FOTD: #SummerGoth

My tastes in makeup have shifted recently. I've noticed myself gravitating toward different colors, textures, and undertones, and caring less about "seasonal" makeup. Spring was so cold and dreary this year that I didn't feel like making my usual switch to coral and pink tones. But even now, with the hot, swampy Mid-Atlantic summer in full swing, I find myself drawn to murky, gloomy makeup: browns, dark purples, grays, that sort of thing. I'm still too much of a traditionalist to wear, say, NARS 413 BLKR in July, but I'm finding the summer-goth aesthetic more and more appealing. You might argue that this too is an expression of seasonal rules: only someone who cared about them would care about breaking them, right? Well, maybe so. And maybe I'm not even breaking them: black plums, thunderstorms, and blackberries all belong to summer. So let's say that I'm complicating the usual summer palette. Yes, that sounds pretentious enough for this blog.

The beauty world isn't abandoning dark colors this summer, either. Some people grumbled at Bite Beauty's collection of six lipsticks for Summer 2016, which included a dark brown, a navy blue, a gray-purple, and a blackened green. But I don't see many complaints about Anastasia's new Modern Renaissance eyeshadow palette, an assortment of deep browns and berries, or Kat Von D's jewel-toned Serpentina palette, the ideal gift for the Slytherin in your life. Instagram is still dominated by brown lipstick; fashion is still drawing inspiration from the '70s. Even k-pop has joined the summergoth game—I love Hyelim's vampy makeup in the new Wonder Girls MV (totally worth a watch). Modern nostalgia for '70s nostalgia for the '20s—is there anything better, makeup-wise?

Technically speaking, "goth" might be the wrong word for the aesthetic I'm pursuing right now (plus, I hear that bona fide goths don't take kindly to casual appropriation of the word), but "Jazz Age Hollywood meets k-pop's dream of the '70s meets '90s teen witch" takes so much longer to type. 

Really, this FOTD was born of my desire to wear MAC Antique Velvet before September. I found myself missing it while I was in England (yes, I miss specific lipsticks when I travel), and once I returned, it seemed silly to ignore it for the sake of a seasonal propriety that no one else gave a shit about. I mean, I paid $17 for this lipstick; I have the right to wear it whenever I please. So here's the face I put together two days ago. That dark background makes me look a bit—but only a bit—paler than I really am.

And here are the products I used, clockwise from top: MAC Antique Velvet, ColourPop Lunch Money highlighter (still haven't hit pan despite using it several times a week for the past few months), Illamasqua Zygomatic cream blush, the dark brown sparkly shade from my theBalm custom palette, Seventeen Statuesque eyeshadow.

A better look at Lunch Money (and my new moonstone earrings from an outdoor market in Oxford):

I felt trapped in a makeup rut before I left for the UK, but traveling forced me out of my usual routine, and now I'm creating looks that I'm actually happy with. I suppose this particular look is a disheveled version of Instagram trends (come to think of it, almost everything I do, makeup or not, is a disheveled version of something else). I've got the dark matte lip and the highlighter, but my eyes are less defined, my brows are messier, and I'm not glowing like a cyborg wrapped in Christmas lights, not that there's anything wrong with that. In retrospect, I could have made my eyes a bit smokier: the dark brown eyeshadow is smudged along my upper lashline, but it doesn't show up well in photos. Still, I like the casual feel of this version; I also like how well the dark lip goes with my very '90s-influenced new sundress. I want to unearth my tattoo choker from 2000, though if you're old enough to have worn it the first time around...

But I was 12!

Have you accepted the #summergoth aesthetic into your heart?