Cosmetics company Belladonna’s Cupboard is releasing a line of makeup to celebrate the launch of the fifth edition of the gothic-punk roleplaying classic, Vampire: The Masquerade. The collection features an eyeshadow book celebrating the game’s three sects, as well as liquid lipsticks inspired by the seven core vampire clans. Vampire: The Masquerade, first released in 1991, was a dramatic shift from earlier tabletop roleplaying games in that it was one of the first in which players took on the roles of the monsters. Plenty of games had players hunting down vampires, werewolves, and eldritch abominations, but Vampire: The Masquerade instead put players in the heads of the monsters themselves, struggling to maintain control over the beast inside.
The game was incredibly successful, defining tabletop gaming for the 1990s in the same way Dungeons and Dragons had for the ’70s and ’80s. The game led off a whole line of World of Darkness games by White Wolf Publishing, in which players took on the roles of werewolves, ghosts, fairy changelings, and wizards, and even had a short-lived TV adaptation, Kindred: The Embraced in 1996. The game’s take on vampire society and goth esthetic influenced everything from Blade to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (Spike is totally a Brujah.)
The new makeup collection by Belladonna’s Cupboard pays homage to that, recognizing that sometimes you just need to look like a creature of the night.
Headlining the collection is an amazing eyeshadow book featuring three palettes, each inspired by one of the iconic vampire sects, the Camarilla, Sabbat, and Anarchs. The palettes have some fantastic colors that would look stellar regardless of whether you’re LARPing or going out for a night on the town. That said, I wish they also sold them as three separate palettes, as I don’t think I would personally use all 30 colors.
But as incredible as the eyeshadow palette book is, what really got my attention were the clan-inspired lipsticks. The line includes seven lipstick shades—one for each of the seven vampire clans of the Camarilla—ranging from classic reds to more vibrant fantasy colors to a very gothy black. Each color is carefully chosen to represent the clan’s backstory and esthetic. Each matte liquid lipstick comes in a stylish container featuring the clan symbol.
Three clans have variations on red, from the sensual Toreador’s classic Valentino red to the wild Gangrel’s earthy red, with the Tremere sporting a deep red the color of blood, befitting of their blood sorcery. Meanwhile, the politically-influential Ventrue have a royal purple, the hideous Nosferatu a vibrant green, the mad Malkavians an electric blue, and the anarchic Brujah round out the line with a matte black.
The complete collection is available for pre-order now, and will be shipping in October.
I think I might be in love with that Malkavian blue. Which color has got you the most excited? Let us know!
Images: Belladonna’s Cupboard
