice cave and Syrup ends up seeing her true appearance. As she's more of a [[SitcomArchnemesis friendly nuisance]] to Syrup than evil, though, she learns her lesson and stops magically altering her appearance after this incident.

* In ''VideoGame/CastleOfIllusion'', the witch Mizrabel envies Minnie Mouse's beauty. Mizrabel kidnaps Minnie in order to rob her of it, which she partially succeeds in doing.
* ''VideoGame/SpyroYearOfTheDragon'' has The Sorceress, the game's BigBad. She is extremely vain, as shown in Enchanted Towers, where she had a statue of herself built, then complained that it was too ugly, despite it being an accurate likeness as well as her true plan of [[spoiler: [[WouldHurtAChild murdering 150 dragon hatchlings]] for their wings so she can become immortal]]

* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' Nioi, [[HalfHumanHybrid a human-skunk chimera]] sorceress, is a benign version -- she played with cosmetic use of {{shapeshifting}} magic, changing her skin color and making herself slightly younger. Maybe because of her [[SubordinateExcuse rather obvious crush]] on Lord Tedd. She also claimed as empirical knowledge that a younger soul in a physically older body is a bad idea, but it's just fine if vice versa.

* ''WebComic/TheSpecialists'': Die Hexe is a 1940s Nazi supervillain who wastes most of her magic on glamour spells. She's in her sixties and acts like TheVamp, so this was inevitable.

* Jynleeviyah the Red in ''Podcast/{{Hello From the Magic Tavern}}'', while not a sorceress ([[{{Insistent Terminology}} they are completely different to wizards]]) makes a truce with the Dark Lord in exchange for improving her skin, and agrees to help Arnie with his citizenship trial in exchange for him getting some Oil of Ulay if he ever makes it back to Earth.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyAndFriends'':
** In "The Glass Princess", the pig sorceress Porcina wants to turn everything into glass so she can see her reflection everywhere.
** In "Somnambula", the titular witch is motivated by the wish to regain her youth and beauty, which she achieves by stealing those of others. Whenever she's in her old, ugly form she keeps her face covered, and when her spell is broken and she revers to normal she runs away while covering her face in shame.

* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}''. While second season BigBad Nerissa starts out as a 60+ hag with almost viper-like features, as soon as she has some power to spare she turns into a 20-something diva and casts a love spell on the school. Though in this case, the regaining of youth is presented as more of a side effect of Nerissa's power boost (albeit one she's certainly pleased with) rather than her ''primary'' goal. Power itself is her number one priority, hence her being willing to CastFromHitPoints in the first place.

* Laverna in the ''Franchise/{{Barbie}}'' Fairytopia movies.
* [[MeaningfulName Lady Bane]], one of the villainesses of ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGummiBears'' is like this. She remains young (be more than 100 years old) by sucking the youth of girls every certain amount of time, otherwise she became old very fast.

* Eda Clawthorne from ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' is a rare non-villainous example. She's the most powerful witch in the Boiling Isles, is still very "[[SilverFox foxy]]" despite [[YoungerThanTheyLook her premature aging]] [[spoiler:from her curse]], and she is very well aware, if not proud, of both of those facts.

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[[quoteright:350:[[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vainsorceress.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:She's bewitching, she's enchanting, she's absolutely Glamourous.]]

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->''"When a woman stays young and beautiful forever, the world is '''hers'''."''
-->-- '''Queen Ravenna''', ''Film/SnowWhiteAndTheHuntsman''

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[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* In ''Anime/MiniMoniTheMovieOkashiNaDaiboken'', the Fairy Queen Nakajalinu is extremely proud of her beauty and tall, slender body, using magic to petrify anything she hates, like cake. [[spoiler:She hates cakes because they turn her into a chibi, which she sees as ugly.]]

* ''Franchise/TheDCU'':
** ''ComicBook/TheWarlordDC'': Both Ashiya and Motalla are {{Evil Sorcere|r}}sses who use their magic to maintain a youthful visage.
** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'': Circe is a millennia-old magic user who frequently alters and tweaks her appearance with magic, almost always choosing to appear as a very attractive young woman unless her appearance is a temporary disguise.

* ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'':
** ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor'': [[Characters/MarvelComicsTheEnchantress Amora, the Enchantress]]. Her vanity masses somewhere above the Gigaton range, as virtually everything in her immortal life hinges on her beauty in some fashion. Much of her magic is either dedicated to enhancing her appearance, or uses her beauty as a focus, or material component, such as her many versions of charm and mind-control spells. When recovering from injuries suffered in battle, her first and most driving need is to be sure her flawless face and perfect body have come through without permanent damage. In the event of injury or scarring, she has proven that she can repair the damage magically, though it seems to be power and time-intensive.
** ''Comicbook/XMen'':
*** {{Justified|Trope}} in the case of the supervillainess Selene in that even if she did not [[HealingFactor regenerate]], use her various PsychicPowers, or [[FunctionalMagic cast any of the spells she has picked up over the centuries]] she has to drain life from others just to stay alive. It's not even merely natural aging; if she goes too long without a LifeEnergy fix, [[NoImmortalInertia she starts to revert to her true age]] -- roughly seventeen ''thousand'' years old. Dust to dust indeed. Danielle Moonstar once discovered Selene's deepest fear was growing old and ugly... and that with every passing century the gorgeous woman is finding it more and more difficult to keep herself so very young and lovely...
*** It's implied that her Good Counterpart (or at least Less Evil Counterpart) Comicbook/EmmaFrost uses her psychic powers to appear slightly more beautiful than she already is. Considering she's one of the few comic book characters to admit to plastic surgery this is certainly plausible, though with her looks it doesn't take too much effort to appear stunning.

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSwordInTheStone'', Madame Mim defies this trope. As a master shapeshifter, she can easily make herself look young and beautiful, but she admits that such a guise is only skin-deep and deep down she's "an ugly old creep!" Since Mim thinks BadIsGoodAndGoodIsBad, she is perfectly happy being an ugly WickedWitch.
* The 1985 film ''WesternAnimation/RainbowBrite and the Star Stealer'' featured one of these as the primary antagonist.
* The original draft of ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewGroove'', ''Kingdom of the Sun'', had Yzma as one, planning to '''destroy the sun'' so that she could remain youthful forever (and rule the world). This is still present in the finished film to some degree, as Yzma is both TheFashionista and tends to use numerous herbal creams for her skin's benefit.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* In ''Film/SnowWhiteAndTheHuntsman'', Wicked Queen Ravenna is using magic to maintain her youth and beauty, and taking Snow White's heart will allow her to live as a beauty forever. [[{{Handwaving}} It's never really explained why.]]
* Like the original tale, in ''Film/SnowWhiteATaleOfTerror'' Claudia is enamored with her physical appearance to the point that the magic mirror shows her to be beautiful in moments when she's not.

* Rare, non-fey male example: ''Film/MerlinsShopOfMysticalWonders'' (which 99% of viewers probably saw on ''[[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 MST3K]]'') featured a jerkish newspaper reviewer who dabbled in magic and discovered that doing so caused him to age rapidly. He then concocted a spell to make himself young again, but it worked a little ''too'' well...

* ''Film/ReturnToOz'' features a witch who collects pretty female heads, and swaps between them like another woman changes dresses. (The idea came from the novel ''Ozma Of Oz'', although the character was far less malevolent and more ditzy.)
* In ''Film/OzTheGreatAndPowerful'', the Wicked Witch of the East is a hideous old crone, but spends most of the movie under a spell that makes her appear as a beautiful woman. {{Defied|Trope}} by the Wicked Witch of the West, who refuses to hide her appearance because she wants Oz to see the monster he's turned her into.
* ''Film/CountessDracula'', a 1971 Hammer horror film based on the legends surrounding the "Blood Countess" UsefulNotes/ElizabethBathory. The Countess restores her youth and beauty by [[BloodBath bathing in the blood of murdered virgins]]. While in her rejuvenated state, she takes the identity of her own daughter; a plan that gets complicated when her actual daughter returns home.

* In ''Film/TheBrothersGrimm'', the villainous Mirror Queen (Monica Bellucci) was so desperate to remain beautiful and unsullied as plague ravaged her lands that she cast a spell on herself to live forever. Unfortunately, the spell ''didn't'' [[AgeWithoutYouth keep her from aging]]. Several centuries later, she's a bedridden old crone who sends out a hypnotized henchman to kidnap twelve young girls from a nearby village to prepare a ritual that will restore her beauty at the cost of the girls' lives. Her eternally-youthful reflection in a magic mirror is key to putting other people under her power. [[spoiler:She succeeds in regaining her youth but Jacob smashes the mirror and ''she'' shatters, though the final shot reveals she may not be completely dead. At least the girls are rescued.]]
* In ''Film/{{Stardust}}'', the witches' motivation for cutting out the Star's heart is to regain youth permanently and to a notably lesser extent, to become more powerful. There is a LampshadeHanging on the trope, as the witch assigned to catch the star keeps using magic to keep a youthful appearance, and even though her sisters also desire youth, they scold her for wasting it. There's even a scene where the main witch notices something on her face and uses magic to remove it... and one of her boobs immediately sags. She fixes it with another spell.

* ''Film/KullTheConqueror'': ImpliedTrope with Akivasha. Her true form is apparently a ''very'' ugly demon with horns, but she spends most of the film looking like a HotWitch.
* In ''Film/TheCraft'', teen witch Bonnie becomes this eventually. She uses a spell to heal her burn scars and finally sees herself as beautiful, [[note]] she's played by Creator/NeveCampbell and was never ugly, but her self-consciousness about the scars and other people's remarks about them makes her think she's unattractive and dress in unflattering outfits [[/note]] which isn't treated as an inherently bad thing, but once she loses her shyness she becomes [[TookALevelInJerkass increasingly conceited and arrogant]].

* In some of the earliest versions of the tale of ''Literature/SnowWhite'', the Wicked Queen fears Snow White's maturing beauty because it symbolizes her impending death due to an ancient mythological trope that a person's child is his or her replacement -- and she is Snow White's biological mother (not stepmother). So her efforts to kill Snow White are not based on physical vanity, but on a desperate hunger for immortality.
* Tascela in Creator/RobertEHoward's ''Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian'' story ''Red Nails''.

* In ''Literature/TheMagicGoesAway'' all mages use youth spells to [[WeAreAsMayflies extend their life spans.]] However, the female mage has the lowest physical age.

* A rare case of a male character is Gerald Tarrant in the ''Literature/ColdfireTrilogy'' who systematically uses his magical powers to keep himself neat, well dressed, and handsome. Although Damien frequently makes fun of his vanity, he also notices that it has a very practical bonus- Tarrant is ''always'' at his best appearance, and this helps him to make quite an impression.
* In ''Literature/{{Stardust}}'', the witches' motivation for cutting out the Star's heart is to regain youth permanently and to a notably lesser extent, to become more powerful.
* In ''Literature/TheWitcher'' world it's so common that it not only gets {{lampshade|Hanging}}d, but outright {{deconstruct|ion}}ed. Virtually all the sorceresses are like this, at least in the Northern Kingdoms. This is due to the fact that while magical talent is distributed pretty evenly among population, it is, for all its {{Anachronism Stew}}s, a late Medieval period, when a woman's purpose in life was marriage and motherhood. So, only girls who had a chance to take up magic were the ones with the worst marriage prospects -- read, butt-ugly at best, if not outright cripples. Furthermore, there's a matter of prestige -- [[WeirdTradeUnion Mages Guild]] couldn't allow its members to soil its image by their ugliness, which leads to the Lodge of Sorceresses consisting entirely of "... pseudo-pretty women with the cold, bitter eyes of ugly girls." [[DoubleStandard Wizards mostly go for the respectable, wizened look instead]], though those who don't tend to range from "average but distinguished" to "{{Bishonen}}". But then, Sapkowski ''loves'' to deconstruct everything.
* In Creator/DavidEddings' ''Literature/TheBelgariad'' {{Prequel}} ''Belgarath the Sorcerer'', a sorcerer's appearance seems to be connected to their mental image. While the original sorcerer Belgarath deliberately goes for either the old vagabond storyteller look or the hale and hearty old man appearance (and is still in remarkable physical shape, come to think of it, enough that ''many'' women find him ''very'' attractive), his daughter Polgara always looks quite stunning. She notes that an old woman is called a "crone" for a reason, and cronehood isn't exactly her idea of a positive impression.
** Invoked in the case of the queens of Nyissa. They're chosen based on their similarity in both appearance and personality to the original queen, Salmissra, and given the same name on their coronation. If one stops looking like the original, she's killed and replaced, so each takes a series of drugs that keeps her looking young, but ends up making her mind somewhat erratic, and ultimately shortens her lifespan anyway. Every Salmissra is obsessed with preserving her youth as a matter of necessity.
* Creator/PiersAnthony's earlier ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'' novels feature Iris, a sorceress who uses illusions to maintain her aura of beauty -- although that was a bit less out of vanity for its own sake than the knowledge that it gave her an advantage in dealing with men. Later, ''Golem in the Gears'' featured the Sea-Hag, who used the [[GrandTheftMe body stealing]] version of this trope to live for thousands of years.
** Not that Iris is unattractive; she is merely about 20 years older than she appears to be, and has put on a few extra pounds. Later in the series, she is given a youth potion and looks the way she presents herself for real.
** In the ''Literature/ApprenticeAdept'' series, the Yellow Adept has, and occasionally uses, a potion to restore her youth. The difficulty of making it keeps her old most of the time.
* Dorian from ''Literature/ThePictureOfDorianGray'' is pretty much the male poster for the trope, having expressed the desire to never age or show any flaws so he could stay young and be loved by everyone. His portrait became uglier and older every time he did something bad, while Dorian remained young and handsome.

* Ileana in ''Literature/TWitches'' who insists that other characters call her "[[AGodAmI Goddess]]".
* In Creator/LFrankBaum's ''Literature/QueenZixiOfIx'', Zixi's chief motivation is that while she makes herself beautiful in everyone else's eyes, she's still ugly in her own; she wants to fix that.
** Baum's ''Literature/GlindaOfOz'' features Coo-ee-oh, who is literally a vain sorceress, but she's an expert in magical machinery rather than beauty-enhancement, and when [[spoiler: she gets transformed into a diamond swan by an enemy, she loves how beautiful she's become and instantly loses any interest in her previous life.]]
* Mages (male and female) who obsess over looks and use their powers for cosmetic purposes sometimes figure on the fringes of Creator/TamoraPierce's books, portrayed with varying levels of sympathy. Varice Kingsford from ''Literature/TheImmortals'' is part of the BigBad's court and considered a waste of time at best by the protagonist, but is last seen sobbing amid the ruins of the palace (sans makeup) and saying that she just likes pretty things, and does that make her a bad person? Contrast the fourth Literature/CircleOfMagic book, where a pox epidemic is traced back to a mage (one Eilisa Pearldrop, whose very name inspires contempt in the sensible mage protagonists) specializing in beauty magic, who messes up a weight-loss spell and, rather than pay for her magical waste to be disposed of safely, lets it get carried out in the sewage system, thereby creating a magically strengthened disease. Very unsexy.
** Numair is ''literally'' a vain sorcerer, at least some of the time, but he doesn't fit into this trope very well, as he's a good person and knows when ''not'' to care about his appearance. One of his friends says he spends hours getting ready, then ruins his outfit by lying in the grass to watch meteor showers.
** Varice gets a bit more depth in ''Literature/TheNumairChronicles'', which features her as a main character. Turns out she's less vain and more enjoys creating beautiful things, whether that be in the elaborate cakes she makes, seamstress work, or in her own appearance. It causes some conflict with her father, who believes she should focus on [[RealWomenDontWearDresses more important magics]].

* Watercrafters in ''Literature/CodexAlera'' can utilize their crafting to obscure or even eliminate most signs of aging, in addition to more complete shapeshifting.
* ''[[TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms Azure Bonds]]'' had one of these participating in a little conspiracy to create an obedient SuperSoldier/assassin. Her idea of this was to base their living construct ''on [[CloningBlues her own cloned body]]'' (after having to run out of one city due to bad publicity already) and garb in a [[ChainmailBikini chainmail with a "fashionable" gap on the chest]], albeit magically protected anyway. [[HighlyVisibleNinja While somehow expecting their creation to keep the low profile]]. Needless to say, such a "strategy" added extra attention to their other mishaps.

* Achren, in ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfPrydain'', is very much this trope; she uses spells to cultivate a much more beautiful appearance than she naturally has. Eilonwy, whom she abducted as a baby and raised as her niece, finds her vanity ridiculous.
* In Mary de Morgan's "Literature/TheNecklaceOfPrincessFiorimonde", the titular princess practices sorcery in order to appear beautiful. When her father tries to get her into an ArrangedMarriage, she vehemently opposes it because she's afraid that she would no longer be able to visit her WickedWitch mentor and thus lose her beauty.
* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'': Lanfear is as [[LivingLegend legendary]] for her [[WorldsMostBeautifulWoman unsurpassed beauty]] as for her [[TheArchmage power]] and [[TheDreaded depravity]], and sold her soul to TheAntiGod to become TheAgeless. {{Exploited|Trope}} when she fools the protagonist for weeks by [[LieToTheBeholder magically disguising]] herself as a fat old woman, then jokes that her pride could bear the extra weight.

* Cordelia of ''Literature/ElementalMasters'' is a subversion. She does everything she can to maintain her beauty, but it's because she wants the social power it confers, not out of vanity, and she's rather annoyed at all the things she has to do. When she gets the idea to start [[GrandTheftMe stealing the bodies of men]], one of the benefits she thinks of is that she won't have to worry about staying young.

* Kindle from ''[[VideoGame/NintendoWars Advance Wars: Dual Strike]]'', who is somehow able to do this via the Black Crystals, which leach minerals and supplies from the planet.
* Queen Azshara from ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft''. Her in-universe nickname is even "the Vainglorious".
* Queen Sectonia from ''VideoGame/KirbyTripleDeluxe'' is obsessed with beauty and used her magic powers to alter her appearance to become more beautiful before the events of the game. [[spoiler: However, she wasn't always like this. She was once a kind and fair ruler until [[VideoGame/KirbyAndTheAmazingMirror Dark Meta Knight]] corrupted her.]]

** The Ayakashi Sisters were ThePsychoRangers of the R Season, and to remark on such a role they were always taunting each other about not looking young (the eldest sister, [[ChristmasCake Petz]], was the most usual butt of jokes) and applying make-up to their pretty faces when off-duty. [[spoiler:They're actually [[AntiVillain more heroic than the standard]] and ultimately have {{Heel Face Turn}}s, becoming the owners of a small make-up store in the process.]]

[[folder:Theater]]
* Brilliantly {{deconstructed|Trope}} with the Witch in ''Theatre/IntoTheWoods''. [[spoiler:She trades her powers in to get back her (rightfully) good looks, only to massively regret it later]]. She's not so much AxCrazy over being ugly as she is weary of being [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer treated like a freak]].

* [[ComicBook/TheEnchantress Amora, The Enchantress]] from ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor''. Her vanity masses somewhere above the Gigaton range, as virtually everything in her immortal life hinges on her beauty in some fashion. Much of her magic is either dedicated to enhancing her appearance, or uses her beauty as a focus, or material component, such as her many versions of charm and mind-control spells. When recovering from injuries suffered in battle, her first and most driving need is to be sure her flawless face and perfect body have come through without permanent damage. In the event of injury or scarring, she has proven that she can repair the damage magically, though it seems to be power and time-intensive.
* ''Comicbook/XMen'':
** {{Justified|Trope}} in the case of the supervillainess Selene in that even if she did not [[HealingFactor regenerate]], use her various PsychicPowers, or [[FunctionalMagic cast any of the spells she has picked up over the centuries]] she has to drain life from others just to stay alive. It's not even merely natural aging; if she goes too long without a LifeEnergy fix, [[NoImmortalInertia she starts to revert to her true age]]--roughly seventeen ''thousand'' years old. Dust to dust indeed. Danielle Moonstar once discovered Selene's deepest fear was growing old and ugly... and that with every passing century the gorgeous woman is finding it more and more difficult to keep herself so very young and lovely...
** It's implied that her Good Counterpart (or at least Less Evil Counterpart) Comicbook/EmmaFrost uses her psychic powers to appear slightly more beautiful than she already is. Considering she's one of the few comic book characters to admit to plastic surgery this is certainly plausible, though with her looks it doesn't take too much effort to appear stunning.
* ''Comicbook/{{Empowered}}'': Sistah Spooky. She was an unattractive nerd until she made a DealWithTheDevil to become beautiful. The incompetent demon in charge of her case infused her with exponentially more infernal magic than necessary, so her sorcerous powers were an accidental bonus. She can throw fits of jealously when she feels her good looks are not sufficiently admired. Her vanity and insecurity are implied to be the reason she hates naturally beautiful Emp.
* Inverted in ''ComicBook/{{Fables}}'': Frau Totenkinder is one of, if not ''the'' most powerful sorceress in existence. Part of this granted her eternal life and beauty, but she ''intentionally'' aged herself to become an old lady, so that she would not be distracted by her youth. Or by handsome princes whom she wanted to curse/not fall in love with.
* Subverted in the original ''ComicBook/{{Shadowman}}'' series by Creator/ValiantComics - when the hundreds of years old voodoo housekeeper Nettie (who normally looks about 70 or so) is super-charged by a potent increase in magic in the world, she reflexively reverts to the young (and devastatingly beautiful) appearance she had when she was in her 20s. The subversion stems from the fact that she reveals she was ALWAYS capable of making this change, but never wanted to - in fact, she's incredibly annoyed by her youth and just wants to go back to being old.

* Winnowill from ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'' is an elf, and subsequently her immortal beauty isn't something she needs to aspire for, but her obsession with absolute, serene perfection where nothing ever changes or decays is very much in the style of this trope. She would like nothing more than have her followers in eternal sleep in a timeless place, where she could control their dreams forever.
* In ''ComicBook/MagicTheGatheringIDW'', Sifa Grent is a Planeswalker who uses her magic to drain life from others in order to maintain her youth and beauty.
* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'': Circe is a millennia-old magic user who frequently alters and tweaks her appearance with magic, almost always choosing to appear as a very attractive young woman unless her appearance is a temporary disguise.
* In ''ComicBook/TheWarlord'', both Ashiya and Motalla are [[EvilSorcerer Evil Sorceresses]] who use their magic to maintain a youthful visage.

The Vain Sorceress might just be a particular version of the rapidly-vanishing rule that in fantasy stories, all female main characters must appear youthful in appearance regardless of age. This is especially true for female mages who are associated with big strong virile warriors as their tanks; the difference between [[BlackMagicianGirl a good mage]] and the Vain Sorceress is only about [[SensibleHeroesSkimpyVillains 30% less clothing]] and 30% more purple dye.

* In the ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' adventure ''Feast of Goblyns'', the main villainess is a priestess who'd attempted to make herself more beautiful using corrupt sacrificial rituals. She'd already had a Charisma of 17, so must've been extremely vain not to have contented herself with being more attractive than ''almost'' any other human alive.
* In ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' 5th Edition, particularly vain men and women sometimes strike bargains with sinister powers to gain eternal youth, beauty, and immortality. They get what they wanted, for a time, but such bargains carry a heavy price: eventually, a powerful curse kicks in, and the person is forever transformed into a {{Medusa}}.

* ''TabletopGame/ArsMagica'': [[GenderInvertedTrope Gender-Inverted]] with the magus Imanitos Mendax, a self-centered, [[TheHedonist hedonistic]] ManofWealthAndTaste who even designed his LongevityTreatment to preserve his good looks more effectively than his health. His talents tend towards mind control, double-dealing, womanizing, and {{Blackmail}}, and he ''might'' be a secret [[BlackMagic diabolist]].

** A rare male example is to be had in Sigvald the Magnificent, although his vanity is preserved chiefly by being the spoiled favourite of an indulgent dark god, rather than by his own magic. Narcissistic vanity and ([[TheFightingNarcisist justified]]) arrogance is pretty much all there is to Sigvald, he died when a battle had left him with a scar, and he was so distracted (despite the scar being temporary) that he didn't notice the troll king sneaking up on him.

* In ''Literature/TheWitcher'' world it's so common that it not only gets {{lampshade|Hanging}}d, but outright {{deconstruct|ion}}ed. Virtually all the sorceresses are like this, at least in the Northern Kingdoms. This is due to the fact that while magical talent is distributed pretty evenly among population, it is, for all its {{Anachronism Stew}}s, a late Medieval period, when a woman's purpose in life was marriage and motherhood. So, only girls who had a chance to take up magic were the ones with the worst marriage prospects -- read, butt-ugly at best, if not outright cripples. Furthermore, there's a matter of prestige -- [[WeirdTradeUnion Mages Guild]] couldn't allow its members to soil its image by their ugliness, which leads to the Circle of Sorceresses consisting entirely of "... pseudo-pretty women with the cold, bitter eyes of ugly girls." [[DoubleStandard Wizards mostly go for the respectable, wizened look instead]], though those who don't tend to range from "average but distinguished" to "{{Bishonen}}". But then, Sapkowski ''loves'' to deconstruct everything.

* ''Film/ThorRagnarok'': Gender-flipped; Thor invokes this trope when he criticizes Loki's snazzy all-black suit when they're on Earth (Thor himself having chosen a more casual, practical outfit).