Some analysts and observers have been predicting the end of the celebrity beauty trend for several years, as the market has grown saturated with myriad examples of celebrity-owned, licensed, and collaborative brands. While predictions of the demise of the entire sector haven’t come to pass, as Rihanna, Jessica Alba, Serena Williams, Harry Styles, and dozens of others remain active in the space, it is true that it can be difficult for individual brands to succeed.
This fact is illustrated by the closures of several high-profile celebrity ventures in the past few months:
- On Monday, sources reported that Drew Barrymore’s Flower Beauty, focused on color cosmetics, had shuttered, with its website and social media accounts inactive. Barrymore’s partner in the venture, Maesa, said that it had decided to get out of the color cosmetics business entirely to focus on skin, body, and hair care, along with fragrance. The mass market Flower Beauty brand, founded in 2012, was an early entrant in the celebrity beauty space, sold through retailers such as Walmart, CVS, and Ulta Beauty. Barrymore’s extensive Beautiful home goods line at Walmart continues to expand, and the Flower name remains active in categories such as eyewear and haircare appliances, which are also sold at Walmart.
- Gwyneth Paltrow’s discount beauty spin-off of her core Goop brand, Good Clean Goop, was discontinued in September after a two-year run at Target and on Amazon. The Target deal, which launched with about a dozen skin, hair, and body care items, all priced under $40, ran out earlier this year and was not renewed, a move that was expected after sales were reportedly weak. The flagship Goop Beauty brand, meanwhile, partnered with Ulta Beauty in June, and Paltrow said in an interview with WWD at the time that the category was the Goop lifestyle label’s primary driver of revenue. In 2024 the brand had refocused its business on three categories: beauty, fashion, and food.
- Kim Kardashian shut down her skincare and makeup line, SKKN by Kim, in September. The brand was founded in 2022, with Coty maintaining 20% ownership, and had received some blowback for its high prices and inability to stand out from competing products. In March 2025, Kardashian’s Skims shapewear and clothing brand acquired Coty’s share (with the company reporting a $71.1 million loss on the sale), as well as Kardashian’s 80% personal stake. Coty had also been an investor in Kardashian’s previous beauty line, KKW Beauty, which launched in 2017 and was discontinued in 2021. Kardashian is expected to relaunch the beauty business shortly under the umbrella of the Skims label, which is valued at $4 billion.
- In June, Kate Moss’s Cosmoss wellness brand, which she launched in 2022 with nutritionist Rose Ferguson and homeopath Victoria Young, was liquidated with debts of $4 million. The brand debuted with a skincare collection, two herbal teas, and a fragrance, Sacred Mist. Although some products, especially the fragrance, were initially a hit with her fans, beauty-industry observers have theorized that high prices, as well as the niche nature of the products and low-key and sporadic marketing, were the reasons behind the failure. In the fashion space, conversely, Moss’s two recent Zara collections have sold out.
It should be noted that these closures are not unique, as several non-celebrity brands have also gone under this year. In addition, there are still many celebrity ventures that are going strong. Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty, which launched in 2020, reportedly generated sales of $400 million in calendar year 2024. And Hailey Bieber sold her Rhode skin care brand, founded in 2022, to E.l.f. for $800 million earlier this year, remaining as creative director. Rhode reportedly generated more than $200 million in net sales in its latest full fiscal year ending in March. Meanwhile, there are still new players coming into the market, albeit much less frequently than in recent years; Martha Stewart, for example, announced the launch of a skin care brand called Elm Biosciences with dermatologist Dr. Dhaval Bhanusali, in August.
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