Kylie Jenner
The Youngest – and Richest – of the Kardashian Clan Just Sold A BIG Stake of Her Billion-Dollar Beauty Empire
If you ever swiped any one of Kylie Jenner’s insanely famous, long-wearing Lip Kits onto your pout (highly recommended), you’ll want to pucker up to this. Legendary, NYC-based cosmetics conglomerate Coty Cosmetics reportedly bought a 51% stake of the reality star-turned-savvy beauty businesswoman Kylie Jenner’s billion-dollar beauty brand, Kylie Cosmetics, including her new skincare line, Kylie Skin. Now, that’s a lot of lip service.
This year, reality television star, socialite, model, and fierce businesswoman Kylie Jenner became the youngest, self made billionaire on the planet. In 2008, then 23-year-old tech tycoon and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg held the spot, while then 31-year-old Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates held the title back in 1987. At only 21 years old, the reality star who gained fame, fortune, and a massively loyal social media following over the past 13 years is no stranger to stardom. Jenner has single-handedly garnered worldwide recognition and made a name for herself, independent of her famous, trendsetting siblings - fellow makeup mogul, designer, and fashionista Kim Kardashian, runway-rocking Kendall Jenner, and designers Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian.
What began in 2015 with her instantly famous Kylie Lip Kits - a simple pout-prettifying product that consisted of tubes of highly-pigmented liquid lipstick colors with matching, stay-put lip liners – quickly morphed into a complete cosmetics collection consisting of blushes, eyeshadow palettes, highlighters, concealers, powders, foundations, accessories, and even a long-awaited skincare line, Kylie Skin. The young CEO clearly has got all her beauty bases covered to the behest of her most faithful fans.
When Kylie Met Coty
Coty Cosmetics, the parent company that owns other renowned beauty brands, like nail authorities Sally Hansen and OPI and drugstore gem CoverGirl, acquired over half of Jenner’s obsession-worthy cosmetics company for $600 million. While Jenner and her creative team will remain in control over product development and other creative efforts, the two companies will work together to forward overall global presence, including introducing Kylie Cosmetics into other beauty-related categories, such as nail and fragrance. Coty’s board chairman Peter Harf says of the pending, pretty partnership, “This new partnership between Kylie and Coty is an exciting step in Coty’s renewed emphasis on its beauty business…Kylie is a modern-day icon, with an incredible sense of the beauty consumer and we believe in the high potential of building a global beauty brand – together.” The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2020.
From Reality Star Princess to Beauty Brand Queen
When Keeping Up With the Kardashians debuted on the cable news channel E! Entertainment in 2007, then eight-year-old Jenner was thrust into the limelight as the show indiscreetly detailed the personal and professional lives of her older half-sisters Kim, Kourtney, and Khloe and their manager mother, Kris Jenner. With cameras deliberately capturing every waking moment of the blended brood’s life – the good, the bad, and oftentimes, ugly – Kylie and her sister Kendall found themselves basking in the backlight of their sisters’ on and off-air lives. Kylie and Kendall eventually earned their own star-studded spotlight for which they strategically capitalized. The teen siblings would go on to design their own shoe collection Kendall + Kylie and collaborated with California surf style retailer Pac Sun and Great Britain-based fashion brand TopShop. While slender and leggy Kendall went on to grace countless magazine covers, including spreading her catwalk-worthy wings as a Victoria’s Secret’s angel for the legendary lingerie line’s annual, Angel Fashion Show, Kylie turned her lucrative talents to developing her now cult classic Lip Kits. The cool, lipstick-liner combo became an overnight sensation, generating the biggest beauty buzz since the long-awaited launch of big sis Kim’s own beauty brand KKW Beauty and creating a cosmetics craze amongst beauty bloggers, buffs, and product junkies all across social media. The first-ever “liquid lipstick with matching lip liner” combo kit disrupted the makeup market, making Kylie Cosmetics one of the fastest-growing beauty brands in lipstick history.
Using the money she had saved from starring on Keeping Up With the Kardashians, past collaborations, the multitude of endorsements, television appearances, photoshoots, and her Kylie + Kendall shoe collection, Jenner autonomously launched Kylie Lip Kits in 2015. The instant success from the pout-perfecting product inspired Jenner to develop a full-face makeup line, including skincare. And, in 2016, Kylie Cosmetics and Kylie Skin officially burst onto the beauty scene. In 2018, the young makeup mogul’s company got the attention of Forbes, as it was quickly becoming a billion-dollar dynasty and making Jenner the world’s youngest self-made billionaire – no inheritance required. Currently headquartered in the coastal city of Oxnard, California, Kylie Cosmetics is estimated to be valued at $1.2 billion, while 21- year-old Jenner’s personal net worth is a bulging $1 billion, surprisingly surpassing the likes of her super famous, brand-building sisters.
In 2017, Forbes' Celebrity 100 listed Jenner at #59 after earning approximately $41,000,000. The following year, Kylie Cosmetics reportedly raked in $630 million worth of must-have makeup, affording Jenner the number one position on Forbes' Celebrity 100 for three consecutive years. Both Kylie and her mother Kris continually partake in a number of charitable initiatives, including donating 100% of the proceeds from her pale pink-hued lipstick Smile to Smile Train, an organization that seeks to provide financial relief and medical procedures to children affected with a cleft. She boasts a following of 250 million on Instagram (hello free advertising!), while Kylie Cosmetics has 22 million dedicated, lip-loving followers.
Holy mother pucker!
