“I just need a lipstick to make my face come to life!” says Katy Perry, here to hash out the beauty look that helped make her famous. Think back to 2008, when “I Kissed a Girl” took the airwaves and launched the singer into the spotlight: That cherry red lipstick (or ChapStick, as it were) became her signature, along with her Bettie Page fringe and thick doll-like lashes. Since then, the 31-year-old has evolved into a beauty chameleon, who shifts easily between a classic wine-stained mouth and a raver blue pout. So perhaps it’s no surprise that Perry announced the launch of her first makeup line today: a colorful collaboration with CoverGirl that features two mascaras and 13 shades of cool matte lipsticks, ranging from petal pink to pitch black, designed to be an accessible, experimental makeup kit for her loyal fans.

“I wanted to push the envelope with CoverGirl,” says Perry, who revealed the collaboration on Twitter today. “You know, a black lipstick or a blue mascara is very Tumblr—I told them, this is what’s happening online, this is what everyone’s Instagramming.” Called the CoverGirl Katy Kat Collection, the individualistic lipsticks will be out in May, with the mascaras soon to follow, but 11 colors are exclusively available for preorder on Walmart today and will see their first public outing on Perry and her friends at Coachella this weekend. “We’ll pick a theme for each day—one day we’ll be romantic Lolitas, the next day we’ll be vampires—and I’ll match my lipstick to that theme,” she explains, of dipping into the palette, which took roughly a year to create, with inspirations that run the gamut from MoMA’s block-lettered logo to Tumblr memes. The soft white packaging, too, was Perry’s personal choice, to hint at the perfectly matte yet comfortably hydrating formula within. Here, Perry reveals her secret Tumblr obsession, her next-level mascara technique, and a sneak peek at her Met Gala look.

On Her Makeup-Filled Childhood

“I was always experimenting with makeup. What’s so interesting is that even though I grew up in a sheltered household, even though I wasn’t allowed to wear thongs or anything like that, my mom would say, ‘You should put on a little lipstick’—from age 12! It was very strange, but I was wearing lipstick of all colors from 12 and 13. I’d use it on my cheeks, my eyes, and I was very into classic reds. When I started developing my own sense of style, I thought I was a pinup girl. I was obsessed with them at 13: I’d do a black liner and a red lipstick and that was my go-to.”

On Her Secret Tumblr Girl Life

“Tumblr is where I grab all my inspiration from. I follow really cool people that are just being themselves, and then I start to follow their friends. I’m a bit of a voyeur because no one really knows I’m watching their lives [laughs]. Tumblr to me is a safe place because it’s more about the art than the conversations—it’s not about likes, so it’s not a narcissistic social platform. There are reblogs and stuff like that, but it doesn’t have that same feeling of double tapping. I like that it’s a more pure place that is more creative.”