The nomenclature of “face-up”

I'm assuming that yes, faceup did come from the term makeup. You're not putting makeup on a doll though, you're literally putting their face on. Hence, "faceup".

The Wikipedia article always explained it well, I thought:
"BJD face paint is referred to as a face-up, to note that it's not just make-up, but all the facial features that are painted and customized, including eyebrows, lips and blushing to enhance features."

 

I think it's a contraction of 'face makeup', I noticed that a lot of asian companies will call it just 'makeup'.

 

I've always heard it was the combination of face and makeup, specifically that even if your doll has a natural "no makeup" look, you still have to paint a face on! I actually have seen one or two faceup artists who have different prices listed for "faceup" and "makeup", the difference being whether the doll has a simple natural look or heavy makeup look, though this doesn't seem to be the norm.

 

I recall in the old days it was originally a term Volks came up with, they were the first company creating BJD, and that's how they listed their dolls coming with factory painted faces. I remember there was a website (can't recall if it was official Volks or not), telling a bit about the history of how Volks began creating BJD, or how the idea came to be (I believe it was mostly about Mikey, the daughter of Volks' president, whose name I can't recall).I don't recall if there was an explanation why they chose the term "face up", or if it was a simple misuse of the langue, or a term they wanted to be used for their face paintings. I remember some companies would use "body brushing," instead of blushing to refer to blushed body services (for the dolls), so I guess it could just be broken English. I don't shop for BJD, so I have no idea of the later term is still used, but I recall finding it funny when I read it for the first time. (:

 

I have wondered where it came from. Volks call it メイク me-i-ku, so yeah makeup.

 

I have no clue as to where the term „Face up“ originates, but I might be able to shed some light on the terms „Body blushing“ vs „body brushing“:
Being a Hellsing fan I noticed that the name Alucard frequently got translated to Arucard. It seems to be a speciality of the Japanese language and the transferal of Kanjis into „normal“ alphabet writing and basically r and l are often used for each other, as both express a certain similar sound in speaking. It seems to come clear by the context then, for example as Alucard is obviously the reverse for Dracula the version with an l is correct and used in canon material. However if you were looking for merchandise you found quite a lot of stuff using the other version. So I would assume that ‚body brushing‘ is a translation error, albeit a very fitting one.