Lady Gaga has a secret that's been hiding in plain sight for months. All through the last red carpet season — which, thanks to her lead role in House of Gucci, had no shortage of good-old Gaga hair and makeup moments— the Haus Labs founder and her makeup artist Sarah Tanno were sneakily testing the brand's revamp.
"We definitely didn't want anyone to see our new products and know what we were up to," Gaga says over a Zoom with Allure, while wearing a monochromatic satin green ensemble, complete with a matching headband and cat-eye. "I wore Haus Labs to the SAG Awards, [for] that white eye I had with my Armani Prive white dress. And at the Critics Choice Awards, I wore a Gucci dress and yellow paint on my eyes, and we smoked it out with some eye shadow as well."
Still, Gaga wants to make one thing clear: the rebirth of Haus Labs by Lady Gaga, which includes 90 items in seven categories, is not intended to make you look more like, well, Lady Gaga. "I did not want it to be about me, or my stage makeup or my red carpet makeup necessarily, even though I have worn these products on stage and red carpets," she says. "I wanted this makeup to be unlike any other makeup that's out there and makeup for everyone. So this is supercharged makeup with supercharged ingredients. It's infused with skin care."
Take, for instance, the Hy-Power Pigment Paint, which is meant for lips, cheeks, and eyelids. It's made with hyaluronic acid, a naturally-occurring sugar molecule that board-certified dermatologist Tsippora Shainhouse, MD, previously told Allure helps trap collagen in skin to keep things looking dewy.
"So my eyes are being hydrated and lifted as we speak with this on, but it's very, very pigmented as you can see," Gaga says about her metallic green-winged cat-eye, which is so vivid that I can see it shine despite her backlit Zoom camera set-up.
Then there is the Optic Intensity Eco Eyeliner, a plastic-free product that's made with argan oil and vitamin E. There are 18 colors that range from staples like black and brown to standouts like a very buildable chartreuse green and matte mauve.
Gaga's given us not one, but two lip products: Le Monster Lip Crayon, 13 shimmer and matte lip crayons ranging from neutrals to pastels and bright reds, and the PhD Hybrid Lip Oil, which comes in clear, orange, bright pink, and deep berry options.
The Power Sculpt Velvet Bronzer and Bio Radiant Gel Highlighter are two products that make Gaga very proud. Both are talc-free and vegan, plus come infused with fermented arnica, which is a very intentional ingredient for Gaga.
"I use regular arnica on my body all of the time for fibromyalgia," Gaga says, citing the chronic condition that left her hospitalized in 2017 due to severe pain. "I used to take prescription medication to take down inflammation, and I actually found that didn't really work and that arnica was much more powerful." When Gaga began redeveloping her Haus products, she wanted to "explore the healing powers of arnica on the face."
Hadley King, MD, a board-certified dermatologist and clinical instructor of dermatology at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York City, tells Allure that arnica has been used medicinally since the 1500s. "It is used topically for a wide range of conditions, including bruises, sprains, muscle aches, wound healing, superficial phlebitis, joint pain, inflammation from insect bites, and swelling from broken bones," she says.
Despite this, Gaga was met with surprising pushback when she said she wanted to use arnica in her makeup. (Can you imagine telling the Stefani Joann Angelina Germanotta no?) "When I started this company people told me you'll never be able to get arnica in anything," she explains. "Maybe in skin care, but never in a product. They told me it was impossible to innovate. But that's not true — you can, you just have to be relentless."
So the Haus team developed a fermented arnica oil, which Gaga says is "860 percent" more portent than conventional arnica. Fermented skin care is a bit of a formulation trend these days. A quick explanation: as cosmetic chemist Ginger King previously told Allure, these products contain "active ingredients that have been fermented with yeast or bacteria break down to smaller molecules for better absorption [into skin]."
Gaga says that the arnica-infused highlighters and bronzers help to reduce the redness her cheeks are prone to. "So it's treating my skin, but it's also a very high-performance artistry product," she says. "There's none of that bunchiness you can sometimes get when you use contour. We also don’t do those patchy highlighters. To me, I always want to make sure that people understand that we do not sacrifice performance, but we also don’t sacrifice your values."
Haus Labs, as you may recall, debuted in 2019 and was originally sold at Amazon. As Business Insider reported last month, six people who worked at Haus said they felt the unrolling was "rushed," and that the brand is "pinning its hopes on a Sephora debut."
Representatives for Haus and Gaga did not respond to Allure's request for comment on the Insider story. But before it came out, Gaga spoke more generally, saying, "This re-imagining of the brand has been in the works the whole time, because this is really coming out of the natural progression of me being a student of the beauty industry. And when I first started this company I was an expert in my own makeup, in stage makeup and red carpet makeup, but really needed to become an expert in the beauty landscape and how to build a brand. So that took some time."
And, according to some of my Allure colleagues who tested Haus Labs by Lady Gaga before its release, the wait was worth it. Keep reading to learn what we think.
Our social media manager Rachael Edwards tried the PhD Hybrid Lip Oil in Tint, and she says her favorite part about it is the formula itself. "Sometimes glosses and oils can be either too much or too little but the consistency is non-tacky and applied super smooth," she says. "Even after 20 minutes, the color payoff is really gorgeous and feels moisturizing." Sometimes fragrance can dry out Edwards' lips, but she says the whiff of fruitiness you can smell from the product doesn't get in the way of hydration.
Site director Sam Escobar has tried three colors of Haus Lab's Hy-Power Pigment Paint in Magenta Cream, and they say the multi-purpose hues "all have a really bright, striking finish — particularly the shimmery shades." They also love the "perfectly precise, superthin" Edge Precision Brow Pencil. "It blends well into my actual brows so it looks nice and natural, and it lasted throughout the day without fading," Escobar adds.
Another easy-to-blend product is the Power Sculpt Velvet Bronzer in Light Level 3. "It has such a soft, lovely texture," they say. And who can ignore the Optic Intensity Eco Eyeliner they have on their lids? "Teal matte is such a pretty color — it's like applying the vibrant and beautiful blue-green shade of a saltwater ocean directly on my eyelids."
Commerce writer Jennifer Hussein is not usually one for powdered highlighters. But Haus Lab's Bio-Radiant Gel Powder Highlighter in the champagne hue Golden Pyrite is making her reconsider. "Its subtle shift makes my cheekbones look naturally striking, not blinding," she says.
Hussein adds that the Optic Intensity Eco-Eyeliner in Black Onyx Matte refused to wash away after five washes. "But don't worry, because makeup remover did just the trick," she says. "Its staying power is just as impressive on my rather oily eyelids, so prepare to be amazed by this nifty little liner."
Common sense might tell you that it’s unwise to apply an eyeliner after downing an extra-large cold brew; Gaga's new Optic Intensity Eco-Eyeliner in Chartreuse took pity on my shaky hands. Its applicator does glide on the waterline well, and it's thick enough to fudge straight-ish application — even if your hands look like they’re doing a tap dance across your face. But the pigment, of course, is the star of the show. I may be partial to this yellow-green color (see: my hair), but it is so much fun and a shoe-in for all of my summer party looks.
Haus Labs by Lady Gaga retails for $22 to $40 and is available at sephora.com.
Read more about celebrity beauty brands:
- 27 Celebrities With Beauty Brands That Are Here to Stay
- Inside the Mysterious World of Celebrity Beauty Brands
- Lady Gaga: The Power of Beauty
And now, watch Lady Gaga surprise a superfan with a makeup tutorial:
