Kylie Cosmetics
Kylie Cosmetics is an American cosmetics company founded and owned by Kylie Jenner. Formerly known as Kylie Lip Kits, the company was renamed Kylie Cosmetics in 2016 after the release of the liquid lipstick and lip liner set on November 30, 2015. In 2018, Forbes reported the company was valued at $800 million.
2014
In 2014, Kylie Jenner signed on with Seed Beauty, a company launched by Laura Nelson. Inspiration for the debut products came from Jenner's childhood insecurity about her lip size. Jenner has described her decision to use her former insecurity as inspiration for her brand as "one of the most authentic things I've done in my career". The first 15,000 lip kits were funded by Jenner at a cost of $250K from her modelling earnings. Kylie Lip Kits debuted in 2015 and sold out within a minute crashing the site. Jenner's mother, Kris Jenner, then brought in Canadian e-commerce platform Shopify in late 2015 to outsource sales. The company was renamed to Kylie Cosmetics in February 2016 and production was increased to 500,000 kits. By the end of 2016, the total revenue was $300 million.
May 2016
In May 2016, Kylie Cosmetics changed the packaging of its Lip Kits due to complaints of theft. Due to the easily recognizable packaging and high demand for the product at the time, some customers received empty boxes after having their products stolen in the mailing process. The original Kylie Lip Kit box was black with a white lip gloss drip design. In order to solve the theft issue, the boxes were changed to a basic black, and the recognizable lip gloss design was moved to the inside of the box.
November 2016
Jenner has collaborated with several other celebrities on collections for Kylie Cosmetics. Some notable collaborations include Kim Kardashian-West, Khloe Kardashian, and Kourtney Kardashian. Most recently, Jenner has collaborated with her mother, Kris Jenner. In November 2016, Kylie announced the very first Kylie Cosmetics collaboration called Koko X Kylie, where she teamed up with her half-sister, Khloe Kardashian.
April 2017
In April 2017, Jenner announced her collaboration with her half-sister, Kim Kardashian-West, called KKW X Kylie. Kylie Cosmetics partnered with Kim Kardashian-West soon after the KKW release.
May 2017
In May 2017, it was announced Koko X Kylie would be returning for a Part 2 of the half-sisters’ collaboration.
November 2017
In a month long pop-up event in November 2017, seven TopShop stores across the US sold Kylie Cosmetics products. In November 2018, Kylie Cosmetics began selling their products at Ulta. Many attribute the brand's success to Jenner's cosmetically altered lips.
February 2018
In February 2018, Jenner released Kylie Cosmetics’ first non-collaborative collection: Weather. Jenner explained the collection is an ode to her daughter, Stormi, who inspired the collection and was born earlier that month.
April 2018
In April 2018, Jenner announced her Kylie Cosmetics collaboration with her oldest half-sister, Kourtney Kardashian, called Kourt X Kylie.
April 2018
In the April 2018 release of the Kourt X Kylie Collection, Kylie Cosmetics included eyeshadow palettes with brand new plastic packaging rather than the traditional cardboard packaging.
May 09, 2018
On May 9, 2018, Kylie and Kris Jenner announced their collaboration called the Kris Kollection via Kylie's personal instagram. The Mini Lip Set in the Kris Kollection, which includes eight mini liquid lipsticks, is aptly named “Momager”, a title in which Kris Jenner has personally taken on, and attempted to trademark, in recent years. In addition to the "Momager" Lip Kit, the Kris Kollection includes lip glosses and a four pan pressed powder highlight/blush palette, which has created a lot of controversy online with both good and bad reviews. The collection was released just in time for Mother's Day.
July 2018
In July 2018, Forbes reported that Jenner was about to become the youngest self-made billionaire ever, largely due to the success of Kylie Cosmetics.
August 2018
Kylie Cosmetics heavily depends on social media for its marketing. As of August 2018, Jenner has the most followed Snapchat account and 118 million Instagram followers, all who see her teases to past and future makeup releases.
March 2019
In March 2019, it was confirmed by Forbes that Jenner is officially the youngest billionaire ever.
August 2019
In August 2019, Jenner released her Birthday Collection. This collection was for her 22nd birthday and included lip kits, an eyeshadow pallet, a face primer, matte lipsticks, jelly kylighters, an eyeliner, and many more products. This collection featured money themed packaging. Jenner took a portion of her earnings from her birthday collection and collaborated with Ellen DeGeneres to give away over $1 million. $750,000 went to a group of women in Florida who have a non-profit organization called Nest Of Love
November 2019
Kylie Cosmetics also advertises daily on Instagram with verified the account @Kyliecosmetics. The Instagram account currently has 21.9 million followers. They share popular beauty influences reviews, sales, new products, and many photos of Kylie Jenner herself using the products. In November 2019, @kyliecosmetics on Instagram hit 22.4 million followers.
