Kitty Su launches queer-led beauty line to mark 15 years of drag and nightlife
New Delhi: Kitty Su, the queer-affirming nightlife brand launched by The LaLiT in 2011, has entered the beauty market with its own makeup collection. The launch, held at The LaLiT New Delhi, marks the brand's 15th anniversary and was hosted by founders Keshav Suri and Cyril Feuillebois. The evening brought together beauty, drag, nightlife and queer culture, the worlds that Kitty Su has been part of for over a decade.
The new brand, Kitty Su Beauty, is billed as India's first queer-led beauty brand. The initial collection is deliberately small: three matte liquid lipsticks and two treatment glosses. According to the founders, the products are designed to endure stage lights and long nights without feeling heavy. The shades are named Hotline, Tantric and Blackmail.
Keshav Suri, Executive Director of The LaLiT Suri Hospitality Group, said the decision to enter beauty was not driven by commercial trends. "We didn't want to make a beauty brand because nightlife brands are supposed to have one. We wanted to make it because Kitty Su already had a beauty language of its own," he said. He added that the brand's approach is based on expression rather than enhancement. "Enhancement assumes there is something about you that needs fixing. Expression begins from a completely different place: there is nothing wrong with you."
The collection was developed with Hash Brownie, a Delhi-based drag queen, performer and makeup artist. Hash described makeup as a language. "Drag taught me that makeup is a language," she said. "It isn't necessarily about making someone prettier. It can create a character, alter proportions, communicate a mood or deliberately contradict what people expect to see." She also noted that drag performers often have to improvise with products, and added: "Beauty doesn't have to be obedient."
Hash said the shades were chosen to offer versatility. "A product should give you a starting point, not a set of rules," she said. According to the brand, Hotline can be used as a red lip, blush or face pigment; Tantric provides earthy depth; Blackmail can be applied for a graphic or editorial look. The same shade, Hash said, should look different on different people.
Cyril Feuillebois, founder of Kitty Su Beauty, said the formula had been developed over about three years. "Performance should come from the product, not from having to fight with it," he said. The brief was to create colour with staying power without making it uncomfortable, especially for makeup meant to withstand movement, heat and lights.
The products are priced at ₹399 for mini lipsticks, ₹1,950 to ₹2,490 for full sizes, and ₹1,950 for glosses. The brand's founders said the aim is to offer creative materials rather than predefined looks.
Kitty Su has been a prominent space for India's drag and queer nightlife culture since it opened. The beauty line is an extension of that identity, drawing from the community that built it rather than borrowing the culture as an aesthetic, Suri said. The launch coincides with the brand's 15th year, which organisers described as a celebration of self-expression.
