Would you try the ‘corpse core?’ trend?
Elf x Liquid Death's ‘corpse paint’ kit might be clever thinking but does it also veer into subcultural appropriation?
A lot of beauty trends are pretty predictable and very much cyclical. But the new collaboration between Liquid Death - an American brand of canned water - and Elf Cosmetics completely took me by surprise. There didn’t seem to be much build up either, it just seemed to drop out of nowhere, like a legit bat out of hell.
My first reaction to seeing the campaign image above with Julia Fox was that mainstream beauty had mined all it could from elsewhere, and had now sunk its claws into alternative subcultures. I could certainly feel my inner angry goth - who was spat at for looking alternative as a teen - really starting to get riled up.
But that initial caution dissipated when I saw their corpse paint video campaign, (below.) In the commercial two young girls flip through a magazine with pics of Norwegian black metal bands, and suddenly their idol ‘Glothar’ appears from the pages and they all corpse paint their faces. When the girls’ mother comes into the room with a drink of ‘vegan ghost blood’ the mother recognises Glothar as a former flame - and lols ensue. Watch it here, it’s genuinely hilarious. I also thought it was smart, and funny too (although many furious ghouls shared their disgust online.)
The Corpse Paint kit (above) includes: Dead Set (a setting mist), the Kiss of Death (a black satin lipstick), Eye Die (a white cream shadow), Dead Line (black eyeliner pen), the Brush with Death Putty Applicator (a make-up brush) and the Closed Casket (A coffin keepsake box). Had Elf done this alone I too would have watched in horror and fury as influencers tried ‘corpse-core’ make-up. What really makes this collaboration is that Liquid Death as the name might indicate, is an alternative brand at their core. Liquid Death’s VP of creative said: “When we were approached about potentially doing a collab with Elf, we knew it was a chance to push both brands into spaces neither had been before. We knew we wanted to make a limited edition product together and corpse paint felt like the ridiculous center of the Venn diagram between us.”
It’s the first time in a while that I’ve seen a big beauty brand do something a bit niche and genuinely interesting; something that doesn’t replicate the tired Kardashian/Hayley Bieber dross that everyone seems to be peddling at the moment. That’s because so many brands still have this idea that ‘mainstream’ is the only thing that sells, but this collab confirms the very opposite, namely that niche can sell - as long as you do it authentically. I guarantee that all the goths and metalheads who bought this sold-out coffin make-up set are now invested in Elf in a way they never were before. Hell, honestly, it made me more interested in Elf than I was before.
I’d love for this to be a wake up call to the industry to start changing their blanket approach of generic offerings and to start being bolder by focussing on minority and niche consumers more. But one question this collab does raise, is whether this falls under the bracket of subcultural appropriation? Some things should be sacred, but how do you distinguish who owns what in our digital age? Can we just take from pretty much anywhere, including the black metal scene? That was a whole load of questions, because I’d love to know what you think.
I still have that ‘only wear a band t-shirt if you like that band’ mentality and don’t love it when I see ‘normies’ in New Rock boots which seems to be a gen z trend, or goth attire. But this is the age we live in; licensed Metallica t-shirts are for sale in Boohoo, and Greenday shirts are available at British supermarket Asda. I even saw the huge baggy ‘mosher’ jeans I wore in the 90s in Free People recently - and all I can say is good luck if you get rained on, because they will soak water up water all the way to your knees.
So maybe subculture doesn’t exist in the way it used to, and every generation likely goes through this whole ‘the youth have no respect for what we created’ schtick. Gen X probably wondered how the hell their romantic The Cure-esque goth vibes manifested for a new millenial generation as cybergoths, complete with glow in the dark dread falls, goggles (WHY?) and drawn on eyebrows (ahem, above.) Maybe subculture has changed with Gen Z, and being alternative doesn’t mean quite what it used to; once a Pantera tee would signal to another person they were a fellow metalhead (and probably liked other similar things too) but now those groupings form on social media or a twitch stream, rather than in a local metal bar or a chance sighting in the street.
Change is inevitable, but as long as collabs and borrowing is done with respect, and integrity I think I’m ok with it. That was a really long-winded way of saying that I very much enjoyed this kit - as you can see in the below video. And because this is VERY much my area of interest, you’ll also be getting a bonus column on the history of corpse paint tomorrow - it’s pretty grim though, so be warned.
Much love and corpsey paint…
Niche is the new market. The saturation of “generalistic” influencers is real - in every sector. My feed is flooded with travel influencers slash foodies slash makeup babes showing off their butts agains spectacular backdrops.
Bring back the real deal: niche.
liquid death x elf is an interesting collab. i feel like the consumer bases for both would be disjoint sets, but maybe that was the appeal of the collab.
your questions on subculture appropriation are interesting though. do you think “subculture appropriation” would be less offensive / present less of a pause if people paid homage to the origins of what they are appropriating?
but as you said, so many mainstream things today weren’t always mainstream. is it ok to just let cultures & trends come & go as they please?