Kylie Jenner may be pretty new to the makeup business, but her Kylie Cosmetics has apparently already made more than US$420 million in retail sales.
Her momager Kris Jenner revealed the whopping amount in an interview with WWD. Until now the Jenners have been tight-lipped about the money generated from their business ventures, but WWD say that Kris shared documentation showing the sales numbers.
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It’s an incredible amount of money, especially considering Kylie Cosmetics was only launched in November of 2015, with the limited release of Kylie Lip Kits. The kits sold out in a matter of seconds. New editions of the Lip Kits line regularly sell out almost instantly.
“In the beginning I didn’t really know what my vision was,” Kylie told WWD. “I didn’t know if I wanted to keep my whole line the same, consistent. And then I think I realized over time that I like to switch it up, so I just wanted, that’s where I kind of started creating my collections and just changing all my vials pink if I wanted to and doing fun unit cartons and just really, just having fun with the line.”
But the 20-year-old wasn’t sure how successful the product would be. “Launch day, I refreshed the page about a minute after we launched and everything was sold out,” she said. “I thought there was a glitch at first.”
For perspective, according to WWD, Tom Ford Beauty, which is owned by Estée Lauder Cos. Inc. and considered one of the fastest growing brands in their portfolio, was reported as making only US$500 million over a decade. Lauder’s Bobbi Brown brand reached US$1 billion after 25 years, and L’Oreal’s Lancome took a 80 years before finally reaching US$1 billion in 2015.
Kylie Cosmetics is reportedly on track to join the $1 billion club by 2022.
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“I think people were surprised that the brand is so successful because it’s something that Kylie’s created but didn’t really expect the whole business to be the perfect storm,” Kris said. “One they tried it, saw it, wore it, were able to experiment with it, and it’s such a great product and it’s so well done, it just kind of exploded and I think that people were thinking, ‘Oh, OK, is she really a player in this business?’ And I think she proved that she is.”
“Kylie is hardworking, creative, focused and she has the most amazing work ethic of anybody I’d ever met in my life and she really considers this her true passion, but an honour and a huge responsibility,” Kris added. “And I see that and I think, ‘This is my little mogul. She’s amazing.’”