Horizon Zero Dawn is set in a far future, post-apocalyptic world. Can someone explain to me why Aloy looks like an ad for Glossier, then?
Illustration: Angelica Alzona
Beauty trends in 2016 and 2017 have been gravitating to an idea of a “no make up” make up look. This doesn’t mean not wearing any make up — what are we, robot dinosaur-hunting tribal future vikings? — but the method for achieving this look is a lot less arduous than the cycle of priming and contouring of yesteryear.
Brands like Milk and Glossier are focused on products that enhance your natural imperfections rather than hide them. You’ll find cover up and foundation, sure, but the coverage is meant to be light and airy. It’s also meant to be applied with your hands, which I love because I am incredibly lazy. The end result of my go-to face for work or day-to-night is someone not completely polished, but with a natural looking glow to their skin.
What I’ve just described is Aloy. Of course, in her future no one’s selling serums and oils to give bounce back to your skin. Nevertheless, she looks like she’s hella exfoliated. Where’d you get all that pumice, girl?
Aloy’s skin looks amazing — it’s bright and clear, with a bit of a natural glow — but what I love are her brows. They’re in that perfect in-between of “shaped” and “natural.” Ever since big, bushy brows came back in, I’ve been trying to perfect my brows. Glossier sells a product called Boy Brow, which just fills out your brows ever so slightly and doesn’t require me to painstakingly draw on new hairs. I sincerely doubt that the society that Aloy lives in prioritises eyebrows in the same way I do, but it’s fun to imagine her uncovering a cache of my favourite beauty product, like a time capsule from a long lost beauty blogger.
Horizon Zero Dawn‘s Aloy probably has a lot of help looking sun-kissed from the actual sun, which helps for non-video game characters as well. My friends who have incredible skin do a lot of things I don’t, like not spending a significant amount of their free time playing video games. While human beings can make up for these shortcomings by buying creme or powder highlighters to put a spotlight on their cheekbones, Aloy is mostly running around outside. Maybe, someday, I’ll try that.
Of course, nothing about the “natural” beauty trend is natural. This is all marketing that’s meant to sell you an idea of beauty so you will buy a product, and marketing fucking works. But Aloy isn’t natural either. She’s a collection of pixels that only exists when you play her. Doesn’t mean she doesn’t have bangin’ eyebrows though.
Comments
30 responses to “Aloy Has Flawless Skin And Brows In Horizon Zero Dawn”
I guess you can chalk it up to her not being real and just a video game character.
It’s pretty obvious what the article is trying to say here. Next gen character systems should have an acne simulator and eyebrow physics. Not being real is not an excuse.
Yeah, exactly how does calling this article stupid breach the guidelines? It’s not a personal attack, didn’t bully anyone, didn’t accuse anyone of editorial bias, troll anyone, or make an obnoxious correction. I commented my opinion about what looks like a stupid article. By all means, point out where I’m not allowed an opinion
Spoiler. Skin care is easier when all the Germs and diseases got wiped out by the robots when they destroyed all life to make missles to destroy all life.
She eats nothing but greenery and free range meats. Her days are 85% sprinting as fast as she can. That keeps you healthy right there.
Why don’t we all have perfect skin? Buffalo wings, horrible lazy jobs and twix bars.
Literally eating tim tams as I read this.
Heh, yeah. It’s called ‘being young’, too. Aloy’s at least under 25 if not in her teens, and past the puberty acne stage (which actually – hate if you must – some people never get).
A lot of folks don’t actually need make-up to have great lashes, eyebrows, skin, or even bright lips. My girlfriend loves to apply make-up, but she sometimes just settles on only eyeliner and her lips are so red that she’s never even owned lipstick.
Genetic lottery, I guess. Also, DEEP FUCKING SPOILER TERRITORY….
It couldn’t have hurt to be created by an AI in the image of her creator, who she was very fond of. Might’ve tweaked a bit of genetic code here and there for that slightly less than 1% difference in genetic match to Elizabet.When I first got together with my future wife, I kinda mentioned that she didn’t need to wear makeup (I was really young okay? 22).
She didn’t wear make up except for eyeliner.
I felt like a douche.
Must feel terrible to never be pleased
Man… with the female protagonists we’ve had since forever, poking any sort of criticism at Aloy seems really misguided. They could’ve made her look like a supermodel you know. Pick ANY recent superhero film and show me the unattractive main female characters. I cannot think of any. I thought that for Aloy’s design they picked the perfect point between ‘attractive’ and ‘real’. She’s an excellent female character. But apparently her eyebrows and skin are just too perfect. You’d prefer Lena Dunham, perhaps?
Tilda Swinton, Doctor Strange.
I never comment on these articles but thought I would in this case. You summed up my thought exactly. Talk about a slow news day.
What an amazing lead character Aloy is…. she is a female lead with next to no mention of her being female. None of the npc’s mention she is female…. she is just a strong and powerful woman. Then we have articles like this. Why not do a generalised article on characters in video games rather than choosing what I consider a great step forward for female lead characters. Bringing this ‘beauty’ side of aloy into the equation has the exact opposite of the female lead.
The main chick in that Rogue One movie. Looked like she was wearing a mouth guard the whole time.
Incoming down votes for having a different opinion to the regulars here.
Hahahaha! That’s awful.
But kinda true…
Seriously? I came up with a dozen reasons why she could look the way she does but after a while I just thought, why does it even matter?
It’s nice to look at pretty things.
You’re losing me Kotaku….
Girl spends her days in all kinds of mud baths, has never touched junk food, and some of us just get lucky with brows. Your satire needs to be more obvious, since there’s a couple of sjw at this site who’d consider this to be a real issue.
I was just noticing in the comments that there seems to be quite a few people who thought this article was deadly serious.
I guess the whole “PC GONE MAD!!!” brigade probably comes down to people who get their mainstream news from The Onion
I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed this but it’s really hard to get tone from text.
And even as a joke, it makes wider implications that I for one, think really suck.
Strongest female character in a while. Journalist writes article bitching about how’s she’s unrealistically attractive.
The tone is only there if you think women are bitchy by default
So it’s my fault, the reader, because of some kind of preconceived notion about women that I have. Is that what you’re saying?
I’m pretty sure that’s almost a pure example of the strawman argument in action. Nice work man!
Don’t blame me for reading an article and not getting it. The journo needs to make it clearer. That’s their job. You know. As a writer.
And like I said. EVEN as a joke, it makes wider implications that I think are shit. I’ll rewrite what I said for you in your terms.
“Strongest female character in a while. Journalist writes article joking about how’s she’s unrealistically attractive.”
Can you not see how the implication is still there? Successes should be celebrated. We should try to find the good in things. When only flaws and mistakes are picked out and dissected, it lessens our appreciation of art and culture. And it’s shit.
“So it’s my fault, the reader, because of some kind of preconceived notion about women that I have. Is that what you’re saying?
Sure is.
Wow. Aren’t you a dick?
Don’t answer that 🙂
PS. Married, 3 kids, 2 daughters. Child of a feminist mother. Business partner with my wife. You don’t know me. Funny how your preconceived notions are colouring everything you read.
I was actually talking about authors lol. If this was from herendez, for example, I would assume she was legitimately trying to make this a real issue.
I was actually talking about authors lol. If this was from herendez, for example, I would assume she was legitimately trying to make this a real issue.
Wow, the injustice. You do realise artists of both genders contribute to the designs and artwork of these characters and they have to be marketable, individual and interesting from a visual perspective don’t you? As an artist myself, I find this ‘piece’ creatively inhibitive, counter productive, closed minded and it reads like a 12 year old having a tanty. Very poor writing as far as insight or education is concerned.
Yeah, it’s weird from gaming journalists hey. They complain about not enough female representation in gaming, then they complain about a great female’s character looks and eyebrows.
What I really want to know is why my game characters neither poo nor have icky medical complaints.