Celebrity makeup artists and hair stylists have been extending their names into cosmetics and other beauty products in a big way since at least the mid-1990s, well before social media and reality TV made them recognizable to a broad swath of consumers. The trend continues today, as several announcements in the last six to nine months indicate.
Pat McGrath, for example, is launching her first branded product line later this year through her own company. The initial items will be available in limited editions on her website under the Pat McGrath Labs name, with retail merchandise to follow.
Andre Walker, personal stylist to Oprah, introduced the Andre Walker Hair Gold System exclusively through Target’s stores and e-commerce site last fall, expanding the retailer’s array of multiethnic hair-care offerings.
Last September, Sonia Kashuk sold her beauty brand to Target, which has carried it exclusively since it debuted in 1999. The line encompasses more than 300 products, including not only cosmetics but fragrance, accessories, and, since May 2015, skin care. Kashuk is expected to continue working with the brand through next year.
In selling her company, Kashuk follows in the footsteps of colleagues such as Bobbi Brown, whose namesake brand is being featured in a special “tea experience” at the U.K. restaurant chain Balthazar this spring and summer (including a limited-edition lip color created for the occasion). Brown sold her cosmetic range to Estée Lauder in 1995 and continues to be affiliated with the company; she also has extended her name separately into other categories such as eyewear.
Interestingly, the marriage between the beauty category and celebrity makeup artists, hair stylists, and the like—a sector that has comprised dozens of examples over the past two decades—tends to be accomplished through business models other than licensing. Common examples include celebrity-owned businesses (as is the case with Charlotte Tilbury or Mally Roncal); long-term endorsement relationships (such as Pati Dubroff with Clarins and Cover Girl or Lloyd Simmonds with Yves St. Laurent), or relationships in which the artist takes an executive role with an existing company (such as Sam Fine serving as creative director for Fashion Fair or Peter Philips heading Christian Dior Makeup).
Partnerships such as these are rarely achieved through traditional licensing deals, although limited collaborations come up from time to time.
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