Why Some Celebrity Beauty Brands Survive While Others Collapse

Haus Labs, which relaunched at Sephora in 2022 after a slow start, has reportedly grown double-digits annually. In Ulta Beauty's most recent earnings, the retailer credited exclusive brand Cécred as part of the lineup driving healthy growth in prestige hair care and treatments.

"Celebrity can still be a powerful element for a beauty brand, but it increasingly serves more as an acquisition advantage and no longer a full business model," said Manola Soler of Alvarez & Marsal's Consumer and Retail Group. "A well-known founder can generate awareness, earned media, and initial trial overnight. What they cannot guarantee is a second or third purchase."

Repeat purchases and continued customer acquisition, analysts say, depend on consistent product innovation, timely marketing activations, retail expansions and other brand-building efforts.

"The key to longevity [in celebrity beauty] is the same as the key to longevity in any brand at all: Know your customer and make good stuff they want to use over and over again," said Allison Collins, cofounder of advisory firm The Consumer Collective.

Andrew Stanleick, managing director and operating partner of Gauge Capital and former CEO of Kylie Cosmetics and Kim Kardashian's KKW beauty brands at Coty, agreed.

"A celebrity can get a brand noticed, but it cannot make customers come back. Fundamentally, the product just has to deliver," he said, adding that the celebrity must also stay genuinely involved over time. "[Kim and Kylie] were really involved in the business, the product development, the innovation, and it was authentic and genuine. Consumers see that."

For all their cultural impact, celebrity beauty brands remain an objectively small slice of beauty sales. Circana data shows they are most pronounced in fragrance, making up roughly 5 percent of U.S. prestige fragrance sales, while in hair, makeup and skin care, celebrity brands comprise around 1 percent of prestige sales per category.

Still, these brands matter for the excitement they generate and, in select cases, the innovation that ripples beyond them. Rare's liquid blush catalyzed its category when it launched in 2020. Rhode's peptide lip treatment — and subsequent iPhone lip case — spawned numerous dupes. Data from CreatorIQ shows Rhode and Rare regularly rank as top-10 performers across beauty overall by monthly EMV.

"There's always going to be a place for celebrity brands," said Jensen, noting the category stays healthy thanks to a few players with staying power and a reliable stream of new entrants. Madison Beer, Lindsay Lohan and Tate McRae have all teased new beauty ventures recently, following Megan Thee Stallion's July fragrance launch with Coty and Olivia Jade's O.Piccola makeup brand debut in May.

Celebrity brands still pale next to expert-led ones. Makeup artist brands account for roughly 45 percent of U.S. prestige makeup sales, and salon brands about 80 percent of prestige hair sales, per Circana — and despite that size, both are growing much faster than celebrity brands.

"Usually, when a category is so big, it's harder to grow — but [these categories] are all growing," Jensen said.

The lines are blurring. Artist-founders like Mary Phillips and Hung Vanngo are building sizable online followings and becoming influencers in their own right, while influencer-founders like Alix Earle and Mikayla Nogueira edge toward celebrity status.

"Celebrity beauty is here to stay, but I do think we will continue to see a higher bar for new entrants and consumers holding existing brands to high standards," said Soler. "A good way to think about it is: Would people still buy these products if the celebrity name came off the label tomorrow? Brands with longevity have built assortments and brand stories strong enough to make that answer a 'yes.'"