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Description

This week Ku and Su are joined by entrepreneur, musician, podcaster and RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars winner Shea Couleé. She gives us all of the beauty products we need to look flawless, plus a hot tip on the best bathtub in Chicago. Speaking of baths – Shea tells us about her two newest products in collab with the Quiet Girl Shoppe – the $100,000 bar and her Slay Butter.

Please note, Add To Cart contains mature themes and may not be appropriate for all listeners.

To see all products mentioned in this episode, head to @addtocartpod on Instagram. To purchase any of the products, see below.

• Check our the moisturizing and nourishing Slay Butter and 100,000 bar from Shea and The Quiet Girl Shoppe
• Shea loves the Preserve the Serve Luminous Setting Spray from Patrick Starr’s beauty line One Size Beauty (She also loves the One Size Makeup Remover Wipes)
• Want to try a new face mask? Check out the Chin Lift Peptide & Niacinamide Sculpting Sheet Mask
• Shea’s favorite lip gloss is the – Pat McGrath Lust Lip Gloss – Bronze Divinity
• It will take a while to get this countertop composter, but Shea also loves her Lomi

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Transcript

SPEAKERS

Shea Couleé, Kulap Vilaysack, SuChin Pak

SuChin Pak  00:09

Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of ADD TO CART, a great show about judging ourselves and each other on what we buy. I’m SuChin Pak.

Kulap Vilaysack

and I’m Kulap Vilaysack. Su, we have an amazing guest.

SuChin Pak 

What a delightful guest, what a delightful conversation. So let’s get right into it.

Kulap Vilaysack

Today’s guest is one of the most iconic queens of the Ru Paul’s drag race, a favorite of the fandom, a recording artist, costume designer and activist. She’s recently crowned winner of all stars five and was a finalist on drag race nine, she recently came out with a beauty products The $100,000 Bar in collaboration with the Quiet Girl shop, please welcome in ADD TO CART, Shea Couleé.

Shea Couleé 

Yeah, my name is Shea Couleé  and I did not come to play, I came to slay.

Kulap Vilaysack 

Thank you. I’m very happy to have you on the show. I gotta be honest.

Shea Couleé 

Oh my goodness. Thank you so much for having me. I’m so thrilled and excited to be here to have a fun conversation.

SuChin Pak 

It’s not often we have an icon. You know what I mean? Just amongst us.

Shea Couleé 

But am I not sitting in the presence of icons myself?

Kulap Vilaysack 

I mean SuChin Pak is a pioneer, a trailblazer.

SuChin Pak 

Kulap is definitely an icon. The three of us. You’re right. This the circle of icon.

Kulap Vilaysack 

But SuChin, you were manic panicking before anyone knew what was happening.

SuChin Pak 

Every Asian girl that has ever colored her hair. A fire engine red can send me a check. Okay?

Shea Couleé  02:01

Honestly, yeah, so I’m going to tell my friend Tiger Lily to run you a check right now.

SuChin Pak 

I love it. I love that. Manic Panic, does Manic Panic still exist?

Shea Couleé 

Oh yeah, she’s still around. She’s still doing the damn thing.

Kulap Vilaysack 

She’s still kicking.

SuChin Pak 

Kicking and still root ruining bedsheets all across the world.

Shea Couleé 

Yes, all the pillowcases, there isn’t enough bleach in the world to get those pillowcases white again.

SuChin Pak 

No, no and I don’t care if they reformulated, I don’t care if they’re spending money on it. Manic Panic is great, but it will fuck up your pillow sheets.

Shea Couleé 

Oh my god. Yeah, I actually, I remember one time I was in New York a few years ago and my friend dyed my hair at this like slime electric green this Manic Panic green and when I woke up at the hotel the next morning like the pillowcases were fully Green and I was like I’m gonna have to leave extra tip for this because I know as soon as like housekeeping comes in. They’re gonna be like what happened here? Was the Grinch here? This person uses pillowcase to go like sledding on a grass hill, what the hell.

SuChin Pak 

But did your hair look vibrant? And otherworldly?

Shea Couleé 

So vibrant. So electric.

SuChin Pak

You can’t have that without that.

Shea Couleé 

Yes. Oh, you know what? I feel like you know honestly like Manic Panic is the feeling that you get when you wake up the next morning and look at your pillowcase. I get it.

SuChin Pak 

Let’s get an emoji for that, stat. Let’s get those emotions out there it is true. Manic Panic.

Kulap Vilaysack 

Shea, please tell us about your newest beauty venture. I mean I have it on my skin right now. But I’d love you to tell the people what you’re up to.

Shea Couleé 

Yes, so earlier this year, I partnered up with The Quiet Girl shop, which is a local Black female owned body and bath products company here in Chicago actually Naperville. We’re gonna be like really technical about it, which is like my old stomping grounds used to do Naperville community theater. Only a stage shout out to my friend Joel Kim Booster we used to do theater together for the longest time. We all literally no joke used to live around the corner from each other and he had a car before I did because he was a year older. And he had this like a 19 like 87′ Honda Civic with faulty brakes, brakes, okay and this is how you know you’re like and like so just like don’t care when you think that like brakes are optional. Like no, you need those things to survive, and the way that we would literally be rolling through stop signs, like going for practice, hoping that we didn’t encounter a red light, like I have no idea how we even live to tell the tale. Nothing is more freeing than not being able to stop. You know what I’m saying? Because you really don’t know.

SuChin Pak 

And now it’s a life philosophy.

Shea Couleé 

But yes, so the Quiet Girl Shop. They’re based in Naperville and I started using their products earlier in the pandemic. And I was just really, really, really in love with them. And I reached out to them and said, hey, would you be interested in collabing on a soap, I love your soaps, I love your products. So we started there. And we did the 100k bar that we released over the summer, which is beautiful shea butter-based soaps, so it’s really moisturizing and it has truly in the rolly […] and yehovah beads in there for a little extra moisturization. And love that so much that when we started getting into like the drier winter months, I was just like, you know, we really, I would love to do a moisturizer. So that’s when we partnered up to do slave butter, which is also shea butter bass, but it’s a whipped shea butter. So it’s so light, it spreads very well. It lasts so long and it has glitter in it to give you just a little extra shimmer. And it has the same sip profile as the 100k bar. So you know it’s just really bright, floral, lovely, yummy.

Kulap Vilaysack  06:44

You didn’t have breaks before and now, look at you. You have products.

Shea Couleé 

I love moisturizing. I would say I probably spend as much time moisturizing as I do in the shower. So like they literally go hand in hand for me, cuz you know, I gotta get like every crack every crevice. And then I gotta walk around and like air dry. Let it like soak. And so that’s 10 minutes, like at least of that routine. And I’m not even playing around.

Kulap Vilaysack

So hey, this is great, because Su and I did what ended up being we didn’t think it was deranged, but it was our deranged shower routines were in. We were simply describing what we do and both aghast at each other. And what we were up to..

SuChin Pak 

Oh no, I was like you’re insane. And she was like you’re a crazy person. It didn’t end up being a two parter, because we were laughing so hard through, could not get through how crazy.

Kulap Vilaysack 

Also, there was just simply too many steps that each of us was doing. And so I feel like you’re with us. You’re simpatico.

Shea Couleé 

The more steps the merrier. I love to luxuriate.

Kulap Vilaysack  08:04

Were you born in May, just I need to know if you were born in May.

Shea Couleé 

No, I was born in February. So, Aquarius, I think that’s why I love just like, you know, being in a warm shower or a warm bath. I’m like, give me some warm water and I’ll calm down. Like I can be really upset, I can be really piss, and put me in some warm water and I’ll calm down.

Kulap Vilaysack 

You need a container.

Shea Couleé 

Exactly and then you get in the shower and the acoustics are good. And then you go what I call my world tour you like pick an album and I’m like okay, tonight, I’m going on Beyonce’s formation World Tour and you know, you singing along and all your dancers like your Beyonce in the shower, like that’s at least 10 minutes in and of itself, the concert, you know?

SuChin Pak

Three days go by, you’re still in there, you’ve hit, you know.

Shea Couleé 

Look, here’s the thing because I can spend, I almost said in uncomfortable but that’s not true. I can spend a comfortable amount of time in the bathtub, because all you got to do is like let a little bit of the water out when it starts getting cold. Turn it back on but let it fill up with a little bit more hot water and you’re like okay, another 20 minutes. Boom.

SuChin Pak 

There’s that thing that you brought you added to cart, you gotta tell the Shea about it.

Kulap Vilaysack

Shea, do you know about this? This it’s like a plastic sort of basically the cover. I mean, I can’t even, can’t even pull the words together. What I need to tell you I’m so excited to tell you about it. But like the you can cover the drain, not the drain, shoots the hole, not the bottom hole.

Shea Couleé

So but yeah, you’re gonna get that top drain.

Kulap Vilaysack

So you cover it with this plastic thing I will send you a link it’s from Amazon I don’t know I feel about that but it gives you to like it gives you like two more inches.

Shea Couleé  10:10

That’s what I’m all about. Like I want the water to be like over my shoulders up to my chin. I tell people about it all the time. There’s this hotel in Chicago whenever I want like a staycation. I go there. It’s called the Hotel Viceroy. Because they have a suite that has like, this like Lake View, like the bathroom has these floor to ceiling windows. And then like the tub is like in a wet room. So like the tub and shower are combined. And it’s like this big egg-shaped tub that’s so deep. And you can literally Let the water flow over the edge of the tub like down into the wet room drain and to me like that is luxury, like that is a bath looking out, like at like a lovely scenic view while the water just like goes over the edge of the tub because you’re like, I don’t care.

SuChin Pak 

You’re on the formation World Tour.

Shea Couleé 

So that’s like, I’m at Sand castles at that point.

Kulap Vilaysack 

I love to ask our guests like what type of like shopper they are. But I’m already getting an inkling.

Shea Couleé

Okay, what kind of shopper do you feel like I can possibly be?

Kulap Vilaysack

I mean, I know you can go high low. I know. You can go high low. I’m not doubting that for a second, but you can go high low. I know, you know, like the like, like the best deal. But then also you like luxury. And that is apparent. But how do you like are you an online shopper? Are you somebody who like does a lot of research like what’s your style?

Shea Couleé  12:05

You know what I would say like, I’m an eclectic shopper. I do online shopping for my necessities, something that I kind of like need, like on a schedule. I’m like, okay, I know my basics. I know my fundamentals. I need this, I know how soon I can have it, you know, and I could schedule it accordingly. But then when I want to, like treat myself, that’s when I go out shopping in person because I want the experience of like touching it, smelling it, sampling it, having somebody ask if I need help and me be like no, like I want like, that’s what I want, you know, when I […]. I’m actually just normally like too stoned in public. And I’m just like, please don’t trap me in a conversation because it will get so weird.

SuChin Pak 

I’m the same way and I’m not stoned, oh my god, I hate those trapped conversations. The worst thing in life for me is walking into a store being like, oh shit, I’m the only person here. And you’re looking at the salesperson and you’re like, ha with like, what do you do? I wish I was a personality; I could just turn around and leave because that’s what I want to do. But I gotta buckle in. I got to tell them every inappropriate story you got to tell them about, you know there’s maybe a wart growing on my foot. I mean, this lady is going to know everything about me. And it’s going to be so mortifying. I’ll never walk in here again. Like that’s the level of anxiety that I feel when I go shopping in person.

Shea Couleé 

I mean, I absolutely love lush cosmetics. But I do tend to shop online a little bit more because whenever I walk into the store, I feel like it’s like a country western standoff. You know, it’s like, like, you know, and we’re, we’re across the store and I’m like, don’t you engage me and they’re like, I’m gonna engage you so hard. They’re like, I’m gonna ask you about every single body product you’ve ever used. And it’s just like, no, but like, I’ll even be like, okay, let me go is a for instance, like one of the things I love from Lush is their Buffy bar, you know, because part of the moisture routine you use it in the shower you know, it’s like this honey and like shea butter bar with like coffee grounds in it for extra exfoliation, you know, you rub it on it, like melts and then you rinse it off, gorge. So obviously, you know, I’m like, clearly I’m like, familiar with these products. And then oh, and like, don’t even let me tell an employee that I’m familiar with a product because then it’s going to become a competition for them to outdo me with the knowledge on the products and I’m like, baby, that’s not what I’m here for. I just want to make sure that I’m not asking, you know?

Kulap Vilaysack  15:00

I’m not trying to take your job. Okay, so let’s get into your add to carts because I am excited, can we please start with the preserve the serve luminous setting spray?

Shea Couleé 

I am so obsessed with Patrick Star’s brand one size. I just think that it’s simple first of all the makeup, oh, gosh. Okay, so okay, we will talk about preserve to serve but also his makeup remover spray and his makeup remover wipes are amazing because the makeup removing wipes are humongous. So for the people that like to layer on their makeup like what you can get it all off with one wipe which for me, like with a standard makeup remover wipe is like two or three sometimes, you know, but preserve the serve. I absolutely love this setting spray because not only does it have like a beautiful hold, it dries with so much elasticity to it. I feel like do you ever use like a setting spray and you feel like it kind of almost dries your face out? It just has so much flexibility to it. You can move and express and not feel like you just recently got an acid peel, I just love it and I like to use it multiple times in my makeup process I actually like to spray my wet foundation with it before I put my powder and then one more time at the very end.

Shea Couleé 

And then that setting spray will it just make sure your makeup doesn’t move?

Shea Couleé 

Yes, absolutely.

Kulap Vilaysack 

Wow that’s a game changer.

Shea Couleé 

And it smells really good. You know added bonus.

Kulap Vilaysack 

Huge bonus. Okay add to cart that all day. Su, and I both have dry skin.

Shea Couleé 

So then you wouldn’t love this you would love this because I don’t I have oily skin and so I can only imagine how if I had dry skin and I put on some of these settings sprays like how tight my skin would feel with it on there. You know, and I don’t want to feel like I’m wearing a mask over my makeup like I just really feel you know, easy breezy and light.

Kulap Vilaysack 

I like this. This is an Add to cart for me plus a makeup remover.

SuChin Pak 

You’re saying all in all, this is a great line. I had; this is a new one for me. I haven’t discovered.

Shea Couleé 

Love one size they have great setting powders too and I love like his products are also really travel friendly. I think that not a lot of beauty. brands and products really think about how their products need to travel. Because you do have people who do travel a lot whether you know it’s for work or for leisure or fun or whatever. And TSA does not give a damn.

Kulap Vilaysack  18:23

Put in the trash, your beautiful products mixed with like, you know, Aquafina water bottle.

Shea Couleé 

Yeah. It’s hurtful. It’s painful.

SuChin Pak 

You want to just be like use it please. Please, sir. Use it. I know you have to have to get rid of this. But trust me, this setting spray is gonna do wonders for your eyeliner, use it.

Shea Couleé 

I actually remember one time I was coming back from Canada and we had gone on a tour of the Lash factory in Toronto. They were so sweet. They gave me all of these samples just so many free products. And for some reason something was up with […] for baggage check all of the kiosks were down. So there was such a long line and it was an overnight trip and so I had a bag that was small enough to just be a carry on but I checked it because I was like you know my skincare products that’s important and so wouldn’t be able to make the fly unless I just took it as a carry on and literally had to stay oh, and get rid of all of this lash and this is a nightmare. There’s a flight attendant like we made eyes and I was just like you might as well take this, and she was just like we can’t, I was like, girl. Oh man. I was like literally how I had those products on my persons for about an hour before I literally just had to dump them all. It was so sad.

Kulap Vilaysack  20:09

I mean this is a modern-day Sophie’s Choice.

SuChin Pak 

Shea wakes up sometimes in the middle of the night, screaming.

Shea Couleé 

Yes, I’m like not my gorgeous skin cream.

Kulap Vilaysack 

Okay, this next product is something that I know SuChin and I are very interested in, Su, it’s the chin lift peptide niacinamide, how do we say it, niacinamide sculpting sheet mask.

Shea Couleé 

So this baby oh my gosh. So, sometimes when I have to be like on camera, Zoom meeting or you know just like a shoot or something. And it’s like relatively early I don’t know about y’all but I wake up in the morning and I’m […] and I’m like, just […]

Kulap Vilaysack  21:13

I’m a […]

SuChin Pak 

I call myself a pumpkin but go on.

Shea Couleé 

This chin lift mask. The sheet mask by wishful which is the skincare line of Huda Beauty. is So impeccable it will 1520 minutes with this will snatch your chin what it just tightens it has this cooling mint after effect to it too. And it’s not uncomfortable. Like I’ve worn like masks like little chin masks like this before that are kind of like painful on the ears because they’re like trying to stretch too much to like pull the like chin up but this one gives you a nice like lift without also just like crushing the backs of your ears too. Because it’s made out of this lovely I guess I would describe it as like a fabric almost with like the gel mask on the other side. I just love the way that it’s engineered, I love the way that it’s made and it really truly does tighten up your chin and jaw.

Kulap Vilaysack  22:27

Okay, I am listening to you but I’m also adding to cart.

SuChin Pak 

And I want to also put this all over my face because everything is puffy, do you know what I mean? But I’ve never seen, I mean, I’ve seen under eye masks, I’ve seen, you know obviously, you know regular face masks but I’ve never actually seen anything like this, I didn’t even know that this was a thing to have it just targeting..

SuChin Pak 

Yeah, the chin and the under area yeah that can just like honestly sometimes just be just a little bit too relaxed or a little bit too just swollen and it just takes all of that away.

Kulap Vilaysack 

Okay this is huge. This to me is very..

SuChin Pak 

You know what else to say when you talk about products and that these are products that you love, like everybody is leading in, do you know what I mean? Because you must have, you have tried so many different products you are in the skincare game so you understand how products are made so the fact that you’re bringing these like these are going to be game changing add to carts, for sure.

Shea Couleé

I absolutely love these. And the chin mask is going to change your life and I actually just realized that I’m out so I need to go on add to cart as well. Yeah, it needs to restock need to do my little online shopping because I know what I need.

Kulap Vilaysack

And finally, you’re the last add to cart you are so graciously sharing with us is the Pat McGrath labs lip gloss and your favorite is the..

Shea Couleé  24:11

Bronze divinity. Okay, look at this one for me is just like my perfect nude lip gloss. Like I love to slap this on over nude like because honestly most of the time like when I’m in Dragon I’m in like full glam. Even if I have like a glossy lip. It’s actually normally I’m gonna say 99% of the time over a lipstick or..

SuChin Pak

A lip liner?

Shea Couleé

Well, yes, always I’m obsessed with lip liner. I use like two or three different colors in one lip application. Because that’s really important too. I contour my lips the same way that a person would contour their face. The way that I line my lips. I also share ate the outer corners of my mouth because when you add a little bit of a contour to the outer corners it like makes your lips kind of go back and in the middle is of them come forward so it looks like it’s more of a pout you know I make sure that I put a little bit of a lighter color if the center of my mouth just like you know really just rounded out and give that lip dimension and so most of the time just as a base later I’ll have like a lipstick or a long last like lip stain and then I’ll always go over with some bronze divinity just for a lovely little natural shimmer and then even when I’m not in drag if I just want like a cute little lip gloss for a little glossy lip when I have just my skincare on and I’m looking […] I’ll make sure that I put that in my fanny pack and I bust that out in the club.

Kulap Vilaysack

And do you enjoy the Pat McGrath line in general? I know this is your hero product.

Shea Couleé 

Yes, I absolutely love Pat McGrath products. So pigmented. I love the use of glitter and shimmer. I mean, I’m a drag queen, hello? And I feel like with a lot of her products of specifically like the mothership pallets like when those drops, I was all over those. I love that they call back to a lot of the 70s glam makeup styles that you would see prevalent and brands like Halston and Gucci. You just feel like these people are like headed to you know, go party at Studio 54. And I’m all about that fantasy.

Kulap Vilaysack  26:40

I want that feeling. I’m about that fantasy.

SuChin Pak 

And she’s like, I mean, talk about icon. She’s not gonna put her name and her face on something that she doesn’t stand by. And I think everyone, you know, whether you’re a professional makeup artist, or you’re just a makeup fan, I mean, I think that everyone knows that these products, her line is the best. One of the best lines out there.

Kulap Vilaysack 

But speaking of one of the best lines out there, Shea, where can we find your collab? Where can we find you know, Quiet Girl shop?

Shea Couleé 

Oh, well, you can actually go on line to my website, sheacoulee.com. Or you can go to the Quiet Girl Shoppe. And you can find them there. And yeah, I mean, go add to cart and we’ll make sure that we get it out to you and some reuse recycling, compostable packaging.

Kulap Vilaysack

Okay, thank you. Thinking about everything.

Shea Couleé 

Look, I want to make sure that it’s glam, but also low impact. You know, like, look, I love Captain Planet when I was a kid, I was all about that life. And I’m still out here doing my best to recycle and compost to take care of this planet because the power is yours.

SuChin Pak  28:09

Shea, you just added a dimension to your personality, that I just took it to a whole other direction. I just I love that. I love that we can talk about luscious lips and composting.

Shea Couleé

I’m actually running. I have a countertop composter that I’m actually running right now as we speak. It is the Lomi..

SuChin Pak 

You have the Lomi, okay, so we I haven’t talked to anyone that has had this. So do you love it?

Shea Couleé 

I do. I will tell you I made a mistake. I mean, I guess it wouldn’t be a mistake, because it was on the list of things that you could put in there to compost. And so there’s three different settings. They have like the Eco setting that’s like, you know, it will just like break it down and compost in like three to five hours. There’s like another general setting. I don’t remember exactly what that one does. But then there’s like the plant setting where it doesn’t heat it too much so that it still preserves the microorganisms so that you can use it as plant food. And so they said that you could put dairy in there. And so I there was a little bit of blue cheese leftover in the refrigerator and I threw that in there. And maybe the mold from the blue cheese, like multiply it and so then maybe when I put it on my plants, there was a little bit of mold that started growing on the soil that I’m still dealing with but because it’s like natural, it’s organic, it’s not killing them. It’s not too much of a problem. It’s just a little bit of white mold, but do not put blue cheese on it.

SuChin Pak

Keep that blue cheese.

Shea Couleé 

Not the blue cheese. Just let those gases just go into the earth. But ever since then, ever since I skipped the blue cheese is all been really good, great compost. It smells like when the compost comes out it smells like tomato soup. That’s the best way for me to describe it as smells like tomato soup

SuChin Pak  30:21

That will because I think that people at least and I’m one of them, the composting sometimes you know that step of like, oh, I don’t want my house or my backyard to smell like garbage, like rotting garbage. So that’s actually really good. Ku and I have been talking about these kinds of composting machines like Vitamix has one. This is Lomi is like the newest. And so I’m so excited to hear that you’re using it and with a little bit of adjustments and learning curve, but that you’re generally liking it like I may actually because..

Kulap Vilaysack 

Of course. Shea, we’re trying to get it for free.

Shea Couleé 

Yeah, I was willing to spend money but I was smart. And I got it when it was still like in its Kickstarter. So I had ordered this like, during the OG lockdown. You know what I’m saying? And so then I had low key forgotten about it. And then I got a notification that it shipped and I was like, oh my god, I totally forgot. I ordered my countertop composter and it was like there in two days and so I’ve just been composting ever since.

Kulap Vilaysack 

Okay, well, you’re a hero.

SuChin Pak

You’re saving us one lip gloss and one banana peel at a time.

Kulap Vilaysack 

Yeah. Thank you so much for joining us.

Shea Couleé 

Oh, it’s my absolute pleasure. Thank you so much for having me

SuChin Pak 

All right, that’s it for this episode. Find everything Shea added to cart on our Instagram at @AddToCartPod.

Kulap Vilaysack

And we always want to hear from you. Leave us a voicemail at 833-453-6662.

SuChin Pak  32:04

And we’ll be back next week. Bye.

CREDITS

ADD TO CART is a production of Lemonada Media. Our producer is Claire Jones and our mix is by Ivan Kuraev and Veronica Rodriguez. The music is by Wasahhbii and produced by La Made It and Oh So Familiar with additional music by APM music. Executive producers are Kulap Vilaysack, SuChin Pak, Jessica Cordova Kramer and Stephanie Wittels Wachs. Be sure to check out all the items we mentioned today on our Instagram at @AddToCartPod. Also, please take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcast.