Just weeks after going viral for her meme-worthy VMA fashion, chart-topping pop star Doja Cat is aiming to make waves in the beauty world with her first makeup collaboration.
Launching on September 25 with BH Cosmetics, the collection includes a brush set, a 36-color eyeshadow palette, three mini shadow quads, a blush trio, a highlighter, a mirror, a lip balm, a plumping lip gloss, a mascara, and an eyeliner in black, white and green. With products ranging from $9-$36, the collection is first launching on the brand’s website. It will expand to Beauty Bay on September 30 and Ulta stores and e-commerce on October 3.
Partnering with BH Cosmetics “felt like a real full-circle moment,” said Doja Cat. “When I was maybe 13 or 14, I bought these palettes online from BH and that was really the birth of me exploring makeup and having fun with it.”
The aesthetic of the collection has an “’Annihilation’-inspired, alien swamp sort of vibe,” she said, referring to the 2018 sci-fi film. The colors are “inspired by nature,” with a mix of greens, browns and floral colors.
Doja Cat’s “name came out first when we were thinking, ‘Who do we want to work with?’” said Yannis Rodocanachi, CEO of BH Cosmetics. As the brand has shifted its focus to Gen-Z beauty consumers, it has embraced pop-star collaborations. Prior to the Doja Cat collection, its first musician collab launched on August 24 with Iggy Azalea.
“Our model has always been to do collaborations,” said Rodocanachi. Past collab partners include beauty influencers Carli Bybel and Daisy Marquez. “But [we’ve transitioned] from pure beauty influencers to other types of industries like entertainment,” he said. “We still do beauty influencers, but it became obvious that the next generation was looking for a new type of influencer and new types of cultural icons that they listen to.”
With songs such as ‘Say So’ and ‘Kiss Me More’ not only topping charts but also dominating TikTok over the past three years, Doja Cat has become one of Gen Z’s favorite artists. In addition to her music, her bold aesthetic in beauty and fashion has gained fans and generated buzz. This was on full display at the recent VMAs, where her outfits featuring a chair hat, “chicken-feet” shoes and a Thom Browne dress, which she dubbed her “worm” dress on stage, sparked countless memes.
“My favorite look to put on was the chicken feet outfit,” she said, adding that the signature shoes by the fashion label Avavav are “surprisingly very comfortable to walk in. You kind of just kick your leg up and land.”
“Getting up the stairs to get onto the stage with those shoes was a really dope vibe because I actually had to crawl,” she said. “I could go up three steps and then crawl up the steps sideways, and then I threw my leg over the top of the stage and crawled on. A bunch of my fans actually saw me have to go through that, so that was a very fun and exhilarating moment for me.”
Her beauty aesthetic is as avant-garde as her fashion style, with the photoshoot campaign for her brand featuring a range of colorful eye looks in blues, greens and metallics. She turns to makeup artists on Instagram for inspiration.
“I recently unfollowed everybody that I know and just started following furniture, makeup and fashion pages,” she said. Some of the artists she is a fan of right now include Budapest-based makeup artist Eszter Domonko, who creates colorful eye looks, and avant-garde makeup artist Laurel Charleston, who shares full-face looks based on artworks. “What I like to do changes a lot, and I’ve noticed that I evolve constantly,” she said of her style. “I have my ‘five gallons of makeup’ days, and then I have my ‘try very hard not to look like you’re wearing makeup’ days.”
After the initial launch of the collection, it will be followed by drops of more products in the future, said Rodocanachi. BH Cosmetics’ parent company MidOcean Partners, which acquired the the company in 2018, “played a key role, in terms of funding” its new celebrity collabs.
“MidOcean understood the opportunity to try a new model for the beauty industry,” said Rodocanachi. He described it as a “celebrity brand, limited-edition” model. “It’s kind of an interesting model. It’s different from the beauty influencers. It’s different from the celeb brands. It’s a limited edition with several drops. That’s the future.”
