Fans of Tees Maar Khan (2010) might remember Anya, the character played by Katrina Kaif, and her enthusiastic approach to makeup. In one particularly memorable scene, upon hearing that she's about to shoot an important sequence, she declares, “Main aur makeup laga ke aati hoon.” Turns out, the actor and her onscreen alter ego might have had more in common than we thought. One had a script to justify another layer of makeup; the other was having the same debate with her makeup artist in real life.
Before the internet coined a term for our collective inability to recognise when we've gone a little overboard with the rouge, Kaif was already defending her generous application to the makeup artists she worked with. Recalling her conversations with the late makeup artist Subhas Wagle, she tells Vogue, “He’d say, ‘Oh you have too much blush’ and I’d say ‘No, I don’t'”. Her response, years later, is “I wish he were here to see that there is something called blush blindness.”
Kaif's relationship with makeup goes well beyond an unapologetically rosy cheek. “I have always loved makeup. I have been that beauty girly,” she says. While some people gravitate towards handbags or clothes, her weakness has always been beauty products, particularly discovering new brands and formulations. And then, of course, there was her lip gloss era. “You couldn’t have made me part with it for anything,” she recalls.
Her beauty education, however, began long before she launched Kay Beauty. Having worked with some of the industry's most celebrated makeup artists, Kaif picked up an understanding of technique along the way. She remembers asking Wagle why he contoured her face, learning how it could lend structure and enhance her features.
Interestingly, she also credits her classical dance training with shaping her appreciation for makeup as an art form. Kaif spent two to three years studying Kathak under Guru Veeru Krishnan, training for hours in a small room. It was here that she began to understand the storytelling power of beauty. “Look at the faces of the Kathak dancers. Look at the expression in their eyes — that eye makeup and the kajal are also an intrinsic part of our culture,” she says. “That is where makeup became such a big part of my life and it eventually led me to Kay Beauty.”
Today, that fascination has developed into a rather discerning eye for formulation. “I know when an eyeshadow is not buildable, I know when an eyeliner is not smudging right because it is too dry,” she explains, adding that she knows exactly what she wants from a lipstick: just the right balance of shine, gloss and comfort.
Clearly, Kaif knows her way around a makeup bag. But when it comes to blush, perhaps some things are simply non-negotiable.
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