Fuck Around and Find Out: Kennedy & Eartheater on Glam, Grit, and Intuition
Makeup is rarely just makeup. It’s memory, armor, confession, disguise, prayer. And when it’s done between friends, it becomes something else entirely - a shared language, a private joke, a mirror held steady. This conversation unfolds less like an interview, more as a hang: Kennedy, one of the most influential makeup artists working today, talking with her friend Eartheater - musician, performer, glam shapeshifter, eternal muse.
There’s no performance here, even though both women are masters of it. This is two people who know each other well enough to be honest, weird, reverent, and soft in the same breath.
Kennedy’s work is defining a modern beauty that is hyper-polished but never sterile, erotic but human, always leaving one thing slightly off. Eartheater meets her there, speaking from the place where beauty becomes instinct, survival, and play. Together, they talk about making faces, finding essence, and staying true in industries that thrive on illusion.
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF KENNEDY@kalikennedy
INTERVIEW EARTHEATER @eartheater
E: Hi Kennedy. We are live!
K: How’s it going?
E: It’s good. I’m chilling with [her daughter} Novi in the living room. She’s playing with a pink little ducky.. How are you? What are you doing?
B: I’m good. I’m in LA. I’m recovering from a surgery I recently had that is actually being documented - so people can see more about that later, because I believe in transparency in elective surgeries. And yeah, that’s all I’ll say about that. But I’m recovering well.
E: I love that you’re being transparent about it, though personally, I don’t want to know everything ! It’s a really intense thing. Surgery makes my hair go on end. When I think about what you’d have to go through…
K: My main thing is that I feel like I work in an industry where I’m constantly glamming people and making them into this almost unattainable beauty, and there’s absolutely zero transparency about what they’ve done prior to that. Younger people are looking up to these people and thinking that they can obtain this look without any sort of cosmetic procedures.
Look: everybody needs to love themselves, but I think it would be a lot more real and safe if there was more transparency.
E: To be transparent myself, I’m wondering if I will do a Mommy Makeover. Like, when do I schedule that? I’m gonna have to consult with you later…
Speaking of makeovers, less deep and more on the surface: Do you have an early memory of makeup that left an impression on you?
K: I think my earliest memory of makeup as a kid is when I was around 3 and was given a Sanrio makeup kit. There’s a picture of me actually opening it, and I just remember being so fascinated by that. From then on I think my family realized how into makeup I was and would keep giving me bits here and there. Another memory is of my mom - I would watch my mom do her makeup in her little vanity and just like really stare. That is a very core memory for me.
E: I’m so jealous that your mom did makeup, because my mom never wore a lick of makeup, like ever, ever. And when she did occasionally later on, it was so awkward and weird because she didn’t know how to do anything, that I was like, Mom, please stop.
K: You really spun the block, babe, because I feel like you have such an iconic look
E: I think because I was fully rebelling from the lack of all of that in my upbringing. But it took me a long time, babe, a long time to figure it out. I don’t think I really knew how to do my makeup well until I was 30 years old.
K: I don’t believe that. I saw the green lips.
E: That was a rare moment. I feel like that was the inception, or the conception, of me actually like knowing, like kind of getting a vibe.
K: Well, I feel like Eartheater as a brand is like a glam girl
E: 100%.
K: When I think of Eartheater. I think of a skinny brow, I think of lip liner. I think of a really, like cunty, face, you know?
E: I think that when I shaved my brows everything changed. You know, there are certain things you can do with glam that just ignites your soul, like your innermost spark of being is fulfilled. That’s what it’s like to me: when you get the glam right, it’s like a superpower.
K: Yeah, I think that you can’t ever go back if I’m being honest. Like, no.
E: I’m never going to…
K: I hope we’re 70 with my bleach brows and your shaved brows.
"I feel like I’m honestly super inspired by making sure things aren’t 100 percent perfect. I think there’s beauty in imperfection"
E: Oh, no doubt about it. On the porch with the basset hound, like…
K: Exactly. Two hundred pound dog. We got the beautiful babies.
I see it happening in like upstate, or Pennsylvania,
E: Oh yeah. You’re buying your house next to my house. That’s the plan.
I love that baby makeup memory. You were three years old, that’s crazy.
I was three when I started playing violin, so I guess there’s something predisposed there..
K: My grandmother was a painter and a sculptor. So I really like, I think genetically, an artistic gene is predisposed. Your dad was a musician, right?
E: He was, yeah. I will say if I wasn’t really pushed by him to keep playing and practicing, I don’t know if I would be as skilled now. There was no choice to quit.. I’m really grateful for him pushing me. It’s a nature versus nurture thing, for sure.
So I have a question: I’m just so jealous about your mom doing her own makeup, you watching and being inspired by that. In your memory, what was she doing? Was it okay?
K: My mom had skinny brows that, honestly, love and adore, but she didn’t understand shaving at the time. She plucked. So now she still has skinny brows, which is sad. Had I known at the time, I hope I would have told her to shave instead.
E: So she was drawing in her brow?
K: Yes and she always wore really fab Maybelline mascara, Great Lash, the one in the pink and green…
E: Iconic
K: Yeah, she would wear blue mascara or like, you know… Jesus, my mom was fab!
She’s so, so beautiful. I used to steal her Cover Girl powder compacts and take them in my purse to parties when I was in high school.
E: Oh my God, so cute…
What’s your main source of inspiration - what excites you most throughout all of your looks? Do you feel like there's an archetype or like a vibe ?
K: I feel like I’m honestly super inspired by making sure things aren’t 100 percent perfect. I think there’s beauty in imperfection.
E: I was not expecting that, because I feel like you’re so perfect with your beat!
K: I know, but it’s one of those things where it’s almost like, okay, let’s make sure everything’s perfect, and then let’s let it sort of smudge or deteriorate a little bit. Or make the beat really fab and iconic, but maybe the lip is a little bit so glossy that it’s grotesque or something. You know what I mean? Or like mental. When I first did your makeup —
"I think the lifetime goal of an artist is to convey your essence through your work. I tell my assistants all the time: find your essence and stamp it into your work. Once you find that, you’ve figured it out."
E: I was gonna say, let’s talk about that, because that look…
K: Okay. So perfect. The first time you and I met, we were on a shoot in California for this brand my friend owns. It was so fun, because I was just so gagged to be working with THE Eartheater. I remember I wanted to do this really insane smoky eye that was just punched and socketed and frosty. You were on an ATV with this really hot, muscley dude and it was one of those moments where I was like, oh my God, we have to make your body shiny, because it’s just so insane...
E: I felt so hot during that shoot.
K: That was such a fun shoot. It felt like such kismet with you. I remember just thinking you are like You’re like this five-foot-eleven, almost six-foot-tall Amazonian doll. I actually think one of the references was a sex doll?
E: I think I remember seeing that in the deck, and I was like, YES, let’s go.
It was uncanny valley. I remember the skin first, you really tore the plastic skin! How did you completely turn me into a poreless plastic face without it looking cakey? It looked as if I was plastic. It was so, so cool. I love those images so much.
K: I know. You have to revisit and recreate the OG beat soon…
E: I had been putting eyeshadow on my lips for a while up to that point, but it was the first time that someone else was like, oh yeah, let’s do the frosted lips. And I was like, oh, okay, yeah, this is like a thing. I was like, okay, sister.
K: The next time we worked together was for our mutual friend’s wedding. Anytime you had a blemish - which, like, you’re perfect, let’s be real - but anytime you had a blemish, I was like, let’s just put a gemstone on it.
E: Babe, you know I had the worst acne for years… I love a creative way to disguise acne, and that gemstone saved my life. When are you gonna actually sell those freckle patches? Because that’s so genius. Unless you don’t want to talk about that…?
K:No, no, I’m happy to talk about it. I made a promise to myself to start working on this idea this year, and the freckle patches are part of that. But I can’t really say anything else…
E: Okay, cool. The gemstone on the spot is very, very good, I kept doing that for a while.
I will say, after having a baby; no acne. It balanced my hormones.
K: No way! I really think that God blesses moms in certain ways.
E: “Thank you, God”
Thinking about input versus output. How do you feed your imagination?
K: Wow, that’s a good one. This job can run you ragged. Sometimes we’re working twelve-to fourteen-hour days and flying red-eyes just to wake up and take an Uber to a job in another city, not really sleeping much. It’s a grind, for sure - little me had no idea how much of a grind it was. But it’s insanely rewarding when I get to meet people like you, or work with people who’ve been inspirations to me my whole life. I try to remember those moments where I’ve reached a lifetime achievement and then I give myself those accolades.
And also making sure to take time off. There’s Kennedy the makeup artist, and there’s Kennedy the human. Sometimes people get those things a little bit twisted up. And Kennedy the human loves nature. You know me - I’m a bit of a redneck.
E: I love it. I live in the redneck haven of the world.
K: Girl, I caught a fish in your pond…
E: People don’t even know, you acclimated. You didn’t bat an eyelid at the farm, the ATV, the fishing pole, the boots. You just knew.
K: I need that - I need to make sure my feet are touching grass and my hands are touching mud.
E: I know you are separating the makeup artist from the person, but when I see your work, I see you. I hear the Type O Negative when I'm looking at the cinesthesia of your smokey eye. There’s a through-thread of Kennedy, like in a film and the film is succulent and rich. Whether it’s a ripped tank top and jeans with a smoky eye on an ATV or beating some incredible celebrity’s face in Paris - it feels like one film.
Knowing you as both a friend and a professional, I see how your skill as a friend to connect everyone and bring them together translates into your professional life. Your job is tough, you need to make an instant real connection with the person whose face you’re working on, to get the vibe…
K: That’s really flattering to hear. Because I think the lifetime goal of an artist is to convey your essence through your work. I tell my assistants all the time: find your essence and stamp it into your work. Once you find that, you’ve figured it out.
E: You just summed up what I was trying to say, I feel that
K: I love you.
E: I love you too.
K: I’m like, crying in this interview already.
E: So do you have any strong muses behind your work?
K: You know I love and am deeply tied to music. I love referencing old music videos, films, and people from another era.
Dennis Rodman, Drew Barrymore… Peter Steele from Type O Negative is one of my favorite people on earth. He’s no longer living - rest his soul - but I think he had a really cool vision and he loved women. I have all of his music videos on VHS - and the women in them were just sexy, cool and hot in different ways.
I love gender fuckery, rock and roll, punk rock, anything gritty and grimy and sexy and hot.
E: Of all the people you’ve painted, is there a magnum opus moment? Like, this person, in this moment, is the pinnacle of my work
K:Pamela Anderson. Madonna. When I got those confirmations, I blacked out.
“This isn't happening, this isn't real. Okay this happened, this is real. Holy shit, little me is geeked.”
I always think about my younger self in those moments. That’s a tender way to receive a powerful moment, to nurture that younger version of yourself.
E: I love those moments. I’m constantly chatting with the fourteen-year-old me like, “Dude, can you believe this?”
If you could go back in time and paint anyone’s face, who would it be?
K: Cleopatra. I instantly thought of Cleopatra. I feel like that bitch probably had the most gorgeous skin. And I love that her makeup is documented in hieroglyphics, you know what I mean?
E: They were serious about their looks, I think everybody wore makeup then too
K: If we had time machines I would 100% go back to Egypt and scope out the beats that were happening
E: You know how I’m always allergic to eyeliner too close to my eyeball, because I’m terrified I’m gonna look like a racoon? I’m always making sure you highlight the inner corner of my eye, because of my close set eyes. I think I kinda want to go the opposite way: the next time you beat my face, let’s just forget the paranoia
K: Let’s highlight the outer corners !
E: No, no, nooo - I feel Cleopatra is the inspo. That big gorgeous eyeliner that goes around the whole center…
K: Cleopatra with a shaved brow. I fuck with that.
Hey I wanna ask you a question, can I do that? What’s the best advice you’ve received, as far as your career goes?
E: I’m worried about being put on the spot, but I’m gonna ask you the same thing then…
K: Well, I feel like you and I will share the same answer…
"People try so hard to be posh and elite in their field but I think it’s nice to appreciate who you are, who you’ve always been and rock that. That’s what really sells people on your shit, being genuine, authentic and a good person"
E: What's yours?
K: Never forget your roots.
E: I agree with that..
K: People try so hard to be posh and elite in their field but I think it’s nice to appreciate who you are, who you’ve always been and rock that. That’s what really sells people on your shit, being genuine, authentic and a good person
E: Authenticity is the thing that will keep you sane. Even if it feels misunderstood in the moment, it will always pay off long-term. Björk actually just said that in an interview..
K: If there’s one person that is just goated in both music and glam, it’s Björk…
E: I feel like when people give me good advice, my response is - how interesting, now what I am already thinking is louder and more clear in my head.
K: It confirms what you ‘re already thinking…
E: Actually whether it’s the complete opposite or the same thought, I feel like at the end of the day I just gotta do what I gotta do and if it was the wrong thing, I’ll figure it out.
K: Fuck around and find out
E: Fuck around and find out !
K: I feel like you are one of the most emotionally intuitive people I know. You’re so in tune with your emotions, your body, your mind… I’m just so happy to be able to do this interview with someone like you. Oh my god, and it’s 2.22!
E: It’s 2:22, I love that. Angel numbers. Whatever it means, it’s blessed.
I love you, babe.
K: I love you. Thank you for doing this with me.