Dear Celebrities: Please Stop Churning Out Beauty Brands
The New York Times
A-list singers, actors and influencers are dropping makeup and skin care lines at breakneck speed — Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, Chiara Ferragni and Addison Rae are among the latest — but does anyone want them anymore?
Anya Dua, the 17-year-old founder of Gen Z Identity Lab, an online platform for Gen Zers to express their views on politics, mental health, climate change and culture, remembers the first (and last) time she bought makeup from a celebrity beauty brand.
She was 12 and used her mom’s credit card to order a $29 Kylie Lip Kit in Candy K, a matte pink liquid lipstick and matching lip liner. Kylie Jenner’s debut makeup product famously sold out in seconds when it went on sale in 2015 (the website crashed, too), catapulting the youngest Kardashian Jenner sibling to beauty mogul status at age 18.
“It was a huge thing,” Ms. Dua said. “You needed to have one.” Lip Kits became so popular that they hit the New York City bar and bat mitzvah circuit. M.C.s would toss the liquid lip colors and liners into a sea of dancing tweens in bandage dresses.
