My Little Pony, Barbie And Beyond: How Beauty Creations Is Leveraging Nostalgic IP To Surpass $84M In Sales

For Esmeralda Hernandez, founder and CEO of Beauty Creations, licensing isn’t just a marketing play: it’s become a powerful growth engine.

After launching its first licensed collection with My Little Pony just over a year ago, the affordable beauty brand has seen a measurable surge in both revenue and reach, attributing a significant portion of its increased sales to the popularity of its co-branded launches. Beauty Creations’ 2025 sales are projected to surpass $84 million, up from $60 million in 2023.

“It has helped us grow even faster,” says Hernandez. “We’ve been able to get a different consumer, so that’s something that’s really exciting. Every collection has their own fanbase.”

Following My Little Pony, Beauty Creations rolled out collections with Polly Pocket and Barbie through Mattel, Lotería with Don Clemente, Betty Boop with Fleischer Studios and most recently The Powerpuff Girls with Warner Brothers. The Barbie collaboration in particular held special significance for Hernandez, who began her entrepreneurial journey as a child reselling garage-sale Barbies after immigrating to the U.S. from Mexico at nine years old with her mother. “When I had the opportunity to do a collab with them, it was like, oh my God, we made it,” she says. “It was a full circle moment.”

Beauty Creation’s Barbie collection was its most popular licensing collaboration to date. Hernandez declined to share sales, though.

Nostalgic IPs aren’t the only thing fueling Beauty Creations’ growth. The brand’s international distribution model has been a key advantage, especially in the face of rising tariffs. “We’ve been able to ship directly from China to countries like Mexico and in the GCC,” says Hernandez. GCC stands for the Gulf Cooperation Council and is made up of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. “That gives us an advantage. We’re trying not to raise prices—we’d rather cut costs elsewhere,” she says.

Beauty Creations is known for affordable makeup priced mostly from $4 to $25. The brand has branched into skincare with an equally affordable collection, priced between $4 and $14. Some strategic adjustments include drop-shipping options for international customers and maintaining a high-volume inventory model to keep costs lower for customers.

International distribution also allowed Beauty Creations to diversify its revenue stream early on. The brand works with more than 1,000 wholesale partners across more than 45 countries, predominately in Central America, South America and the GCC. Mexico is its largest market, accounting for just under a third of its customer base. It entered into 100 Walmart Mexico doors last year.

“We expanded internationally first because that’s where opportunities opened up for us, starting with Mexico,” says Hernandez. “This expansion created a snowball effect into other Latin American markets. Looking back, it was the best decision we could have made at the time.”

Beauty Creations has plans to expand into Europe, Malaysia and the Republic of Dominica within the next year. Its next big frontier is American mass retail. The brand is currently available at Urban Outfitters, Hot Topic, H-E-B and Miniso. Hernandez says Beauty Creations is in talks with two major retailers in the United States now. “We have done a great job expanding to other countries, but our priority right now is the USA,” she says.

Beauty Creations is also further investing in direct retail. The company currently operates two branded stores in Cerritos, California and at Del Amo Fashion Center in Torrance, California that opened in 2021 and 2022, respectively. Hernandez plans to open a location in Texas by the end of the year, with Miami slated for 2026. International franchising is also in the works for around the same time.

Hernandez sees brick-and-mortar as an important brand-building tool, but one that requires some trial and error. “Distribution is something that we know how to do really, really well,” she says. “Retail was something new. We were like let’s get our ducks in a row first.”

Beauty Creations currently has over 1,800 SKUs with roughly 70% in high rotation and another 20% cycling in and out. Hernandez introduces a new product or collection every month. The brand’s skincare line, which launched two years ago, has quietly gained momentum with hero products like its heart-shaped Start Fresh foam cleanser and its top-performing Legally Glow moisturizer. The brand is set to debut its first SPF next year, a chemical sunscreen made in the U.S. at a price point consistent with its core skincare lineup.

The new sunscreen joins a growing collection aimed at affordability without compromising ingredient integrity. “We’re learning a lot about consumer demand for actives,” says Hernandez, pointing to the addition of niacinamide in the brand’s most recent foundation as an example. “People want skincare benefits in their makeup.”

Color cosmetics remain Beauty Creations’ bread and butter. Lip is the brand’s fastest growing category, fueled by a younger audience gravitating toward lip oils and glosses. Its core demographic is 13- to 35-year-old consumers. Complexion and lip products make up the majority of Beauty Creations’ makeup sales. “The consumer is getting younger,” Hernandez says. “And, for a mom, it’s easier for us to buy something in the lip categories versus a mascara or foundation.”

Hernandez attributes Beauty Creation’s growth to her ability to make quick, founder-led decisions as a bootstrapped brand. “I get to make decisions really fast and that’s a leverage that we have compared to other people that they might have to check with investors,” she says. “For example, when we closed the contract for GCC, the distributor was like, ‘Hey, we’re ready to sign,’ and within 15 days we were ready to start working.”

While she’s not ruling out VC investment entirely, it’s not a priority. “If that’s going to make a bigger impact for the company, we might see it in the future. But as of now, that’s not something that we’re going to do.”