Do We Need Another Celebrity Beauty Launch?

It seems like every celebrity on the planet has ventured into the beauty category over the past few years. In 2021 alone, both Jennifer Aniston and Jennifer Lopez—who both have had names affixed to products before—launched their own brands. Aniston leveraged her locks with LolaVie; JLo capitalized on her signature glow with JLo Beauty.

The most recent famous face to enter the ring is Kate Hudson who teamed up with Juice Beauty for the Kate Hudson Juice Beauty Revitalizing Acacia and Rose Powder Mask. The list also includes Halsey, Scarlett Johansson, Ellen DeGeneres, Lori Harvey (Steve Harvey’s daughter), Kate Upton, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Vanessa Hudgens with Madison Beer, Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish and Jada Pinkett-Smith (and her family)—and that is just a partial list. Hailey Bieber also has a beauty brand in her future.

Retailers also hint a major male skin care launch will hit the market this year. Male celebrities launched beauty brands ranging from Harry Styles with Pleasing which includes skin, makeup and nails as well as Machine Gun Kelly’s UnDn LAQR, a genderless nail color brand.

These are the latest contenders against existing star power faces including Lady Gaga, Tracee Ellis Ross, Taraji P. Henson and of course Rihanna. Alicia Keys has also been a big reason for early results for Keys Soulcare a brand from E.l.f. at Ulta Beauty.

Celebrity Launches Over the Years

The celeb launch machine churned up in the early 1990s when famous faces such as Jennifer Lopez, Cher, Celine Dion, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and even Donald Trump put their name on fragrances.

At that time, fragrance houses were desperate to get sales moving and a well-known name reduced the monumental marketing costs it took to stand out in the fragrance world. It worked well, at first, especially for Coty, Inc. The company’s JLo Glow, which bowed in 2002, achieved $100 million in sales in three years and has mushroomed 19 offshoots since with sales estimated to surpass $2 billion.

Those celeb fragrances, for the most part, evaporated over time as consumers got tired of flanker brands and didn’t necessarily want to put their money in something, they felt a celeb only “fronted” but didn’t really create. The stars lost interest, too, as often their deals were not bringing in the bucks they desired.

For the celebs, it was more vanity than bucks as they took money on the backend which was less than 6 percentage points of sales. The talent often established reputations as asking for big demands. Scott Oshrey, the chief innovation officer at Maesa said the original celeb-endorsed industry created it owns backlash. “So many tried to cash in from selling that it no longer was relevant,” he said last year.

By 2015 the celebrity machine stalled, throwing a wrench in what had become a $150 million business or about 4% of U.S. prestige sales. Three years later, according to archived NPD numbers, it sunk to less than 2% of sales.

What is Different Now?

For one, the stars don’t need big brands behind them. They often announce their lines on their social media without the need for $10 million marketing budgets. A compelling TikTok can create an overnight success—until the next viral hit. Celebrities today are more invested and get involved in the projects and try to tie the brands to what they are known for such as Tracee Ellis Ross with textured hair.

Nicole Kidman signed up to create products for Sera Labs after using their products. Although there are still stars going the fragrance route such as Michelle Pfeiffer, Rihanna (who extended into fragrance), Billie Eilish and Dolly Parton, many pursue the more profitable skin, hair and makeup sectors.

Do New Celebrity Blueprint Guarantee Success?

The odds are there will be a shakeout. The strong, especially those back by incubators like Maesa or the Beach House Group (which counts Florence by Mills from Millie Bobby Brown in its portfolio). These companies have strong marketing teams to make sure the products are a good fit with the celeb.

First to market can be beneficial. Brands with a point of view and filling a market gap also have a leg up. Rhianna’s Fenty Beauty is a perfect case in point for although there were a handful of inclusive makeup lines before her launch, she had the bandwidth to launch at Sephora.

Is there room at the bathroom sink for the barrage of celebrity beauty products flooding the market?

Using a celebrity does bring on fast sales, but not always ones that will last. And the burgeoning indie industry bemoans the difficulty of surviving against the power of fame. Kristin Voss, founder of a beauty line called KVoss has been disheartened by the flood of famous launches. “Celebrities are coming out every other day and just slapping their names on products without knowledge of formulation,” she said.

For all the chatter celebs entice, the reality is celebrity products are still a small portion of overall sales. And sustainable successes are few and far between. Celebrities account for less of the beauty business than one might think, according to NPD Group’s vice president and industry advisor Larissa Jensen. Across all prestige beauty (makeup, fragrance, hair and skin) celebrity accounts for 3% of sales. In fragrances that drops to 2%. “You need to have more than just a name behind a launch,” she said.

About Faye Brookman

Faye Brookman has reported on the beauty and personal care industry for more than 35 years. She contributes to beauty industry publications including Women’s Wear Daily and CEW Beauty News. Her articles have also appeared in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. She also is a frequent moderator for discussions of the beauty business and retail industry.

A graduate of Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Brookman resides in Skillman, N.J.

In case you missed it, check out Faye’s previous article about Retailers To Watch In The Beauty Space.