Singer Meghan Trainor blew up the music scene in 2014. And just a few weeks into 2015, the pop star is already making some serious moves on the style front. Her first big gig? Collaborating with Clinique to design her very own makeup bag (filled with her favorite lip products). We sat down with the star on the set of her photoshoot to get the exclusive scoop on the colorful collaboration, her current beauty routine and what it’s really like for a newbie to walk the red carpet. Check it out, below.
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The singer partnered with the iconic beauty brand to create a crazy, colorful, limited-edition makeup bag as well as curate nine of her fave Clinique lip products (including her top pick, the Chubby Sticks) to coincide with Tuesday’s album launch. And what’s even cooler about the collab? She designed the chic little bag herself!
“I designed this bag through a computer, which is epic,” she tells PEOPLE. “I was like, ‘What am I doing?’ I picked out the colors, the theme — that’s my favorite blue — and the lips for [her single] ‘Lips Are Movin’.’”
But it didn’t come naturally to her, she says: Before she was constantly in front of the camera, she was a beauty rookie. “I didn’t wear makeup for a long time because I didn’t know what I was doing. My mom used to try to put makeup on me,” she says. “I was in middle school, and she was like, ‘Just put lipstick on!,’ and I was like, ‘Ugh, I don’t want to! It tastes bad!’ She was like, ‘Well, you don’t eat it!’ and I was like, ‘OK, it’s on my mouth!’ I didn’t get it. But I figured it out — kinda.”
Now, with a makeup artist on hand (who also happens to be her best friend and hairstylist) to catch her up to speed, she’s got her full routine down to about an hour. And she’s still picking up tips from everyone around her.
“My dancers just taught me this. All you really need, if you’re running out, or if you have friends coming over and you don’t want to look like you tried, you need foundation to make your skin look like buttah,” she tells PEOPLE. “And then the brows! The brows are everything. I had no idea. You fill [them] in!”
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With the Grammys right around the corner, the pop star is planning to step up her makeup game by adding a pop of color to her look before hitting the red carpet. “I haven’t done it yet, but I love rocking a red lip,” she says. “It depends on what color my dress is, but I love it because my lips are teensy weensy and [red lipstick] shows: ‘Whoa! She has lips!’”
Trainor is still getting used to the red carpet experience, so she has her own mantra before facing the cameras. “You kind of have to turn on a switch like, ‘Be a boss, pretend you know what you’re doing, go!’,” she tells PEOPLE. “I always go with the ‘Fake it ’til you make it’ idea, so I pose and [say to myself], ‘Be Beyoncé. Be the artist you are right now.’ And once you get through it, it’s mostly really fun because you get to meet all these new people who become your best friends.”
Head to your local Clinique beauty counter to nab one of Trainor’s colorful cosmetic bags (free with any $30 purchase) before they’re gone. And be sure to pick up her album — on stands today!
What do you think of Meghan’s designed bag? Will you be picking one up? Tell us below!
–Sarah Kinonen
