Everyone on the planet is launching a beauty brand, apparently
Recently, I wrote a column about how celebrities of all stripes seem to be launching their own beauty brands, whether it’s fragrance, skincare, haircare or makeup. And frustrating though it is, I know it’s not just celebrities who are scrambling for a slice of the considerable beauty market – it’s like a new brand appears on a near-daily basis, and already established brands are, themselves, branching out. I recently learned that king of controversy Jeffree Star is launching skincare, hot on the heels on the likes of Kylie Jenner and co. Is there anything new he could possibly bring to the skincare market besides hot pink packaging? All I can think is, there aren’t enough faces in the world for all these products.
I love beauty, and I find myself asserting that very frequently – it’s often what prefaces my critiques, or complaints. I love beauty, but this is too much. I love beauty, but I can’t accept this. I love beauty, but a line has been crossed. But what can one expect: if fashion is indeed the favourite child of capitalism, beauty should be the second favourite.
I find myself periodically exhausted with the barrage of new beauty brand launches, even if they occasionally catch my interest – Tracee Ellis Ross’s Pattern haircare line, Charlotte Cho’s Then I Met You skincare range, to name a few. But the overwhelming majority is mediocre. We’ve reached a point where the threshold to putting a new product on the market is so low, people seem to be stumbling into it half by accident. What we’re being sold here are really the same products in different packaging, sometimes with an influencer signature or IP tie-in to seem more appealing. Are people still buying disney collabs, of which there have been at least six this year alone? Are people still buying cardboard-packaged neutral eyeshadow palettes designed by influencer #45924? Apparently, yes, but the industry is reportedly headed for a downturn. People are getting sick of the sheer volume of product being churned out on a daily basis, and sick of seeing the same handful of influencers peddle them on youtube in the same old format.
Perhaps we’re seeing a return to text, to communication beyond the visual, if that is at all possible in the age of social media. Perhaps it’s wishful thinking coming from a writer. But if I talk to my friends, or strangers on the internet, I hear similar sentiments. Not a trend towards the written word necessarily, but a trend away from the heedless consumerism we partook in at the peak of social media beauty culture.
Beauty culture is a material one, that will not change, but it can do to be more measured. I don’t think we need as many “innovative” beauty sponges, airbrush-finish foundations or buttery-smooth eyeshadow palettes as we all seemed to think, myself included, five years ago.
Amen.
Ha, thank you for reading ! I just call it like i see it…
Du är fortfarande bäst! Älskar varenda text du skriver. Samt hallå jag är dödsnyfiken på vad som står i BoF-artikeln men den är bakom en betalvägg! Gahhhh
Jag kan skicka dig en pdf om du vill! Annars, om du har kvar din studentmejl, kan du eventuellt lura till dig ett gratis BoF Pro-konto 8) Men basically: Det går ganska dåligt för många av de stora aktörerna på marknaden. Riktigt dåligt. OCH TACK PUSS <3
Yes, thank you for saying this (she says as she scrolls by yet another Disney characters collab)! There has definitely been a lot of money in the industry in the past few years (following the first years of the instagram and influencer boom), and I think that is what’s making lots of celebs and brands hop on the bandwagon.
But like you wrote, most of the products brought to market in the collab-driven boom are kind of mediocre or the same stuff re-packaged and sprinkled with a bit of instagram glam. I personally feel less and less likely to branch out into something new from so called digital-first/youtube/insta-driven brands unless I have a chance to go to the store and actually have some tactile contact with the product. The older I get, the more I realise that I really only need the boring basics to be content.
Yeah i feel pretty content with very few products. I think i like writing about beauty more than I like actually using the product!