Is Celebrity Brand Fatigue Finally Hitting the Beauty Aisle?
By 2022, beauty founders had seen enough. When Brad Pitt, Travis Barker, and Jared Leto each announced skin care launches within the same month, a group of independent beauty entrepreneurs responded by registering the URL notanothercelebritybrand.com in protest. It was a candid signal that celebrity brand fatigue had moved past consumer chatter and into the industry itself. Three years on, the beauty sector is visibly slowing; Coty, parent company of Kylie Cosmetics, posted an 8% net revenue drop in Q4 FY2025, citing struggling color cosmetics sales. For wholesale buyers, that’s not market noise. It’s a buying signal worth understanding before you commit shelf space.
1. The Market Got Crowded Faster Than Retailers Could React
In 2021 and 2022 alone, celebrity beauty brands launched at a pace the industry had never seen. Kim Kardashian debuted SKKN by Kim (nine pieces, $575 total); Ciara launched OAM; Peyton List debuted Pley Beauty; Idris and Sabrina Elba launched S’able Labs. That was on top of an already saturated roster: Kylie Cosmetics, Fenty Beauty, Rare Beauty, Florence by Mills, JLo Beauty, Haus Labs, About-Face, and more, all competing for the same premium shelf space.
The sheer volume created a saturation problem that retailers noticed first. When 50+ celebrity brands compete for real estate in the same beauty aisle, consumer attention thins; so do sell through rates. Buyers who stocked launches on the strength of celebrity names found that without repeat-purchase drivers (strong formulas, loyal communities, genuine brand purpose), the initial spike rarely translated into steady revenue. Launches started to feel like opening weekend box office numbers: impressive, then gone.
2. Authenticity Got Called Out, Publicly and Quickly
Millennial consumers, particularly those 27 to 40, are exceptionally good at identifying brands that exist to capitalize on a name rather than solve a problem. The SKKN by Kim backlash is instructive. The brand launched with premium pricing, a “refill” packaging system that critics pointed out used almost as much material as the original, and a name uncomfortably close to a small Black-owned business called SKNMTTR. TikTok’s response was swift; the hashtag #skknbykim pulled 86 million views, the majority critical rather than celebratory.
This is the double edged sword of social media for celebrity backed labels: the same platforms that can create overnight sell outs can fuel a credibility crisis that runs for months. For wholesale buyers, that creates real inventory risk. A brand that hits a public relations wall mid season can leave you holding stock that the consumer has already scrolled past. The question isn’t whether the celebrity has fans; it’s whether those fans trust the brand enough to keep buying after the launch hype settles.
3. The Exceptions, and Exactly Why They Work
Celebrity brand fatigue doesn’t mean all celebrity brands fail; it means the ones without substance fail faster and more publicly. Two brands illustrate the template for what actually works.
Rare Beauty became Sephora’s top selling brand before Sol de Janeiro overtook it in 2024; when it entered Ulta Beauty in February of that year, it broke the retailer’s existing launch-day sales record. That performance didn’t happen because Selena Gomez has a large social following; it happened because the brand was built around a genuine cause (the Rare Impact Fund dedicates a percentage of sales to mental health access), a product that achieved real organic virality on its own merits (the Soft Pinch Liquid Blush), and a founder visibly and credibly connected to the problem the brand addresses.
Fenty Beauty didn’t just enter the market in 2017; it disrupted the category by launching 40 foundation shades at a time when most brands offered 12 to 15. That’s a product story, not a marketing story. Retailers had immediate sell-through because a genuinely underserved customer base finally had an option. The lesson in both cases is consistent: celebrity brands that succeed give the consumer a reason beyond the name. Those that don’t are essentially asking the buyer to fund their marketing spend.
4. Where the Market Is Moving in 2025 and Beyond
The shift happening now is worth tracking if you’re planning wholesale buys for the next 12 to 18 months. Celebrity brands in color cosmetics are losing steam; Coty’s Q4 FY2025 results are explicit about weakness in that category. Serena Williams’s Wyn Beauty saw multiple executive exits and declining sales at Ulta in 2025, the same year Williams pivoted toward health and wellness endorsements. Estée Lauder reported an 8% drop in net sales for FY2025, with makeup falling 6%. Celebrities are following the money; the money is moving toward wellness, supplements, and longevity, not another eyeshadow palette.
The smart pivot for wholesale buyers isn’t to stop looking at celebrity affiliated brands entirely. It’s to sharpen the selection criteria. A few indicators that separate durable brands from flash-in-the-pan launches: Does the founder have a credible, personal connection to the product? Is there documented retail performance beyond launch day? Is there genuine product innovation, or is it largely a packaging and licensing exercise? The brands that check those boxes are still worth serious consideration; the ones that don’t are increasingly difficult to justify at shelf.
5. Reading the Room as a Buyer
Celebrity brand fatigue is ultimately a proxy for something broader: consumers demanding more from the brands they spend money on. That demand flows directly through to wholesale. If your assortment leans heavily on brands that operate on face value (quite literally), you’re exposed to the same credibility volatility those brands face. The buyers performing well right now are balancing celebrity affiliated names with genuine product credentials against independent brands with real innovation stories: ingredient led skincare, clinically backed actives, brands with a clear community and purpose.
The celebrity brand era isn’t over. But the era of stocking a brand simply because a famous face is attached to it? That’s definitively closing. The right question for any wholesale decision isn’t “is this celebrity popular?”; it’s “would this product sell if you removed the name from the label?” If yes, you likely have something worth the shelf space. If not, the consumer will answer that question for you, usually by the second reorder.
FAQ
1. What does celebrity brand fatigue mean in the beauty industry? It refers to the declining consumer interest in beauty products launched by celebrities, driven by oversaturation, perceived inauthenticity, and the growing awareness that many of these brands are primarily marketing vehicles rather than products with genuine innovation behind them. By 2022, the beauty market had more than 50 active celebrity brands competing simultaneously.
2. Are all celebrity beauty brands struggling right now? Not all of them. Rare Beauty and Fenty Beauty are the most cited examples of celebrity founded brands with real staying power, because both pair the founder’s name with authentic product development and a clear purpose. Rare Beauty broke Ulta Beauty’s launch-day sales record in 2024 after holding the top-selling position at Sephora for multiple years.
3. How should a wholesale buyer assess whether a celebrity brand is worth stocking? Beyond launch buzz, look at: consistent sell-through data after the first 90 days, whether there is genuine product differentiation from what’s already on the shelf, a credible founder story tied to the product’s reason for existing, and community engagement that isn’t purely dependent on the celebrity’s personal social media reach.
4. What happened with Kylie Cosmetics after Coty acquired it? Coty acquired a 51% stake in Kylie Cosmetics in 2019 at a reported $600 million valuation, but the brand struggled to maintain momentum post-acquisition. In Q4 FY2025, Coty reported an 8% drop in net revenue, citing weakness in color cosmetics, a category where Kylie Cosmetics is a primary player. The brand’s trajectory reflects the broader challenge of sustaining a name-first business model in a tightening market.
5. What categories are growing as celebrity beauty brands slow down? The categories gaining traction include ingredient-led skincare (PDRN, barrier repair, clinical actives), wellness and longevity products, and dermatologist- or expert-backed brands. On the celebrity side, the shift is toward health and wellness endorsements. Buyers diversifying their assortment into these categories are better positioned for the next 18 to 24 months than those still heavily reliant on celebrity color cosmetics.
Sources
- Glossy, “5 defining beauty industry moments of 2022” (Dec 28, 2022): https://www.glossy.co/beauty/5-defining-beauty-industry-moments-of-2022/
- Glossy, “Beauty is slowing. Health and wellness is booming. Here come the celebrities” (Sep 29, 2025): https://www.glossy.co/beauty/beauty-is-slowing-health-and-wellness-is-booming-here-come-the-celebrities/
- Glossy, “Sephora Strategies: Sol de Janeiro became Sephora’s top-selling brand in 2024. Now it needs to stay on top” (2025): https://www.glossy.co/beauty/sephora-strategies-sol-de-janeiro-became-sephoras-top-selling-brand-in-2024-now-it-needs-to-stay-on-top/
- Glossy, “Selena Gomez on growing Rare Beauty and the Rare Impact Fund in 2024”: https://www.glossy.co/beauty/selena-gomez-on-growing-rare-beauty-and-the-rare-impact-fund-in-2024/
- Glossy, “Rare Beauty breaks Ulta Beauty’s record for launch-day sales” (2024): https://www.glossy.co/beauty/ (referenced in Glossy search results, Feb 2024)
- McKinsey & Company, “Future of Wellness” survey 2025: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/consumer-packaged-goods/our-insights/the-trends-defining-the-1-point-8-trillion-dollar-global-wellness-market-in-2024