The worlds youngest self made billionaire, Kylie Jenner, just sold 51% of her share in Kylie Cosmetics.
She sold the majority of her stake (she formerly owned 100% until this morning) for a whopping $600 million to Coty. Coty is a parent company that also owns CoverGirl, OPI, Rimmel, and Sally Hansen.
The make up mogul released a press statement to explain her decision:
“I’m excited to partner with Coty to continue to reach even more fans of Kylie Cosmetics and Kylie Skin around the world. I look forward to continuing the creativity and ingenuity for each collection that consumers have come to expect and engaging with my fans across social media.”
“This partnership will allow me and my team to stay focused on the creation and development of each product while building the brand into an international beauty powerhouse.”
Coty’s initial goal is to help take Kylie Cosmetics global and more accessible for international consumers.
Kylie will continue as the face of the brand and will “lead all creative efforts” of product development and communication. Coty will primarily focus on shifting distribution so more people can easily purchase the products. So basically, she’ll create and they’ll distribute it.
Coty’s CEO Pierre Laubies also released a statement saying: “We are pleased to welcome Kylie into our organization and family. Combining Kylie’s creative vision and unparalleled consumer interest with Coty’s expertise and leadership in prestige beauty products is an exciting next step in our transformation and will leverage our core strengths around fragrances, cosmetics and skincare, allowing Kylie’s brands to reach their full potential.”
To sum it up, Coty’s trying to appeal to a much younger audience and finally embracing social media. Their other brands are no where near as social media friendly as competitors Anastasia Beverly Hills and Urban Decay.
As of her historical Forbes article in 2018, Kylie Cosmetics only employed 7 people. Furthermore, the company had almost no marketing costs because Jenner single-handedly marketed through her own social media pages. The business profited from the start with minimal costs. This ultimately shot Kylie into billionaire status.
And with this newfound ownership and expertise, Coty will likely expand Kylie Beauty to the fragrance industry.
Jenner has been extremely hands on with her business. She was always the first to sample products. Furthermore, she actively collaborated with lab technicians to create new formulas and shades. She also searched for feedback on every detail from packaging to fonts. Kylie works hard to provide the best customer service imaginable for her customers. To say this news comes as a shock is an understatement.
Personally, I’m a huge fan of her cosmetics line and primarily use her products as part of my daily routine. As a consumer, I really love that Kylie has been as involved in her business as much as she has. You can see she’s passionate and dedicated to her business and I like that I feel comfortable knowing the quality she promises. It was nice seeing someone with as big of a celebrity status as her work as hard as she did on her business instead of just posting a few pictures and calling it a day.
However, this new ownership makes me worried.
I don’t doubt that the quality of Kylie Cosmetics will change because it’s been made perfectly clear that Kylie takes her customer satisfaction very seriously. And her products are some of the best out there. But with new ownership taking over, will it make the products more expensive, will the sizes get smaller, are we still only going to be able to order online or in store at Ulta Beauty, will there be as many new collection releases as before, and will there still be mega sales over weekends? There is a lot still up in the air.
But, I am hopeful that maybe a few things will change to help international consumers; I would love for the ordering method to remain the same but the option to pay in international currencies to be used. I would also like the minimum order price for free international shipping to be lowered or for the accessibility to purchase products to become easier. Obviously if the prices of products could also go down that would be awesome, but that’s just wishful thinking.
For fans panicking over this sudden announcement, don’t worry. The transition isn’t expected to be complete until the third quarter of 2020.
But I am sad to say, this ends an era I really enjoyed.
Feature Image from Kylie Cosmetics on Instagram
