How Celebrity Beauty Brands Remain Relevant, According To The Execs Guiding Rose Inc. And InBloom

The love affair between famous names and the beauty industry isn’t over. 

From soon-to-released lines from Hailey Bieber and Scarlett Johansson to recently released brands from Jennifer Aniston (LolaVie) and Ariana Grande (REM Beauty), 40-plus celebrity beauty brands have been announced or funded since the beginning of the pandemic. While some celebrity brand fatigue appears to be emerging, the draw of big headliners in a crowded market with rising digital customer acquisition costs remains an attractive proposition.

Of course, not all celebrity beauty brands will last, and beauty industry graveyards are already brimming with them. (Remember Jessica Simpson’s Dessert Beauty? The Kardashians’ Khroma Beauty?) Caroline Hadfield, CEO of model-turned-actress Rosie Huntington-Whiteley’s clean makeup brand Rose Inc., argues celebrity beauty brands that make it today are backed by people with business acumen. Unlike the heyday of celebrity beauty brand spokespeople, building a celebrity brand now requires a celebrity that’s interested in being involved with strategy. 

“They put time and energy into ensuring that the products, the ingredients or even the solution of that brand has got credibility, viability,” said Hadfield during last Wednesday’s In Conversation webinar on celebrity beauty brands. For the webinar, Hadfield, a former SVP at The Body Shop, Sephora and LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, was joined by Tushar Adya, co-founder and CEO of brand incubator Syllable and Kate Hudson’s InBloom wellness supplement brand. 

Prior to InBloom’s 2020 debut, Hudson proved she could move units at Fabletics. Last year, it was rumored the workout apparel company tied to the star would pursue an initial public offering valuing it at over $5 billion. The “Knives Out 2” actress was considering developing a plant-based supplement line when she was introduced to Adya through her manager. Prior to InBloom, Syllable released Loops, a face mask brand that has tapped model and influencer Emily Ratajkowski as a partner and creative director.

Adya says it’s more difficult than might be imagined to match a known personality with a consumer packaged goods brand. He said Syllable thinks about “where the person is specifically coming from and why this brand should exist.” He believes InBloom rings true because it fits into Hudson’s normal routine, so she doesn’t have to go out of her way to promote the brand. Adya said, “She’s posting about her daughter and the next thing she’s like, ‘Hey, I’m drinking my hydrating powder or my Beauty Aura.’ It’s not forced, it’s something that comes very naturally. Obviously, in our case, that’s a great advantage.”

Hadfield’s role at Rose Inc. follows jobs spearheading earlier brands at Amyris, the biotechnology firm that has gotten into the beauty brand creation business. She previously led squalene-powered skincare brand Biossance, and mom and baby care brand Pipette. Of Rose Inc., she said, “I think it’s like launching any new brand and I don’t necessarily think using the word ‘celebrity’ in front of it is the right thing.” She continued, “We didn’t have a celebrity founder there [at Biossance and Pipette], but it’s all about the brand and what it’s bringing to the market and the integrity and authenticity.”

Hadfield connected with Huntington-Whitely through the model’s ambassador effort for Pipette. At the time, Huntington-Whitely had one son, Jack, with actor Jason Statham, started the beauty content website Rose Inc., and was intrigued by the possibility of wading into the clean color cosmetics space to demonstrate that clean cosmetics could be effective. Hadfield and Amyris CEO John Melo sensed an opportunity to meld Huntington-Whitely’s background and cosmetics know-how with Amyris’s proprietary ingredients. 

Plastering a famous face on advertising and retail shelves may seem like a good launch strategy, but accelerating brand awareness that way can cause problems down the road, emphasized Hadfield. She advised brands associated with a celebrity or not to zero in on points of difference rather than attempting to rev up awareness around a single face. For Rose Inc.’s physical presence in Sephora stores, the brand concentrated on Huntington-Whiteley’s experience as the founder as well as the science behind its ingredients, product efficacy, and a commitment to sustainable packaging and sourcing. 

Adya doesn’t anticipate the celebrity beauty boom diminishing. In fact, he expects additional celebrities to jump into the segment and others. He noted Super Bowl advertisements were illustrative of the persistent importance of recognized names. “97% of those ads had a celebrity. That’s obviously not just by chance,” said Adya, elaborating, “I think the celebrity model will continue to get applied across categories, but, like everything else, there’s going to be winners and losers and, if it doesn’t come across as genuine and the product can’t stand on its own two feet without a celebrity, then I think it’s going struggle, particularly from a long-term scaling and sustainability standpoint, but, if it’s done right, the model works.” 

To watch the replay of the Beauty Independent In Conversation webinar episode on celebrity beauty brands and other past In Conversation episodes, visit our replay library.