Multiple award-winning singer Doja Cat—the story on where her stage name comes from, below—has risen to the top of the charts in the last couple of years, garnering an impressive following of nearly 15 million Instagram followers. And not only is the 25-year-old an A-list entertainer, but she’s also super funny (I could not stop laughing during our interview) and a huge beauty junkie—her brand-new makeup collection in collaboration with BH Cosmetics launches tomorrow. Here, she gives us the inside scoop on all that and more.
Did you love makeup growing up, or did it just come with the Hollywood territory?
“I loved it! When I was 8 or 9, I used to steal makeup from my mom. Then I started wearing makeup in elementary school, and shouldn’t have been doing that, but I did. That kind of blossomed into high school where I was ordering palettes online, and one of my first palettes was BH Cosmetics. It was like every color in the rainbow and more, and I was really excited about it. I tried everything I could, and I wasn’t any good, but I kept going. I actually tried to become a makeup artist at one point in high school. I did this girl’s makeup and it looked good, kind of for a second, and then I don’t know what happened, but she just didn’t pay me. She showed me a picture of it and the picture of it was no good, so. I used to wear so much makeup to school all the time, and people would ask me to do their makeup, but after that, I didn’t want to destroy their personal brand (laughs).”
How did the collaboration with BH come to be?
“BH came to me, and I was happy that they wanted to do something completely fresh with me and give me the creative freedom to kind of do whatever I want. I was really inspired by nature and all the colors of nature, like from flowers, different stones and metals and vegetation. For the eye palette, I really wanted good greens in there, and some really good pinks, and I feel like mint is a very uncommon shade, but I selfishly wanted to add that one for me personally.”
There’s also lip products in the collection too, right?
“I wanted a lip plumper for sure. I love that it’s a little spicy—we love a little bit of spicy, a little ‘spiceation’—and I kept the sample of it in my purse forever and I knew it was good. I also wanted the lip colors to be warm and floral.”
If you could use only one piece of makeup every day, what would it be?
“I have no eyebrows, so maybe a brow pencil. I’ve really never had brows, but growing up I also felt the need to tweeze them more. I ended up tweezing off the tails of my eyebrows because I could this achieve this shape I wanted with a brow pencil to kind of lift my face. I have this ‘Spock’ brow that I do sometimes when I’m feeling extra insecure. I go straight up and it lifts my face really well. It doesn’t look that natural, so it’s good with heavier makeup, but it’s been something really great for me.”
There’s no brow product in this new collection right?
“No, but that’s not to say there isn’t something on the horizon.”
Ernesto [Casillas], your go-to glam guy, has posted that you like to do your own graphic eyeliner. How did that come about?
“I definitely like to be the one doing my liner, even if it’s just a basic black cat-eye, because it’s very personal for me. He’s done it before for me and it was perfect, but I’ve had a lot of bad luck in the past, so I just learned to do it myself. I like to do the more editorial, crazy graphic stuff as well, which is just special to me. He hasn’t experimented too much with that, so he just lets me take the wheel.”
Are there any skin-care products in your routine that you’re loving right now?
“I use the whole Tatcha routine—that’s my full-on day routine. For nighttime, I use Glow Recipe, and I like to mix the Avocado Night Mask with the Watermelon Night Mask. The Watermelon smells SO good and it’s really fun. It’s just a great mask. I also like to spray the Watermelon Face Mist on top. It’s the best misting bottle in the world. I’m not getting paid for this I swear, but other companies need to learn how to make a misting bottle like this.”
Let’s talk about your hair. I feel like you switch up your length and color so often. Do you have a favorite look?
“I definitely like shorter hair. That’s something I’ve learned, and for practicality, I don’t like to have to put my hair up. For me, shorter hair is a vibe. It’s not a problem if I’m hot and it doesn’t get all tangled up when I sleep. But right now, my goal is to have a very, very good mullet, so I’m working on that. I’m at the point in my life when I really want a perfect mullet.”
Wait, I just realized I have no idea where your name came from. Tell me the story behind “Doja Cat.”
(Laughs) “I smoked a lot of weed in the past. When I was like 16, someone said ‘doja’ one time and there were some songs I really liked with the word ‘doja’ in it. And I was like, ‘Well, if I smoke weed, I should be like the stoner girl who raps, but that was not for me—I did not need to be that person. I ran with Doja because it sounded like a girl’s name sort of and had a feminine quality to it. ‘Cat’ was just because I like cats, so I added that as my last name.”
What can your fans expect from you coming up this fall?
“Oh my god, SO much stuff! Lots of shows, lots of things, and that’s all I can say.”
