For a woman whose rise has been mainly under stadium lights and camera flashes following her late husband Charlie Kirk‘s untimely death, 37-year-old Erika Kirk is a regular offender when it comes to full glam. Her blonde, wavy hair, contour and loud eyeliner become part of the Erika Kirk brand. The phrase “MAGA makeup” gets tossed around a lot these days, but that’s her signature now.
But with Charlie Kirk’s assassination in September 2025, she was thrust into an even harsher spotlight. The grieving widow and mother of two kids was then appointed CEO of Turning Point USA, and people zoomed in on her face. And more specifically, what her Mar-a-Lago face looks like without the war paint. Surprisingly, Erika Kirk looks very normal with no makeup, we’d say.
The makeup-free shots on her Instagram handle @mrserikakirk tell a story that never makes it to the stage. There’s the viral 2018 photo, snapped during what seems to be a mall outing, where a bare-faced Erika with a messy bun is seen hugging Maverick, aka her friend Kelsey Fow’s son. There were no sculpted brows or smoky eyes, just Erika Kirk as a human being.
View this post on Instagram
Now, coming to July 2024, we see another makeup-free reveal, and this time it’s with her own babies. She can be sitting in a cushy chair, and looks nothing like the conservative influencer who was walking through pink smoke at the Young Women’s Leadership Summit. She has a pile of hair in a top bun, and the caption says she’s “fearfully and wonderfully made.”
And while admirers love her vulnerability, critics say her current persona is way too over the top. One post on X (formerly Twitter) declared that someone’s mother stopped supporting her because she wore too much makeup. Another compared her to a resident of the Capitol from The Hunger Games. Another jabbed, “She looks like she’s perpetually wearing the bold glamour filter I fear.”
Are those comments fair or petty? You’ll have to think for yourself, but they sure reflect a much bigger issue around Erika Kirk. She is seen as a woman who speaks highly of and practically promotes traditional femininity, and yet her own life is far from it.
*Erika Kirk with a tissue in her hand*
*Wipes her eye… on the opposite side of the tear duct*
*She’s just adjusting her caked on makeup galore*
What’s with those rings lol. pic.twitter.com/imrLWLicRC
— Korobochka (コロボ) 🇦🇺✝️ (@cirnosad) November 9, 2025
Now that she is a public widow who has pledged to carry forward her husband’s movement and has stepped into the leadership of Turning Point USA, scrutiny of Erika Kirk has intensified. Without the glam, people say she looks a lot more approachable and relatable to the masses she wishes to appeal to. That might just be why those bare-faced photos hit harder than any speech.
The question, then, isn’t really what Erika Kirk looks like without makeup; it’s why we’re so desperate to know.
