The other night, the text messages popping up on my phone read like this:
“Ahhhhh!!!”
“OMG YESSSSSS”
“I’m actually DYING!”
“What is she like??? IS SHE DOING YOUR MAKEUP?”
Nobody was “actually dying,” but these are the types of responses one gets when they hop on a group chat to announce that Pat McGrath is launching an entire permanent collection of makeup, and that you’re at a party with her to celebrate. (Oh, and she didn’t do my makeup, but one of her assistants did, and then she touched it up. Surreal.)
“This came from my obsession with finding the perfect formulas,” McGrath said from the penthouse floor of the Gramercy Park Hotel, “and of course, me spending years in the lab making and testing products that I’m crazy about.”
The “this” she is referring to is her first permanent collection, which includes three eyeshadow palettes (Subliminal, Sublime, Subversive), five eye pencils, 12 lip pencils, a mascara, and—are you ready?—40 lipsticks.
“There’s a color I love called Unnatural Natural, an amazing color called Major Red, and a Genius one called LaBeija,” McGrath shared, adding that she’s been concepting collection for about eight years and spent two years producing it.
While the permanent collection should make it easier for Pat McGrath Lab obsessives to get their hands on the brand’s products, McGrath isn’t abandoning her buzzy, limited-edition launches altogether.
“That will continue as well,” she said. “Those will be straight from the lab, straight out into the market—things that I cannot wait for. Could you have waited two years for Gold 001?”
We shudder at the thought.
The lipsticks hit patmcgrath.com on September 16 with the rest of the collection dropping on September 28. The full line rolls out at Sephora on October 6.
Pat McGrath Labs Sublime Eye Palette.