Suzanne Lambert, a comedian on TikTok, is credited with popularizing the concept through a video she made shortly after Trump's victory in the November 2024 presidential election. After noticing it on women who indicated they supported Trump when leaving comments on her previous videos, she attempted to replicate the style with her own makeup. She told viewers the goal was a "dusty, drained" look.[6] Later, other Internet personalities with progressive political leanings who focused on online beauty advice made their own videos with their take on the look. Trump's press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted a video of her makeup routine on social media that showed her using some of the techniques Lambert had mocked.[7]
Some Republican women online have responded, criticizing Lambert and those who ridiculed the style as being hypocritical for allegedly otherwise preaching tolerance of others' choices. Others have countered by mocking "liberal makeup", focusing on the blue-dyed hair of Democratic congresswoman Rosa DeLauro. There have also been criticisms from the left. Academics and fashion writers have also written critiques, observing that the Republican makeup look embodies an exaggerated aesthetic of gender performance that evokes drag queens, suggests that the superficial is the only important aspect of political policies, and marks the merger of political and celebrity culture.
Background
Texas makeup artist Stephanie Louise got the assignment to make up Lara Trump, the then-former president's daughter-in-law, for her speaking slot at the 2024 Republican National Convention. In an Instagram video, she detailed the various products she used and her techniques: blending three different shades of eye shadow along with eyeliner and false lashes to create "a respectful eye" and eschewing contouring. The look may have helped Trump get her own show on Fox News.[5]
After the elections, Washington-based influencer and comedian Suzanne Lambert, who had supported Kamala Harris and other Democratic candidates in the elections, noticed that many of the women attacking her and supporting Republicans and President-elect Donald Trump in comments on her TikTok videos seemed to wear their makeup in the same distinctive style. As a self-described "Regina George liberal", who advocates for Democrats and political progressives to respond to Republican attacks in kind, she decided to devote a video to trying to reproduce that style.[8]
Technique
Lambert posted her video, "Doing my makeup like the gorg maga girlies in my comments", to her TikTok feed on November 16.[9] Her technique involves: foregoing the usual application of moisturizer or primer; foundation that did not match the wearer's skin tone, usually being too dark; concealer in a tone several shades lighter than the makeup's base; liberal use of eyebrow pencil; avoiding of contouring and bronzer; the lightest possible eye shadow with heavy black eyeliner, and dry mascara on the eyelashes; and tame lipstick without any lip liner.[9][8]
The video got 4.7 million views and many favorable comments. In an interview with Glamour two months later, after the media began reporting on the trend, Lambert elaborated. If the women making themselves up this way used any primer, she said, "it's likely a silicone-based primer that does not go with their water-based foundation. The foundation never matches their undertones. They love a golden undertone when a lot of them should be wearing a cool tone like me." That was offset by an apparently sunburned neck and chest since it did not seem to Lambert that Republican women ever used sunscreen. The goal of the eye makeup in the style should be "that raccoon-eye look."[3]
The New York Times observed that the look is usually sartorially complemented by form-fitting clothing and conspicuous cross necklaces.[4]
In a resurfaced video reel of her makeup routine Karoline Leavitt, Trump's press secretary, had posted to her Instagram feed some time before taking the position, she appeared to lend Lambert's take on Republican makeup credibility by using some of the same techniques. She purposely used foundation darker than her skin tone and an overly dark contour stick. The video also showed Leavitt using her fingertips to spread her makeup around, as Lambert had speculated would be done.[7] The original video is no longer available,[7] but some excerpts have been used in online commentary.[10]
One of Lambert's commenters called her take "the perfect tutorial for the mean girl to nurse pipeline." Others called it accurate.[8] Other outlets added their own disparaging takes on the look. "[S]pray tan contouring that looks like it was applied in the dark ... eyeliner that looks like it was applied during a bumpy car ride," Betches said (similarly, The Cut's Sam Escobar wrote that they "imagine[d] it being applied with the frenzied fervor of the creepy kid in every horror movie."[12]) Generally, "[t]he goal isn't to look good — quite the opposite. The makeup is meant to be jarring, exaggerated, and, well, a little ugly."[13] Lambert characterized the look to the Times as "Inappropriate unless you're on a pageant stage. And in that case, I would still do it differently."[4] The video led to speculation as to which conservative women had inspired the look. The List named four in addition to Leavitt: Lara Trump, Donald Trump Jr.'s ex-girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle, Alina Habba, a lawyer who had represented Trump in court, and Kristi Noem, Trump's Secretary of Homeland Security.[14]
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, whose dyed hair was cited by conservatives as an example of "liberal makeup"
Some women, like Guardian columnist Arwa Mahdawi, worried that they might have unintentionally emulated the look.[6] Writing about the trend in The New York Times, Jessica Grose did not see any corresponding makeup style embraced by liberal or progressive women.[4] However, professional makeup artists who had done the faces of women on both sides of the political spectrum did report an embrace of softer styles, particularly the previously popular "clean girl" look. The beauticians who talked to HuffPost noted that women on liberal-aligned cable networks like CNN and MSNBC wore less visible makeup. One said that she had specific requests from liberal women to avoid making them look like "guests going on Fox", and thus avoids using bronzer on them.[15] The makeup artists interviewed by HuffPost had differing opinions, but many agreed that there was a distinctive Republican makeup style, one Noem and Leavitt were successful with.[15]
Another response was to suggest that this was more of an issue of younger women criticizing the makeup styles of middle-aged women than politics. "Many Republican women haven't updated their makeup trends since the 80s," one TikTok. "Younger generations see the stale and crunchy makeup and can see how it can progressively be improved upon, but these women are too stuck in their ways to listen."[2] However, other commentators noted in response that younger women such as Leavitt (whose use of the style has led to some questions as to whether she is as young as she says[12]) and 76-year-old Linda McMahon seem to embrace the look. "The common thread truly seems to be a penchant for far-right politics," observes Allure editor Kara McGrath.[16]
Some Republican women online responded by posting videos of supposed "liberal makeup", mostly consisting of piercings, neon-colored lipstick and non-natural hair dye colors, the latter often employed by Democratic Connecticut Representative Rosa DeLauro.[17] "The Left can mock 'Republican makeup' all they want", Mace posted on X. "At least we still know what a woman is."[18] Lambert responded three months later with a video offering tips to Mace on how to improve her contouring.[19]
Not all the criticism came from the right. Colette Carbonara, a Columbia undergraduate writing in the Columbia Political Review, feared that it might alienate some voters who might otherwise support Democratic policies and candidates while lacking "real substance". Many of the critiques on Tik Tok, she noted, admitted that the style was more common and less political in 2016, and that they themselves had worn their makeup that way before learning better. "By engaging in this caricature, liberals reinforce the stereotype of themselves as urbane cultural elites who relish the opportunity to mock people from the South or rural areas whose makeup is, perhaps, slightly dated compared to the newest trends in wealthy, progressive cities. Mocking 'Republican makeup' acts as judgment of those who aren't willing or able to keep up with stylistic trends we think they ought to." Lambert, she noted, was herself aware of this due to her own Southern background. And by focusing purely on Republican women's makeup, Carbonara wrote, they wasted the opportunity to effectively use satire on Republican policies and worldview. and demonstrate empathy for voters they need to reach.[20]
There has also been criticism of the look from conservatives. Former Fox personality Megyn Kelly lambasted Noem over her appearance when accompanying Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on raids with "25 pounds of hair, only to be outdone by her 30 pounds of makeup and false eyelashes." Based on her brother's experience as a police officer, she admonished Noem that "They don't want you there, even if, you know, you're an attractive lady."[4]
Analysis and commentary
Observers characterized the "Republican makeup" look as an embrace of visible effort made to improve and highlight one's appearance, connecting it to "Mar-a-Lago face", with clear use of Botox and plastic surgery in evidence on many women (and some men, such as former Florida Representative Matt Gaetz) at the 2024 Republican convention.[1][6][21][22]Dazed spoke with Elysia Berman, a beautician who said on TikTok shortly after the election that she had seen changes in beauty trends which for her foreshadowed the election results, even among celebrities not associated with Trump or Republican politics. "Kylie Jenner is dissolving her fillers, and everyone is dyeing their hair their natural color, giving up on their 'alternative phases', and shunning any kind of individuality."[23]
The progressive magazine Mother Jones, noting how Noem, heavily made up and adorned with pearls and a Rolex watch, had accompanied Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on a televised raid, described the overall look as aggressive. "[It] is, like Trump's politics, ridiculously blunt".[21]The Cut agreed: "Overdone and underblended, it manages to be both frantic and calculated ... [making] the wearer look significantly older."[12] While not calling the look itself aggressive, Grose took note of the aggressive actions Mace, Noem and Leavitt had been associated with while wearing it.[4]
Other analyses drew connections between the politics of the Trump administration and its aesthetic. Mother Jones took note of Trump's long ownership of beauty pageants like Miss Universe as the most prominent indicator of his interest in other people's physical appearance,[21] regardless of gender.[24] He reportedly insists on a certain "central casting" look for the men who work for him,[25] that has been described as giving his male subordinates and associates "groomsmen vibes."[6] Anne Higonet, an art history professor at Barnard College, connects the overall MAGA aesthetic to "the idea that the surface of a policy is the only thing that matters."[21]
Like some of the HuffPost makeup artists, Higonet saw it as motivated less by aesthetics than by branding, as an indication of group identity.[15][21] "What makes this group of MAGA politicians powerful is that they are so immediately recognizable by outsiders as part of the conservative team", Grose agrees.[4] Trump is said to have chosen Noem for her DHS position because he wanted her face in television advertisements.[21]
Feminist critiques looked at the phenomenon through the lens of gender identity and relations, particularly the modern Republican Party's insistence on strict separation of gender roles. "For women," wrote Women's Wear Daily, "this means that hyperfemininity, including the routine use of makeup, is the only acceptable norm." It quoted UCLA gender studies professor Juliet Williams:[2]
The hair, the makeup and the clothes are a way of affirming that this beauty standard is the right standard, and it's a standard that positions a certain kind of white woman as the natural embodiment of femininity, and everyone else as a failed striver ... That is about beauty, but it's totally about traditional gender order. Anyone who thinks it’s just about makeup, I think, is really missing the message here.
She finds the transphobia prevalent among Trump's supporters particularly ironic in this aspect: "They really seem to make plain how performative gender is because gosh, it takes a long time for these women to be able to present the appearance of femininity. It's rich to see that the supposed, purported immutable, natural fact of gender isn't even close to sufficient for these people."[2]
Identity Hunters saw Republican makeup as specifically political, and responsive to the male gaze on the political right. "In emphasizing domesticity, controlled sexuality, and beauty, this femininity in a way subjugates itself to the idealized female fantasy of the conservative man — a docile woman who submits and doesn't rebel." Drawing on Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci's ideas of cultural hegemony, writer Sukhmani Dev observes that:[22]
... [t]he logic of conservative makeup is not imposed through coercion, but emerges as a natural product – as common sense – within right-wing cultural spaces. Through repeated depictions of women such as Ivanka Trump, Tomi Lahren, and Karoline Leavitt, this aesthetic becomes aspirational, and expected ... while appearing independent and self-determined, these women ironically reproduce norms that maintain a gender hierarchy.
↑ McKinley, Jesse (August 22, 2024). "What's Vexing Donald Trump Now? Kamala Harris's Looks". The New York Times. Retrieved September 7, 2025. The former president's obsession with personal appearance dates back decades ... 'I don't think there's ever been a president who was more obsessed with other people's appearance,' said Michael Kimmel, the author of 'Manhood in America.'"
↑ McKinley, Jesse (December 27, 2024). "The President-Elect Comments Often on the Men Around Him". The New York Times. Retrieved September 7, 2025. Mr. Trump's propensity for calling attention to men's looks dates back decades ... [His] focus on being easy on the eye seems to extend to personnel decisions, as he has an apparent desire for those serving under him to fit the mold of 'central casting,' a superficial but significant strategy of finding telegenic surrogates who look the part, regardless of their actual job qualifications.
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