Entertainment
ByJonathan H. Kantor
Belle Delphine is a well-known cosplayer who famously uses a great deal of makeup in her work. Like most people working in the cosplay community, Delphine changes her appearance to emulate others, and she's gotten very good at it over the years. The South African-born English cosplayer has been posting images of herself in various costumes since 2015.
Since starting her cosplay career, she's built herself into something of a brand. Over the years, she's managed to garner more than 64 million hits on YouTube and 4.5+ million followers on Instagram. When she started out, Delphine cosplayed as various characters like D.Va or Harley Quinn. These days, most of her work has shifted into a combination of creating stylized anime-esque characters mixed with erotic photography.
Of course, she didn't make that jump without taking a few steps. Back in 2019, she created a satirical p*rnHub account, where she started selling samples of her used bathwater for $30. Really. That stunt earned her international attention from media outlets, including The Cut and The Guardian, which only helped to boost her already-growing popularity. Still, she never forgot her cosplaying roots, and while most of her work became adult-oriented via sites like OnlyFans, she still enjoys posting cosplay pictures of herself online. In just about every one of those pictures, she's wearing a wig and plenty of makeup. Typically, people who post pictures like that don't share many of themselves without makeup, but Delphine has uploaded more than a few makeup-free images over the years.
Her use of wigs and costumes helps to set her apart from the competition
As a cosplayer, Belle Delphine often dons any of a bright rainbow assortment of wigs, which she tailors her makeup and costumes to match. This type of cosplaying certainly isn't unique to Delphine, but that doesn't mean she isn't widely recognized for the way she looks.
Delphine has shaped her image to be that of an iconic e-girl who leans heavily into the gamer girl trope. She's also managed to perfect the Ahegao style of Japanese Hentai, which she credited for boosting her popularity early in her career in an interview with Cold Ones Clips on YouTube.These pictures typically feature Belle wearing a brightly-colored wig, pointy elf or cat ears, a slightly reddened face, crossed eyes with one open larger than the other, and a protruding tongue. There are plenty of other e-girl/gamer girl cosplayers out there who attempt the look, but Delphine is one of the few noted for her perfection of Ahegao.
Despite her connection to the popular style, she's not a fan of doing it and has said it's not as easy to do as it looks. Regardless, she's managed to build her popularity on that and many other cosplay techniques, many of which rely on her use of wigs. Her wig collection is rather large and consists of varying shades of pink (which she uses the most), red, brown, black, blonde, purple, blue, white, and green.
How Belle Delphine got interested in makeup and cosplay
Belle Delphine got into cosplay when she was 14-years-old after dropping out of school, per Insider. She worked odd jobs to make money while posting poorly lit and grainy photos to her Facebook account, which has since been deleted. Delphine continued doing this for a few years, building her audience, until she decided to make cosplaying a career. Initially, she was fairly typical compared to what was on YouTube at the time. Her earliest videos, many of which have either been marked "private" or have since been deleted, were makeup tutorials. She posted her cosplay images throughout this time, embracing a style she called "weird elf kitty girl" due to her penchant for wearing bright pink wigs, heavy eye makeup, cat ears, and thigh-high stockings (via The Cut).
Two years after her first videos went online, she began posting more adult-themed content. A 2018 video features Delphine giving viewers a tour of her bedroom. In it, she's wearing fake braces (a common element in her pictures) and thigh-high stockings. The look of that video leaned more towards a style Rolling Stone described as "alien Disney princess p*rn star."
As her popularity began to grow, she steered into the well-known adage of "sex sells." Granted, she never stopped applying makeup and wearing wigs, as that look helped establish her in the community. Because Delphine adopted Rolling Stone's apt description of her style, she's worked hard to remove all of her earlier pictures, so they are almost impossible to find online.
Belle Delphine's everyday makeup routine revolves around her eyes
Take a look at any picture of Belle Delphine, and it's clear she focuses a great deal of attention on her eyes. Of course, she wears makeup on the rest of her face, including lipstick, blush, and other products to create contouring and highlights, but still, her focus is on her eyes.
While most of her makeup tutorials have been made private or were deleted, she kept one of them on YouTube. She called the video "My everyday makeup," and if you're looking to emulate her style, you'll want to watch it. In the video, Delphine goes into detail about how she achieves her signature look, and she goes through it all, step by step.
Delphine made the video because she had fielded a lot of questions and requests on how she does her eye makeup. To keep from having to explain it over and over again to her fans, she uploaded the clip and links to it whenever those questions pop up on her various social media pages.
Belle Delphine's go-to beauty products
Because she's known for her signature makeup style, plenty of fans have asked Belle Delphine what her favorite beauty products are. While she hasn't posted a list, Delphine usually mentions the products she uses whenever she's doing a makeup tutorial.
For most of her eye makeup, She prefers products by Rimmel. To achieve her signature look, she uses various types of Rimmel eyebrow pencils and eyeliners. Unfortunately, she hasn't indicated which concealer she likes to use around her eyebrows. That said, she has revealed a preference for Maybelline's Dream Matte Mousse foundation, which she uses to blend out her eyeshadow above her eyes.
When it comes to her favorite brand of eyeshadow, Delphine prefers products by Revolution. She hasn't gone into specifics about the makeup brands or products she uses outside of those mentions. That leaves eager fans waiting until she releases another makeup tutorial video to learn more about her preferred products.
Belle Delphine isn't shy about showing off her natural looks
If you "met" Belle Delphine through one of her many interviews or via one of her social media accounts, you'd see a woman who always wears a brightly colored wig, bright and/or risqué clothing, and plenty of makeup. That might lead you to assume she dresses like that all the time, and to some degree, that's correct.
Her professional cosplaying career revolves around her talents in clothing, accessories, and makeup application. Still, she's not shy about her natural appearance. If you dig deep enough, you'll find numerous photographs she's posted of her natural hair, regular street clothes, and minimal or no eye makeup. Granted, the more colorful photos outnumber the natural ones, but they're there.
Since she began posting photos and videos online, Delphine has run into controversy. Whether it's because of her bathwater or she's uploaded content considered too lewd for the likes of YouTube, she's managed to have her accounts deleted multiple times. As a result, a lot of her earlier photos have disappeared, and she's created multiple accounts to try and circumvent the problem. These days, the best place to see her new content that isn't NSFW is her Instagram account.
Belle Delphine prefers makeup because going without 'really isn't fun or interesting' to her
The vast majority of Belle Delphine's photos and videos are done in full makeup, wig, and costume. Conversely, the shots that have a little less typically still feature one of those three elements. It's not unusual for fans to ask their favorite cosplayer for photos of what they look like naturally, and Delphine is no exception.
In April 2019, Delphine posted a picture of herself without any makeup, wig, or costume. In her Twitter post(above),she indicated that a lot of people ask her why she doesn't post pictures without makeup. According to Delphine, there's a "really simple" reason for it: "Because I look incredibly boring."She added,"I [love] creating looks, mixing colors, and experimenting! I do like how I look without makeup, but to me, I see it every day, it really isn't 'fun' or interesting to me, which is why I love wearing different hair colors and doing crazy anime makeup!"
Delphine's post was a way of giving her fans what they wanted while acknowledging that "It's good to appreciate all the sides of you." Belle Delphine posted the picture when she was 19 years old and at the height of her popularity. It shows a young woman with brown hair, her natural hazel eyes, and no makeup.
