The fall is a great time of year to look at fall fashion as well as our skincare choices that we can include in our cosmetic kits. We've really enjoyed including Live Tinted as it's a clean skincare and cosmetic line that keeps skin looking radiant as well as covering up blemishes and marks that we would rather cover up when we choose. We took a moment to sit down with the brand's founder, Deepica Mutyala. We talk about how she built her brand, the importance of representation and what is coming up in the next few months. ATHLEISURE MAG: Prior to launching Live Tinted, can you tell us a bit about your background? DEEPICA MUTYALA: I have been an active member of the beauty industry my whole career, even before creating my 2015 viral color correcting hack. I began my career in corporate beauty and, since the release of the video, transitioned to working as a full time beauty influencer. It was from this engagement across social media that I began to become passionate about connecting those who the traditional beauty narrative often leaves out – especially WOC. It was with this in mind that I went on to found Live Tinted, first as just an online community platform, where beauty consumers could trade insights and feel cohesion through similar shared experiences and beauty concerns. In 2019, based on shared community feedback, Live Tinted grew into a full fledged national beauty brand with the launch of our first product – the HUESTICK. AM: When you launched your company and called it Live Tinted, what did that name mean to you? DM: As mentioned above, Live Tinted was first launched as a community platform. Thus, the name “Live Tinted,” really embodied the mission behind the community’s creation and purpose – to encourage beauty consumers, of all different backgrounds and hues, to live their tint – embracing their natural physical beauty and feeling comfortable and empowered do-
ing so! AM: We love and use Live Tinted – our faves are HUESTICK’s Origin for dark spots, HUEGUARD for primer and Ray’s Copper Eye Masks to name a few – what is the ethos of this brand? DM: Thank you – so happy to hear that your team enjoys the products! All Live Tinted products are created with purpose in mind, beauty meets skincare offerings that target specific issues that our community struggles with – i.e. HUEGUARD is an SPF option with no whitecast, HUESTICKs for color correcting on all skin tones, etc. This brand ethos, based on community sourced feedback, is incredibly important to our brand and has informed all of the innovation that we have created to date and will continue to roll out in future. AM: Your product assortment continues to grow. What’s your process in terms of identifying the next area you want to target, the product that will focus on it and bringing it to market? DM: Our main goal at Live Tinted is to continue to innovate tangible and effective beauty solutions catered specifically to our Live Tinted community’s needs and direct feedback. While of course, we weigh feasibility around production, supply chain, and more when evaluating whether it is possible to bring a new, requested product to market, we always put our community first, setting realistic goals around innovation and ensuring everything we put out has them first in mind! AM: You’ve done a number of collaborations, but you just dropped LT X Never Have I Ever. We have a number of readers that are fans of this Netflix show. What was it like partnering with the show? DM: Yes! At Live Tinted, we are always looking for synergistic partnership opportunities. In the case of our recent collaboration with Never Have I Ever, I