Kim’s New Nudes

Kim Kardashian has four children, two brands, and one private equity company. I assume that means that she also has good child care, but kids can’t always be wrangled like a new brand launch. “Hold on, I'm doing an interview baby,” she says calmly as one of her brood interrupts our conversation, which she’s conducting by phone from California. “OK, stop. I'm doing an interview. I'll come and handle it in a minute. OK. Can you please go into the other room?”

Her voice is exactly the same as the one we hear on social media and on her family’s reality TV show; kind, unflappable, firm. The child’s resistance soon dissipates and Kardashian picks up from her previous thought without flinching. The absence of any hint of irritation, or any attempt at deflection, is genuinely impressive, though it’s probably not surprising. As Kardashian’s 364 million Instagram followers know, calm determination and focus have always been just as important to the Kardashian DNA as the family’s signature glam and aesthetic.

It’s the latter that Kardashian is on the phone to discuss. Specifically, the launch of SKKN BY KIM’s first makeup collection, which includes 10 soft matte lipsticks, 15 long-wear lipliners, and 12 nude eyeshadows. “I feel like my vision is finally getting realized,” she says. “When I launched with the name SKKN BY KIM, I think people thought like, oh, it's just skin care. But I always knew we were working on all of the products so that it could be everything, just all the essentials you need to enhance your best skin, your best self.”

The collection marks Kardashian’s return to the traditional cosmetics business following the shuttering of KKW Beauty in 2021. “I think you always have to also be super true to who you are, and I always, always just wanted neutrals,” she says. “The SKKN customer and me as a person, we're never going to be that person that has red lips and all of this bright stuff, like purple eye-shadow. All the stuff that I used to do for people because everyone thought, oh, let's try this, it's fun. It was so fun for the photo shoot, but I realistically might not have worn that.”

Celebrity net worth estimates are famously nebulous, but most reports attached to Kardashian now include the B-word. One assumes that this puts her in a unique position, able to only do work that she feels personally passionate about. For now — and perhaps forever — that includes makeup, as she explains below.

​​Is makeup always a joyful exercise for you, or does it ever feel like a sort of armor?

I think… not that it feels like armor at all. I've always been the biggest fan of glam and always having your makeup done. But I think that my style has been changing. My approach before was: conceal it all, cover it all, and then add back what you want to show. But now it's just like, oh, let's lightly conceal those areas and just really enhance what you have. With the products that I'm launching, you can keep it light or you can build and that's the beauty of it all.

That's really what I think my brand kind of is; all of the techniques that I've learned over the years

I have a 3-year-old niece who always raids my makeup bag whenever I go home. She just wants to try it all and play with it. Does that happen with your daughters?

You know what, they are always trying to use everything that I have in my drawers. I think it's a fun game for them. It’s art for them to try to do makeup, which is so fun for me to watch. It's like they want to play with their friends and do it, and then they want to just wash it right off. I'm down for the artistry. I think it's fun when they're trying it all and expressing themselves.

Do you think of SKKN BY KIM as a family company, or something that you hope that one of your daughters might run one day?

I think that they will have their own ideas of what they want to do. And if one of 'em wants to take it over, they gladly can. I would love them to be involved, but I also want them to do whatever makes them happy. And that could be totally not in the beauty business and that would be OK with me.

How many times a week do you have professional glam versus doing it yourself?

That has definitely changed over the years. I don't get it done as often and I really do enjoy doing my makeup and doing it lighter than I probably have. I do work a lot though… but yeah, I don't get it done that often anymore.

I suppose you've had it done enough that you have learned all the good techniques.

Yeah, and that's really what I think my brand kind of is; all of the techniques that I've learned over the years and now giving that to the masses and making that available.

What am I going to do, ruin the experience [with North] because I want to go get some makeup on? It's kind of ridiculous.

Other members of your family have skin and makeup brands. Do you think about it from a macro point of view of not having products that compete? Or do you just do your own thing?

We actually don't really communicate about it. I mean, Kylie and I have very different brands. From the start, even our ad campaigns and stuff, we never really communicated about it because we really wanted it to be us, [and] to do exactly what we wanted and not be influenced by the other person and their choices. So we have never really discussed it, to be honest. Sometimes we'll call each other and be like, wait, you just posted that, I'm doing a campaign just like that. How is that possible? And we literally think it's not possible, but we're just sisters and think alike.

That's the best part of having sisters.

Things happen like that where we're like, oh, we should have communicated, but we also aren't going to check in with each other every time we're launching something. That doesn't make sense either.

There's been some recent coverage about how you’re not wearing makeup in your most recent TikToks. Do you care about people seeing you without makeup or are you just like, oh, whatever?

If you notice, all the TikToks are me without makeup. North has to get everything approved by me. The TikTok is on my phone. So, it's like, all the pictures are taken on my phone. It's not like anything's posted without my permission. I just think sometimes it's like, who cares?

I completely agree.

I film on my show all the time with no makeup. So I find it just kind of ridiculous. And it's like, oh my God, she has no makeup. I post photos with no makeup all the time. Also… it's kind of like when I do a photo shoot, I always let the photographer just [do their thing]. I love working with different people, even if it's not exactly what I would do. I like to see other people's vision of me. So North loves doing TikToks and social media really early in the morning and sometimes really late at night and I have no makeup on. And she's always like, mom, come on, let's just do it. And why not? What am I going to do, ruin the experience because I want to go get some makeup on? It's kind of ridiculous.

I let my daughter wear a red lip once for Christmas. Would I do that now? Probably not.

Have you seen all the recent drama around Sephora tweens? Were you into that as a kid?

I haven't seen all this Sephora drama, but everyone's been talking about it, so I have to go check it out now. A friend of mine growing up, her dad started a company called Makeup Forever. And so they had so many samples and we were obsessed. We would go through everything and try it all on.

Do you think your kids are on that path?

My littlest one's too little and I don't let her. I look back and there's times when I remember I let my daughter wear a red lip once for Christmas. Would I do that now? Probably not. At least with my oldest daughter, she just likes to dress her friends up and do makeup looks, whether it's like Pikachu or the Grinch. I don't think she’s there yet to where she is going into Sephora and trying on stuff. We were at Saks in the makeup department the other night and she tested something but put a heart on her face with it. I'm like, I don't think that's really why you use eyeliner.