Selena Gomez never fails to triumph.
With a career spanning nine top-10 pop successes, more than two dozen platinum or gold records, and starring in Hulu’s popular series Only Murders in the Building, the 30-year-old has escaped the potential pitfalls of child stardom to become an even bigger superstar as an adult.
And her makeup line is the one making losses. Since its launch less than three years ago, Rare Beauty has become more well-known despite a backlash against numerous celebrity-endorsed cosmetic lines. By developing straightforward, reasonably priced makeup and taking advantage of Gomez’s enormous popularity on websites like TikTok, the brand has found success in the $250 billion global beauty market.
People want performance and value from their products, which Rare excels in providing
says Sable Yong, a New York-based beauty writer. Yes, it’s adorable. And the founder is Selena Gomez. However, even if she weren’t around, the products would still perform admirably and are reasonably priced.
The company expects to treble its sales in 2023. The business sold 3.1 million of its best-selling blushes in 2022. With a suggested retail price of $23, the item alone brought in about $70 million. (The company refuses to release any financial information, including a list of its investors.)
The presence of celebrities does not ensure success. Consumers can be fickle, and many firms associated with famous persons have faltered after having a promising beginning. Kristen Bell ended her skin-care line earlier this year. The brands of TikTok celebrities Addison Rae and Hyram Yarbro are no longer available at Sephora. The physical assets of Ariana Grande’s business, r.e.m. beauty, were purchased for $15 million from Forma Brands LLC, whose massive gamble on celebrity influencers backfired and sent it into bankruptcy.
Rich Gersten, co-founder and managing partner of True Beauty Ventures, a private equity company focusing on beauty and self-care, claims that there is “less forgiveness for a celebrity brand.” “The product wouldn’t have scaled or maintained scale if it wasn’t good.”
Rare didn’t concentrate on following fads, such as a gimmicky makeup palette with dozens of colors, and stated that Gomez wasn’t available for an interview. Instead, it developed affordable and simple products, such as a $15 lip liner and a $30 liquid foundation available in 48 hues.
The company was developed with a social mission at its center as well, which is typical of younger brands but not of established companies in the field. Gomez has fought for mental health, openly disclosing her own challenges in the process. According to the company’s 2022 social impact report, Rare promised to donate 1% of sales to its internal fund, which has already amassed at least $5 million.
A increasing number of commercial endeavors for Gomez include Rare. She also executive produced series for Netflix and HBO Max, co-founded Wondermind, a firm aimed at enhancing mental health that was valued at $100 million last year, and collaborated with companies including Puma SE.
Although Gomez’s fan following, which includes more than 400 million Instagram followers, is largely responsible for Rare’s success, the company also has an executive team made up of seasoned business people. Gomez challenged Joyce Kim, chief product officer at Rare and a former executive at L’Oreal’s Nyx Professional Makeup, with developing a line that will hold up at both her red carpet appearances and in the daily lives of her clients.
It must be lightweight and simple to apply, claims Kim. However, it must endure events.
In terms of marketing, Rare has mastered generating buzz on social media. The company customizes content for each of its platforms and has more than 3 million TikTok followers and 6 million Instagram followers. For the TikTok audience, goofy eye stickers appear on a blush tube; Instagram users are particularly receptive to postings about mental health. Katie Welch, chief marketing officer at Rare, claims that being willing to try new things has been beneficial.
On her pages, Gomez also promotes the company and offers tutorials. She spent several hours filming herself applying cosmetics for one of her television programs, the HBO Max, in the months immediately following the brand’s inception.
cookery program Chef + Selena. The team then condensed those sessions into clips, many of which are under a minute long. In other clips, Gomez can be heard lip-syncing to well-known TikTok songs while discussing Rare’s products.
The response from online users and influencers has been extraordinarily positive, according to Artemis Patrick, chief global merchandising officer of Sephora.
The company keeps releasing new goods, such a gel eyeliner, and has expanded distribution to Indonesia and India. A powder highlighter that served as an homage to the shiny highlighters of the 2010s was among the other hits. Mehdi Mehdi, Rare’s chief digital officer, discovered the brand may continue trends as well as start new ones when it started selling.
Mehdi recalls, “We had been informed the days of powder highlighter were past. “We have the power to defy trends.”
