KYLIE Cosmetics x Balmain
Kylie Cosmetics is an American cosmetics company founded and owned by Kylie Jenner. Formerly known as Kylie Lip Kits, the company was renamed Kylie Cosmetics in 2016 after the release of the liquid lipstick and lip liner set on November 30, 2015. In 2018, Forbes reported the company was valued at $800 million, and in March of 2019 $900 million, a valuation that was criticized in financial circles. The Wall Street Report called Jenner’s nominal personal net worth of approximately $1 billion a “Trump sized exaggeration”, referring to Trump’s efforts to be included in the Forbes 500 list in the 90s and 00s. In 2014, Kylie Jenner signed on with Seed Beauty, a company launched by Laura Nelson. Inspiration for the debut products came from Jenner’s childhood insecurity about her lip size. Jenner has described her decision to use her former insecurity as inspiration for her brand as “one of the most authentic things I’ve done in my career”. The first 15,000 lip kits were funded by Jenner at a cost of $250K from her modelling earnings. Kylie Lip Kits debuted in 2015 and sold out within a minute. Jenner’s mother, Kris Jenner, then brought in Canadian e-commerce platform Shopify in late 2015 to outsource sales. The company was renamed to Kylie Cosmetics in February 2016 and production was increased to 500,000 kits. By the end of 2016, the total revenue was $300 million. In the first 18 months, the company generated $420 million in revenue. Kylie Cosmetics maintains its reputation as an individually funded and self run company. Kris Jenner has suggested that attaching to a bigger brand like Estee Lauder would be beneficial for the future of the company. 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.
The products are not tested on animals, and do not include any animal products such as honey or beeswax. In July 2018, Forbes reported that Jenner was about to become the youngest self-made billionaire ever, largely due to the success of Kylie Cosmetics. In March 2019, it was confirmed by Forbes that Jenner is officially the youngest self-made billionaire ever. Jenner is also the youngest billionaire in the world. 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- sistersʼ collaboration. 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”,atitleinwhichKris 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 June 9,2019, Kylie announced her collaboration with her half sister Khloé Kardashian for the third time.
In February 2018, Jenner released Kylie Cosmeticsʼ 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 may more products. This collection featured money themed packaging. Jenner took a portion of her earnings from her birthday collection and collaborated with Ellen 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 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. Kylie Cosmetics heavily depends on social media for its marketing. As of August 2018, Jenner has the most followed Snapchat account and 118 million Instagram followers, all who 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. 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. 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. 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 Manny MUA 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. After the release of the concealer line, Skin Concealer, Kylie Cosmetics received negative feedback from internet users who claimed the company was copying Rihannaʼs makeup line, Fenty Beauty. Though the intention of the makeup line was to remain inclusive, it was assumed by some that Jenner was profiting off of 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. The release of Kylie Cosmeticsʼ most recent line of blushes sparked fury within some fans, claiming that the names of some of the new products were “too provocative”. Though the blush collection sold successfully, parents of young fans were not in support of names such as “Barely Legal”, “Virginity”, “X Rated”, and “Hot and Bothered”. But the reason behind the feature is that this billion dollar company just released a collection featuring the House Balmain, Its not the 1st time Balmain has partnered with a make-up brand like Kylie Cosmetics. In 2017 it partnered with L’Oreal for a range of lipsticks that represented the Balmain collection, There are 12 contour matte shade lipsticks by color riche it was advertised as unity of all tribes. Now the house is introducing Kylie Cosmetics X Balmain which features bright colors and true glittering shades, The set consists of press powder palette with 9 shades, a lip kit with lip liner and a lipgloss. This is a very successful move from the youngest Kardashian/ Jenner clan member as Kylie Cosmetics is now introduced into fashions household makeup brand names like M.A.C has been for years
