Kim Kardashian Says Wearing SKIMS Shapewear Makes Her Feel 'Less Hard' on Herself

For Kim Kardashian West, finding the perfect undergarments was a constant struggle — that is, until she devised her own.

“Everything I would wear was too restricting,” Kardashian West tells PEOPLE at an event for her solution-focused shapewear brand, SKIMS. “I felt like there was a way to engineer fabric to lift, but also be comfortable.”

SKIMS, which launched in September, features various styles of undergarments and shapewear, including pasties and body tape.

“I felt like the tape was really important because I had been using it for so long,” says Kardashian West, whose Instagram Stories about her various taped-up looks went viral. “When I would wear a blazer with no top underneath, so many people would be like how does she stay up so perky? I had been using gaffer’s tape and packing tape, and when you’d pull it off it would really hurt and it would leave blisters.”

Continues Kardashian West: “And with that kind of tape, it flattens you in the middle area. We found a tape that molds and curves to you and is not as harsh to take off.”

In addition, SKIMS products come in nine different shades, a groundbreaking feature that was important to the entrepreneur.

“It’s so crazy that it hadn’t been done before,” says Kardashian West. “My nude isn’t the same as everyone’s nude. And if I was tan, I couldn’t find a color that matched. I would take my shapewear and put it in the sink and dye it with coffee bags or teabags to make it darker. I just had to find a solution.”

And for the mother of four, who recently opened up about gaining 18 pounds in the last year, says that finding just the right products greatly improves how she feels about her body.

“It makes you not be so hard on yourself,” Kardashian West says. “I feel good when I’m in the gym and when I’m eating good but then if I have a few months when I’m eating cookies and cake and a bunch of stuff, I still want to feel confident when I have to go out.”

Continues the Keeping up with the Kardashians star: “Obviously you can’t rely on [shapewear] 100 percent. You have to take care of yourself. But if women can feel confident and comfortable in shapewear that’s a little bit more modern and not so old school and grandma-looking, then that is my goal. They look good and they’re still sexy!”