In 2018, Kylie Jenner covered Forbes Magazine to highlight the success of Kylie Cosmetics, the lipstick company which she started as a teenager in her mother’s kitchen. A year later, Forbes declared that Kylie was the “youngest self-made billionaire in history” because of Kylie Cosmetics. Later, we learned that many of those Forbes hype pieces were made out of sugary PR and lies as Kris Jenner tried to make Kylie’s company more attractive to buyers. But by then, Kylie had already sold off a majority stake in her company to Coty for $600 million.
Throughout it all, people debated the “self-made” label given to Kylie. Is she really self-made if she was a reality star since her tween years? Was she really self-made if her older sisters were mega-famous for years beforehand? Is she really self-made if she already had a built-in social media audience because of KUWTK? Well, Kylie and Kris always argued that Kylie was “self-made” in the sense of “she used her own money to start the company.” Which is true-ish. Kylie used her savings – from appearing on KUWTK – to start the company:
Kylie Jenner is a self-made billionaire for a reason. Momager Kris Jenner revealed that the 23-year-old beauty mogul was forced to use her own savings to launch Kylie Cosmetics in 2014.
“I said, ‘Well Kylie, you have a savings that you’ve earned from doing “KUWTK” for all these years,’” Kris said in the first of a three-part series called “Inside Kylie Cosmetics: The Beginning.”
“‘You’re gonna have to use your own money if you really want to make this work, because that’s gonna be your motivation and your drive,’” Jenner, 65, said she told her daughter, who was 17 at the time.
Kris recalled when 16-year-old Kylie first discussed what would become Kylie Cosmetics. “This is like a mother’s dream that somebody’s figured it out this young,” said Kris. “She said, ‘I want the be in the beauty business, and I know exactly what I want my product to be’.”
The YouTube mini-series comes amid a total overhaul in branding after Seed Beauty — the incubator company responsible for launching Kylie Cosmetics as well as KKW Beauty — sued new parent company, Coty, in June 2020 for stealing trade secrets. Jenner recently relaunched all of her products, switching to completely new, vegan formulas for not only her lip kits but also glosses, eyeshadows, blushes and more products. She also announced a forthcoming Kylie Baby brand in addition to her Kylie Skin offshoot.
I actually think Kris Jenner did give Kylie good advice – if you want to start a company at that young age, use the money you have and it will give you “skin in the game.” You’ll care more about what you’re trying to build and you’ll learn so much more along the way. But of course, there’s the conversation (yet again) about how much access, wealth, connections and willing investors Kylie already had as a 16-year-old! Self-made? Eh.
Photos courtesy of Kylie Cosmetics.
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