“Celebrities say, ‘This is my skincare, this is what I use,’ and ‘No, I’m not getting Botox, it’s just my products,'” says Stacey Berke, 34, an addiction counselor from Rochester, NY. “It makes it hard to believe.”
Traditional celebrity endorsement is no longer enough. People need to know that there is expertise or at least an interest in what is being sold to them.
“It’s clearer how transactional it is,” said Lucie Greene, trend forecaster and founder of the consultancy Light Years. “It’s not something you actually did because you have a passion for lip gloss.”
Plus, everyone knows that celebrities often undergo cosmetic and surgical procedures to look the way they do. There’s no serum that can make a 50-year-old look two decades younger, and yes, we know that ass is fake.
“The transition from ‘I created cash hawking brands for others’ to ‘Why don’t I try to create something myself?’ is not always the right reason to create something,” said Richard Gersten, an investor and the founder of True Beauty Ventures. The company has been approached by at least 10 celebrity or influencer brands in recent months, he said.
The Evolution of the Celebrity Beauty Brand
Once upon a time, the only way to access the private world of celebrities was through a spritz of their perfume, said Rachel ten Brink, a general partner of Red Bike Capital and a founder of Scentbird, a fragrance subscription service. Now fans are familiar with the food, fashion, opinions and breakdowns, often in real time, of the famous people they follow.
