Jaime King — model, actress, mother of two, wife, activist, and card-carrying member of the Taylor Swift girl squad (Swift is her son’s godmother!) — just added another accolade to her already impressive list. Today marks the launch of her makeup collaboration with the cult (and Kylie Jenner favorite) Southern California-based cosmetics company ColourPop. Her foray into beauty is a long time coming — and something she doesn’t take lightly. “Growing up in Omaha, Nebraska, I didn't have access to fancy makeup and expensive things, nor the money to afford them,” King tells us. “It was exciting if I could get a Wet n Wild eyeliner, you know what I mean?" The most glorious moment of King's young life, she says, was when her mom became a Clinique saleswoman at her local mall. "I thought I made it to the big leagues," she says. "I'll never forget the feeling of twisting open this beautiful, sheer, pink lipstick with a little shimmer in this beautiful case — I just felt so glamorous and so happy. When I decided I wanted to do a makeup line, I really wanted to give other people that feeling. I wanted them to feel like they got the best of the best, but in a way that they could afford.”
Enter her stunning 12-piece Alchemy collection. The line features gorgeous colors and high-quality finishes that magically belie those low price tags. Each of the multitasking products can be worn alone or mixed together, and flatters every imaginable skin tone. "I've always been very attracted to alchemy and the idea of what happens when you add this with that, and what it turns into," says King. "Just like human relationships! When you add two people together, or three people together, or four people together, and somehow that fourth person turns the whole room into a different experience." We hear that.
Ahead, King walks us through the transformative collection.
“[I wanted to create] a red that didn't exist," says King. "I wanted it to be a new red that I'd been envisioning in my head that looks beautiful on everyone — [it has] a blue undertone and a dash of berry."
ColourPop Juju Rouge Lippie Stix, $5, available at ColourPop.
"I didn't want anyone to buy my makeup and then say, 'Oh, this doesn't look good on me, and now I'm bummed out because I was excited about this,'" King explains. "You know what it's like when you go and buy makeup and you spend all this money on it, but you can't return it!"
ColourPop Juju Rouge Lippie Pencil, $5, available at ColourPop.
“What's nude to me isn't nude to someone else," says King. “I find it incredibly offensive when I'm handed a 'nude' thong that is a white girl's thong. It's not a thong for an African-American woman who has dark skin. It's so disrespectful; it makes me angry almost."
ColourPop Polite Society Lippie Stix, $5, available at ColourPop.
"I wanted to create a nude that enhanced and brought out the natural beauty of someone in a way that would work for every single person without washing them out," she says. "[It] accentuates the beauty and color of your lips, but gives it a pop and definition.”
ColourPop Polite Society Lippie Stix, $5, available at ColourPop.
“The other thing that was really important to me was that everything that I created goes everywhere on the face... I wanted the contour and highlighter to be applied all over, and as easily as possible. So ColourPop now has a brand-new item: contour and highlighting sticks," explains King.
ColourPop Relevé Sculpting Stix Highlighter, $5, available at ColourPop.
"It comes in a twistable, rounded top — you can draw that into the inner crease of your eye, you can use that as eyeliner, you can use it under your lashes, you can use it to fill in your eyebrows, you can draw the lines on your face in all the places you'd usually contour. It's the most universal contour stick ever — and it's not just contour; you can also use it as eyeshadow and lipstick," says King.
ColourPop Renaissance Sculpting Stix New Contour, $5, available at ColourPop.
So how did King make sure that every last shade looks good on everyone? First: ColourPop's R & D magicians. Second: “I invited people of different races, [cultures, and ethnicities to test the products]," King says. "I had my VP who is half Mexican half Jewish, I had a friend of ours who's Persian, I had an African-American woman with a beautiful dark skin tone, I had a beautiful Asian girl there, myself who is more olive, Bethany [McCarty, King's go-to makeup artist] — she's got more of a rosy, peachy undertone — I wanted everyone to be represented."
ColourPop Vanity Fair Super Shock Shadow, $8, available at ColourPop.
"My mandate was, [a product] would go on the chopping block, guillotined, if it did not look beautiful on everyone — because I am all about inclusiveness," says King.
ColourPop Thames Super Shock Cheek, $8, available at ColourPop.
“When we were going through the samples, I was getting frustrated because I was like, 'Do we want more pearl, or less pearl? Larger pearls or smaller pearls?'" King says. "I wanted people to be able to choose."
So ColourPop came up with a brilliant solution: a colorless product that has shimmer when it hits the light. "You can put it on top of any matte shadow, and turn any matte shadow into a shimmer — it's amazing!" says King. "The fact that we were able to make this was a dream come true. [It] legitimately changes the game in regards to beauty."
ColourPop Alchemy Super Shock Shadow, $8, available at ColourPop.
"If you put Knight on your finger, rub it on your skin, look at it in the light...it has the most beautiful sheen you've ever seen," says King. "I've never seen a product like it. You can use it as a very beautiful, long-lasting eyeliner with a brush, you can use it to smoke your eyes out, you can mix it with the contour to create the right shade for your brows...there are so many different things that you can do with it."
ColourPop Knight Super Shock Shadow, $8, available at ColourPop.
This creamy, ivory highlighter has a subtle golden tone with a pearly finish. It's perfect for dabbing where the sun naturally hits your face.
ColourPop Pretty Bonnes Super Shock Cheek, $8, available at ColourPop.
This soft-copper-and-gold highlighter has a light, luminescent finish.
ColourPop The Golden Child Super Shock Cheek, $8, available at ColourPop.
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