Did you have a favourite celebrity fragrance growing up? Mine was Taylor Swift’s Wonderstruck. It was released in 2011, and for the next three years, the sweet and floral scent was my go-to. I couldn’t make it to any of her concerts or meet-and-greets, but I could spritz her perfume every evening and it made me feel even more obsessed with my favourite pop star. At the time, back in the 2000s fragrance boom, everyone—Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian—launched a signature scent. Fans couldn’t spend time with their idols, but they could wear something that they’d created, at the very least.
Now, celebrities are going big, choosing to launch major skincare, makeup and hair care brands that can fit into their follower’s entire lifestyles. And they’re not just the ‘face’ of the brands anymore—they’re owners, creative directors and co-creators, giving them the freedom to create their very own version. Between Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty, Karina Kaif’s Kay Beauty, Kylie Jenner’s Kylie Cosmetics, Miranda Kerr’s KORA Organics, Priyanka Chopra’s Anomaly, Halsey’s About Face, Pharrell Williams’ Humanrace and Harry Styles' Pleasing, there’s no dearth of celeb-backed brands on shelves. Some work. Like, really work—Fenty Beauty is worth $2.8 billion.
The thing is, everyone seems to want a piece of the pie. Jacyln Hill, a beauty YouTuber tweeted, “I feel like 2019 was the year that every single publicist looked at their A-list celebrity client and said, ‘It’s time to create a make-up line.’” It can feel super oversaturated these days, with a lot of consumers being put off with the amount of content they’re being shown lately. If this is true, will this make-up and skincare revolution end like the great fragrance rush of the ‘00s? Or will it just keep growing and growing and growing?
“Celebrities today will see more success positioning themselves as digital influencers displaying 360-degree inspiration beyond what they were originally known for and acting as creative directors and brand owners, and not just the 'face' of the brand. By becoming brand owners and creative directors, celebrities can launch beauty brands that are relevant to the people that already consume their content,” says Tanya Rajani, beauty and personal care analyst—India, at a market research company, Mintel. Rihanna, for example, was able to understand the value of a celebrity-backed beauty empire. After constantly speaking out about the need for inclusivity, diversity and women empowerment, she found a gap in the beauty industry for people with darker skin tones, and therefore set out to create a brand that catered to the audience she’d been standing up for. Now, Fenty Beauty's—even after a divorce from Rihanna’s star power—blush sticks and foundations are a must-have in every makeup artist, beauty editor, buyer and formulator’s kit.
Supermodel Miranda Kerr—founder of skincare brand KORA Organics—also built her business based on her strengths, which shows through in her products. “Health and wellness have been a passion of mine from a young age. For so long, people thought that I was just the model for the brand or that it was just a licensing deal, but I built this company from the ground up—with my own money, my own ideas and I created it out of love and passion for health and wellness,” she tells The Established. “My experience from modelling and being in the industry for so many years was such a great testing ground to learn what textures and products really worked underneath make-up. I learned how to prime and prep the skin and what products helped with that. So when it came to formulating my own products, I had basically tried everything in the market and I knew what textures worked on the skin, and was able to provide that feedback to the chemists who were then able to work their magic and formulate powerful certified organic products,” she confirms.
When launching a new beauty brand, celebrities are not building awareness from scratch and can rely on their own brand. “Today, with beauty launches and innovations slowing down due to the pandemic, product differentiation becomes less obvious and branding plays a bigger role, which celebrities can take advantage of,” confirms Rajani. The importance of social media and the fan base cannot be overlooked. Celebrities can reach a large audience with little to no cost—a quick Instagram story on Kylie Jenner or Katrina Kaif’s Instagram account can be seen by 305m and 61.2m followers respectively. Traditional skincare brands cannot compete on this level; Chanel Beauty, Drunk Elephant, and Dot and Key only have 4.2m, 1.2m and 157k followers apiece.
Authenticity. It might be the most overused word, but it is what people are looking for. Would you trust a clean and natural skincare line created by Kim Kardashian West? Probably not. With consumers knowing so much about a celebrity’s likes and dislikes, a brand has to fit into their personality to make sense. “Their brand must be an extension of the part of their life that their audience aspires to be a part of,” says Netijyata Mahendru, an ex-marketing executive at Estée Lauder, and now-founder of The Broadcast Beauty Consultancy, which specialises in facilitating the growth of Indian beauty brands as well as aiding their international counterparts start their India chapter. “If Sonam Kapoor Ahuja launches a beauty brand, I’d want her brand to exude that high fashion glamour that she’s been known for. On the other hand, if her make-up brand communicates simplicity and minimalism, I’d probably call her out on it,” she says.
Consumers want to feel like the celebrities they love are actually involved in the process of putting their brand together, and can sniff out when they’re just putting a name across the label. Kaif, for example, has spoken out about her love for make-up for years on end, so when she launched Kay Beauty with Nykaa in 2019, she made sure to make it clear how much a part of the process she was. “As a co-founder of the brand, it is very crucial for me to be completely involved. I am extremely passionate about it and it is my responsibility to ensure that we align every step—whether it is the product portfolio, formulations, growth, marketing, or messaging of the brand, and what we stand for. I feel accountable for what we deliver to our consumers, thus being personally involved in the brand comes naturally to me,” confirms Kaif. “You can’t forget that when it comes to building a brand, it takes more than just celebrity endorsement,” says the actor.
Poorna Doshi, a senior marketing manager at Luxasia—a distribution platform for beauty brands—confirms that the key to success is the actual product. “The quality and efficacy are paramount,” she says. “Clean beauty, transparency and sustainability aren’t just buzzwords anymore, and today’s consumers know exactly what they want.” Making products that actually work is key. “I think it's super important to have genuine R&D backing your brand and its products. Consumers need to know there's expertise and interest behind what is being sold to them,” says Isha Sutaria, a skincare and lifestyle influencer. “The Victoria Beckham skincare line, for example, is powered with technology patented by Augustinus Bader. When you have a strong claim backed by research and proof of concept, it makes you trust the brand more,” she says.
“FOR SO LONG, PEOPLE THOUGHT THAT I WAS JUST THE MODEL FOR THE BRAND OR THAT IT WAS JUST A LICENSING DEAL, BUT I BUILT THIS COMPANY FROM THE GROUND UP—WITH MY OWN MONEY, MY OWN IDEAS.”Miranda Kerr
The critics say that celebrity endorsement has lost its power to engage in this context of fast-paced, disposable content on Instagram and Tik Tok. “As per Mintel’s consumer research survey, only 41 per cent of consumers have chosen celebrities as a trusted source of beauty information,” says Rajani. They’re looking to influencers, dermatologists and pros instead.
What doesn’t work at all? Faking it. In September 2019, Millie Bobby Brown—fresh off the major success from Stranger Things—launched Florence By Mills, a skincare brand that would speak to her largely Gen-Z audience. As part of the roll-out, she posted a video of herself going through her night-time routine using the products, a tactic that celebrities use to show their fans and followers a real-life simulation that feels relatable and educational. But here’s the issue—she just performed a facsimile of her routine, pretending to lather-up and scrub, but with no suds or water in sight. She was met with a lot of criticism for it, both on social media and IRL. She issued an apology: “I’m still learning the best way to share my routines as I get to know this space better—I’m not an expert. I thought doing a quick video replicating my personal process for that night was okay, but that’s not what was conveyed.” But discerning skincare consumers—online and IRL—knew better than to let the wool get pulled over their eyes. The same went for Jennifer Lopez, who launched an olive oil-based skincare line, claiming her lifted and taut skin was thanks to slathering the ingredient all over her face (and decidedly not botox or fillers). “Building a story or weaving a narrative that is hard to believe—like Jennifer Lopez did—will not work. If olive oil is the secret to her skin, then why would I pay that kind of money to her? I'll just go get good olive oil,” says Mahendru.
Given the success and recognition of so many celebrity beauty brands, it would make sense that more will crop up soon. Deepika Padukone is launching her own beauty brand this year, “With this brand, I want to leave a little legacy of what my beliefs are: physically, mentally, and emotionally,” she said of her upcoming venture, as are Scarlett Johansson and Hailey Bieber. It won’t be surprising if celebrities like Alia Bhatt, Bhumi Pednekar, Dua Lipa and Kendall Jenner come up with their own in the next couple of years too—it just makes sense to try. With so many brands out there, all of them definitely won’t be successful, but don’t expect the pipeline to slow down. As Lady Gaga said in a video launching Haus Laboratories: “The last thing the world needs is another beauty brand, but that’s too bad.”