Celebrity beauty brands have exceeded $1 billion in sales

Celebrity beauty brands are getting a lot more than their 15 seconds of fame, having surpassed $1 billion in sales for the first time, per NielsenIQ (NIQ). As of early November 2023, brands hit $1.091 billion in sales, up 57.8% YoY, surpassing the total beauty category’s overall growth of 11.1%.

NIQ tracks nearly 50 celebrity beauty brands, including Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty, Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty, and Lady Gaga’s Haus Labs. Annual sales through November 4 were highly concentrated within two categories: cosmetics and nail grooming, and fragrance (which includes scents by Ariana Grande and Billie Eilish). Celeb brands in each of those categories made up 2.9% of the total category share.

• Meanwhile, celebrity lines across categories like bath and shower, deodorant, facial skincare, and haircare all accounted for less than 1% category share.

New celebrity brand launches slowed last year, with just six debuts (and one discontinuation: Kristen Bell’s Happy Dance), down from 19 in 2021 and 18 in 2022. Still, NIQ found 20.7 million households bought from celeb beauty brands last year, up 21.9% YoY These consumers also tend to be bigger spenders, shelling out more than $1,000 a year on beauty, 1.25 times more than the average beauty buyer.

Looking ahead…This year could see the beginning of a shakeout for the celeb beauty category: “2024 will likely be the year when the winners start to separate from those that are not hitting the mark,” Anna Mayo, VP of beauty and personal care thought leadership at NIQ, told Retail Brew.

“Innovation in the beauty industry is notoriously challenging, whether a celebrity or not, and it should start to become more clear this year which of the celebrity beauty brands will endure as the market has become so saturated,” she said.