Thirty-one-year-old singer-songwriter Ashley Frangipane, known by her stage name Halsey, has a robust music catalog filled with songs as rhythmically layered and sweet as her smile. Megastar collaborators have included Justin Bieber, BTS and Travis Barker. But looking back, perhaps her most beloved song came at the dawn of her career at the tender age of 17: a poem turned love song dubbed, “Colors.” It was written about the disappointment of witnessing the vibrancy of a past lover’s persona get drowned out by a ripple effect of negative behaviors. This jaded version made her yearn for the person in their former glory, full of life and vigor.

“My song ‘Colors’ is about being in a relationship with someone and kind of watching the vibrancy slowly start to leak out of them, watch the colors start to fade, whether they’re falling victim to drugs or falling victim to work or any sort of negative behavior that’s kind of taking them away from the bright and lively person that they used to be,” she told Complex Magazine. “You can kind of see them start to fade to gray, and you wish you had them back the way that they used to be.”

While being able to help or attempt to change a person is an oft-futile task, Halsey kept the colors alive within herself. In the last decade since the electropop song’s release, she went on to earn three Grammy nominations, a slew of Billboard awards including Women in Music, and made Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World list in 2020. Being all about the face and the color, which reflects a canvas of wellness, health and happiness, her latest success is the founder of “clean” color cosmetics brand About-Face, a joint venture with Hard Candy co-founder and fellow product developer Jeanne Chavez. The brand is what CEO Francesca Raminella says champions the “spirit of experimentation and expression” with shapeshifter Gen Z and young Millennials as core fans.

“Inclusivity and self-expression are in the DNA of the brand and the embodiment of Halsey’s way of life,” Raminella told Happi. “The most important thing I love about this brand is authenticity.”

Y2K Inspo

With Y2K and 1990s grunge looks dominating fall 2025 runways, About-Face, with its prestige, colorful packaged products, can easily pass for a throwback to that monumental epoch. Raminella says the brand’s eye category is particularly strong with its Holographic, Matte Fluid and Fractal eye paints as bestsellers. The brand’s water- and transfer-resistant Smokesticks – make for both day and nighttime looks. The dual-ended, two-in-one creamy shadow stick-and-powder eyeshadow combo creates a seamless smokey eye in black, cigar-brown, a lilac purple, muted electric blue, forest green and the moment’s hottest color, burnt-orange. The brand’s Shadowstick’s “Chaos Theory” comes in a gold color, and “Creature” in atmospheric blue – both in-line with spring 2026’s stylish color palette.

For lips, About-Face’s Blurred Matte Lip Plump in Petit Rouge serves up the smeared-makeup look currently trending and in-line with the grunge aesthetic. In addition to color, it doubles as a lip plumper, providing the perfect smudged red pout with its cooling plumping agent to give limper lips a boost (think Courtney Love in her “Baby Doll” era.)

To prep the face, the brand offers “The Performer,” a skin-first foundation, in 45 shades. Halsey’s favorite, shades range from fair with olives undertone to medium with peaches undertone. The singer sets her look with “The Curtain Call” loose powder in hue “Finale,” a pink brightener. Another of the brand’s cult favorites, and Halsey’s go-to is its Blush Rush, a highly-pigmented fluid blush. Packed with jojoba oil, hyaluronic acid squalane and vitamins B5 and E, the blendable formula imparts maximum color payoff and long-lasting endurance in racecar-themed shades in a variety of pinks from Grand Prix to Hot Lap, Rev It Up and Front Runner.

The brand’s 1994 Volumizing Mascara in “Jet Black” (named for Halsey’s birth year) wears up to 14 hours, with 91% of surveyed users agreeing it creates dramatic volume, and 98% agreeing it doesn’t flake. To sculpt and lift natural brows for an attention-grabbing look, Brow Artist brow pencil comes in a variety of hair-matching shades from Blonde to Taupe, Auburn and Ash Brown.

“Our founder is somebody who doesn’t just like makeup, she creates makeup,” said Raminella, adding that Halsey’s stage looks wearing the brand’s makeup prove a “very high-performing product;” she tests their staying power through an hours-long set singing and dancing.

“She’s one of the most creative artists in the world,” said Raminella. “She applies creativity not just by writing and singing, but filming and painting. The makeup for her was this ability to express herself and not just herself as an individual, but herself in the various stages and moments of her life.”

Dream Collaboration

Since the brand’s January 2021 launch, About-Face has exploded, Raminella said, with a 45% uptick in sales in the last six months. Consequently, the brand – which is currently available in Ulta Beauty in both the US and Mexico – announced its launch into the European market in Space NK, both in-store and online, in August. The brand’s bestselling products, inclusive of over 300 SKUs with over 120 in UK, are currently available at select Space NK locations and online at spacenk.com. In addition, brand fans can expect a new product in the pipeline that will be introduced in the coming months that they’ve been asking for.

Raminella said Space NK’s “destination for imagination” is in perfect harmony with About-Face’s values, with artistry and experimentation at the helm. Halsey calls makeup her “second language” in helping her verbalize how she feels in a particular moment; her music sets the stage.

“That’s exactly what About-Face is built on: giving boundary-breaking creatives innovative, high-performance, clean products at an accessible price, so they can express themselves freely,” Halsey said in a news release. “Seeing our products at Space NK, a destination for discovery and imagination, truly feels like a dream collaboration come to life.”