Days after her unceremonious departure from her eponymous beauty line, Kat Von D is opening up about what led to her leave the beauty realm. The news came after Von D announced she was selling her brand to Kendo, the LVMH beauty incubator that is also responsible for Marc Jacobs Beauty and Fenty Beauty.
In a recent interview with the Second Life podcast, the influencer and tattoo artist admitted the changing landscape of beauty made her feel left out."It's been 11 years and I am proud of what we've done," she said. "But I think that the beauty industry is changing so much and for a moment there, I felt like I did find my place in an industry and then I think the older I get, I realize that I don't know if I fit into it anymore."
This feeling of alienation was also something she constantly felt with her family, and it's why she wanted to use her beauty label to help build a space for others who didn't "fit in."
"It was about making this platform for us outsiders, and we were the first brand to really voice inclusivity," she told host Hillary Kerr. "It was about not fitting into what's expected, the societal ideals of what beauty is."
She also talked about how people often feel pressured to buy new products because of influencers.
"It's a culture thing now, we have influencers that are just continuously telling you that you have to buy, and if you don't, you're not cool or, 'Hey, this is what "beauty" looks like!' you know," she says. " It kind of throws me back to how I felt when I was a kid. So I feel like I stepped away from it a lot, partially on purpose."
For now, she wants to focus on taking care of her newborn, Leafar, moving into her new house, and her upcoming album.
Launched in 2008, Kat Von D Beauty acquired a cult status over the years for its cruelty-free products, most notably liquid eyeliner and long lasting lipsticks.
Despite a successful run with products sold across 36 countries, Von D's brand faced a lot of criticism for the makeup artist's widely public beef with Jeffree Star, her controversial stance on vaccines, and accusations of anti-semitism by another tattoo artist during her short reality TV stint on Miami Ink.
Photo via Getty
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