Celebrities exist on our TV screens, social feeds, and are now behind our favorite beauty brands, but is that such a bad thing?
In a sunlit Manhattan conference room this past spring, Selena Gomez discussed the loneliness epidemic with the U.S. Surgeon General at Rare Beauty’s Mental Health Summit. It was a scene that would have been difficult to imagine a decade ago, when celebrity beauty ventures mostly translated to a famous face on a perfume ad or a licensed lipstick. Today, however, stars like Gomez are building beauty brands that are deeply personal and culturally aware. The evolution from merely endorsing a product to embodying a brand with a purpose marks a profound shift in what we expect from famous faces in the beauty industry.
This shift didn’t happen overnight. Back in 2008, Academy Award–winner Gwyneth Paltrow quietly launched Goop from her kitchen as a homespun email newsletter. What started as Paltrow’s personal digest of healthy recipes and wellness tips grew into a full-fledged lifestyle brand over the years – one that operates from a place of “curiosity and nonjudgment,” as Goop’s mission puts it. Paltrow was arguably ahead of her time. She turned her identity as Hollywood’s resident wellness guru into a company that sells her way of life – yoga mats and herbal tonics, clean skincare and even Goop-branded jade eggs. If some early Goop content sparked eye-rolls, Paltrow didn’t mind. “I remember when I started doing yoga and people were like, ‘What is yoga? She’s a witch. She’s a freak,’” she quipped years later to E Online. In retrospect, Goop was a harbinger of the celebrity-as-CEO era – a star staking her claim in the business world by offering a piece of her identity to the public.
Yet it was Rihanna, nearly a decade later, who truly upended the beauty status quo. When Rihanna launched Fenty Beauty in 2017 with 40 foundation shades out of the gate, it was a watershed moment that began to revolutionize the industry. At the time, having such an expansive, inclusive range was virtually unheard of outside of pro-only brands. Rihanna – a Black woman from Barbados who grew up mixing drugstore foundation to try to match her skin – made inclusivity the cornerstone of Fenty’s identity. “I wanted things that girls of all skin tones could fall in love with… In every product I was like, ‘There needs to be something for a dark-skinned girl, there needs to be something for a really pale girl, there needs to be something in-between,’” she explained at Fenty’s launch. Her goal from the start was that no one, no complexion, would be an afterthought. “All women deserve to feel beautiful and all women deserve to have a choice and an option when they go to the makeup counter,” Rihanna said simply.
Fenty Beauty’s immediate cultural impact made it clear that Rihanna had listened to a long-ignored community and delivered what they were waiting for. The brand’s success, reportedly selling $100 million in products within its first weeks),sent a message to the entire beauty world – inclusion sells, and anything less is no longer good enough. Suddenly even legacy cosmetic companies expanded their shade ranges, a phenomenon industry insiders now call the “Fenty Effect.” More broadly, Rihanna set forward a standard that a celebrity brand could succeed commercially and resonate culturally if built around authenticity and a mission.
If Rihanna’s Fenty championed being seen on the outside, Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty is about being understood on the inside. By the time Rare Beauty launched in 2020, the market was saturated with celebrity lines – over 20 celebrities had launched beauty brands in 2021 alone – and consumers were wary of cash-grab products. Gomez knew she had to offer something different. Drawing from her own journey through childhood stardom, physical health struggles, and very public battles with anxiety and depression, she made mental health the defining cause behind Rare Beauty. The brand’s very name nods to her conviction that beauty is inherent in our unique “rare” selves – the opposite of the perfectionism that makeup often implies. Gomez set up the Rare Impact Fund to support mental health services, and she has been transparent about her personal struggles, including her 2020 revelation of a bipolar diagnosis. This candor has always been part of Gomez’s public identity, and now it’s baked into her company’s ethos. “I never wanted it to be about making a lot of money and that’s it,” she said to Time Magazine of Rare Beauty’s mission, underscoring that selling eyeliner was never the sole point. Instead, success would be measured in emotional connection. By design, Rare Beauty’s product campaign images show real people (not airbrushed models) and its messaging encourages customers to embrace their imperfections. Remarkably, this approach hasn’t hurt sales one bit – if anything, it’s helped build an avid community. “I get so much joy when people say, ‘Hey, that helped me through a difficult time,’” Gomez said, reflecting on how fans respond to Rare’s products and purpose. In an industry built on aspiration, Rare Beauty dared to make empathy and self-acceptance part of the brand experience. And consumers, especially younger ones, have responded with grateful loyalty.
While Gomez uses beauty as a conduit for mental wellness, Lady Gaga sees it as an instrument of liberation. The pop chameleon has always treated makeup as a form of self-expression – this is the woman who once went grocery shopping in a floor-length gown, after all – and in 2019 she brought that spirit to her brand, Haus Labs. Gaga announced her makeup line with characteristic theatrical flair. “The last thing the world needs is another beauty brand,” she deadpanned in a Vogue video, “but that’s too bad.” In one wry sentence, she acknowledged the oversaturated market and signaled that she was coming in to do something different. Gaga’s angle wasn’t about outselling anyone; it was about offering makeup as a tool for confidence and creativity, the way it had been for her when she was a bullied teenager named Stefani Germanotta. “They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but at Haus Laboratories we say beauty is how you see yourself… We want you to love yourself. Our house, your rules,” Gaga proclaimed, framing her brand as a celebration of individuality. In an interview to Vogue about the launch, she drove the point home: “I’m sure as hell not going to put out a beauty brand that is going to drive insecurity and fear into people. This is about liberation.”
Haus Labs initially debuted on Amazon and faced some early criticism – even Gaga’s own fans felt the first round of products didn’t live up to her over-the-top persona – but Gaga listened. In 2022, she revamped the line (even modifying the name from Haus Laboratories to Haus Labs) and relaunched with new formulas, bold pigments, and a partnership with Sephora. It was a savvy correction that showed she’s in it for the long haul, not a quick payday. Now, Haus Labs is finding its footing with well-reviewed products (its foundation shades are praised for both range and skincare benefits) and campaigns featuring diverse models. True to Gaga’s identity as an LGBT icon and champion of misfits, the brand foregrounds inclusivity not just in skin tone, but in showcasing people of all ages, genders, and abilities experimenting freely with makeup. The message is clear: beauty isn’t about conforming; it’s about transforming into the truest version of yourself.
The rise of celebrity beauty brands continued with pop superstar Ariana Grande’s entry into the market with R.E.M. Beauty. Launched in late 2021, R.E.M. Beauty is Ariana Grande’s vision of a “dreamy” makeup world, playfully named after a track from her album Sweetener as well as the concept of the REM dream state. Grande, known for her signature bold eyeliner, shimmering stage looks, and whimsical style, infused R.E.M. Beauty with her own aesthetic from day one. The brand’s packaging and product names nod to Ariana’s love of space and retro-futurism – astronaut-themed highlighters and lip shades named after her songs and lyrics. But more than just aesthetics, Ariana’s personal mission for R.E.M. Beauty centers on empowerment through creativity. “[I want people] to feel like their most beautiful, honest, and expressed self,” Grande said to Glamour Magazine, describing how she hopes fans feel using R.E.M. products. By tying her brand concept to the imagery of dreams and cosmic wonder, Grande personalizes R.E.M. Beauty as an extension of her artistic persona. Crucially, Grande has remained hands-on – she often features R.E.M. Beauty looks in her music videos and on tour, reinforcing that she genuinely uses and loves what she’s creating.
Even the more traditionally glamorous celebrities have had to adapt to this new paradigm. Hailey Bieber, for instance, could have easily capitalized on her supermodel looks and massive social media following to sell a generic skincare line at a high price point. Instead, when she introduced Rhode (her minimalist skincare brand) in 2022, Bieber emphasized accessibility. Rhode’s initial trio of products – a serum, a moisturizer, and a lip treatment – all retailed for under $30, a far cry from the luxury price tags of many prestige skincare lines. “It was very important to me that if I open up the world of Rhode, everyone is invited. Everyone is included. I wanted it to be accessible and attainable for everyone,” Bieber said at the launch. That sense of community is central to Rhode. Bieber frequently demos her own routine on Instagram, solicits feedback, and even incorporates follower suggestions. Her brand story doesn’t carry the same weight of social activism as some others, but it reflects a different aspect of identity-driven branding. Bieber represents a generation that grew up with Instagram filters and YouTube tutorials, and her contribution is making expert-level skincare feel casual, playful, and inclusive. By focusing on nurturing the skin barrier and hydration, Rhode positions itself as a kind of great equalizer. You don’t need a glam squad or a Hollywood budget to partake in the glazed skin trend, just a $29 bottle of Peptide Glazing Fluid and a bit of patience.
In a culture flooded with celebrity brands, those that thrive do so because they are genuine extensions of a person’s story and values. We’ve gone from a time when a celebrity merely fronted a campaign devised by a cosmetics giant, to a time when the celebrity is often the founder, intimately involved in product development and brand vision. Consumers have taken notice of that change. The celebrity lines that avoid the public’s “eye rolls” are the ones that feel real, where the star’s hand in the creation is evident and the intent goes beyond profit. It’s the difference between a product that exists to cash in on fame, and one that exists because the founder has something personal to say.
Of course, not every star-brand comes with depth and not every celebrity venture succeeds. For every Fenty or Rare Beauty, there are forgettable launches where a big name couldn’t mask a lack of originality (or quality). The cynical view is that celebrities are hopping on a lucrative bandwagon – and certainly, the money is tempting, with celebrity beauty brands collectively raking in over a billion dollars in sales recently. But the successes of these particular brands suggest that when celebrities leverage their platforms to fill a void or champion a cause, consumers reward them.
That new expectation is reshaping what it means to be a public figure in the beauty business. It’s no longer enough to be the face on the packaging; you’re expected to be the brain, heart, and soul behind it, too. In a way, inclusion – in all its forms – is at the heart of each of these celebrity-founded brands. Include everyone’s skin tone. Include mental well-being in the definition of beauty. Include all gender expressions and creative visions. Include consumers of all incomes. Include ideas that might seem “out there.” The celebrities driving beauty’s new movement are, in essence, expanding the definition of beauty itself to be more inclusive of humanity. And as they do so, they’re hoping that a celebrity brand can be more than a vanity project, but a platform for change.
