Affordable British Brand Makeup Obsession Launches At Target With The Force Of Fast Beauty

Makeup Obsession is the newest entry in Target’s expanding arsenal of indie brands.

The British beauty brand has rolled out 60 stockkeeping units to 1,200 Target doors and the chain’s website, marking the United States debut of its highly-pigmented cosmetics line. It’s the second U.S. arrival from Makeup Obsession’s parent company Revolution Beauty Inc., which landed on American shores last year with a sister brand called Makeup Revolution now sold in Ulta Beauty.

Makeup Revolution was one of a handful of fresh brands that includes Morphe and Flower Beauty handpicked to shore up Ulta’s mass selection. Beauty industry insiders familiar with Ulta’s recent results put Makeup Revolution among the top five mass performers, and the brand’s space allocation has doubled in less than a year.

makeup obsession
British beauty brand Makeup Obsession has rolled out 60 stockkeeping to 1,200 Target doors and the chain’s website, marking the U.S. debut of its highly-pigmented cosmetics line.

Makeup Obsession hits a bull’s eye for Target as the retailer bolsters its repertoire of indie and socially-conscious brands. The brand’s makeup is certified cruelty-free by PETA and a majority of its products are vegan. Its hero items are Mega Concealer, a long-wearing, high-coverage concealer boosted with caffeine, liquid highlighters Liquid Illuminators and Power Palettes.

“We bring fun, fast and affordable makeup to the social world. We are constantly innovating and curating new products for our community of beauty fans. We launch a new product every month.”

“By listening to our consumer, we are aiming for all future new products to launch as vegan,” says Shawn Haynes, CEO of Revolution Beauty, and former senior vice president of sales at Markwins and vice president of retail sales at E.l.f., a once-hot cosmetics brand that’s been slipping. “Makeup Obsession looks and feels like nothing else in the department. We bring fun, fast and affordable makeup to the social world. We are constantly innovating and curating new products for our community of beauty fans. We launch a new product every month, and Target has been supportive of going digital first [for those].”

With pricing between $4.99 and $14.99, Makeup Obsession enables Target to deliver the hipness of Milk and Glossier to mass market shoppers. The retailer has been one of the most aggressive mass market retailers in embracing up-and-coming beauty brands. Several vendors say Target chalked up an additional $500 million in beauty sales last year, with 75% of the gain coming from exclusives, digital-to-consumer specialists and private-label brands. Over the past roughly two years, Target boosted its multicultural assortment with eight cosmetics lines and several textured haircare brands, initiated a clean program and, most recently, became the launch partner for Versed, a brand from incubator Offspring Beauty, a subsidiary of Who What Wear owner Clique Brands.

makeup obsession
Makeup Obsession’s hero items are Mega Concealer, a long-wearing, high-coverage concealer boosted with caffeine, liquid highlighters Liquid Illuminators and Power Palettes.

Revolution Beauty has a wide portfolio that contains I Heart Revolution, Revolution Skincare and Revolution Haircare as well as Makeup Obsession, allowing it to offer unique merchandise to different retailers. In the U.K., for example, Makeup Obsession is sold at Boots, and Revolution is at Superdrug. It’s a strategy making headway in the U.S. as retailers clamor for products to differentiate their mix from physical and online competitors. Clean beauty purveyor Captain Blankenship unveiled Sailor by Captain B specifically in Target; and Urban Skin Rx separated its general retail line from luxury online brand Pro Strength by Urban Skin Rx.

“One of our key values is to create products based on listening, learning and reacting to what our consumers want. The days of a brand dictating what is new is over.”

Adam Minto and Tom Allsworth co-founded Revolution Beauty in Kent, England in 2013 with the goal of being an authority in quality accessible makeup, and its inaugular products were available a year later. It pioneered the concept of fast beauty along with tapping social media content providers as product co-creators. Revolution Beauty received an investment from TSG Consumer Partners in 2017 to facilitate growth, but the co-founders remain majority shareholders. It was recently ranked by the “Sunday Times” Fast Track as Britain’s third-fastest growing private company.

Revolution Beauty’s business at Ulta combined with its premiere at Target could spur it to surpass estimated sales of $400 million this year. Haynes didn’t comment on sales, but emphasized the company is well-positioned for shifts in the beauty landscape. To keep its merchandise fresh, Makeup Obsession turns to co-creators to guide product development. One, Belle Jorden, helped shape a palette collection. Another co-creator will be revealed later this year.

Makeup Obsession
Makeup Obsession parent company Revolution Beauty’s business at Ulta Beauty combined with its premiere at Target could spur it to surpass estimated sales of $400 million this year.

“One of our key values is to create products based on listening, learning and reacting to what our consumers want. The days of a brand dictating what is new is over,” says Haynes. “The independent brands are driving the category. This is indie making its way into more mass channels.”