Kat Von D says influencer culture is reason why she left the beauty industry
31 January 2020, 15:42
"I felt like I did find my place in an industry, and then I think the older I get, I realise that I don't know if I fit into it anymore."
Kat Von D has opened up about leaving the beauty industry after selling her makeup brand Kat Von D Beauty (now KVD Vegan Beauty, which absolutely does not stand for Kat Von D, btw) in January.
The tattoo artist recently sold her remaining shares to Kendo to focus on being a mother to her son Leafer and her upcoming album. So, she headed to the Second Life podcast, hosted by Who What Wear co-founder Hillary Kerr, to discuss her changing career.
READ MORE: Kat Von D's former brand KVD Vegan Beauty distances themselves by changing official name
Kat described feeling alienated by the beauty community and compared it to being a child. "It's been 11 years, and I am proud of what we've done, but I think that the beauty industry is changing so much," she explained.
"For a moment there, I felt like I did find my place in an industry, and then I think the older I get, I realise that I don't know if I fit into it anymore. It's a culture thing now. We have influencers that are just continuously telling you that if you buy or whatever, and if you don't you're not cool, or hey this is what beauty looks like."
She added: "It kind of throws me back to how I felt when I was a kid. I feel like I've stepped away from it a lot, partially on purpose, and the other part of it is, obviously, I just, um, after having the baby, and then I wrote an album years ago, and I was supposed to release it last summer, and then I got pregnant. My kind of focus is just changing and simplifying a lot more."
Kat also addressed the controversy surrounding the "personal" shade names of her products. The beauty mogul has previously come under fire for the names of her lipsticks including "Celebutard" (a derogatory name for a celeb that includes the offensive term "retard") "Selektion" (a word used in Nazi Germany) and "Underage Red" (obv, a little creepy). However, Kat revealed that the thought process behind her product names isn't quite what we all think.
She continued: "I named it [lipstick] Underage Red, which I got so much grief years later, funny enough. The story behind it was that I was 16 when I wanted to go see Judas Priest, and I couldn't get in because I was underage. And I remember the red that I was wearing that day – it was like fire-engine, borderline neon-orange red. It's just one that, like, it's not sophisticated."
READ MORE: Shane Dawson says he asked to be removed from Kat Von D's PR list