Pastel goth is all about mixing the pretty with the pretty tough.  

Soft shades + dark makeup = perfection.  

Your makeup should be dark. But there’s no reason the case can’t be covered in unicorns.  

But you can pair black liner and lipstick with a bunch of pastel shadows.  

And the more you look like a manga character, the better.  

And focus on the marriage of creepy and cute. Like having pretty pastel hair with a gruesome skeleton hair clip.  

Pastel goth is girly yet kick ass. Like if Lisa Frank puked on a pair of combat boots. 

The words “pastel” and “goth” don’t sound like they should go together, do they? When we think of pastel hues, we think of lightness and femininity. When we think of goth style and gothic culture, we think of darkness and moodiness. Thus, it’s hard to think of the two things coming together to create one style.  
However, pastel goth is a real thing and it’s a truly beautiful style to embrace. Many people might be attracted to aspects of goth culture, such as the focus on alternative lifestyles and a fascination with the darker elements of our world. For people who are attracted to Goth subculture but don’t want to dress in only black, pastel goth can be a wonderful choice.  

Pastel goth – also called “new goth” and “goth lite” – entails taking the basic elements of goth style and adding clothing, hair and makeup colors in lighter hues. A pastel goth look may involve fishnets or black leather boots, but those darker items could be lightened with a rose gold or baby blue dress. It might sound a little awkward on paper, but the finished project is ethereal, unique and stunning. 

Even those who don’t identify as pastel goths have been experimenting with bright, non-traditional hair colors as of late. Bright colorful streaks in shades like lavender or blue are a great way to really amp up your pastel goth look. To save money, you can easily pick up some dye at a beauty supply store and do it yourself. To ensure that this is foolproof, create random pieces or dye your entire head. You can’t really “mess up” if you are covering the entirety of your head or trying to create scattered highlights. It doesn’t have to be perfect; in fact, it’s trendy to have roots showing or to have your finished product be a little messy and scattered. 

Dark lipstick is a big fashion “yes.” Every good pastel goth girl has at least one black lipstick in her makeup bag, in addition to myriad other dark hues like plum or wine. When you wear dark lipstick, you oftentimes don’t even need to wear any other makeup. Indeed, the black or dark lipstick is a huge statement all by itself.  

However, many pastel goth girls choose to adorn their eyelids with pastel eye shadows in addition to or instead of wearing dark colors on their lips. Part of the fun of trying on a new style is deciding what works for you. Pick up a few eye shadow colors in pastel hues and play around with them, deciding what looks right on your face. You don’t have to go to that fancy makeup store at the mall, either. Inexpensive options from the drugstore will suffice just fine