The lifestyle industry is uniformly committed to convincing voters to elect Joe Biden this fall. Reacting to the dire stakes of the 2020 presidential election, tons of influential designers and retailers are hawking pro-democracy products that double as get-out-the-vote fundraisers. Now the beauty industry is getting in on the political agitating, with an anonymous start-up selling cheeky products to raise money for the Biden/Harris campaign.
Biden Beauty launched on Wednesday, backed by a mysterious coven of industry insiders. The Biden/Harris campaign officially had nothing to do with this unconventional mashup of makeup and politics, but Fashionista reported they’re aware and amused by the grassroots effort.
The first and only product available at launch is a simple blue makeup sponge selling for $20.20 — called the “BIDEN Beat,” taglined with the phrase, “Beat your face. Beat Trump.” Biden Beauty is also currently selling merch like sweatshirts, tote bags, and buttons, and 100% of the proceeds are being donated to the Biden Victory Fund.
Three more products, including one that’s Kamala-inspired, are slated to drop in the coming weeks, plus more swag like hats and stickers. The snarky copywriting is prodigious: "Let’s cancel out orange for good, the only way beauty knows how — with color-correcting blue," the brand release reads.
There’s another really titillating layer to the whole joke of Biden Beauty — though the brand’s website strenuously states it’s a very real beauty company and not “fake news.” And that’s Donald Trump’s garish devotion to a very specific brand of orange makeup, Bronx Colors concealer in BHCo6. The New York Times investigated the president’s mysterious orange hue and talked to a makeup artist who touched up Trump’s face at the Republican convention in 2016: “When I see him, I see a line of oxidized bronzer around his hairline. The application is like a kindergartner did it,” Jason Kelly told the paper.
Hmm, perhaps that observation holds the key to the greatest potential troll promised by Biden Beauty. Somebody (or lots of somebodies) ought to buy lots of those blue blender sponges and send them to the White House. Encourage Trump to “beat” himself. It’s a hilarious prospect, in an otherwise deadly serious election year.