I think you always want things to get better, and that's been my view ever since I've been in this industry. So it's great to see there's more diversity, but it could always get better.
— Pat McGrath
I'd go into a department store now and buy everything. It's who I am. I just love cosmetics.
I just loved makeup. My mother loved it as well - and was obsessed by the fact that we couldn't find any makeup for dark skin.
My earliest memory was watching my mother do her makeup. She was obsessed with beauty and collected makeup and experimented with it. I think it's a lot of young men and women's experiences, growing up: watching the ritual of what their mothers would do.
I wear very natural makeup, but it's made up out of five foundations to make that perfect skin, and my lipstick might be three different lipsticks mixed together, so it's a kind of obsession in a different way.
I don't go to the spa or get my hair done enough. I don't go to the gym enough. But I do take five, six weeks' vacation; the industry does.
I love to look at all those young artists' work and then bring them in, have them work with me at shows.
When I was a child, the world of makeup was so different. There wasn't the wide range of shades available for darker skin tones like there is now.
You couldn't get anyone more makeup-addicted than me.
I knew I wasn't going to make money in the beginning, so I found another way to support myself - I was a receptionist. It's quite smart to work that way. Otherwise, you get vicious and desperate, and no one wants to work with you. Build your career slowly; then people start to trust you and pay you well.
That's the best pigment, anyways: something that works for everyone because it's just so rich.
