Ariana Grande is adding to the excitement for Wicked’s highly anticipated movie adaptation, hitting theatres on Friday, November 22. The 31-year-old actress, singer, and entrepreneur is launching a Wicked-themed makeup collection under her r.e.m. beauty line, inspired by the film and her role as Glinda the Good Witch, as first revealed by Allure. Luckily, we don’t have to wait until the movie’s release—the r.e.m. beauty x Wicked collection drops on October 1.
The nine-piece makeup collection includes everything from under-eye masks and an eyeshadow palette to lip stain and highlighter. “Of course, we had to come up with something magical for the witches,” Grande told Vogue. Enter the collab’s pH-adaptive lip oil, which the Nickelodeon alum insists is as magical as it sounds. “It’s actually jarring. I’m not kidding,” she shared with Allure. “I put it on for the first time and I turned away from the mirror for a second, smacked my lips together…and I turned back and they were the color of Galinda’s peignoir [outfit] in the ‘Popular’ number. I was like, ‘Oh my God, it worked.’”
Naturally, the collection’s packaging is inspired by the novel-turned-Broadway musical-turned-upcoming film. Grande took this detail—and every other—very seriously, even sending her brand’s production team to London, the movie’s main filming location, for creative inspiration. “Everything was so secretive, but [Universal] allowed them to see the sets and the props and the costumes in person and feel what it was like to be there,” Grande told Allure. “I really think it affected how everything turned out in a big way.”
Get a sneak peek of the limited-edition r.e.m. beauty x Wicked collection
It sounds like Grande herself was closely involved in every step, too. “I pulled inspiration for the collection from the stage show, the movie, and the books,” she told Vogue. “I am very much a nerd who likes to document things, like my fittings and hair and makeup tests.” That attention to detail is seemingly how she recalls her hair and brow transformation so vividly. “We tried many different eyebrow shades, so many different toner concoctions,” Grande told Allure. “And so many different wigs because they all tell different stories. I’ll never forget when we finally landed on the perfect combination. Our director, Jon M. Chu, was like, ‘That’s her.’”
Though filming completed in January, Grande told Allure that she’s continuing to bleach her brows. “I actually am still bleaching them, but I’m toning them a little bit in between brown and blonde,” she says. “[I’ve got] sort of like gingery, strawberry blonde eyebrows right now, just because I really like it and I got very used to it.” She is so used to it that she says, “When I see dark brows on me, I feel like I’m looking at an alien. It’s quite interesting… so [now] I’m somewhere in the middle, but I plan to keep it up for quite some time. I’m doing it myself now. I have a little brow kit labeled ‘Galinda brow.’ I have a pink spoolie. It’s very fun.”
