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Content note: This story contains a mention of suicide ideation.
Few singers have a more varied stable of alter-egos as Kim Petras: Y2K Beverly Hills bimbo; French supermodel; mother dominatrix; vintage movie starlet; vampiress of the night… The 31-year-old German singer has channeled countless “characters” throughout her career, each of them their own elaborate performance piece about the power of transformation.
Fashion, wigs, and—maybe most importantly—makeup have been instrumental to each of these personas, as she’ll tell you herself. But that appreciation runs even deeper for Petras, arguably one of the most famous transgender people in the world right now, who says she’s used beauty products as a gender-affirming tool all of her life.
It’s kismet, in many ways, that Petras has landed one of the beauty industry’s and the LGBTQ+ community’s highest honors: the starring spot in MAC’s Viva Glam campaign, which aims to raise money and awareness for queer and trans issues annually via a collaborative, limited-edition lipstick shade. Petras talked with Allure about growing up surrounded by makeup, the products she can’t live without, what’s in store for her next character… Oh, and her candid thoughts on TikTok’s viral “gay pop” debate.
Allure: You’ve used makeup to transform into various “characters” throughout your career. What are your earliest memories of playing with makeup?
Kim Petras: My mom used MAC eye shadow religiously and always had it in her kit, and I would steal it and get in trouble for wearing it. Your mom's makeup bag is such a magical place when you're little. [Makeup] affirmed how I felt on the inside when I was a child and a teenager. I remember getting really into lipsticks when the nude lip was everything. I got really into setting spray; it sort of became my thing. I always had it with me. I would always spray it on myself every five minutes and at school breaks. I was not a cool kid, so I would sit in the corner and listen to music and spray my Fix+ every two minutes. It's a core memory for me; the smell of that, to this day, won't leave me.
[Makeup] was just fun, like painting. Then, later, I wore makeup all the time to let people know who I am. I think all that's really important and beautiful.
Allure: And now you’re the star of MAC’s Viva Glam campaign, where makeup and LGBTQ+ activism converge.
Petras: I remember running to the MAC store when Nicki Minaj did Viva Glam. She did a lavender lipstick, which was nuts, but I still wore it and I still have it actually—or whatever's left of it—and I’ll have it forever. Through that, I learned a lot about Viva Glam and what they've done in the world since the iconic RuPaul campaign [from 1994]. That is constantly on my mood boards.
Viva Glam has raised over half a billion dollars for charity, for HIV [research], for LGBTQ+ communities. I really care about trans youth and trans homelessness, and it's so cool that 100 percent of [proceeds from] the lipstick go toward change in the world. It's really the perfect collaboration. I said yes [to being in the campaign] in one second and I freaked out and cried. Pinching myself. Princess moment.
Allure: Given all the ways LGBTQ+ communities—drag performers and trans people, especially—are being targeted via legislation across our country these days, it’s an opportune time to be in this particular spotlight.
Petras: It's a very strange time politically, and I feel like [transness] in general is being used for political things and it's horrible. I think right now, trans kids are the ones who are suffering from this whole ordeal the most. There are still kids that get kicked out of their homes for being trans and that end up being homeless. It's really hard to be a trans child. I remember being tiny and having thoughts of killing myself. You think the world thinks you're crazy. You think no one's ever going to accept you. What you need most of all is help figuring it out.
I feel really happy about doing [Viva Glam] and educating people about this stuff… and celebrating transformation and how much self-expression makeup gives us.
Allure: How much does the power of makeup manifest itself in your music?
Petras: Makeup and my songs and music are so intertwined with each other. I get to tell my story [with makeup]. Telling stories is my favorite thing as a songwriter. [In my early career] I made up a more glamorous character than I am because I felt like I wasn't that at all, being a little country bumpkin in Germany. Then same with my Halloween album [Turn Off the Light]; for that, everything's very corpse-y and very dead.
[For my album Slut Pop Miami], it's been fun to make my brows really thin and get a spray tan and do contour differently. [My characters reference] things that are in my DNA as a person. I didn't really think, "I'm going to do hyper-feminine-bimbo-fication-core." I was just raised by Paris Hilton.
Without makeup, I wouldn't be able to do my job at all the way that I want to do it.
Allure: What character do you plan on playing next?
Petras: In music, I have reached a really interesting point where I want to pull a one-eighty. I don't want to box myself in. All I care about is creating things that I find beautiful. I want to make a great album and I want to dream up my next tour and take my time a little bit.
But I'm onto a cool thing. Old movies have been really influential to me. I've been diving back into my favorite black and white movies and my favorite old thrillers like Nosferatu and weird movies I used to like growing up. I want to make something that's half as beautiful as these movies.
Allure: A certain performer recently claimed they wanted to “invent” a “new genre” called “gay pop,” which started plenty of heated online debate about the origins of gay pop and what the term really means. Do you classify your own music as gay pop?
Petras: Absolutely. Gay clubs were the first places I snuck into because they were playing the music I was listening to. In the beginning [of my musical career], I was like, "I want to make songs that are being played and celebrated in gay clubs." I was so into Kylie Minogue and Madonna songs. I was so into disco ‘70s music, like Donna Summer. Even Judy Garland songs are, in ways, gay pop. I think gay pop has always been there.
Nothing harmful has been done… But I just hope it's researched with people, the discourse. Gay pop happened in history.
You always know you're on the right track if people all of a sudden all want to claim it. That's the cool thing right now. Being gay is cool, and that's fucking everything and more. But I don't really need to claim anything. Everything comes from hundreds of years of musicianship, so I just don't feel the need to.
Allure: Before you go, tell me four products you can’t live without.
Petras: The Molecular Repair Hair Mask by K18. MAC Hyper Real Skin Canvas Balm. Tom Ford Lost Cherry and Tom Ford White Suede. [White Suede] smells like a shoe store to me, but a Manolo Blahnik shoe store, and that's how I want to smell.
If you are experiencing thoughts of self-harm, you can contact The Trevor Project to be connected with a crisis counselor. Their services are free and confidential.
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