Natacha Marro has always been a favorite shoe designer, and now she has started offering vegan options in her collection, which is brilliant! As for clothing, I have discovered tons of great vegan independent designers on Etsy!
Sephora has always been the best, in the sense that they love me for me and that they let me be me. That's the coolest part. I think that's why the products are great - because there's a sincerity and authenticity.
The decision to make Kat Von D Beauty cruelty-free was easy and simple. Sure, my products won't sell in China because of my decision, but if it spares an innocent animal from a life of torture, that is completely worth it in my book.
I love Better Than Sex Mascara, and Shadow Insurance Eye Primer is superawesome.
I've always been a huge 'Divine' fan. He was so iconic and so ground-breaking, especially for the time that he was around, because he was not only breaking barriers in the regular world, just being openly gay, but in the drag world as well.
I look up to people not necessarily based on what they look like. For example, Edith Piaf is somebody I think is a beauty hero even though she was definitely considered to not be beautiful. It was just her charisma and stage presence, and to me, that really defines beauty.
Selling a lifestyle - whether it's a brand or an Instagram post - which teaches not just girls but people that your value is defined by what you look like is the most appalling thing that I could think of, especially as a woman.
Music has influenced everything from my tattooing to how I talk to how I walk, I guess. I was classically trained in piano since I was 6. Then in my teens, my older sister introduced me to Metallica. It was all over. I had a mohawk soon after that.
I never let people see me without makeup. And it's not an insecurity thing. The perk of being a girl is being able to wear makeup and dress up. It's another artistic outlet. And the 45 minutes it takes me to get ready... is very therapeutic for me. It's hard to start my day without that.
You can tell my mood by my makeup. When I'm depressed, it's really dark. Then I'll do super-dumb happy makeup. Like, I'll do one eye electric blue and one smoky brown, and you won't even figure it out until you're talking to me - then you're like, 'Whoa!'
I think a lot of women want to be, like... 'I'm cool with stretch marks and my body changing.' To be honest, I thought I'd be a lot cooler with it, but I'm struggling with my weight gain. I know I'm healthy... but I was expecting to not be as affected by it... I'm self-conscious.
I like dramatic and crazy, weird, ridiculous eyebrows but I know the majority of people don't do their brows like me.
My pro program is going to reach out to more than just the people who have had the luxury of going to makeup school. Personally, when I was a kid, I couldn't afford that. That doesn't mean that they can't be at a professional level.
I don't care how many followers you have, but if you're executing amazing makeup, and you're working day to day in the makeup world and really changing the makeup world, to me that qualifies as a pro.
Years of cultural programming have taught us to love some animals while eating others, when in all reality, all animals are sentient beings with the capacity to feel, both physically and emotionally. Every day, I have the choice to live a life of compassion that not only saves animals but helps the environment.
I feel like most people know that I'm a vegan, and I'm a pretty vocal animal activist. Everything and anything I do, I just kind of use it as a vehicle to be able to send out the message.
Interaction with fans is super important to me. I have the best fans ever. They're always the most creatively charged people. I've saved every single piece of fan mail that I've ever gotten. We have an archive of it and stuff. I think if I can inspire that, then it's like my job is done.
When I was a kid, to me, all women that I think were beautiful always tend to be ethnic of some sort. To be honest I think it's the eyebrows - the powerful, strong eyebrows.
If you give me an eyeliner, I can create 40 looks with that - whether it's liquid or pencil.
We have been reformulating anything that had carmine in the past, and if we can't reformulate, we just throw them out. I can live without a purple eye shadow. It's fine.
