Ariana Grande is opening up about the development of her new makeup brand, revealing that it’s actually been in the works for more than two years.

At the tail end of last month, eagle-eyed fans found out that “thank u, next” singer was coming out with her own beauty brand: R.E.M. Beauty, following an Instagram page of the same name debuting on the social media platform. Now, she’s talking about how hard it’s been to keep the whole production a secret for so long.

During an interview with Allure for the magazine‘s October 2021 issue, Grande opened up about the project for the first time.

“Coveting the secret for the past two years and having testers and samplers in my purse, and people asking me, ‘Oh, I love your highlight, what are you wearing?’ And me being like, ‘I don’t know,’ sweating,” she told the magazine. “It was so hard to keep a secret for this long.”

Grande went on to say that she gave a lot of thought to the “crowded” marketplace of singers and other entertainers starting their own makeup lines, but said that, in her eyes, it’s the more the merrier.

“I‘ve thought a lot about this, of course, because I don’t want to just hop onto any bandwagons ever. I think that ... I wear my peers’ makeup as well, just like I listen to their music. I’m not going to say, ‘Oh, there’s too many female artists.’” she said. “I love and I’m [a] huge fan of my peers that do both, and I think that it‘s just another way to tell stories. Because you can never have enough makeup, just like you can never have enough music.”

Ariana even blessed fans with some hints about the brand, revealing that one of the first big “drops” from her beauty line will be dedicated to eyes. She called them “our main gateways to our dreams, our emotions, our everything.”

“They‘re our main storytellers and sources of communication. I feel like you can emote more with your eyes than you can articulate sometimes,” she explained.

This info from Grande comes after an Instagram page and website for r.e.m. beauty appeared last month, seemingly named after the singer’s 2018 song off her album Sweetener. Several billboards also popped up throughout Times Square in New York City, saying, “r.e.m. coming soon.”