The Republican makeup, explained Stepford wives, but make it more orange

Is beauty political? From the multiple standards imposed on women to its connection with power, the list goes on and on. Now, enter the Republican make-up: the internet's way of satirizing the signature beauty look of conservative women. The ones around Donald Trump. 

What is Republican make-up?

If you’ve never been privy to their make-up routine, allow us to enlighten you: an aggressively orange foundation, extremely thick and heavy eyebrows, poorly applied thick eyeliner, and overly lined pale pink lips. It's like an unpolished version of the Stepford Wives meets high artificial tanning á la Donald Trump. Perhaps the excessive coverage is intended to camouflage blemishes. Perhaps it all comes to hide scandals and the occasional felony indictment. Or even to beat the current popular Clean Girl aesthetic. Either way, it has a very Fox News anchor at 8 PM vibe. And the internet doesn’t forget.

It was after comedian Suzanne Lambert made a viral, satirical TikTok video doing her make-up like the ‘‘gorg maga girlies’’, cakey foundation about three shades too warm, clumpy mascara, and heavy contouring. The phenomenon rapidly took the internet by storm. And since then,  several TikTok netizens, such as Amelia James, have been parodying the make-up style while on Twitter, the look has yielded several memes. 

But apparently, the meme has left the internet and made its way into TV. After actress Sydney Sweeney was spotted in HBO’s Euphoria behind the scenes, the audience pointed out the similarity of her make-up look with the infamous internet meme. ‘‘She looks like Tiff Trump,’’ someone wrote. In the picture, Sweeney is seen sitting in a car with Alexa Demie, the actress who plays Maddy Perez. While Maddy sports her signature 90s-inspired glam style, featuring smoky eyeshadow, winged eyeliner, glossy skin, and nude lipstick with lip liner, Cassie has a deep orange tan, heavy eyebrows, faded lipstick, and exaggerated silver eyeshadow. Certainly, the similarities are uncanny. 

Makeup as a means of conveying conservative and patriarchal values

As make-up artist at CoverClap Maria Jones notes, ''Euphoria is known for using makeup as a storytelling device,’’ so Sweeney’s character look doesn’t seem random. In the long-awaited season, Cassie will allegedly marry Nate (Jacob Elordi), who is known for his abusive behavior and conservative values. Angie Meltsner, a consumer trends researcher and semiotician at Tomato Baby, tells nss g-club that the Republican make-up look is "aligned with more conservative, traditional, and stereotypical expectations of how women should present themselves." Consequently, if Cassie's future does indeed unfold alongside Nate, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to imagine the character embracing Republican ideals and the appearance of conservative women.

Victoria DiPietro, owner of Bella Angel, a salon offering bridal and special event hair and make-up services, explains that the Republican make-up is intentionally exaggerated. ‘‘The make-up is extremely heavy in every way. The look is beauty pageant style and can signal composure, traditional beauty standards, and even submission, but it's also about authority, a way to command attention and define femininity on strict, rigid terms,’’ DiPietro states. 

CoverClap’s make-up artist further emphasizes that aestheticizing visual codes inscribed with exclusionary values poses dangers. ‘‘You might think you’re just doing a soft pink lip and winged liner, but you’re also tapping into a visual that has real implications for how femininity, power, and submission are perceived,’’ Jones explains. DiPietro shares similar concerns to Jones, clarifying that disseminating a beauty look uncritically risks normalizing regressive ideologies. 

While both professionals believe there are dangers to divorce an aesthetic from its ideological roots especially in the online sphere, that separation seems far from happening. Instead, it’s all become something of a punchline, with netizens weaponizing conservative extreme orange foundations and heavy eyebrows to mock them. ‘‘Telling republicans how weird they are is actually a better strategy than wagging our fingers and moralizing at them. They do not care about morals, that doesn’t work, but no one likes to be laughed at,’’  @holy_schnitt wrote on Twitter. In this sense, aesthetic ridicule may become the internet’s most effective form of protest by 2025.