And we are here with the bald and the beautiful episode 40, I don't know what episode we're on. 652. 652. Oh, still bald, still faggy. And we have somebody extremely beautiful here today. Extremely beautiful with a full head of hair. A full head of hair, probably honestly one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen in my life. Just breathtaking every time. Yeah. Whose impact on the beauty industry could not be underestimated. Nor overstated.
Let me tell you, she doesn't wear panties and she's here to party. But it's in a fashion way, not a sex way. I will make good underwear for you today. Oh, thank you. Underwear is outerwear. I saw you confidently get up in this chair and pull both legs up into it. Yeah.
So she has underwear on. Yeah. Oh, yeah. No, she's got underwear on. But she did take a shirt with the bathroom door open. To be fair, she wears underwear all the time. All the time. As clothing. Yeah, yeah. Several pairs and several layers of underwear. Yes. An extremely followed woman, just an icon, a beauty icon, Amy Doan, otherwise known as Shrinkle, the CEO of Sugar Pill Cosmetics is here. Wow. Yay.
This is exciting. This is exciting. How in the world did you manage to carve any time out of your extremely busy schedule being a makeup mogul, an entrepreneur, and a business owner to come chat with us today? I just took the day off and sat at home being nervous about this all day. Oh, come on. It's just...
Just us girls. It's just us, Amy. You don't do many podcasts, do you? This is my first one. Really? This is my first one. I've been asked to be on other ones, but I'm always making excuses and being shy. But it was you guys, so I had to do it.
Well, thank you so much. Yeah. I met you would think like your look, you literally look like the friendliest, brightest, warmest individual. And so it's so funny when I remember like, oh, right. She's a little shy. But you're not shy. Like, I mean, because I met you at DragCon and I think that it was when it comes to crossdressers. She's not shy. No. No. The first time I met you, I think I jumped on you. And the first time I met you, I think I kissed you. Yeah. Yeah.
Not stingy with affection, but you're a very humble person. You're a very humble person and quite shy when it comes to this kind of thing. I don't think of you this way, but you are secretly extremely famous.
Yeah. No, it's true. I mean, I remember. You don't talk about it, but we were at Daiso once. Yeah. And that girl ran up to you and was like, are you shrinko? Yeah, all the time. And when we're out together, I remember when I was staying with you downtown, we'd go out to dinner or whatever, and you'd get recognized more than me. And I started to feel bad about myself. Oh, that's not true. Yeah.
Oh my God, Trixie, what about the time you went to Disneyland and that girl started crying when we, um, the cars ride broke down and something happened. You thought you were in trouble cause a girl came up to you, but then she burst into tears and then she gave us free passes to get the front line. Oh, see, there you go. You better believe when I go to Disney, there's so many gays who work there. I flash this baggy bald face. I'm like, I will get us a free turkey leg today. You know, make it, I don't even need the turkey leg. I just want it.
It makes it all worth it in the end. Yeah, and honestly, this podcast is partly about beauty and you are one of the most
Like, you are, you kind of live in drag. Yeah, you're in drag more than us. Oh. Let me, because I've been dying to get you to do like the kind of opposite where you like wear a short brown wig and a gray suit. A gray suit. Don't you think that'd be great? I know, when are we going to have our makeover day? We've been talking about that for years. Make under. Yeah, make under. We're going to do a day styled as us. We'll do the bald cap with like goth leisure. Yeah, but she looks so good bald. Let's do it. You got a nice head. You got a nice head. I'm down. When I met you, you had...
Like white blonde hair. Like blonde blonde hair with bangs and like gold eyebrows. And then when I moved to LA, you had long, long pink hair, which was beautiful. How often do you change your look? Oh, God. I feel like I've looked the same since high school. Like I still wear the same slips and nighties that I've had since high school. Really? Yeah. Time will tell. Still fits. And would you believe it? Still fits. But like your hair is... I mean, your hair...
It's like a, it's a, I would say high, is it high maintenance, the hair twos you do or no? Oh, I just try not to wash my hair too frequently. So I'm able to keep a hair color for a very long time. Do you do tracks and extensions? No, it's all real. Just kidding. Those are also her eyelashes? Oh yeah, it's all real. It's magic. This is a safe space for fake hair. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, it's real in the sense that it's there. Absolutely. Yeah. Without the tracks, she is the bald and the beautiful. Yeah.
What did you look like in high school? Oh, God. Probably the same, but messier. It was really hard to find cool makeup back then, so it was all wet and wild. Yeah, I think I looked the same, but with bad makeup. Oh, and shaved eyebrows. I had shaved eyebrows. I've seen older pictures of you. You were also a little more black, very distressed hair. Yeah. Your hair was like...
Yeah, I had like big like Robert Smith hair. Oh, cool. Like a black cloud of hair. Oh, wow. Awesome. Yeah. I saw pictures of you from college. Remember you were posting like a year and a half ago, maybe old pictures of you from high school and college? Oh, yeah. I found a bunch of my old photo albums and I posted like...
a whole bunch of throwbacks of all my embarrassing looks from the past few decades. Very thin brows at the time. And you said, I mean, I've, I've been following sugar pill for forever, at least a decade, way before I knew you. And you were saying like, basically products didn't exist at the time. Yeah. It was really hard to find good makeup back then. I remember, um,
you had to wait once a year for Halloween and you'd go to the Halloween superstore and stock up on Halloween makeup. And it was like super greasy. Well, you're the same age as me. You remember this. - Yeah.
Yeah, so it was like all grease paints and everything smelled like crayons and clowns and sweat. Yeah, I mean, I don't... When I started doing drag or started to think about getting good makeup, there was MAC and I don't know that there was much more than that. But I mean, I haven't been really in the loop makeup wise. Yeah, well, MAC was good, but I don't think they had crazy colors. If you wanted crazy colors, you had to get full on clown makeup. Yeah, that's true. But they had the pro stuff, but that was like...
It wasn't in all the stores. Yeah, no. And at the time, like a lot of those stores, you had to order Mac products with a phone. Oh my God. Yeah, it was different. Have you ever ordered something over the phone? I have. No, I haven't. I have. Oh yeah. Order stuff through a magazine. Oh my God, I remember that. It comes in the mail. You send a check and you wait six to eight weeks for it to arrive. Yes. I remember the last time I did that, I sent a check out for this, like there was a compilation CD of Goth and industrial covers of Madonna songs. It never came. Oh my God.
It never came. And we still don't know what happened to it. So how old are you? I'm
40. I'm turning 41 soon. Wow. You could be 21. Ageless. Like defying age. Truly. Also, you don't even really, I don't really strike, you strike me as otherworldly, like a fairy pixie kind of, I don't really think of you as human. I mean that in the best way. Oh, thank you. She doesn't see you as a human. Whenever you go to the bathroom, I'm like, you do that?
For how much makeup you wear, and this is like invasive, you don't wear much skin makeup. This is your real face too. Yeah, I don't wear foundation, just concealer and powder. Must be nice. Must be nice. Meanwhile, we're over here. Spackle over sandpaper. Spackle over sandpaper, trowel over a shit barn. I mean, how long did it take? Because you have a really, you have a mastery of this kind of like very colorful, dramatic eye. And how long did that take to...
Achieve. When did the prostitution begin? I think it only takes me like 20 or 30 minutes to do my face every morning. I'm so used to it. I've been wearing makeup and like full makeup and lashes every day since 1996. Holy shit. I've talked, I FaceTimed Amy from the office on a day where no one else is there and she's in makeup and hair and everything. To be alone at the office with the cats.
Is it like a, I won't leave the house without panties? Is that kind of the thing? Like, is it essential? I'm just so used to it. Yeah. Well, with COVID lately, I've been, this year I haven't been wearing as much makeup and I'm getting really, I'm getting used to going out without makeup. But I decided to get dressed for you guys.
- I never get the sense though, correct me if I'm wrong though, I never get the sense, with you it seems like you want to, that it's a thing you enjoy doing. - Oh yeah, it's fun. It's just part of my morning. - I'm the face of this makeup company, I have to wear all this makeup. - No, it's part of my morning, like drinking coffee. It's just an enjoyable way to start the day. - Yeah. - That's great. - A you moment, meditative. - Return to you. - A return to you, the Amy Doan story.
Well, at the time, because I mean, honestly, if we talk about cosmetics in general, you were kind of the first independent makeup company, period. I mean, yeah, there was the L'Oreal's, the Maybelline's and the consumer. And there wasn't really anybody in between. Yeah. Yeah. When I first started, well, we launched in 2010, but I started working on it in 2010.
it took us five years. So I started working on it in 2005 and it took forever because there was nobody else doing indie makeup lines. And so there was nobody to ask. There was no, like you could research it online. There wasn't much, like there wasn't much out there. So I think, yeah, I literally, I think I went to the Kryolan store one day and I asked, the president happened to be there and I-
She went right to the source. And I told her, like, I wanted to start my own makeup line. I asked her if she had any advice and she was actually really nice about it. And she... She said, fuck you, get out of here. No, she was really nice. And I ended up finding a lab that would help me, but it was really hard back then because...
They they weren't used to like people like me starting businesses like they're used to like dudes in suits And so nobody took me seriously like I had to like write to a lot of people Uh, I got ignored a lot like people talk to me woman of color dressed like a clown Really? Yeah. So, um, yeah, it took a really long time to get that started and to be taken seriously How did you how did you stick with it? Was there any moments where you thought about giving up?
Um, well, I stuck with it because it was the only job I knew. Like, I've never had a real job before, so it was kind of like, okay, this is what I'm doing. And yeah, the first few years were really stressful. There were a lot of times where I felt like I had given birth to this monster and I didn't know how. Like, I have no business experience. Like, I didn't go to school for business or marketing or anything like that. So yeah, it was all trial and error and I made a lot of mistakes and
I just had to stick it out and figure things out. That's why it's fun hearing you talk about starting Trixie Cosmetics because you're stressed out all the time. Yes, I call Amy being like, either it's the best day of my life or like the, why am I doing this? It literally is, you know, and that's why I think of, honestly, people like me are only following the fact that like once you did it, so many of us could do it, but like you did it before so many people.
And I can't imagine everything was probably a struggle because PR didn't exist. Instagram didn't exist. Yeah, there was no Instagram. It was like there were like 10 YouTube. They were called beauty gurus at YouTube beauty gurus. And yeah, marketing was really hard. Like you'd have. Oh, I would go to clubs and hand out samples. You're kidding. Yeah, I went to I went to a bunch of festivals and raves and I handed out postcards and little tiny sample jars. Because you used to be a raver kid, right?
I was a party girl. But that's how you started wearing all kinds of makeup. And you were like, there is no clown makeup. Please help. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I started dressing up in high school. Actually, that started with, I was 16 and my, my sister went to Blockbuster and she rented the movie Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. And we had no idea what it was about, but she liked the box. So she brought it home. Which is how people used to rent movies. Yeah. She just liked the picture on the box. And I watched it and I said, oh my God, are there really people out there like this? Like,
Oh, my tribe. Yeah. And I just couldn't believe it because I grew up in Milpitas, which was a really small town. And I I couldn't believe that there were people out there like this. And I I knew that I had to find them someday and I was going to look like them someday. And I wanted to be colorful and glittery and have makeup all the way up to my eyebrows. And you did. So you did that. So Milpitas.
- Milpitas, it's near San Jose and San Francisco. - Milpitas. - Milpitas, yeah. - Milpitas. - Milpitas. - Shout out to the people in Milpitas, how you doing? - Yeah, yeah. - Hey fam.
Northern California. Yeah. What a weird place. Really? When were you last there? Recently. Not recently. Years ago. It was a lot more word of mouth back then. Like, I think I found out about sugar pill a long time ago from like, I think probably word of mouth maybe. Yeah.
I think my first product for me was like Poison Plum, maybe. Actually, the first time I met you, you said, well, the first thing you said to me was, are you that girl from the internet? And I said, no, it was in the parking lot behind Rage. Oh, Hearts was there. You were there? Yeah. I was too scared. Or she was too scared to say hi, so I...
Yeah. Okay. So we, we saw your show at rage and then afterwards we were waiting for you to come out and you never did. Cause I think you had an interview the next morning. I had hate queen the next morning. Yeah. And so we were leaving and weren't we, we were walking down the sidewalk and the way we were dressed, some guy came up to us. Yeah, no, we were, we were walking down the street and then we were with a bunch of friends and we were all wearing pink. And I think some guy came up to us and said, you guys must be Trixie Mattel fans. He's in the parking lot back then. We're like, what? And then,
And that was you, wasn't it? That was me, yeah. Hey, I got a hot tip. So we ran back there to say hi. And yeah, I think the first thing you said to me was, are you that girl from the internet? And I said, yeah. I was probably drunk. Yeah, and then you said, you told me that you said you loved Goldilocks and Butter Cupcake. Those were the two colors that you said that you had. Well, I had your product since when the packaging was black.
remember oh my god yeah with the old english logo yeah the heart crest the old english people came for you so don't use our logo please so really our friendship is because of hearts yeah wow thank you so much for that yeah i just remember being shy we were kind of hiding in the parking lot and then i think hearts you went up to him and said my friends want to say hi you were
I was looking out for weirdos. Now you have one in your home. I find it interesting because as somebody who's maybe a little more like, I mean, most people now who sell makeup, they are this loud, obnoxious, like face of the company. And,
I guess how much did the internet play a part in that company being possible because you got to make makeup and take pictures and not have to like answer a phone. Yeah. Sorry. Wait, was that a question? Yes. Like, like you couldn't have without the internet, you would have had to like answer a phone and like there, how were you able to be kind of shy and still run the company, you know? Yeah.
Yeah, I think that's why I became so shy because of the internet. I got so used to hiding behind a computer all the time. I'm not used to interacting with people as much. Is that why you're so weird? Do you think of yourself as a shy person? Sometimes. I mean, I'm not shy when I like someone or like you said, with affection, I'm not shy. I'm cross-dressers. What about public speaking? Oh, yeah. That's my worst nightmare. Really? Yeah, that's my worst nightmare. Like public speaking and being on camera and...
What's the most difficult thing you have to do as part of your job as Sugar Pill? Making the Oh Honey palette. It's a complete mess. Working with this difficult guy here. The diva. Yeah, I don't know what the most difficult part is. I'll have to get back to you on that. I remember we... She's great at everything. Yeah. Challenges? I'm not really sure what that is. I don't know. Oh, let's take a break. Yeah.
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And we're back. So I remember, I think, you know, I was, I love, by the way, I love the Oh Honey palette. It is a staple. Sis snapped. It's a staple. And I'm, Sugarpill, you have a lot of colors for me. Like I like dark colors.
like I don't like pastels yeah I'm not like I'm less of a pixie and more the whore yeah like the kind of basic whore shades you know your blacks your like dark purple your dark red and like you know do you guys have a red do you have a red red lipstick
- Yeah, I've sent you all of our red lipsticks. - I don't know about that. - Nurse? - Yeah, we have Nurse. It's a liquid lipstick. - Oh yeah, I love Nurse. That's all though. - And we have a sparkly, oh no, nevermind. We sold out and discontinued it. But yeah, we have- - You got a nice cranberry spice one. I forget what it's called. - It's a strange love. - You're talking about pumpkin spice? Nope.
Is it petrol? Petrol. Yeah. Petrol. Yeah, you sent me that picture of you wearing it. Love petrol. You know who covets the pumpkin spice? Fifi O'Hara. Oh, really? Oh, really? I haven't talked to Fifi in forever. She uses it. She told me I use it every single time I get in drag. She was like, if you have an extra eyeshadow of that, I'll buy it from you. Oh, when did you talk to Fifi? This was on tour like maybe...
Over two years ago, but she used it every day and it was just the end of it. She's like I use it every day I know it's so funny. It's it's I love that about it The funny thing about makeup is that there nowadays there's so many different types of makeup companies so many different options But you get that one thing and you will scrape the bottom of the barrel until it's like the last little particles left 100% Nick's discontinued that white eyeliner and I spiraled And now it's gone. It's permanently gone gone forever. But why don't hey I have an idea
Make some bitch. Maybe we are. You never know. I have a question before you had sugar pill. If I remember your story correctly, you were selling, you sold makeup on eBay, right? Like Kryolan. Yeah. I used to sell Kryolan makeup on eBay. Stolen? Oh no, shut up. Well, no, cause I started out, I had like my own clothing line. Like it was a DIY clothing line where everything was one of a kind and I was making it myself. And,
And since I was, um, I don't know what you do. Yeah. I sell it to myself, but I was working from home by myself. And so to post it, I would have to take the picture, take pictures of the clothes on myself and I would model everything myself and wear like crazy hair and makeup. And, um, the makeup I was wearing was like, it was Kryolan clown makeup, like the neon aqua colors. And, um, yeah, people started emailing me asking about the makeup. So, um, I, I became a official Kryolan retailer. So I
So I started selling Kryolan on eBay and that inspired me to start Sugar Pill because when I ran out of Kryolan stuff to sell, I thought like, dude, it would be so cool to make my own colors and be able to create cool packaging and not have it smell like theater makeup. Yeah, because theater, I love Kryolan. Theater makeup is very utilitarian. I still love those UV colors.
The UV pink blush. Oh my God. Although I don't think it's technically skin safe. So they tell you. Oh really? It's not like eye safe. Yeah. I don't mind that. Me neither. That's never stopped me. Does it look good? Great. Does it look good? Does it stay? Wonderful. Does it stay? You want to make more money? Wear a suit. To me, pornography is literally watching Vanity, the drag queen Vanity, put on that UV pink blush. Like, oh my God. I love watching people put blush on. That's porn. Do you like, you like a makeup tutorial?
I like to. It's weird because I'll watch it and I'll watch you put makeup on and I'll be like,
Oh my god It's not sexual but it is very satisfying Like when people watch slime videos To me that's putting makeup on It's a little relaxing It's kind of the OG ASMR Is people this close to you being like I know I'm in a deal Do you ever watch makeup tutorials? You got a favorite beauty influencer? Who do you enjoy? Trixie Mattel Thank you
- This cool guy named Trixie I found. - It must've been crazy for you back in the day when the YouTubers started using your makeup, were you like, am I famous? - Yeah, we were so excited. Like even like just anytime someone posted a video with our stuff, we'd be like, oh my God, you guys, we got another video. Like our website even had its own tab that said like YouTube videos and we would post a thumbnail of every single YouTube video that our stuff was used in. - The ultimate fan. - Yeah, like we had like,
I think we had 20 videos on our page once and I could not believe it. I was like, there's 20 people. I mean, 20 YouTubers using our product. That's amazing.
- I mean, it's pretty amazing. It's also like the American dream. Like you saw a market with a huge hole and you're like, I guess I'll do it. Violet literally just said that to us on the last call. We were like, how'd you start doing drag? She was like, 'cause I wanted to do something that nobody else was doing 'cause nobody was doing it. So I figured, I guess I have to do it. - I would work like 12 to 15 hours a day. - Oh my God. - The first year.
Because it was just you. Yeah, it was just me. Well, yeah, I used to do all the shipping and the customer service was just my personal email. Oh, my God. Did you ever ship your own merch? Are you fucking kidding me? I did. I had to one day, one day, maybe I put one thing into an envelope, couldn't find postage and I quit.
We had her at the cosmetics at Trixie Cosmetics. She packed. How many orders? I packed three orders and I was fired. She was like, I'm good. You got food up here. Yeah. I went to get pizza. Did you start with debt? Did you take a loan out?
- No, I just maxed out my credit cards. - Oh really? - Yeah, I didn't take out any of those. - I just maxed out my credit cards. - Yeah, I maxed out my credit cards and I just started small. - Wow. - I mean, you're lucky, but I wouldn't say you're lucky 'cause it's just like a great idea, you went for it. - Truly the American dream. - 100%. - Literally the American dream. - Does your mom think you're Beyonce?
My mom thinks I'm really cool now. Like for the first few years, my parents, like they had, they didn't really understand what I was doing. So they were really scared. And I think up until I was 30, my dad was still asking me like, when are you going to dye your hair black and get a job? When are you going to work at a bank? Yeah. And then, yeah, they still didn't totally understand what I was doing and they would see pictures of me and get kind of scared. But what changed everything was my parents went to drag con that year. Remember, was it like 2017 or 2018?
2018, my parents came to DragCon. They all blend together. And so my mom saw everything that I do and how well I'm doing. And then she was like, okay, you're going to be okay. She was like, these people are here for you? Yeah. Yeah, because your booth at DragCon, you guys might as well be drag queens. It's like...
it's the mall and you guys are usually in the center. Yeah. With this kind of U shape. It's a place to be. Beautiful setup. And that's when she, when your mom drove down with a cooler full of curry. Oh my God. Yeah. When you were staying with, yeah, when Brian was living with me, my mom, like my mom loves you. And she, she, she cooked, well, she brought down like a 30 pound. No, it was more than 30 pounds. She brought like this huge cooler. Yeah. This giant cooler full of curry and Vietnamese sandwiches. And then she was like, oh, give some to Brian. He looks skinny. And then,
Never saw any of those sandwiches. Yeah, sorry. But you love DragCon. Yeah, it's my favorite weekend of the year. Yeah, it is my favorite weekend of the year. I know you guys get really stressed out about it, but I love it. But you have a, like, you've got- Stress isn't- Yeah, stress is not even- Stress isn't the word. It's more like, oh. But you've got, like, I mean, it's your holiday rush, you know? And you don't have to worry about people crying. Okay.
They just want to buy your awesome products and that's it. When we had Oh Honey, we didn't have that many at DragCon, remember? Those went really fast. Oh yeah, we only brought like a limited... Oh, I think at that point we were already sold out and we had reserved a certain amount for DragCon. For DragCon. Yeah, so we brought a few. They were crying. Are you able to like... Obviously, I'm sure, you know, with like inventory and all that, all those numbers, are you able to like predict how much you should produce for like a particular launch? And are you able to kind of calculate that down to...
- No, we usually just kind of guess based on past launches. I told Trixie not to ask me any smart questions tonight, so. - She's the beauty. Listen, she goes to the office, she feeds the cats. She takes pictures and she leaves. - No, it's so funny 'cause Trixie always asks me business questions and I feel so dumb. I'm always like, "Hold on, let me text Irene." Irene's our office manager and she knows more about the numbers than me, so like.
I'm always asking. Why? Okay. Well, I'll pivot to Turkey then. Okay. So Turkey, I'm going to tell you this. Found in a dumpster on Thanksgiving. Yes. Leaky butthole. Not anymore. Feline AIDS. No, he,
have a leaky butthole anymore. This is another American dream success story. Get the vet. Feline AIDS, cataracts, leaky glands in the butthole. Eyes closed. A fixer-upper. No, he fixed his eyes too. But they were closed. They were closed. We're talking about the state that she started. This turkey in a dumpster, trash in a treasure. Not trash, but I mean, well, yeah. Amy gave that cat an extreme makeup.
She was a wild looking cat and now he is thriving. Yeah. Yeah. It was like Thanksgiving five years ago. Irene was taking out the trash and she found like this little skinny orange cat and just looking for food. Turkey was skinny? Yeah. Yeah. He's 19.9 pounds now. That's 20. That's 20. You tell Turkey it's time to start saying it's 20 pounds. Yeah.
So yeah, she brought him in and the plan was we're going to get him fixed up because he had a lot of problems and we were planning to adopt him out after we got him fixed up but we ended up falling in love and keeping him. And he lives in the office. Turkey the office cat. What do you think he does at night when no one's there? Crunches the numbers. He's got to clean the linoleum in the bathroom. Ships out orders. He's got a split order in his mouth. He's doing the accounting. Yeah.
Oh my God. So, okay. What's the, what's the future of sugar pill? Are you going to diversify? Are you a stores, malls? What's happening? God, the future of sugar pill. I don't know. I feel like I'm the only business owner who doesn't really have a business plan. Like, well, I kind of just started it as a hobby. So I never thought about where I wanted to be. Like when people say, where do you see yourself in five years? Like I just thought, well,
well this seems fun I'll do this and see what happens and so I feel like I still kind of have that attitude I feel like it's a great attitude to have live in the moment 100% I don't really have a goal it's just until it stops being fun I guess I think that's extremely healthy yeah and then you do water polo or something who's the pinnacle of beauty to you besides you know that answer who's like the one that just stops your heart you could stare at pictures for hours you know that answer
It's me. Thanks, folks. Thank you. Besides me. Who's number two? Number two. Besides her. Yeah.
Oh, Ron Perlman. I knew you were going to say Ron Perlman. The pinnacle of glamour about your love affair. No, no, no. Tell them about Ron Perlman. We're going to talk about Ron Perlman. Talk about your history with Ron Perlman. Oh, Ron Perlman. I am obsessed with Ron Perlman. Tell them who that is. Oh, Ron Perlman. He's Hellboy, obviously. He played Hellboy in...
Yeah. Obviously. I didn't know that was until you told me. Yeah, I've been in love with Ron Perlman since Hellboy came out in 2004. Okay. And I finally got to meet him 10 years later on October 7th, 2014. Wow.
Everybody at home, Google Ron Perlman and you'll be like, okay. He's so hunky. He's in a lot of movies. Yeah, so he had come out with a book and he had a book signing at BookSoup and I waited in line for three hours to meet him and I dressed like a total slut. Holy shit. So did you wear this? No, I was like, this is such a big night. I'm going to get super dressed up because for some reason I thought everyone else was going to be dressed up. Super dressed up for Ron Perlman at BookSoup. Yeah, I...
This is why I love you. Yeah, and I was the only person dressed up. It was all dudes and girls in baggy t-shirts. But I stood out. The whole time I was in line for three hours, I was practicing in my head all these things I was going to say to him that were these smart things like, oh, I'm a really big fan of your acting and I really loved your role, blah, blah, blah. I had all these things planned out. But when I got to the front, I just burst into tears and I just stood there crying. And I think the only thing...
The only thing I ended up saying to him was, the only thing I ended up saying to him was, you're even more amazing than I imagined. I think that's all I said to him. But yeah. Was he friendly when you were crying? Oh my God. He was a dream. He was...
a million thousand billion times better than sweeter, better and sexier and cooler than I ever imagined. Like would you marry Ron Perlman? Yes, I would. But yeah, he, he was, he was so nice to me. Like he saw me crying and he was trying to make me feel comfortable. Like he, um, she would have slapped you. I swear to God, I saw him once. There was like a table between us and he told me to come behind the table and he put his arm around me and, and, oh,
Oh, and then I asked if I could kiss him and I thought he was just going to kiss me on the cheek, but we kissed on the mouth. Tongue? No, no. Do you have a picture of the kiss? I have a lot of pictures of the kiss. My friend was sitting there like snapping pictures nonstop. Yeah, it was amazing. This happens a lot at our meet and greets where one person, somebody will film. That's smart. It's smart. So during the meet and greet, someone films it so they can relive the meet and greet. You know what? Get your money worth. Get your fucking money.
money's lord knows i'm charging enough for those angles yeah get 10 cameras absolutely because i'm shaking you down for that mean great money you better get an hd video absolutely you have still camera you got the video you got another angle yeah i saw him at the soho house once and on sunset about that and i was like that's ron perlman and i was like if amy was here right now yeah the way she would have cannonballed through this restaurant yeah
I love it. It's such a, I don't want to say weird. It's just a random like ultimate. But then again, I wrote a song about Jesse Eisenberg. So people like who they like. Yeah. I love Jodie Foster. I started that guy who tried to kill Ronald Reagan. Yeah.
Who's a girl who would you want to look like? Oh, who I want to look like? Face goals, hair goals, body goals. You got to change body. You got to body snatch someone tomorrow for the rest of your life. Well, you are my female, female, like beauty goals. And I'm not just saying that, but like when I was little, I used to draw a lot. I had like a draw, like I would draw ladies called, well, I would call them pretty ladies.
And they were always- Which sounds like a hair salon name, like a very ESL hair salon name. I was like five or six, but yeah, I would just draw stacks and stacks and stacks of pretty ladies. And they always had big blonde hair and they were wearing pink and they just looked like you. And so the first time I saw you, I was like, that's a pretty lady. Like, what's one of them?
Amy used to come to do you ever do those do you ever do the rupaul chocolate shop signing? I never did No, I did a couple of them Amy came to one of them and it was like it was back when you used to wear those blue contacts Yeah, and she'd be like I can only tell where you're looking because of two little blue dots Like floating now you can't now it's just black abyss. I love it. Yeah, it's just a black I love having no eyes people like where are you eyes? I'm, like who needs them? Why do you need to know where i'm looking? Yeah, it was me and di came and we
we waved at you and we didn't know if you saw us and we're like, did he, is he looking over here? Like, where is he looking? That's a great makeup application. No one knows where you're looking. And she said, just follow the little blue dots. And we're like, I love that. How many cats will you take in before you say that's enough? Huh?
How many cats will you take in? Oh God, no, I've topped out. I have three at home and turkey at work. Three cats at home. Do you just go home and they just crawl all over your body? Yeah, pretty much. I wake up covered in cats and in the middle of the night, I have to go pee really bad or I'm sweating, but I can't move because I have so many cats on me. I mean, there's three. Yeah. There's three, yeah. It's not like 13. But 20 pounds each. Yeah, that's true. Would you believe that when I say I had, she tasked me of all people with injecting her cat with insulin every single day. Let's tell that story. Where did you go?
Oh, where would you go? Was it New York Drag Con? Yeah, it must have been New York. I did not go to New York Drag Con. No, no, it was IMAX, I think. Wasn't it? It was some kind of convention. I think it was IMAX. I went to New York for a convention. Yeah, I think it was IMAX. And I was staying at your place and the instructions...
The instructions, which I do appreciate, but it was as if the instructions that she posted. It was for her mother. No, no, no. It was for a developmentally disabled, non-English speaking person with no motor skills at all. Like this is a needle. Yeah. I know.
And then four pictures of, you know, it was like the most. Like she doesn't know what a needle is. I just, I will say, I love you. You have many gifts. Oh, I wouldn't trust this person. But guess what? I didn't have it on video. I did it every day. Were you scared to stick the cat with the needle? At first I was, but then, but then years later, a couple of years later, I, um, I did, I did human growth hormone for like a, for a week in,
And then it's the same needle, tiny needle. They can't feel a thing. You can't feel a thing. It's like a little one inch. Tiny. The tiniest little needle. You can't feel shit. Do you do it? Have you done it hurts? You just, you get the cat shots too. Oh, human girl. Yeah. Did it make you strong? Um, I only did it for a week. Did it make you strong?
Did you do anything? I thought women, women do it for like skin, hair and nails, right? Or like. It's the effects can be are negligible. It just depends. HGH. It makes your skull grow, right? No. I mean, it's usually done in concert with like a hormone cycle, like steroids. In concert, like at a Celine Dion concert. I'm over. Okay. When she gets to I drove all night, I'm doing the HGH. Wait till the encore to start the cycle of steroids.
Oh my God. But it's like, I was like so worried because I was like, how does this cat not feel it? But it's the tiniest little needle and you just grab their scruff. Cats are very rough with each other. Did the cat even notice? No, you do while he's eating. They don't know shit. Yeah, you feed him and then you grab the back of his. Did you feel the pressures on the like, I hope this would never happen, but you're like, what if I kill this cat? Well, because I was like, it's such a small amount of insulin and it's such a small needle and I was like, I think it needs more. No.
But you don't want to do that. And you're like, did any even get in there? It's hard to tell. Plus, am I a doctor? Yeah. I think I'm a doctor now. Yeah. I should start seeing human clients. Yeah. But the thing, when you have to hide the pill in the food, I hate that. Oh, the pill pocket thingy? Yeah. Because then it's just like, eat the fucking, I mean, it's hard. You want to just throw it in their mouth. Let's take a break. Oh, let's take a break. And we're back. Okay.
Well, I want to say something, you know, and what is interesting about your company and I think about a lot of independent makeup companies and perhaps like other independent companies in general, it seems like you guys are held to a standard of ethical conduct that is more intense than politicians. And you...
Far exceed you exceed the expectations of like being transparent being ethical and your practices and you know to in being like cruelty free and all this stuff, but I'm like I wish that the political, you know the politicians in America had to rise to even half of the the standards that you guys have to it's it's pretty crazy Yeah, do you feel pressure? Um, I don't know. I feel like because I'm so shy I don't really get in that much trouble like I feel like every other like everyone else in the Internet's always
Controversy or whatever. Yeah. Kind of quietly watching. Yeah. Are you surprised? I mean, it's the amount of like, I think people like you, like people like the manic panics and the sugar pills of the world who were vegan way before everyone else. They'll, I think a lot of times people get no credit for that retroactively that like you weren't vegan when it was necessary. Vegan when it was like a choice, it was a conscious choice. Totally. Yeah. So like the contributions that you make go unnoticed and then,
Like, let's just say, I think, like, you don't know who everyone at L'Oreal voted for. But you'll buy a L'Oreal mascara versus, like, independent. It's this really intense... It's a very intense level of scrutiny. Yeah, which I think is... I think the word is disproportionate. Yeah. And also, you're... I mean, I feel like you're... You are...
you are seen or you're perceived to be available perhaps or like reachable rather than like the president of L'Oreal who the fuck knows who that is you know when you DM Sugar Pill it does go straight to you Amy responds to every message
It is a little wacky, especially for you guys, because you guys were kind of pre-social media. You used to just make products and that's it. And people bought them. We used to advertise on MySpace. I would send out MySpace bulletins. Wow. And I had a personal blog too. You were MySpace famous, right?
I guess. Like Farrah Moan? Huh? Like Farrah level? Wasn't Farrah really famous? I don't think I was at that level. I mean, I had a lot of followers, but I don't really. Did Sugar Pearl have a music? Did you have a song that played on your MySpace page? My personal MySpace page, I think it was the, it was Katy Perry, I Kissed a Girl song. Yeah, that was like when it first came out. Just gay from day one. Yeah.
always trying to find new ways to make things gay. Remember, I mean, I'm curious, remember MySpace? It was such an offense to have music play without the permission of the visitor. And
We all did it. I did not. I think my song was. I hated when I played the music. I think it was young folks. I don't care about the young folks. I think it was that. Hipster. Did you have the top eight or top ten or whatever? Oh yeah. I used to have to. Well I had like this code that would give me a top 16. And I would have to rotate them every day so that people wouldn't.
get mad. Yeah, no particular order. I would have to change the order because people would always put their favorite people like first and then it gets least favorite as it goes down. And so, yeah, I would have to rotate it. Oh, fucking crap. See, she does care about the ethics. Yeah, ethical. She doesn't want her top 16 to be mad. Yeah. Was Tom in there? No. Fuck that bitch. Did you even have MySpace? I did. You did? When I was at the Russian tree house. And I, um,
I remember I was, I have a clear picture of arranging my top eight while the plumbers on the treadmill at midnight after cooking salmon in the toaster oven downstairs. And I saw a rat scurry across my other living room. And I was like, this top eight is so weird.
I didn't have any famous top eights. I was in high school. So like, I think everybody was actually middle schoolers or whatever. I did. Well, I had a drag show. So all of my cast was in it. So that was easy. You were promoting a drag show on MySpace? Yeah. Was drag on MySpace? Yeah. Oh yeah. Is that ignorant? I didn't even know that. Are you out of your mind? I had no idea. Drag did exist before 2008. Yeah.
I did know that, but I guess I did. I thought MySpace was mostly bands, right? No, it was everybody. It was? It was everybody. I'm just so young. I'm just so young. Well, that was when Facebook was just for college students. Oh. And I was not in college.
When did you start drag? What year? Just a couple years ago. No, 2008, January 2008. Okay. That's when I first put on a wig. All right, 2006, I think. But I wasn't working until... I wasn't 21 until probably two years after that. By the time I did drag, Instagram was happening. So I remember working in clubs for the first time and posting the flyer on Facebook and Instagram. Yeah. Do you feel... When you get...
on the street, you're always so gracious. Oh, am I? Yeah. And we're going to hold you to that. And now everybody who hears this is going to expect to hug. That's nice. It's fun. Do you ever feel like, do you like taking pictures with people? Yeah, I think it's fun. Well, I think the worst one was, oh, one time, the only bad time I ever had was I went to Piehole and I couldn't wait until I got home to eat it. And so I started eating it on the street while I was walking home.
Relatable contact. Well, because I used to live right around the corner from Pie Hole. So yeah, I was eating pie while walking home and it was at night and it was empty and so I thought, well, whatever. And then this girl came up and asked if she could take a picture. And I said, well, hold on, let me finish chewing. And then she didn't wait and then she took a selfie. But she was just excited. Have you ever said no to the picture and they take it anyway? Mom.
It's zero to 60 for me. That's going to be when I go to prison. Why did you kill him? Because I told him no pictures and he took it anyway. Yeah. It's it. Yeah. I was crossing Halstead across from Roscoe's and this guy was jaywalking and he's like, Oh, it's a night. I wonder. I was like, can I have a picture? And I go, we're like, not right now. And we're literally jaywalking to get to an Uber and he took it anyway. And I remember the impulse was to grab the phone and smash. I was like, don't do it. Don't do it, girl. It's not worth it. I did it. But, uh, I, yeah, yeah.
Why even ask if you're going to take it anyway? Well, I think, I don't know who said it. Somebody said it. It might have been, I don't know who. They said it takes as much effort. It takes more effort to decline it than
than to just take it. Well, do you remember when I said no to that? Can you say happy birthday to my friend Sarah? And I said, no, I got to go inside. I was doing build New York and I was signing stuff and I was like, I got to go in. And then it was on the internet. People were like, and the person goes, okay, thank you. And everyone was like, I can't believe she didn't say happy birthday to Sarah. So then like a year later on tour, I was like, happy birthday, Sarah. I, but there's a, you know what? I have everything. I was like,
I don't want to, and I'm not going to, and you can't make me. Let me tell my inner Violet Chachki for a moment. This is about free will, and I will not do it. It's the principle. So if you see Amy at the pie hole, and she's eating. It doesn't matter if she's got crumbs all over her face with a mouthful of food. And you haven't seen her eat either. She rubs the pie all over. She's covered in food. One time someone took a picture of me choking on a burrito. Oh, and this is a separate story from, Kim loves that story of me eating at Chipotle. Okay, I have two different burrito stories. Okay.
One time I had just moved to LA and I was eating at the Chipotle with like the big glass walls and I was sitting right by the window and I was wearing no makeup and I don't know if I was wearing my pajamas or well, I didn't look good, but I was eating a burrito by the window and then this car pulls up, window rolls down and then I see a flash and I was like, what the? And then
And then like 30 minutes later, I go on Instagram and I check my tagged photos and someone had posted a picture of me like mid-chew, like holding up a burrito to my face. That's some Tom Cruise paparazzi shit. 100%. Yeah. It was like 1992. Did you look crazy? Yeah, I did. And so Kim saved the photo and he like shows it to everybody. And like it always appears on the text. Yeah. Yeah. And my second burrito story was I was at, it was at the makeup show and, uh,
Oh, yeah, I was in the food court eating a burrito and then I started choking on the rice and like no one asked me if this girl came up and she didn't ask me if I was OK. She asked you. Yeah. She was like, can we take a picture? And I was like, I couldn't even answer. And she just stood there patiently and waited. Like, wait for you to choke. She was like, if you survive this, I'm getting the picture. But I'm not going to Heimlich you. But yeah, I mean, I took the picture and you were so gracious. Keep you away from burritos. No more burritos for you.
Listen, if you want to follow Amy, do you want to let her? I mean, I love your Instagram because you just every day, your looks are just, oh. It's very inspiring. Very inspiring. Inspiring to the beauty community. Where can people find you and purchase products? Oh, my Instagram is shrinkle and you can find my products at sugarpill.com.
And why don't you please, listeners, enjoy the many wonderful products at Sugar Pill and you will be supporting a small business. A small woman of color owned business. That's right. The true and good American way. 100%. Now let the music play. Bye. Thank you, Amy. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.
Bye.