How Lawless Beauty’s Forget The Filler Lip Plumping Line Smoothing Gloss Became A Smash Hit

When Sephora told Lawless Beauty founder Annie Lawless that plumping was going to be the next big thing in makeup, Lawless president Rachel Shelowitz says she didn’t immediately jump on the bandwagon. Shelowitz explains, “She truly despises the idea of doing something just because it’s trendy. Everything she does comes from a very authentic place.”

Ultimately, Lawless concluded she could take on plumping from an angle authentic to Lawless Beauty, which prizes “highly pigmented, full coverage, long-wearing makeup that’s always clean.” Instead of irritating lips to generate a plumped look, the brand’s Forget The Filler Lip Plumping Line Smoothing Gloss contains soothing shea moisture, softening rose hip oil and Maxi-Lip, a patented natural peptide marketed by Sederma, a division of the ingredient supply house Croda, and clinically proven to enhance lip volume. Today, Beacon Award-winning Forget The Filler Lip Plumping Line Smoothing Gloss is Lawless Beauty’s bestseller.

Shelowitz says, “How can we push the envelope further? What are products that have not come to clean yet because the formulation is really hard? We want to be one of the biggest makeup brands in the world side by side with megabrands like  MAC or Lancôme or Charlotte Tilbury, but better because we’re clean.”

The brand is on its way. Lawless Beauty’s sales have been doubling annually since 2020, when it received investment from Cult Capital and industry sources told the publication Women’s Wear Daily it was on track to reach $10 million in sales. This year, the brand’s sales are forecast to more than double. Shelowitz shares that its February sales were up 435% from the same month last year.

Beating projections by 1,000% out of the gate, Forget The Filler Lip Plumping Line Smoothing Gloss and subsequent products in the Forget The Filler franchise have been runaway hits for Lawless Beauty—and concealer, mascara and brow product sales have grown alongside them. Shelowitz says “What’s neat is that customers are coming in through newness, but then they’re also buying other things.”

Ahead, she walks us through the development process that led to Forget The Filler Lip Plumping Line Smoothing Gloss, and the social media and retail strategies that have been critical to its success.

Launch date: January 2021

Sales growth 2022 vs. 2021: 200%

Total retail doors: All 629 Sephora doors in the United States and Canada

Development process: Lawless wanted Forget The Filler Lip Plumping Line Smoothing Gloss to be very different from the plumping lip glosses that preceded it. Recalling Lawless’s perspective, Shelowitz says, “What if we could do plumping in a way that wasn’t just cosmetic, if it wasn’t just irritating your lips for that instant plump look, which oftentimes is a result of topical skin irritation? What if we approached this as if we were dermatologists or cosmetic surgeons? What if there was a way to really enhance the lip volume over time?”

Lawless Beauty enlisted raw material suppliers worldwide to find clinically tested ingredients that amplify lip volume. At one point, Shelowitz says submissions were coming in from nine countries. The brand went through 50 versions of Forget The Filler Lip Plumping Line Smoothing Gloss before landing on the best formula. Its key active ingredient, Maxi-Lip, has been shown to increase lip volume by up to 40% and decrease wrinkling by 29%.

Lawless Beauty knew it had a winner on its hands when lab samples started going missing from both internal team and retailer meetings. Shelowitz says, “When you have something that is so good that people want to steal it, then you know it’s pencils down.”

Identifying the perfect applicator was tricky, too. The brand cycled through 25 before finding its Goldilocks. “Annie was insistent that the doe foot be big, bossy and super plush. She wanted to create a sensorial experience that went beyond the formula,” says Shelowitz. “So, then it became a challenge to find something oversized that would fit inside of a practical-sized component.”  

Lawless Beauty underwent a brand makeover coupled with the launch of Forget The Filler Lip Plumping Line Smoothing Gloss, which changed its colors from primarily black and white to pink and rose gold hues. Shelowitz says, “The whole thing was a challenge, and we absolutely made this the bar as we continue to push this hard and harder for every launch.”

Product assortment expansion: Lawless Beauty has expanded its plumping line due to customer demand. Forget The Filler Overnight Lip-Plumping Mask launched in January 2022, a year after Forget The Filler Lip Plumping Line Smoothing Gloss, and Lip Plumping Line Smoothing Tinted Balm Stick launched in February this year. Each branch of the Forget The Filler franchise has become a bestseller, with the OG lip gloss occupying the top spot.

Marketing strategy: Lawless Beauty has tried to put Forget The Filler Lip Plumping Line Smoothing Gloss in as many hands as possible. It sent mailers out that included a visual of a syringe being broken in half accompanied with the message, “All the sizzle without the sting.” Social media captions had a similar comedic tone. One read, “All the plump without the prick.” Lawless writes nearly all of the brand’s copy.

Shelowitz says, “We really think about, how do we get a plumper in everyone’s basket? People have their skincare must-haves, we want to be their gloss must-have.”

Lawless Beauty positioned Forget The Filler Lip Plumping Line Smoothing Gloss as a lip pumper for grown-ups. Organically, influencers began comparing the product to previous lip plumpers on the market. Online reviews helped get the word out with similar comparisons that broke favorably for Forget The Filler Lip Plumping Line Smoothing Gloss. Lawless Beauty doesn’t pay for influencer content.

Critical social media moment: Lawless Beauty launched a TikTok account in March 2022. Early this year, influencer Callahan Rahm showed herself trying on Forget The Filler Lip Plumping Line Smoothing Gloss in the shades cherry vanilla and daisy pink after a Starbucks barista told her she was wearing the cherry vanilla shade. Rahm’s TikTok video racked up 2.5 million views, and the cherry vanilla shade sold out within 24 hours. It was out of stock for three months due to the viral moment.

“There have been all kinds of fun moments that you really can’t plan on TikTok in particular,” says Shelowitz. “We have a growing community of creators on TikTok who have very small followings, but super, super high engagement who just love the product. Connecting with creators at various levels has been a strategy of ours.”

Retail spotlight: A year after Forget The Filler Lip Plumping Line Smoothing Gloss launched, Sephora featured the gloss in a multibrand clean beauty campaign and placed the product at the front of its stores nationwide. The retailer has also included the product in a number of kits, including its Sephora Favorites Hydrate & Plump Kit.

Lawless Beauty has gondolas in 65 Sephora stores and is in full Sephora distribution on the retailer’s clean endcap. In January, the brand hired its first head of sales and education to drive sell-in and sell-through at Sephora. Shelowitz elaborates, “What that means in more concrete terms is focusing on building out our field team, focusing on developing deeper relationships in our Sephora stores and just really making sure that the brand is increasing in awareness.”

Retailer take: “We’re thrilled to witness the continued growth of Lawless at Sephora, and the success of their recently launched Forget The Filler Lip Balm is another exciting milestone,” said Alison Hahn, SVP of merchandising for makeup and fragrance at Sephora. “With innovative, high-quality formulas, Lawless is committed to delivering powerful clean makeup products that truly perform. We look forward to continuing our partnership with Lawless and bringing the best in clean and effective beauty to our Sephora clients.”