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The first lipstick Paris Jackson ever bought was a red liquid liner from KVD Beauty. She wanted to look like her favorite ‘80s rock stars, Tommy Lee and Nikki Sixx. "All those really cool dudes from the ’80s wore red lipstick," Jackson tells Allure over the phone. "I wanted to be like them and the first one I picked happened to be from KVD and I stuck with it."
Jackson wasn't allowed to wear makeup growing up, so she had to borrow her friends' products, put them on at school, and remember to take them off before she went home. So it's a full-circle moment that now, at 24, she's the face of KVD Beauty's Tattoo Pencil launch, a long-wearing gel eyeliner that's an evolution from the brand's perennially popular liquid iteration. (The liner hits Sephora and KVD Beauty on April 10.)
Jackson's currently into the two brown hues (Pyrolusite and Axinite) and a deep burgundy called Madder Red. She adds that no matter the color, all of the products do not smudge or budge for anything. (Remember, this is based on the liquid eyeliner that is so good, that it's been known to last through car accidents.)
"I actually have to use a different liquid liner that does smudge [as a base] and once I get that shape and the smudge that I want, then I put the Tattoo Pencil liner on top of it because I like those colors more and they last longer," she says.
Whenever Jackson uses the KVD Tattoo Pencil by itself, she has to work "so fast, because it sets quickly and it's not smudging, like even water won't get it off." She prefers "puppy eyes" that slope downward to cat eyes.
Tattoos are something Jackson knows a thing or two about. She calls herself a "scab pirate," a nickname given to her by her tattoo artist. She's given herself and some friends ink, but Jackson's quick to point out that she's unlicensed and not a professional. She thinks she's tattooed herself "four or five" times (she hasn't kept track), but she tries not to ink herself too much because she admits she can get "a little carried away.… I would like to keep on the path that I'm going on where I get [tattoos] done professionally and they look really good, as opposed to mediocre or less than mediocre all over my body [when I apply them]," she explains.
Her favorite tattoos are "probably the ones on my toes because they look the best out of the others I've done on myself," Jackson explains. "They're just shapes and lines, line work." While Jackson says she doesn't have any tips on tattoo healing that you won't hear from your artist or the internet, her favorite post-care ointment is A+D.
Jackson likes to play around with beauty, but she's careful about calling it self-care. "If I'm feeling down on myself, there's something on the inside going on," she says. "It's like a house, right? If the foundation of the house is not strong, you can't fix the house by putting a pretty paint job on it or adding new shingles on the roof. You fix the problem by going inward and fixing that. So when the house is sturdy and good to go, then you can paint on top of it and make it look perfect."
So instead of makeup, Jackson turns to spend time with her loved ones and speaking affirmations. "I narrow in on my insecurities and I do a contrary action," she says. "That means whatever is contrary to my deepest insecurity, I write it down on a piece of paper every night. And I write a gratitude list every night as well."
Jackson says that KVD Beauty aligns with her personal ethics. After a 2020 rebrand, KVD now stands for kara, veritas, decora (value, truth, and beauty in Latin). "It just talks about embracing true beauty, which I believe comes from the inside, which I think is a really cool practice," she says. "We work on the inside first and then we go outwards."
Read more celebrity beauty interviews:
- Sydney Sweeney Designs Her Own Press-On Nails for Red Carpets
- How Quinta Brunson's Beauty Routine Has Changed in Her 'Abbot Elementary' Era
- Why 'Black-ish' Star Marsai Martin Loves Wearing Braids
And now, watch Janet Jackson break down her most iconic music video beauty looks:
