Style
Beauty
E
ven with an Oscar, nine Grammys and
a reported net worth of $320 million,
Lady Gaga still knows how to hustle. In
late May, realizing that the shooting of a video
for her beauty startup Haus Laboratories was
about to run over schedule, the 33-year-old
started to clean up around the models, film
crew and makeup artist. “Everybody go home
so I don’t have to pay you overtime,” she told
the group of 20 people. “I’m going to pack
up.” Says Lightspeed Venture Partners’ Nicole
Quinn, whose firm invests in Haus: “We want
that [kind of] involvement.”
Following the success of Gwyneth Paltrow’s
Goop and Fenty Beauty by Rihanna, more and
more stars have been developing, launch-
ing and marketing their own beauty brands.
They’re finding it hard to resist the allure
of repeat sales, high profit margins (up to
90 percent for a fragrance) and word-of-
mouth marketing among customers who
already follow them (such as the 37.3 million
on Gaga’s Instagram). Based on launches
headed up by 12 stars, here are today’s six
branding rules of celebrity beauty.
- MAKE IT ‘YOU’ With a stringent record of
investing in only two of the 2,500 companies
who pitch the Lightspeed venture capitalist
every year, Quinn says she felt confident with
Gaga because “authenticity is everything.” It’s
the same approach that guided Lightspeed’s
investments in Goop and Jessica Alba’s
Honest Co. “Whatever it may be — beauty or
any product — they have passion and want to
build a company around it,” Quinn says.
Goop’s 15% Glycolic Overnight Glow Peel
and Microderm Instant Glow Exfoliator
emerged directly from Paltrow. “She was
talking about what she’d like to do at a
dermatologist, which is to get a laser peel
or microdermabrasion. From that we cre-
ated two products,” says Erin Cotter, Goop’s
senior vp beauty. Once Paltrow posted a video
of herself using the peel on Goop’s site and
Instagram page, it recorded the best first-day
sales in Goop’s profitable beauty division.
Products emphasizing inclusion propelled
the growth of Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty. In
September 2017, the LVMH-backed brand
premiered 40 shades of foundation, among
91 items, both online and in 1,620 stores in
more than 17 countries. “I’m not the face of my
brand, but I am the muse, and my DNA has to
run all the way through it,” she recently said to
‘A u t h e n t i c i t y
Is Everything’
for a Star’s
Beauty Brand
The more involved, the better, as Lady Gaga
and Rihanna have learned: ‘I turned a major
deal down as I wouldn’t have full control over
ingredients,’ says Michelle Pfeiffer
By Khanh T.L. Tran
Vog u e. The philosophy works: From its launch
through 2018, the singer’s business gener-
ated sales of about $550 million, according
to LVMH. “Incredible success with Rihanna,”
LVMH chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault said
during a January presentation detailing the
French conglomerate’s fiscal 2018 earnings.
- IF IT’S NOT YOU, MOVE ON Taking a different
path, Michelle Pfeiffer has funded her own
company, Henry Rose, which introduced
fragrances made with non-toxic ingredients
in April. “I came quite close to signing a
major endorsement deal with a large beauty
house but ultimately decided to turn it down
as I wouldn’t have full control over the safety
of ingredients, which was a non-negotiable
for me,” she tells THR in a September email.
The actress commissioned New York’s
1
2
Ryan Seacrest
promotes the
Polished by
Dr. Lancer line
he cofounded
on QVC and
social media.
Above: Ariana Grande with
Thank U, Next fragrance.
Right: Rihanna at a
Sephora store in Sydney
in 2018. Her line forced
major brands to increase
their foundation shades.
Below: Pro Filt’r Hydrating
Longwear Foundation, $35.