In 2020, Kylie Jenner finally launched her eponymous skincare line this side of the Atlantic. During the summer, Rihanna released Fenty Skin, the highly anticipated follow-up to her wildly successful Fenty make-up line. Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop Beauty continues to be favoured by insiders for being both clean and high-performance, and Honest Beauty, the organic make-up and skincare range from fellow actor Jessica Alba, has a similar raison d’être. It seems that anybody who is anybody needs a skincare line—and a year of national lockdowns, during which skincare sales soared, only served to further hammer the point all the way to Hollywood.
Last year, when Victoria Beckham decided to expand into skincare, Sarah Creal, co-founder of Victoria Beckham Beauty, was ready for the challenge. “We knew that as two seasoned skincare junkies dissatisfied with clean skincare formulas on the market, the range had to deliver,” she says. A canny collaboration with revered stem-cell scientist, professor Augustinus Bader, who also boasts a coveted skincare line, and a hands-on approach ensured it did.
This authenticity, along with gold-standard results and formulations, is a non-negotiable ingredient for success, explains Lisa Payne, senior beauty editor at trend forecasting agency Stylus. “Consumers are now much more aware of celebrities not having a hand in developing their brand and it lessens the appeal. These celebrity skincare brands absolutely have more kudos than the celebrity fragrance trend of old. The brands appear more personal and are closer to their beauty ideals.”
Like Beckham, Jenner has been instrumental in developing her namesake brand, but admits to an awareness of naysayers questioning her legitimacy. “It’s easy to doubt yourself, but I always try to stick to what feels right, and that’s really translated into my brand. The ingredients were very important to me; the more I researched, the more I was able to identify ‘clean’ formulations that offered great results.” This focus on quality and efficacy, reveals Rihanna, was also the driving force behind Fenty Skin. “There were certain must-haves I wanted right from the beginning: clean, high-performance ingredients.”
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Nowadays, of course, astute brands understand the necessity of clean ingredients. However, Kora, the organic skincare brand launched in 2009 by model Miranda Kerr, was inspired by Kerr’s childhood and industry experience, not the changing beauty landscape. “Growing up in a family that prioritised health and wellness, and modelling for 20 years – where I tried nearly every beauty product out there – taught me what worked and what didn’t. I wanted certified organic skin care that delivered powerful results.”
Clearly, this cadre of famous beauty founders are not shills. Unlike some previous incumbents, they are uninterested in building a brand that relies solely on their fame. Rather, they are driven to create products with gravitas and, fundamentally, says Kerr, credibility. “I invested all my own money to launch Kora. It’s my baby, one that I’ve nurtured and grown, not something I just put my face to. And that really resonates with customers because it’s truly authentic.”
Here, a rundown of the hero Vogue-approved products from each celebrity skincare line.
This article was originally published on British Vogue.
