Kat Von D is the Most Outspoken Person in the Beauty Industry 

Kat Von D, master of the hyphenated job title (tattoo artist-makeup brand founder-TV personality-musician), has taken on somewhat of a big sister role in the beauty industry. If everyone had a cool, goth older sister, of course. This is especially true for the Kat Von D Beauty Artistry Collective, a group of four makeup artists that Kat discovered on Instagram and officially made part of her team — as global makeup artists for Kat Von D Beauty — last year. (In case you missed our Facebook Live video with half of the collective, you can watch it here.)

But Kat Von D doesn’t limit her opinions and words of advice to the Artistry Collective. Not even close. We sat down with Kat while she was in town, to talk upcoming product launches, the evolution of the beauty industry, and yes, living Trump’s America.

You recently reformulated your Studded Kiss Lipsticks collection. Was that due to customer feedback?
KVD: I don’t really play that game, allowing outside people to dictate my production. It’s not an ego thing, I just think that it can be very distracting. Sometimes there’s bigger picture stuff that fans don’t think of. The reformulation was just me striving for excellence.

The one piece of feedback that I did hear, loud and clear, was about the caps. The caps on the old Studded Kiss lipsticks were always popping off in my purse so I had to fix that. Now those motherfuckers are not going anywhere.

Can you share what product launches are on the horizon?
Brow products. Brows are a part of the face that are always understated. People don’t realize the options and how they can frame your face. Everyone does their brows differently so it would have been impossible to try to do an all-in-one formula so I [narrowed it] down to three different formulations. They’re all out in April.

Brow Struck is our powder formula, but it has a reflective shimmer, which you wouldn’t think of for your brows but the way it reflects light makes it look like actual hair.

Signature Brow is a retractable pencil. What I wanted from this was precision. So you could technically draw in hairs if you wanted to, or do more of a defined brow. That one has a very fine, precise point that’s like a flat oval. It really lends itself to sculpted, arched brows.

Then there’s Super Brow, which is my favourite, because I like powerful, strong brows. That’s the one that comes in all the pop colours.

A lot of our fans and followers on Instagram have coloured hair, and they’re always using lipstick as eyebrow products. And sure it looks good for a photo on Instagram but after a whole day, I don’t know where those brows are ending up. So I really wanted to create a bulletproof, long-wear, highly pigmented brow product in a range of colours. But we’re also including neutral colours in there, too.

The beauty industry’s going through a lot of changes right now, in terms of diversity and inclusivity, things that have long been part of your brand. How does it feel to see the rest of the industry adapting to the times?
Well here’s the thing. When I think about my animal rights activism, in an ideal world — and I’m not an idealist because that’s not realistic —everyone would be vegan because they care about animals. But that’s unrealistic. So to me it’s like, do it for whatever reason, but just do it.

So when I look at the makeup industry taking a shift and being more inclusive, I think it’s great that, even if it is just a marketing ploy, they’re pushing something positive. There is a part of me, maybe the punk rock part of me that’s like, “Where were you [back then]?” But it’s cool.

And I’m just talking about indie brands, because the big powerhouses, fuck them. They should have been doing this from the beginning. I’d go to any drugstore to see how many complexion ranges they had and they’d have six, maybe five shades of pale and one [medium] one. The big corporations, I don’t think they have an excuse.

But when it comes to the indie brands, I don’t think people understand how incredibly expensive it is to formulate large shade ranges. When we first launched Lock-It Foundation, we took a really huge hit financially because it was so important to me to be inclusive, and include deeper skin tones and really pale skin tones. And there are some medium tones that often get ignored as well. So we pushed our launch twice during production, which I took a big hit on, because I wanted to make sure it was perfect. And I’m so glad I did.

Today, customers are smart enough to know when something is a marketing ploy and when it’s sincere. I welcome it in any way it comes, but I give props to those who have been fearless about doing it since day one. To me, inclusivity is so much more than a foundation range. It really transcends skin tone. Growing up, I never felt like I belonged, at school or within my family. If I went to Mexico, my accent was more Argentinian. If I went to Argentina, it was too Mexican. In the States, people think I’m white but I’m not. So to me the idea of inclusivity is a lot bigger than just your skin tone.

Do you think makeup plays a role in today’s feminist, hyper-political landscape?
Fuck yeah. This is where I make my team nervous because I’m not afraid to say how I feel about our shitty president that I don’t fucking support. It’s so important to be able to stand up and say what you feel. People leave comments on my Instagram saying “You’ve lost a follower” and it’s like, cool! Don’t buy my shit. If you support bigotry, don’t buy my shit. If you support taking away women’s rights, do not buy my shit.

I think this is a time, more than ever, to speak your mind. A lot of brands are being super careful and PC and I’m not treading lightly on this. That whole Saint and Sinner thing, it brought a lot of backlash but it’s the kind of backlash that’s important. Ultimately what Trump represents is everything that I’m against, so I need to make sure to protect [my beliefs]. I’m seeing this underlying message of racism a lot living in L.A., and I’m somebody who has family in Mexico and has to constantly hear “build a wall.” We should be embracing people with open arms. I just want to be on the right side of history at the end of the day. And it’s the same as what we do for animal rights. I have no problem calling out other brands who are unwilling to take a look at what they’re doing to these poor animals for money.

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