Are We In The Era Where Celebrities Will Make More Money As The Face Of A Beauty Brand?

If you had a choice between collecting multiple 7-figure endorsement checks to be the face of a global beauty brand or spending years building a beauty brand that may never get shelf space in Sephora, what would you choose?

Although this may feel counterintuitive after Rhode’s $1B exit to E.l.f., that was the anomaly, not the norm. And in the creator economy, beauty remains one of the most lucrative categories for creators and celebrities to stay open to. Brands spend aggressively because beauty converts quickly, and because a trusted celebrity face can move more product than almost any other marketing tactic that exists today. Beauty accounts for $24 billion of influencer and endorsement spend each year. Fashion, by comparison, sits at $6.8 billion. And when you zoom out to the entire $250 billion creator economy, it becomes even clearer which categories write the biggest checks.

We have spent the past decade watching every celebrity launch a beauty brand, but it comes with a cost. The opportunity cost. Once a celebrity becomes the founder or face of a beauty or skincare brand, they remove themselves from the highest paying endorsement category for at least five years. Sometimes ten. Beauty conglomerates do not hire the founder of a competing brand to serve as the face of their campaigns. It confuses consumers, weakens brand messaging, and undermines trust.

Hailey Bieber is the clearest example. As the founder of Rhode, she can still star in a Saint Laurent campaign or headline a national Chase Sapphire Rewards endorsement. But she cannot (or should not) lead a global campaign for Estée Lauder or L’Oréal as long as Rhode exists. That opportunity disappears the moment the brand launches, regardless of its success. This is the opportunity cost in action.

HSR Glossary:

opportunity cost
/ˌɒpəˈtjuːnɪti kɒst/ noun

The loss of potential gain when choosing one option over another.

Other celebrities have built ownership and equity by building in a less endorsement-lucrative category. Most recently, Elsa Hosk built Helsa, her fashion brand sold on Revolve. Fashion does not compete with beauty, or even high fashion and fashion weeks, which means she retains full access to high budget beauty and high fashion partnerships. So when Inde Wild, the minority founded creator-led brand by Diipa Khosla, selected her as the face of their Champi Slick Stick, the alignment made sense on every level. No conflict. No limitations. No closed doors.

This leads to a question very few celebrities consider before launching a brand. If beauty pays more than any other category, is it actually smarter to own the brand or to be the face of one?