Kansas Makeup Artist Wins Contest, Gets Uninvited For Trump Support, She Says

WICHITA, KS — A Wichita makeup artist said she won a national contest sponsored by Kat Von D Beauty and was later disqualified because she supported Donald Trump's presidential candidacy on social media.

Screenshots taken by Gypsy Freeman indicate she was declared the winner last month of an Instagram "Saint + Sinner Contest" sponsored by the makeup line. Freeman's entry was an Instagram image of an angelic figure beside a girl in an all-black outfit and thick mascara, the Wichita Eagle reported.

@katvondbeauty @mercyhanna_15 #SaintandSinner #KVDContest Photography and water/milkbath concept @jennbischof Model @numinous.model MUAH/wardrobe @facesofgypsy #kvdcontest Foundation @temptu As Hamlet said to Ophelia, ”God has given you one face, and you make yourself another." The battle between these two halves of identity...Who we are and who we pretend to be, is unwinnable. "Just as there are two sides to every story, there are two sides to every person. One that we reveal to the world and another we keep hidden inside. A duality governed by the balance of light and darkness, within each of us is the capacity for both good and evil. But those who are able to blur the moral dividing line hold the true power. -Emily Thorne
A post shared by FacesOfGypsy LLC (@facesofgypsy) on Jun 11, 2017 at 6:10pm PDT

The make up line was founded by tattoo artist and former reality show star Kat Von D and the winner and a guest were to be flown to Los Angeles to attend the launch party for a new Von D makeup line, with a $500 gift card to Sephora thrown in. (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

But curious Instagram users found Freeman's pro-Trump post from November.

A post shared by FacesOfGypsy LLC (@facesofgypsy) on Nov 8, 2016 at 8:02am PST

Von D, who starred in the tattoo-themed TLC reality show "LA Ink," later messaged Freeman on Instagram to say she had "drawn a personal line in the sand between myself and anyone who supports that man," according to screenshots of the conversation.

"My launch party (and my brand) celebrates many things that Trump is against," Von D added, according to the screenshots. "And I just need you to know that I personally have a hard time with inviting anyone who would support such an anti-feminist, anti-homosexual/LGBT, anti-immigrant, and anti-climate change fascist such as Trump."

Kat Von D Beauty's parent company, Kendo Holdings, didn't reply to the newspaper's messages seeking comment.

Freeman, who splits her time between Wichita and Florida, said she thinks it's unfortunate that politics was brought into the contest.

"Part of the great thing about this country is having freedom of speech," she said.

"It's definitely bigotry — it's everything that they're calling us, they're doing," Freeman added. "It's a huge case of hypocrisy."

Jenn Bischof, the Florida photographer who took the photos for Freeman's entry, was invited — and attended — the launch party.

Photo credit: Abraham Caro Marin/Associated Press