United States conservatives in the 2020s have demonstrated at least two notable beauty trends. The first is Republican makeup, also known as MAGA makeup, MAGA beauty or conservative girl makeup. This term describes the style and application of cosmetics by people (including both men and women) affiliated with Trumpism. The style refers to eyeliner, mascara, rouge, and foundation that are heavily applied so as to make their use obvious. This style contrasts with the natural makeup style. Kristi Noem and Karoline Leavitt have been cited as examples. Suzanne Lambert, a comedian on TikTok, is credited with popularizing the Republican makeup concept through a video she made shortly after Donald Trump's victory in the November 2024 presidential election. White House 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.
The other trend is known by the pejorative term Mar-a-Lago face, which is used to refer to a plastic surgery and fashion trend among American conservative and Republican individuals. Mar-a-Lago face is characterized by excessive or uniform plastic surgery interventions such as lip augmentation, Botox, and jaw contouring, coupled with spray tans, fake eyelashes, and dark smoky eyes. Cosmetic surgeons listed facial surgery, injectable filler, and cosmetic dental work among the procedures constituting the look. The trend is named for Trump's home in Florida, Mar-a-Lago. Noted public figures described as having the Mar-a-Lago face include First Lady Melania Trump, Matt Gaetz, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Trump's daughter-in-law Lara Trump.
Plastic surgeons and consultants describe Mar-a-Lago face as a deliberately conspicuous and homogenized aesthetic. The trend has been described as a status symbol among Donald Trump's inner circle, signaling wealth, privilege, and alignment with Trumpism. Journalistic and academic analyses have situated Mar-a-Lago face within far-right and Trump-aligned visual culture, arguing that a recurring, highly stylized face helps signal allegiance to Trump and project shared values among his supporters. Academics and fashion writers have also written critiques, observing that the Mar-a-Lago face 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.
Origins MAGA makeup
Texas makeup artist Stephanie Louise got the assignment to make up Lara Trump, the 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.
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 devoted a video to trying to reproduce that style. Lambert is credited with popularizing the concept of Republican makeup through that video, which she made shortly after Trump's victory in the November 2024 presidential election.
Mar-a-Lago face
American conservative fashion trends have been depicted in media, and reported on in their historical and political contexts. Since before the first presidency of Donald Trump, discussion and media scrutiny has focused on Trump's grooming and hygiene habits. Fast Company observed that Trump's "unnaturally orange hue" was present as far back as his television series The Apprentice, which aired from 2004 to 2017. It was reported he appeared more natural until 2012 outside of broadcast appearances, closer to his natural Scottish and German heritage. In Town & Country, Chloe Foussianes highlighted the depiction and costumes of conservative leader Phyllis Schlafly in the political drama television miniseries Mrs. America, writing:
Mar-a-Lago face is named for Trump's home in Florida, Mar-a-Lago. El Confidencial reported in 2024 that the Mar-a-Lago face was first observed via Matt Gaetz, when he appeared at an event with a "completely different face". Vanity Fair Italia traced the origins of the Mar-a-Lago face concept to 2006, prior to Gaetz, citing the American reality television program The Real Housewives of Orange County as a potential origin of the trend. The Week called the look a "must-have accessory" for the inner circle of President Donald Trump. Melinda Anna Farina, an aesthetic consultant, identified the Mar-a-Lago face as attempting to emulate the appearance of Eastern European women.
Wee Kek Koon in the South China Morning Post observed that Mar-a-Lago face was similar to King Ling of Chu of the Zhou dynasty's preference for "thin-waisted" officials, noted in the Annals of the Warring States as well as the works of Mozi. Koon notes that Mozi also illustrated further Mar-a-Lago antecedents such as Duke Wen of Jin, whose officials dressed in "sheepskin coats, cowhide belts, and undyed silk caps". According to Women.com, Mar-a-Lago face is characterized by excessive makeup, fake tans, fake eyelashes, dark smoky eyes, and lip augmentation. Vanity Fair Italia cited Melania Trump as an inspiration for Mar-a-Lago face. However, Habertürk identified Ivanka Trump as an inspiration for Mar-a-Lago face. In The New World, Nicky Woolf wrote, "origins of the Mar-a-Lago face could well lie in the Fox News anchor look," citing a preference of Trump to understand the world in "large part through a television screen".
Analysis of Republican makeup trend Lambert's video Lambert posted her video, "Doing my makeup like the gorg maga girlies in my comments", to her TikTok feed on November 16, 2024. 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. The video received 4.7 million views and many favorable comments. In an interview with Glamour two months later, Lambert emphasised the lack of matching and termed the eye makeup as a "raccoon-eye look." The New York Times observed that the look is usually sartorially complemented by form-fitting clothing and conspicuous cross necklaces.
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. The original video is no longer available, but some excerpts have been used in online commentary.
By the time Trump was inaugurated, Lambert's video had reached over 6 million views, and gained her followers including Jen Psaki, the former Joe Biden press secretary and current MS NOW host, and Jonathan Van Ness of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. The media began to take notice, with The Washington Post running a story on the video as exemplifying Lambert's advocacy of "Regina George liberalism", named after the Mean Girls character—"when they go low we go mean".
Look and public reaction One of Lambert's commenters called her take "the perfect tutorial for the mean girl to nurse pipeline." Others called it accurate. 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 Cuts Sam Escobar wrote that they "imagine[d] it being applied with the frenzied fervor of the creepy kid in every horror movie.") 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." 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."
Some women, like Guardian columnist Arwa Mahdawi, worried that they might have unintentionally emulated the look. Writing about the trend in The New York Times, Jessica Grose did not see any corresponding makeup style embraced by liberal or progressive women. 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. 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.
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 user said. "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." 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) 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.
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. 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 TikTok, she noted, admitted that the style was more common and less political in 2016. "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." Carbonara also argued that the criticism wasted the opportunity to effectively use satire on Republican policies and worldview and demonstrate empathy for voters they need to reach. Conservatives also voiced criticism. 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."