A new “beauty brand” was announced on Wednesday called Biden Beauty—yes it is named after Joe Biden but no it’s not coming from his campaign. Despite labeling itself as a beauty brand and being represented by a beauty PR company, Biden Beauty sells but a single beauty product: the Biden Beat, which is a blue makeup sponge priced at $20.20, clever. Other merch on BB’s page includes a hoodie, a tote, and some pins and stickers all devoted to “Joe Biden’s natural beauty” but not items that will do anything for the wearer’s beauty. It’s unclear whether this is a cosmic joke, a makeup school final project gone wrong, or something sponsored by Ellen (seriously those hoodies look like Ellen’s show font). It also is very confusing why Joe Biden, who is an average-looking man at best, inspired this product, but it’s 2020 and we deserve all the weird shit that’s happening to us.
The brand’s main objective, other than hosting large photos of Joe Biden on the internet, is to inspire people to vote. “The brand hopes to show Americans that you are beautiful, powerful – and vital. BIDEN Beauty hopes to spread the message that American [sic] is and always has been beautiful, but to maintain this message, America needs to vote, and vote blue,” their FAQ page reads. All proceeds from sales of Biden Beauty merchandise will be given directly to the DNC, according to their publicist.
Despite being at its essence, just a merch page, Biden Beauty pushed extremely hard on its beauty hook in a press release that stated, “Let’s cancel out orange for good, the only way beauty knows how – with color-correcting blue.” This is very catchy but also misleading as purple does a much better job of neutralizing orange undertones, which is why it’s featured in color correcting palettes while blue is left out of the party.
So what does a makeup sponge have to do with Joe Biden or the election? Absolutely nothing! Despite Biden Beauty’s assertion that “beauty has always been political” what it comes down to is BB is relying on all of the bored Gen Z makeup artists sitting at home to put on some blue eyeshadow and encourage their friends to vote. It is truly that simple. It’s an influencing tool for beauty influencers who think a “vote lewk” will sway the election. Sure, yeah, let’s try whatever.
Update 5:10 PM In a statement shared with Jezebel, a representative of BIDEN Beauty wrote that the company plans to introduce “moisturizer, highlighter and beyond!” adding, “the reason we chose the BIDEN Beat as our first SKU was to be as inclusive as we can. No matter your skin texture, tone, gender, face beating abilities, you can use it.” No word on when any future releases might be scheduled, as the brand plans to dissolve November 3.