Celebrities to build their own makeup empires

Besides already sponsored by various brands to endorse beauty products in advertisements, celebrity entertainers are increasingly starting their own beauty lines, using the names they have already established to find a place in the cosmetic market.

One of the first celebrity-created brands that caught the media’s attention was reality TV personality Kylie Jenner’s matte liquid lipstick and lip liner duo, with shades ranging from mauve pink and glossy nude to burnt orange and warm chocolate.

Even though Jenner’s lip transformation from slim to plump over the years was a result of lip injections, her Kylie Lip Kit, which further glorifies her full lips, has been trending worldwide since its launch in 2016.

Since the release of the Kylie Lip Kits, people have been finding dupes, or cheaper replacements, for it. The most popular dupe has been the ColourPop Ultra Matte Liquid Lipstick because of the similarities in their formulas. According to Seventeen, the Kylie Lip Kit includes a lip liner and costs $29 while the Colourpop Ultra Matte Liquid Lipstick sells for only $6.

In an interview with Refinery29, ColourPop's founders Laura and John Nelson confirmed that their lab, Spatz Laboratories, makes Kylie Cosmetics.

“Kylie and her family have been friends [of ours] for years," Laura told Seventeen. “It's a good fit and a good partnership. We're happy to support that business and partner with her to really bring her vision to life in an organic and authentic way.”

Using her popularity and social media presence, Jenner is able to sell her product for more than it should be priced.

Though the product is overpriced, sophomore Vivienne Nguyen said that its formula was “really pigmented, smelled nice and it lasts a while.”

After the success of her Lip Kit, Kylie Cosmetics also released Kyshadow, Kyliner and Kylighters.

Following in Jenner’s footsteps, her older sister Kim Kardashian West recently launched her own beauty line, KKW. Since Kim is known for her flawless contour, her new contour sticks were flying off the shelves.

However, several beauty fanatics found that the contour shades weren’t dark enough. A Revelist review called the makeup a “slap in the face [for dark-skinned women].”

The singer Rihanna, on the other hand, is showing the makeup world she knows how to “Work” inclusivity with her own game-changing creation, Fenty Beauty. To advertise her brand, Rihanna incorporated the slogan “You don't all have to be all the same, all the time.”

After two years in production, the brand finally introduced 40 shades of foundation, 30 shades of skinsticks and a variety of concealers and highlighters that suit all skin tones.

Starting Sept. 8, Fenty Beauty has been available for sale on its website, fentybeauty.com, as well as through Sephora and Harvey Nichols. Several of the medium-to-deep shades already sold out at Sephora and had to be restocked, disproving previous beliefs held by makeup brands that dark shades wouldn’t sell well. Like its creator, Fenty Beauty is here to “Stay.”

To test out the brand, Falcon reporter Jayne Zhou tried on the Fenty Killawatt Freestyle highlighter in Mean Money/Hustla Baby.

“It has good pigmentation and makes your cheekbones glitter like ‘Diamonds,’” she said. “The highlighter applies very smoothly and leaves you glowing for hours.”

Less than a week after Fenty’s launch, various beauty brands such as L'oreal and Estee Lauder followed suit and started including darker shades in their products. Even KKW Beauty released a Dark/Deep Dark Powder Contour and Highlight.

While some celebrities are using their popularity as foundation for their own beauty empires, not all their makeup creations are worth their price tags. By slapping their name on a potentially mediocre product, celebrities are learning that consumers are willing to pay prices that are double, or even triple, the true value of the product.