Kylie Cosmetics
Kylie Cosmetics, LLC is an American cosmetics company founded by media personality Kylie Jenner. The company began selling Kylie Lip Kits, a liquid lipstick and lip liner set on November 30, 2015. Formerly known as Kylie Lip Kits, the company was renamed Kylie Cosmetics.
In 2018, Forbes reported the company was valued at $800 million, and in March 2019, valued the company at $900 million. Coty, Inc. bought a 51% controlling stake in the company for $600 million in November 2019. However, in early 2020 Forbes reported - citing documentation from the Coty deal - that Kylie Cosmetics had overvalued itself.
Background
In 2014, Kylie Jenner and her mother Kris Jenner founded the company and partnered with Seed Beauty, a retail and product development company co-founded by siblings, John and Laura Nelson. The companies first product Kylie Lip Kits, a liquid lipstick and lip liner, debuted on November 30, 2015. The first 15,000 lip kits were produced by Seed Beauty and funded by Jenner at a cost of $250,000 from her modelling earnings. The company was renamed to Kylie Cosmetics in February 2016 and production was increased to 500,000 kits. By the end of 2016, the company's total revenue was over $300 million.Jenner has described her decision to use her former insecurity about her lip size as inspiration for her brand, saying it's "one of the most authentic things I've done in my career".
Business
Collaborations and collections
Jenner has collaborated with several other celebrities on collections for Kylie Cosmetics. Some notable collaborations include Kim Kardashian-West, Khloe Kardashian, and Kourtney Kardashian. Most recently, Jenner has collaborated with her mother, Kris Jenner.In November 2016, Kylie announced the very first Kylie Cosmetics collaboration called Koko X Kylie, where she teamed up with her half-sister, Khloe Kardashian.
In April 2017, Jenner announced her collaboration with her half-sister, Kim Kardashian-West, called KKW X Kylie. Kylie Cosmetics partnered with Kim Kardashian-West soon after the KKW release.
In May 2017, it was announced Koko X Kylie would be returning for a Part 2 of the half-sisters’ collaboration.
In a month long pop-up event in November 2017, seven TopShop stores across the US sold Kylie Cosmetics products. In November 2018, Kylie Cosmetics began selling their products at Ulta. Many attribute the brand's success to Jenner's cosmetically altered lips.
In April 2018, Jenner announced her Kylie Cosmetics collaboration with her oldest half-sister, Kourtney Kardashian, called Kourt X Kylie.
On May 9, 2018, Kylie and Kris Jenner announced their collaboration called the Kris Kollection via Kylie's personal Instagram. The Mini Lip Set in the Kris Kollection, which includes eight mini liquid lipsticks, is aptly named “Momager”, a title in which Kris Jenner has personally taken on, and attempted to trademark, in recent years. In addition to the "Momager" Lip Kit, the Kris Kollection includes lip glosses and a four pan pressed powder highlight/blush palette, which has created a lot of controversy online with both good and bad reviews. The collection was released just in time for Mother's Day.
On September 14, 2018, Kylie announced her new launch the Jordyn X Kylie collection, in celebration of her long term friendship Jordyn Woods.. Kylie was said to have removed products from this collection after the fallout of their friendship from the Tristan and Jordyn scandal.
On June 9, 2019, Kylie announced her collaboration with her half sister Khloé Kardashian for the third time.
In 2019, Kylie announced her collaboration with Oliver Rousteing the creative director for Balmain in the KylieXBalmain collection. Which launched on September 27 of that year.
On June 26, 2020, Kylie Cosmetics released a collection called “Kendall By Kylie Cosmetics”. It was created by Kylie Jenner and her sister Kendall Jenner. It sold out within 24 hours. Kendall is the last sister that Kylie chose to collaborate with.
Non-collaborative collections
In February 2018, Jenner released Kylie Cosmetics’ first non-collaborative collection: Weather. Jenner explained the collection is an ode to her daughter, Stormi, who inspired the collection and was born earlier that month.In August 2019, Jenner released her Birthday Collection. This collection was for her 22nd birthday and included lip kits, an eyeshadow pallet, a face primer, matte lipsticks, jelly kylighters, an eyeliner, and many more products. This collection featured money themed packaging. Jenner took a portion of her earnings from her birthday collection and collaborated with Ellen DeGeneres to give away over $1 million. $750,000 went to a group of women in Florida who have a non-profit organization called Nest Of Love
In February 2020 Kylie launch the Stormi collection, in celebration of her daughters second birthday. This launched included beauty products such as eyeshadow palettes, Kylie lip kits, and blush. The launch was a success and the products quickly sold out.
Pop-up locations
Kylie is known for making appearances at pop-up shops which are located inside Topshops where she does meet and greets with fans. She's had seven locations all around the country where she has sold Lip Kits as well as pallets.The locations are in Chicago, Illinois; Los Angeles, California; New York; Las Vegas, Nevada; Houston, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; Miami, Florida
Partnerships
In December 2015, Jenner's mother, Kris Jenner, partnered the company with Canadian e-commerce platform Shopify to outsource sales.Packaging
In May 2016, Kylie Cosmetics changed the packaging of its Lip Kits due to complaints of theft. Due to the easily recognizable packaging and high demand for the product at the time, some customers received empty boxes after having their products stolen in the mailing process. The original Kylie Lip Kit box was black with a white lip gloss drip design. In order to solve the theft issue, the boxes were changed to a basic black, and the recognizable lip gloss design was moved to the inside of the box.In the April 2018 release of the Kourt X Kylie Collection, Kylie Cosmetics included eyeshadow palettes with brand new plastic packaging rather than the traditional cardboard packaging.
Marketing
Kylie Cosmetics heavily depends on social media for its marketing. As of August 2018, Jenner has the most followed Snapchat account and 164 million Instagram followers, all of whom see her teases to past and future makeup releases.Kylie Cosmetics also advertises daily on Instagram with verified the account @Kyliecosmetics. The Instagram account currently has 21.9 million followers. They share popular beauty influences reviews, sales, new products, and many photos of Kylie Jenner herself using the products. In November 2019, @kyliecosmetics on Instagram hit 22.4 million followers.
While Jenner, or members of her family, often serve as the face of Kylie Cosmetics, the pair of lips that advertise the Lip Kits themselves belongs to beauty and lifestyle blogger, Ashley Rosales. Before entering the beauty community, Ashley Rosales served in the United States Army as a mechanic. Kylie relies heavily on YouTube for marketing her launches. Kylie Jenner's YouTube channel has over 7.5 million subscribers. She'll often record 'get ready with me' to promote her upcoming launches.
Jenner revealed that she has enlisted her housekeeper and her boyfriend Travis Scott to model swatches of the makeup on their arms for social media advertisements.
Criticism
"Luxury" brush scandal
In an occurrence dubbed by Cosmopolitan Australia as the “Kylie makeup brush scandal of 2017”, Jenner received backlash from fans, makeup gurus, and Internet users alike after Kylie Cosmetics launched a set of 16 luxury makeup brushes, priced at $360. After a few big-name makeup artists including James Charles and Jeffree Star weighed in with their negative opinions on the price of the brush kit, Jenner responded via her personal Twitter, telling fans, “I hear you guys”. Many hoped that this would mean the company would lower their prices, but they have remained the same as of late.Skin Concealer controversy
After the release of the concealer line, Skin Concealer, Kylie Cosmetics received negative feedback from internet users who claimed the company was copying Rihanna’s makeup line, Fenty Beauty. Though the intention of the makeup line was to remain inclusive, it was assumed by some that Jenner was profiting from diversity by including 30 shades in her concealer line.The Skin Concealer was additionally critiqued for the fact that all of the darker shades have red undertones, and is therefore believed by some to not cater to all skin types. Descriptions of the concealers on the Kylie Cosmetics website state that each of the darker shades has red undertones.