Lady Gaga kicks off the promotional campaign for her new make-up brand Haus Labs with a cover of Allure's Best of Beauty issue, on newsstands September 24th. Enjoy excerpts from Gaga's interview below or click here to read the full cover story.
On the power of makeup:
I never felt beautiful, and I still have days that I don't feel beautiful. All of the insecurities that I've dealt with my whole life from being bullied when I was younger, they come right back up to bite me. Then I put makeup on, and before I know it I feel this superhero within. It gives me those wings to fly.
On how her team helped her be Lady Gaga on stage:
Sarah would pick me up off the floor, sit me in a chair, dry my tears, and say, 'I'm going to put on your face now.' If I cried while she was putting on my makeup, I would apologize, and she would say, 'It's okay. I've got you.' Sarah would do my makeup, Freddie would do my hair, and they would hold me and say, 'Look at yourself. There's Lady Gaga. You can do this. Now go do it.' And I would go out there, and the second that spotlight hits me, bam, I'm in the zone,” she says. “But I can't do that without them. That is the power of glam for me. Not everybody has a Sarah, but I'm very lucky that I do. And I want this line to be for the person at home who needs that pick-me-up. If they use it, or don't use it, they can at least look at it and go, 'That's what helps Lady Gaga shine on her bad days. And I want to shine today.'
On wanting Haus Laboratories to be a continuation of her championing of the LGBTQ+ community:
I would like all gender identities to know very clearly that they are included, and never exploited, ever. I want that little boy at home that might like to be called a girl to say, 'Mommy, I want to wear Dynasty. It's a Glam Attack.' And then Mommy goes, 'Oh, my son wants to be called a girl, and he wants the Glam Attack.' And then she goes and she gets it for him. And he uses it. And then there's a bond. It's kind of like when kids used to come to my shows with their parents, and they'd lean over and they'd say, 'Mommy and Daddy, I'm gay.' Or 'I'm not a boy; I'm a girl'. Or 'I'm not a girl; I'm a boy.' I have heard those stories so many times, over and over, for all of the years that I have been in this business. And I want the same thing that I've had in my concerts to happen with this company. If I'm not changing people's lives, what are we doing here?