This week, I checked in with analysts from Circana, NielsenIQ and more to better understand the opportunity for celebrity-backed hair-care brands. Additionally, the ruling against Fearless Fund could impact beauty and wellness grant programs and Ulta Beauty is changing its “clean beauty” merchandising strategy.
According to analysts, the celebrity hair-care category is ‘underdeveloped’ and primed for growth — even after buzzy new 2024 launches
The celebrity beauty category saw several power players enter the hair space over the past six months, with new launches from Beyoncé, Rihanna and Brooke Shields. Their full retail strategies and sales prowess have yet to be seen, but their debuts have raised an important question for the industry about the opportunity in this growing market: Is there room for more celebrity beauty lines?
These buzzy launches come on the heels of a slower year for the celebrity beauty category as a whole, according to market research company NielsenIQ (NIQ). “2021 and 2022 were consistent, strong years, with 18 or 19 [celebrity] brands coming on the market each year,” said analyst Anna Mayo, vp of beauty thought leadership at NIQ. But 2023 was a “cool-down” year, with only six launches, she said. “The difference we are seeing in 2024 is that the brands are being launched by bigger stars.” There have been more than a dozen celeb launches so far this year.
According to an NIQ sales data set for April 2023 to April 2024, the celebrity beauty category is worth more than $1 billion. Color cosmetics and nail care made up more than half of these sales, with $561 million, followed by fragrance with $218 million, then skin care with $110 million. Hair care ranks fourth with $80 million in sales, but analysts say it’s the category with the most growth potential.
“The celebrity hair-care category is smaller in size compared to cosmetics and skin care, accounting for 0.3% of total hair care whereas celebrity cosmetics accounts for 2.5% of total cosmetics,” NIQ’s Mayo told Glossy. “While it’s true that celebrity hair care is underdeveloped compared to other categories, that doesn’t mean that any celebrity-aligned hair-care brand will be a success.”
The celeb hair-care category saw the largest sales growth within the prestige marketplace, according to Q1 2024 data from market research company Circana. It found that makeup holds the largest share of celebrity brands, but the sub-category’s sales growth declined in Q1 with only 2% growth. Meanwhile, other beauty categories saw celebrity brands’ sales grow by double digits. Hair care, the smallest volume contributor, saw the fastest sales growth among celeb brands, at 64%, versus just 11% growth across the hair-care category as a whole.
Celeb hair care is also primed for social growth, said Quinn Yung, customer insights manager at Dash Hudson, a company that tracks social media content. “#CosmeticsTok and #SkincareTok had their days, but we’re seeing the rise of hair care [on TikTok now],” she said, noting K18 as a conversation-starting brand that has led social chatter over the past six months. “From a social perspective on Instagram and TikTok, there’s still lots of playing room for hair-care brands.”
So what does it take to win market share in the growing celeb hair-care market? Analysts Glossy spoke to agreed that a focus on hair health with highly effective products sold at third-party retailers is the best launch strategy.
“Successful celebrity brands need to meet a market need and create a strong alignment between the celebrity founder and the product, and the celebrity needs to consistently support the brand,” said NIQ’s Mayo.
“For both [Rihanna’s] Fenty and [Beyoncé’s] Cecred, the focus is on hair health, and hair health has been one of the category drivers in the past year,” Natallia Bambiza, makeup and hair category analyst at Circana, told Glossy. “This is also something that can appeal to wide demographics. In the first quarter of 2024, the hair treatment segment in prestige outpaced total category growth, up 14%, while products specifically geared towards hair strength and restoration grew at nearly twice the rate of total prestige hair, up 20%.”
Landing at an appropriate retailer is also key. “Celebrity hair-care brands most often do better in third-party retailers compared to DTC,” NIQ’s Mayo told Glossy. Sephora sold the most celeb products in 2023, with $430.2 million in sales. Ulta Beauty came in second with $261.9 million and Target was third with $94.4 million in sales, according to NIQ.
According to CreatorIQ, a company that tracks social media influencers, the three celeb brands with the highest earned media value in 2023 were all found in major retailers. They were Rare Beauty, Fenty Beauty and Skin, and Kylie Cosmetics and Skin, respectively, which sell at Sephora (Rare and Fenty) and Ulta Beauty (Kylie).
During a panel hosted by NIQ on Thursday, Conor Begley, chief strategy officer of CreatorIQ, shared an anecdote. “I was having a conversation with one of the larger agents in L.A. who represents a lot of these celebs, and he was saying that the retailers are starting to hit [shelf space] capacity,” he said. “There’s been a bit of a gold rush [in celeb hair care]. … But I would never bet against Rihanna, that’s for sure.”
This could be part of the reason for a commonality among Rihanna’s Fenty Hair, Beyoncé’s Cecred and Brooke Shields’ Commence: all three launched this year with a DTC focus.
For now, the industry will continue to watch these brands’ moves as new competitors undoubtedly launch to eager fans. “Celebrity beauty buyers tend to be among the most engaged beauty consumers, spending about 25% more annually than the average beauty consumer,” said NIQ’s Mayo.
Experts Glossy spoke to also pointed out another key difference between successful and struggling celebrity-backed beauty brands: how often the founder appears in social media content. For example, for both Rare Beauty and Fenty Beauty, the most-viewed TikTok content they’ve ever posted features their founder, according to Dash Hudson.
For more commentary on this growing market, listen to Glossy’s team discuss the products and positioning of the latest buzzy launches in our latest Beauty Debrief event hosted on LinkedIn.
Executive moves:
- Vasiliki Petrou, the founder and CEO of Unilever Prestige, has stepped down after a decade in the role. She plans to start a new investment fund. She will step down in July and no replacement has been named.
News to know:
- A federal appeals court has suspended The Fearless Fund’s grant program for Black business owners. The legal proceedings began last year when the fund — which was backed by Bank of America and PayPal — was challenged by the American Alliance for Equal Rights, the same conservative group that ended affirmative action in colleges. The case could be a weathervane for similar DEI-focused funds.
- Ulta Beauty and Credo have ended their partnership which brought a collection of clean beauty products to Ulta Beauty stores under the “Credo Collection” endcap. Featured brands will be moved to Ulta’s Conscious Beauty curation.
- Sephora has added to its shelves Luna Daily, a line of products designed for new and expecting moms with products like Perineal Prep Oil for $32 and a Post-Birth Soothing Spray for $14.
- Chanel is the first luxury beauty company to advertise on the Las Vegas Sphere. The brand is promoting its new No° 5 L’Eau limited-edition fragrance and will run ads from June 14-20.
In the headlines:
How dermatologists can ethically disseminate skin-care information on social media. Conserving Beauty shows sheet masks don’t have to end up in a landfill. Olympian Suni Lee joins forces with Kiss. Jake Paul’s new personal care brand is for Gen-Z guys who “want to win on a daily basis.” John Legend joins Montblanc as the face of Legend fragrance line.
Listen in:
On this week’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Live Tinted founder Deepica Mutyala discusses the brand’s origin story and growth in the complexion category.
Need a Glossy recap?
In a natural-is-better world, biotech-fueled beauty brands are getting creative to stand out — here’s what’s working. E.l.f. and Drunk Elephant rank as buzziest bronzing drops. The TikTok challenge that earned Hairitage 14,000 TikTok followers in a week. Ten years in, Briogeo enters the hair-styling category. Glow Recipe’s Sarah Lee on turning community and loyalty into profit. EOS doubles down on the shaving category.
