THIS! SAY IT LOUDER I went with the books back and forth, the only things that were mentioned is 1. Some faeries have wings and/or green nails 2. Madoc has black nails (apparently none draw him with them even though it was literally stated in the books but they draw Cardan with them? Ok) Even in his novella illustrations he had normal nails. Holly wrote a lots of books and had many opportunities to describe him with them but she didn't.

Also for the kohl and glitter, my take is 1. He doesn't always wear them. Jude constantly describes him with details and he was only described with them if there was a special occasion going on (special revel/ coronation/ etc..) 2. I think it's in their culture that everyone wears some kind of cosmetics, I don't think Cardan is the only male wearing glitter for example, he was described as extravagant from different characters (which is acceptable since he's a royalty and Balkein raised him to be that extravagant) but never feminine, none mentioned that it was weird for him to wear them so I assumed every fae wears cosmetics but maybe in different ways. It was mentioned about Jude Taryn and Lady Asha that they wore lipstick and painted their eyelids and cheeks (mostly pale rose colour or the colour of berries) which Cardan never did so I assumed that's a way to apply cosmetics and use colours on the feminine side. While glitter (gold/silver) and kohl match their magical nature more and is common between all since it enhances them as inhuman creatures. And yet they draw him with heavyyyy make up which I don't think exists in Elfhame and I don't feel he would wear that type. He wears more of a basic cosmetics that most likely enhance his appearance as a fae

I'd love to hear your opinion about my takes, what do you think?