by 
Billy Porter throws himself into the beauty ensemble with a brand new make-up and skin care product called Black Mona Lisa, which is named after his fifth studio album. This new collection includes a variety of light, user-friendly products such as collagen and retinolserum, kale facial cleaner, eye cream, liquid lipstick and liquid eye shimmer. The prices are between $ 9.99 and $ 66.99.
“I feel like this first trip [of the brand] It’s about exploration. It’s about people who just want to explore, “said Porter to WWD about a call.” It is about recognizing who they are really and deeply understood in the soul that they are worth it and are not afraid to announce it themselves. “
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Porter’s own unique relationship with beauty was an important catalyst in this undertaking. It all started when he was 14 years old. “I got my first job, went to Kaufmanns in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the large department store, and I went to the Clinique switch. I don’t know why I knew about Clinique, but I went straight to the clinique counter and I said: ‘I need an entire facial regime.’ And they said: “You have no pimples.”
As a child, there was the first skin care tip that he had taught that moistened. “As a black person, soap and water meet my body at any time, lotion goes into us from the start. In winter it was Vaseline on my face,” he said. “It has always been part of me when I grew and got out of the closet.”
Since then, Porter has made a career to accept different personas and characters for public consumption, and although he wore make-up for so many of these faces, it was not so easy and easy to explore beauty while it was not so easy and simple. The award-winning artist of Tony, Emmy and Grammy said: “I was afraid of how I wanted to express myself sometimes. There were days when I wanted to wear lipstick, and I wouldn’t do it because the status was quo.”
He continued: “It was a lot of the work that I did where I really researched how I presented the public beauty and it was really magical.”
Porter’s ability to be as playful and expressive as he is on stage was also inspired by younger generations that blurred the lines and delete the constructs for identity and gender, as well as his experience in rotating. “I have learned to be traveling with my younger friends that there are no letters; there are no rules. It is free and fun; it is authentic. This is my authentic self, and I didn’t even know it,” said Porter. “That is what I should be this brand. I want you to free people and whatever they want to be.”
For interested consumers who wondered why Black Mona Lisa did not offer a foundation, Porter said that he wanted to be sure that he first had a wide range of shadows before starting his own version of the make -up. “As a black man, I will have shades for all blacks and all different people. I would like to create the magical colors that are opaque enough to point to darker skin. I know that this will be a focus for me when we expand and go forward,” explained Porter.
From the existing products, Porter believes that the eye shimmer is “the hero product”. Of course, when Black Mona Lisa is expanding, who says what will come out as a top seller. He has big plans to expand the business into an empire one day. “Black Mona Lisa is omnipresent for me. It is always classic and does not go out of fashion. This is only a black Mona Lisa beyond music. But I also want black Mona Lisa clothing, shoes and cookware,” he added.
All products are now available on Blackmonisabeauty.com.
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