Celebrities earning fortunes from their side hustles in beauty and fragrance are nothing new. Elizabeth Taylor raked in more money from her best-selling White Diamonds fragrance than she did from her decades-long movie career.
What’s changed is that music downloads and streaming have dented the potential earnings of singers and actresses, so they have to have something extra to make the most of their popularity.
But today’s superstars have a huge advantage over their predecessors because they can reach out directly to their fans through social media. It’s also much easier to access contract cosmetic manufacturers and fragrance makers to launch a skincare, makeup or perfume brand than it was in the past.
What hasn’t changed is that not every celeb will make it big and many will continue to miss the mark or have only a brief moment in the sun.
British supermodel and actress, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, has planned her entry into the cosmetics market very strategically, springboarding the Rose Inc brand from her content platform of the same name. Launched in 2018, the site crucially provided invaluable insights into analytics and data acquisition.
Now based in LA and expecting her second child, Huntington-Whiteley has also attracted 342,000 Instagram followers and engaged in major collaborations to rubber-stamp her beauty cred.
Her most canny move was partnering with entrepreneur and industry veteran, Caroline Hadfield, now the CEO of Rose Inc, and Amyris, the rapidly-growing bio-science company which owns Biossance.
Billed as clean and sustainable, Rose Inc products will be available online this week, before rolling out exclusively in Sephora in the US and Canada and Space NK in the UK.
The brand will launch in Mecca in Australia in October – ahead of a global launch in China, Western Europe and Scandinavia next year.
Two years in development, the collection is called Modern Essentials. Vegan and cruelty-free, major SKUs include Softlight Luminous Concealer (20 shades), Lip Sculpt Amplifying Lip Color, Brow Renew Enriched Eyebrow Shaping Gel, Blush Divine Radiant Lip and Cheek Color, Radiant Brightening Serum and Skin Resolution Clarifying Toner.
Overseas pricing ranges from US$18 to US$72. The range has five bio-engineered botanicals and safe synthetic ingredients developed exclusively for the brand by Amyris, including plant-derived squalane.