The Glam Goth Wants to Make Space for Black Women in Alternative Aesthetics — Interview
She adds, “It’s so important in Black spaces, not just alternative ones, to let your guard down a little bit [too]. Especially to the people that watch, support, and buy things from you. When you’re so much more comfortable with who you are, what you stand for and you’ve got people behind you, it just boosts you in a way that is so beautiful. Every Black creator deserves that.”
Creating a Beauty Line
Social media is also connected to the creation of her beauty line Glam Goth Beauty. The cosmetics label still has a staff of under five people, but the online shop has expanded to include apparel and accessories.
It began when one of Oblitey’s freelance makeup clients wanted a glitter look. So Oblitey gave her a few pre-mixed glitters a try, but it didn’t align with the Glam Goth vibe. [She decided to make her own mix using Martha Stewart glitters and created a forest green hue. She called it Frankenstein, and it became the prototype for the first Glitter Diamond of her eventual makeup line. (Don’t worry: While the Martha Stewart craft glitters are definitely not recommended for use on your face, Oblitey’s Glitter Diamonds are made with cosmetic-grade glitter.)
“Then I made a Snapchat video and was like, ‘Look what I made!'” she remembers. “And people were like, ‘Oh, where’d you get that?'” After revealing she created it, she eventually made nine more mixes — including Bloodbath, a crimson red and one of her current bestsellers.
Oblitey’s first launch cost her roughly $400 to create. “I didn’t know how I was going to do it, but people wanted to buy them so I had to figure it out,” she says. “I kept trying to find better ways, better packaging, and better outsourcing.”
Her two other bestsellers were made in tribute to the beauty, resistance, and beauty needs of Black women. Blood Rose is a cool-toned red lipstick that was created once Oblitey recalled a recurring incident while working at a Macy’s MAC counter in Springfield, Virginia.
“I would be like, here’s a red lipstick you should wear, and most of the Black girls would be like, ‘I don’t want to wear red lipstick. It doesn’t look good on our skin. It’s going to make me feel like a clown,'” she remembers. “And it would just break my heart. So heartbreaking to hear that us as Black women feel like we can’t wear something. I would always be like, ‘Baby, who told you that?’ You can wear whatever you want, it doesn’t matter! It was almost like I was talking to myself. So with Blood Rose, it was like, ‘I made this shade for you.’”
Black beauty was also the muse for Oblitey’s inclusive, neutral-based palette, which she calls The Dark Renaissance. She graces the packaging, posing as Leonardo Da Vinci’s most famous artwork. “I feel like Black women need to see themselves as art. I needed to see myself as the Mona Lisa,” she adds. “If I was a young person that loved European architecture, and liked vintage art, I would’ve died to see someone black and tattooed making herself the Mona Lisa.”
