From pastel shadows to high-shine glosses, Iggy Azalea is the latest celeb having a decidedly 2000’s moment, as she rolls out her first-ever makeup collab with BH Cosmetics—aptly named Totally Plastic—launching August 29 at Ulta. Here’s what the star exclusively had to share with us about the creative process that went into the 13-piece line, and why Lisa Vanderpump gave her full approval.
What was important to you to achieve with the launch?
I love that BH Cosmetics has so many bright, crazy colors, and I love that when I tested out the makeup, the pigment was really creamy and great. For me, that stuck out because I rarely see actual eyeshadow that’s high-quality for the price point that they have. I love that because when I’m thinking about things that I’m making for people, I want them to be accessible to everyone. That’s always something that I keep in mind because I grew up not having very much money myself, and always wanting those things that cool girls had. I just wanted to choose a company to work with that had an accessible price point for everyone but still have quality products where I could bring the creative to the table in terms of the packaging, colors and the theme. I just went crazy with developing colors that I liked that I thought lent themselves to the story that I was telling and building out this entire universe from the early 2000s. I really wanted to work with BH Cosmetics because from the beginning, they were totally open to me having 100-percent creative control, and if I don’t have creative control with a brand I’m just not going to put my name on it. I’m very passionate about having a concept and bringing it to life and I’m so specific about the way that I want things to be.
It’s decidedly very 00s-theme; any beauty or fashion trends you wish would come back from that era?
I’ve never been able to let the nostalgia of the 2000s go, so I’m glad that everyone is on-board with this now because it’s my time to shine! For me, it’s really the frosted, iridescent shimmers that were so big in the early 2000s, and it’s made its way back to makeup now with how popular things like highlighter and inner corner eyeshadow are. I see that frosted shimmer which was so popular in the early 2000s being utilized in so many different ways that we don’t necessarily see it as 2000s, but as someone who’s lived it, I’m like, “Hey, we used to put that all over our lips!” Maybe it was a full iridescent shimmer eye whereas now we have more of a base, a contour, and it’s more refined and polished than what it was back then, but I really wanted to bring back all of those iridescent tones.
What would be your dream product to create?
I love beauty so much and have gotten into it so much more over the last decade, even more than when I was a young girl, because I love to do these larger-than-life music videos and create makeup looks or always try to do something that’s new and interesting. The natural next step for me is to take that fantasy even further and start developing products within that world. With makeup, I didn’t want to do it from the perspective of, “This is Iggy’s makeup line and it’s what Iggy likes.” It’s more about what is an interesting world, character or narrative that I can develop that people would feel excited by, and what do those characters want to wear color-wise, what is the product? It’s been such a big exercise for me and I’ve got big ideas for more things in the future and everything’s just going larger than life right now. I was showing my Totally Plastic collection to my good friend, Lisa Vanderpump, and I said to Lisa that we should collaborate and she was like, “Yes!” We were talking about how we should do an all-pink collection because she loves pink everything.
What is one thing beauty-related fans might be surprised to hear about you?
When I’m in a store, what draws me to makeup are those bright, fun palettes, but then I feel intimidated by them and I don’t purchase them. I want bright shadows like when I get my makeup done professionally, but I just can’t do my makeup like that on my own! I end up gravitating toward the nudes, brown tones or bronzes because I’m more confident in them. I thought about that a lot when I was making the eyeshadow palettes in particular. How could I grab somebody’s attention so they’re excited about the colors and think, “Wow, this is really cool!” but there are also colors here that I could use that I’m not intimidated by? I’ve been into makeup for such a long time, I’ve just never been good at it. I have so many embarrassing pictures of myself in makeup that I’ve done that I thought was really editorial and wasn’t! I’ve come a long way in my cosmetics journey.
