Dominique Petruzzi
Research expert covering Cosmetics, Personal Care, Health & Hygiene industries.
Get in touch with us nowBefore Rihanna, it was Elizabeth Taylor who changed the “celebrity beauty business”, being the first superstar to release a series of perfumes. The fragrance segment is where it all started: especially since the early 2000s, a great number of celebrities released their own perfumes and worked with household names in the cosmetics industry, for example, Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, and more recently, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, and Ariana Grande.
In recent years, however, many stars have decided to be more directly involved in the beauty business, and an increasing number of celebrity beauty brand launches could be observed. Celebrity endorsement has always been common, but lately the landscape has changed. In 2021, as many as 23 celebrity beauty brands were launched in the market, among which were JLo Beauty by Jennifer Lopez, about-face by Halsey, and r.e.m. beauty by Ariana Grande . Several of these celebrities are actors or singers, but some are also internet personalities, such as influencers or content creators, and a lot of the business now happens online, through social media platforms and online advertising.
The leading celebrity beauty brands
In 2021, Fenty Beauty was the leading celebrity brand with a revenue of about 570 million U.S. dollars. Other brands mentioned in the ranking were Kylie Cosmetics, Haus Laboratories, and Rare Beauty.In the next year, Huda Beauty ranked first as the most-followed celebrity make-up brand on Instagram, whereas Goop by Gwyneth Paltrow was one of the most talked about skincare brands by a celebrity, and Kylie Cosmetics was the most googled celebrity beauty brand worldwide, followed by Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty and Harry Styles’ Pleasing. In the United States, Fenty Beauty was the most popular among consumers in terms of brand awareness. Moreover, Fenty Beauty was recently included in a ranking of the leading beauty brands worldwide based on Media Impact Value, a figure that skyrocketed soon after Rihanna’s Super Bowl performance alongside Google searches for the brand, which experienced a growth of over 800 percent. The impact of Fenty Beauty is undeniable, but the same cannot be said about every celebrity beauty brand, as sometimes controversies arise.
How many is too many?
Not every beauty brand is here to stay, especially in a highly competitive market. The increasing number of celebrity beauty brands has not always been welcomed with open arms, with beauty companies -and not only them- speaking up against this phenomenon and the celebrities profiting from a market they have no knowledge about, as well as against the unsustainable aspect of having so many "unnecessary" brands.Moreover, not all consumers trust the quality of celebrity products, and some agree that celebrities should stick to their line of work. Some celebrity beauty brands launched recently are already no longer active, and the interest in them is mostly limited to younger generations. Younger shoppers’ taste could easily shift in the future, making it harder for these brands to stay relevant if their strength lies in the celebrity’s fans rather than quality and innovation.
