The Celebrity Beauty Boom Isn't Over Yet
A celebrity launching a beauty brand? Groundbreaking (cue: that GIF of Miranda Priestly).
By now, consumers are burnt out from the number of celebrity makeup, hair, and fragrance lines that have debuted over the past three years. According to a recent story in Variety, over 20 big-name-backed brands launched in 2021 alone.
And while that number seems to be dwindling, the era of the celebrity beauty brand is far from over. On Tuesday, Blake Lively announced the debut of her very own hair care line, Blake Brown Beauty, debuting at Target on August 4.
For fans of Lively, the news was an exciting development for the actor, who also runs two beverage brands. But for other (perhaps more cynical) onlookers, the launch of Blake Brown Beauty garnered nothing more than a groan.
"Great. Another celebrity beauty brand," a comment on the brand's official Instagram reads.
Lively isn't the only one to expand into beauty this year. Back in February, Beyoncé debuted Cécred, a line of hair care products drawing from her family history — her mother was a beautician and opened the salon Headliners in Houston, Texas in 1990.
In March, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson unveiled Papatui, a collection of skin, hair, and tattoo care products. April brought the release of Serena Williams' WYN Beauty. And in May, Bella Hadid unveiled Orebella, a line of alcohol-free fragrances.
Celebrities have long dabbled in the business of beauty — the supermodel Iman, for example, created Iman Beauty all the way back in 1994. That said, the celebrity beauty boom really kicked off with the launch of Rihanna's Fenty Beauty, which would become a smash hit thanks to its expansive, inclusive shade range — a rarity when it hit the market back in 2017.
Since then, fellow A-listers seem to have taken inspiration from Rihanna's success. An incomplete list of celebrities who have ventured into beauty since Fenty Beauty debuted: Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande, Jennifer Lopez, Kim Kardashian, Halsey, Billie Eilish, Harry Styles, Alicia Keys, Pharrell Williams, Machine Gun Kelly, Scarlett Johanssson, Brad Pitt, Travis Barker...
You get the picture.
But over the past year, some big names have struggled. In January 2023, Addison Rae's Item Beauty was removed from Sephora. The same month, Morphe, a cosmetics brand that built much of its business on influencer collaborations, closed all of its US stores. And last September, Jared Leto shut down Twentynine Palms, his inexplicable skincare label, just one year after launch.
The celebrity beauty space is saturated, and consumers are shrewd enough to realize when product is a cash-grab (they're also not afraid to share their thoughts about it online). That doesn't mean Hollywood's finest will stop launching brands any time soon — it just means they'll have to get savvier about brand positioning and marketing.
