OG Makeup Influencer Marlena Stell’s Brand Makeup Geek Is Closing

Makeup Geek, the color cosmetics brand from OG makeup influencer Marlena Stell, is closing next month.

Stell announced the news on Instagram and in a YouTube video posted Friday in which she describes the ruinous financial effects of the pandemic-related shift away from makeup and supply chain disruptions on her business. Following a rebrand introduced in January 2020 that led to Makeup Geek’s merchandise selling out almost instantly and thousands of people flocking to a restock waiting list, the brand wasn’t able to replenish products until the end of 2020.

“Having almost an entire year of not having product obviously was financially devastating,” says Stell in the video. “The fact that we’ve stayed open even this long after all of that says a lot about my team and all of you out there for your support, but it’s just honestly you guys, after all of that, it’s too hard to come back from that…It’s hard to have new product coming out obviously to keep things going and just the timeline now is so much slower with shortages of raw materials, cardboard, so much going on behind the scenes that it’s difficult for everyone.”

She adds, “It’s not a decision I was expecting to make this year. However, I do know in my soul that Makeup Geek wasn’t meant to be the ultimate destination for me. When I started the company, I was 28. I’m 42 now. I’m at a different stage of my life, and there’s other ventures and things that I would like to do.”

A high school music teacher for many years, Stell began putting makeup tips on YouTube as a hobby. She quit teaching in 2010 and launched her brand a year later. “At the time, there was a huge gap between drugstore and high-end makeup,” she told Beauty Independent in 2019. “There wasn’t anything that was really high quality that still had an affordable price point. I started my brand with eyeshadows because that’s what I was really passionate about.”

At first, Stell envisioned the brand’s customers would only be her social media followers. “I had no idea it was going to be what it became,” she said nearly three years ago. “I just wanted to have something to sell to my audience. I was spending so much time promoting other brands, and I wasn’t able to financially survive off of that.”

“Having almost an entire year of not having product obviously was financially devastating.”

In its heyday, Makeup Geek grew to over $22 million in annual sales “without a single loan or investor,” according to information previously provided by Stell. In 2019, the brand had more than 300 stockkeeping units in its assortment and entered some 600 Target stores. Stell didn’t address the difficulties of wholesaling to a big retailer like Target in her YouTube video on the closure of Makeup Geek, but the costs of facing off against consumer packaged goods giants in a crowded retail environment can weigh heavily on a comparatively smaller brand. Makeup Geek didn’t have a lengthy tenure at Target. Stell also used to have a clothing brand, Marsté, that shuttered in 2020.

Although several OG makeup influencers have leveraged their social media power to establish brands (examples include Jackie Aina’s Forvr Mood, MannyMUA creator Manny Gutierrez’s Lunar Beauty, KathleenLights founder Kathleen Fuentes’s Lights Lacquer, Jaclyn Hill’s Jaclyn Cosmetics and One/Size from Patrick Simondac, aka Patrick Starrr), the tanking of makeup sales amid the pandemic and the rise of TikTok, a platform with its own style and set of influencers catering to gen Z, has made it tricky for them to continue to stoke engagement and build followings. Today, Stell has 1.47 million subscribers on YouTube, and her brand has 2.2 million followers on Instagram. She plans to remain producing YouTube content.

Certainly, OG influencers aren’t the only beauty industry players that have struggled of late. The list of beauty brand closures has been mounting. Beboe Therapies, Aubrey Organics, Kynd Scent, Steel Birch, Hush + Dotti, Evenprime and Woodlot are among the beauty brands that have shuttered recently or will soon shutter. Supply chain obstacles, blistering competition, and soaring costs for raw materials and digital marketing are key factors in brand closures.

A much-loved influencer whose openness has won devoted fans, Stell’s revelation of the impending closure of Makeup Geek generated an outpouring of support on social media. An influencer with the handle RawBeautyKristi wrote on YouTube, “Over the years MUG has been such a staple in everyone’s makeup routine and you really changed the game for pricing and quality in the makeup industry. I am so so so sad to hear that MUG is closing, but I am SO proud of you for everything you have done and everything amazing you’ve brought to the beauty community. Thank you Marlena, thank you Makeup Geek and I cannot wait to see where you go from here.”