Unfiltered Pics Of Riley Gaines Prove Her Makeup Is Just As Cakey As Erika Kirk's
Riley Gaines is one of the few athletes who can say she lost a race and still came out a winner. The college swimmer parlayed her protest against a trans competitor into a career more successful than she might have enjoyed if she'd stayed in the pool. After her famous fifth-place tie, Gaines turned her failure into a bitter campaign to ban members of the trans community from competing in sports. She stumped for President Donald Trump and other conservative candidates, launched her own podcast, and joined Turning Point USA to speak at college campuses.
Just as Turning Point's Erika Kirk relies on cakey makeup to look put-together for public appearances, so too does Gaines tend to reach for the tubes and brushes. Instead of taking advantage of her youth — she only turned 25 in 2025 — her adoption of so-called "Mar-a-Lago face" trends makes her look a generation or two older and almost like a MAGA mannequin. Take, for instance, this photo from December 2023.
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The photograph documents Gaines' appearance at a congressional hearing to testify against a proposed change in Title IX that would give athletes greater freedom to participate in sports compatible with their gender identity. The professional media pic revealed Gaines' cakey makeup in all its unfiltered density, in foundation so thick it showed every pore. It also illustrated her penchant for smudged, spidery lashes.
Riley Gaines puts more effort into the MAGA look than she did into swimming
With so many MAGA women embodying the "Republican makeup" trend, one wonders if there's a guidebook that's given at every political registration. If so, Riley Gaines Barker — the married name she uses on social media — has memorized it. She has followed in the footsteps of cakey makeup trailblazers like Lara Trump, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Karoline Leavitt, using generous amounts of foundation, not-so-subtle blush, and smoky eyeshadow with ludicrously long lashes. It seems like Gaines has even had cosmetic work done on her lips to give them the pouty fullness favored by the Mar-a-Lago set.
Gaines is so proud of her look, she even posted a video on Instagram showing her morning routine. While her husband, construction project manager Louis Barker, held their baby daughter, the failed swimmer proceeded to apply no fewer than 12 products to her face in an attempt to get glam. The occasion? Black Friday shopping. (Most of us can barely manage to wash our faces the morning after Thanksgiving, nor could we afford a dozen daily products.) The irony is that she uses an "all-natural" cosmetics brand to look, well, decidedly less than natural.
The young mother's MAGA aesthetic tends to come out in full force during public appearances such as Fox News interviews and Turning Point USA rallies. It's all a part of the messaging she, Erika Kirk, and other conservative influencers offer their audiences, urging women to embrace femininity, which in their view consists of faith, marriage, family, and an overflowing makeup bag. As long as that dolled-up image continues to bring Gaines plenty of followers, sponsors, and the perks of being in the Trump world, she has no reason to change it, especially with her swimming career dead in the water.