In the tradition of pop icons like David Bowie and Madonna before her, Lady Gaga is a master of reinvention. With every album launch comes a new, fully realized persona—from an electropop princess for The Fame to a guitar-strumming, pink-cowboy-hat-donning Americana darling for Joanne.

Then there are the red-carpet appearances, which are often more akin to performance art. Remember the meat dress? (The woman wore an actual flank steak on her head.) Or the time she turned up at the Grammys in an egg hoisted by latex-clad models?

But make no mistake about it: With Lady Gaga, it’s never a mere gimmick or an attention grab. There is an earnestness to every look and every decision—a true devotion to artistry.

“When people would say ‘persona’ to me, I used to feel almost offended because my persona is still an extension of my personality,” she says. “I think the implication is that it’s not real or that it’s fake, but it’s always real.”

The same goes for her makeup. Whether she’s rocking a full face or barely a stitch, she is completely herself—or, rather, one of her selves. That’s part of the ethos behind Haus Labs, her makeup line, which she relaunched last year. For her, it’s not so much about how the products make you look (although, spoiler: They make you look really good, especially the new concealer, but more on that later) but how they make you feel: strong, confident and never like you’re hiding or striving to be someone else. Here, the multi-hyphenate opens up about self-care, feeling beautiful and doing things her way.

WHAT HAS WORKING ON HAUS LABS TAUGHT YOU ABOUT MAKEUP?

“I didn’t realize how much people didn’t believe in innovation—or that it was even possible—in the makeup space. It was much more about how you look wearing a makeup product than about feeling your best and makeup being good for your skin. It kind of didn’t matter if makeup was good or bad for your skin as long as you looked good—and I really hated that. I thought: ‘This is exactly what I don’t want. So how can we make this better?’ Considering all the amazing innovations you see all over the world when it comes to different kinds of products that are not makeup, I thought, ‘Well, we can definitely make a brand that’s clean, vegan and cruelty-free and not sacrifice performance but optimize performance.’ Makeup should be extremely functional. The thing I’m so proud of with this company is that it has the heart and soul of the things I love about self-care and beauty.”

SELF-CARE SEEMS TO BE A KEY ELEMENT IN HAUS LABS’ MESSAGING. WHY IS THAT IMPORTANT TO YOU?

“I know first-hand that makeup can really help transform your spirit, build your confidence and strengthen your sense of self. Some people feel like that shouldn’t be the case—that when you have no makeup on, you should just feel 100 percent confident in yourself. And if that’s how someone feels, that’s wonderful, but that’s just not true for everybody. For some people, makeup is a way to feel better about who they are and express who they are. I’m a big believer in makeup as self-care. I wanted to frame it that way within the company so we could say ‘This is not just about how you look; this is about how you feel.’”

BEING INNOVATIVE IS SOMETHING YOU’RE KNOWN FOR AS A MUSICIAN. HOW DID YOU PUSH FOR INNOVATION WITH HAUS LABS?

“When I started this brand, I think people wanted me to innovate in the space of creativity because that’s how they know me. And I did—I just did it differently. I did it by applying skin science to our formulas. It was more of an exercise in innovation and formulation. With the concealer, for example, everybody wants a concealer that brightens, blurs and conceals in the most beautiful way—and this [one] does. It has an extremely creamy, beautiful texture and amazing ingredients. But the additional thing it does—which is kind of the hallmark of what I’ve been doing with this company—is expand knowledge of beauty. We’ve done a lot of testing using a biotech caffeine that’s [based on] Ayurvedic medicine, so it looks beautiful. This concealer gives you long-lasting beauty effects: It de-puffs under the eyes and decreases redness all over the skin. It allows you to feel like you’re taking care of yourself all day long.”

WHERE DID YOUR LOVE OF SKIN SCIENCE COME FROM?

“As a kid, I always watched my mom take care of herself, and she was vigilant about her morning skincare routine, a beautiful makeup routine and makeup as self-care. When I started this brand, I knew I wanted it to be inclusive. That was the number one thing. Then I thought about what else I wanted it to be. [I noticed] there was this huge problem in makeup: When you wear it all the time, it wrecks your skin. I wear a lot of makeup because I’m a performer, so I wanted to push myself in this space. What got me so into skin science was my love of taking care of my own skin. I started reading a lot of articles and books [and] educating myself. Then I started sharing my own homeopathic remedies with the company and working with the labs as well. That’s how we develop our products—they’re really a reflection of my philosophy on skin.”

HOW HAS YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH BEAUTY EVOLVED OVER TIME?

“When I was a teenager, I was really self-conscious and I loved makeup and the way it helped give me some type of superhero cape. When I was in high school, I did a full-face high-cover- age foundation. When I got out of high school, I discovered eyeliner—I found that it really gave me a [way to] express the edge of my personality. I went to a school where it wasn’t really okay to express [yourself] with your physical appearance. So I really started screaming [about who I was] when I got out of school. Then I got deeper and deeper into music and started to create these various personas for myself with makeup, and they all felt natural. For me, makeup was a way to be whomever I wanted to be at any given moment and say the things on the outside that I was feeling on the inside—but not with words. Instead of telling people who you are, you’re showing them.”

WHAT MUST-HAVE PRODUCTS DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE ON YOU?

“I’m not just saying this, but I do actually always have our concealer in my pocketbook. It’s the first thing I put on after my moisturizer in the morning, even if I’m not doing a full face of makeup. Then I’ll put on some lip oil, and sometimes I’ll take the lip oil from my lips and dab it on my cheeks. If I’m really feeling like I want to have a little something extra, I’ll add a blush into the mix—our Color Fuse blush. And I’m done! I would say that’s my everyday look.”

WHAT’S BEEN THE MOST REWARDING PART OF LAUNCHING YOUR OWN BRAND?

“We love our fans so much, and we just want to make everyone happy by delivering high-quality products that really enhance the artistry experience and the beauty experience. So, for me, there’s always that warmth in my heart when I see the makeup make somebody’s day.”

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