The unique struggle of influencer beauty brands

Addison Rae, Hyram Yarbro, and James Charles all have one thing in common. Apart from being popular influencers, they also all had beauty brands that ultimately didn't do so hot. Want to know why? Watch the full video to find out, and let me know in the comments if you bought any of these brands and what you thought of them.

Let me know what other topics you want to see covered!

Tags: #beauty #businessnews #makeup #makeupbusiness #businessanalysis

Sub count: 106

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[Alyssa-sojl]

Quality content. As a product marketing manager, this is an excellent analysis of the influencer marketing skincare brands. Thanks so much! I’ll continue supporting.

[eveningstar]

Glossier, Huda, Michelle. They ALL have one thing in common. They're grown! They had an actual vision. A dream. A plan. An execution. They created themselves. They put in the work. They did everything and hustled on their own to get where they are. These tiktok kids were handed this "platform" on a silver platter. They were approached by established brands for partnerships and collabs. Tiktokers were literally children in high school that copied other people's dance moves for ten seconds. Michelle had been in YouTube for years. She promoted herself. Which blossomed into her brand. Same with Huda and glossier. And! They're still here going very strong! They're the brains and heart. That's the difference.

[j____]

I never bought an influencer brand in my life. To me, 99% are just cash grabs.

[irynazavadskaya]

One of the successful examples would be SimplyNailogical. However she doesn’t really fit in this discourse - the integrity, hard work, smarts and genuine love for nail polish made the brand Holo Taco seem like a legit business, not like a way to make a bit more cash.

[freespiritdamsel]

I agree with the analysis on Hyram, when he launched his skincare line was the time that aestheticians, dermatologists, skincare chemists and all other skincare science experts came to the surface and became more popular. Besides the fact that people are no longer trusting of influencer brands.

[dawnrowlands]

I think a lot of problems are caused by how over saturated the 'influencer' make-up industry became. I hope that consumers are getting wiser to the shady marketing techniques. One thing I find really annoying is when a company claims to be 'clean beauty'. There is no definition for 'clean' so it means absolutely nothing. Company's jumping on the bandwagon and greenwashing is such a cynical marketing ploy. This was really interesting, have a great day.

[abby.tucker]

dang, i always thought it would be a good idea for hyram to have his own skincare line but i never even heard of selfless. maybe the marketing sucked bc honestly that's something i would consider buying

[CainP]

The girl who said she just took out the doefoot applicator and complained how much product is left doesnt know how packaging works.

[Startupsandsushi]

I love your channels name! And the fact you deep dive into PMF (product market fit) is so engaging! You hit the nail on the head that the moat between one product and another is razor thin, which is the core reason influencer brands are short-lived. There is little product differentiation and this is a no - no for smart consumers who do lots of research before purchasing.

[jarintasnim]

I think morphe had a good run. Everyone had their eye palettes back in 17-18....it's just their image is not up to date...people now prefer motre lightweight/ less makeup looks where their items are still full face makeup kinda looks

[laur]

i’m not super interested in business, marketing, economics etc but you and underskin, make this type of content so interesting and informative by tailoring it to the beauty and fashion spaces. keep up the fantastic work! ❤

[skylasimard-sbte]

I was just recently at Winners and I have seen Selfless by Hyram. I wasn’t shocked after seeing the Sephora news but I was still a bit surprised and it was really marked down too

[RachelJayne]

I wouldn’t say Hyrams skincare line failed, it’s just gone to target, and given the inky lists price - that makes a lot more sense.

[bg]

In my personal case (and maybe this is a generalized perspective) I wouldn't buy from influencer brands because I feel like they lack in quality and are purely made to target one specific audience, that is the people who follow the influencer, without giving any extraordinary benefits to their products. This is why I trust reputed brands that have been on the market for many years and obviously developed continually rather that a ghost-like company who sells products made over night.

[chigal]

I have never heard of Hyram. However, who would name a skin care line Selfless?? The point is to work on one’s self, using the product to better oneself. No wonder it failed, the name is awful.

[wakeupkrissywakeup]

One big reason a lot of these brands fail is b/c often the products simply aren't very good. People realize there's no need to spend the extra money on one brand when a cheaper one is much better. A lot of these influencers don't even have anything to do with the actual products either, they just slap their names on them and expect that to be enough. They know their fans will rush out to buy the products but word travels fast nowadays- if something sucks, it doesn't take long for everyone to know and then sales dry up. Oversaturation is a big reason too, there's simply no need for dozens of different brands of matte nude lipsticks. You better be offering an incredible formula or very unique colors if you want to stay relevant. Yet another reason is that people's trust in influencers is at an all-time low. So many of them have been caught lying, falsely advertising product results, or just being outright terrible people when they think no one's looking, so when a new influencer brand pops up people just don't get excited anymore.

[Rosula_D]

Wow, that bit about the Ipsy data mining was very interesting! The whole video was interesting actually, keep up the good work 👍👍👍
And you're definitely right about the trend cycles. This is not only true about products and aesthetics/vibes, but people as well. Everyone who's online, especially Gen Z and Millennials, has developed extremely short attention spans. So even if they like an influencer, they may not be a loyal follower/ consumer for long; they'll jump to the next thing the moment they're bored. Add to that the fact that many of these influencers get themselves cancelled (usually for good reasons) every second week, and you understand. Even the not-influencers are on the same trajectory. Fenty and Rare may be popular now but with oversaturarion, inflation, and changing consumer habits, they're far from safe. And because for better or worse their brand name is connected to a celebrity, if that celebrity missteps, they're going down as well.

[trackandhp]

Fenty Beauty is named after Rihanna though. Her full name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty

[carvitqmilate]

07:19 actually Michelle young first brand em cosmetics was patner ship with L'Oréal Paris and she brought full share from loreal and re branding as clean make up beauty with korean style i gues

[VK-roqb]

Over saturated and over priced low quality skincare and makeup