Kylie Jenner is dumb as a rock, for sure. But she’s also managed to build a company with $420 in retail sales while literally spending $0 on advertising. So… she’s not dumb about EVERYTHING. Kylie is currently starring in her own reality spinoff, Life of Kylie. I covered the first episode – or quotes from the first episode – last week. In these quotes, Kylie always comes across as just so… sad. Like, she’s just an unhappy young woman. She never really got a chance to be herself, because she was too busy remaking herself into this plastic doll which vaguely resembles Kim Kardashian. So, here’s more from Episode 2 of Life of Kylie:
On having to grow up quickly: “The majority of 19-year-olds are still in the trying to figure it out stage or college. Me, it’s like, major responsibilities. I feel like a little old woman stuffed in a 19-year-old’s body.”
On the inspiration for her cosmetics line: “Ever since I was probably 15 I’ve been obsessed with lipstick and I was insecure about my lips, so I went to a store and I bought every single lip liner that looks liked the color of my lips, so people didn’t think I was wearing lip liner. And I just like would over-line my lips as much as I could. But I could never find a lip liner and a lipstick that were the perfect match, so that’s how Kylie Lip Kits started. I never imagined that Kylie Cosmetics would grow to what is has. Being my own CEO has definitely changed my confidence. Having Kylie Cosmetics keeps me going. When I first launched Kylie Cosmetics, I ordered a really small amount and I was almost certain it wasn’t going to sell out. My mom calmed me down and was like, ‘It’s gonna be fine, Kylie. You’re gonna do great.’ None of us knew how big it was going to be.”
On how social media has helped her business: “Social media has been a really big blessing to me because I don’t pay for advertising. All the advertising I do is literally on Snapchat and Instagram.”
On getting respect for her position: “I had the opportunity to make like the coolest makeup line that I’ve always dreamed of. It’s really my only passion. I learned a lot though and just have experienced things that people my age do not even know how to handle. I do feel like people don’t take me seriously as a businesswoman because of my age and my reputation. But I do think they’re starting to. I like to prove people wrong.”
I always say that the Jenner girls would have been better off being raised by wolves, but there is one part of their lives where having Kris Jenner is a benefit: Kris Jenner is an excellent behind-the-scenes manager, she really is. Kylie isn’t really the CEO of Kylie Cosmetics, in that she’s not at all focused on the day-to-day operations of the business or anything like that. Kris is involved. Kris is doing this. So, yeah: “I do feel like people don’t take me seriously as a businesswoman because of my age and my reputation.” For real. I don’t take her seriously. But I do have to admit, it’s brilliant what she’s done with zero advertising budget.
Photos courtesy of Instagram.
2017. The year a potato became a CEO.
Perfect! Can we stop covering the Klan now please? Until there’s a divorce?
Obviously, being dumb or pretending to be, does not harm her in any way with her demographic. They feel they can relate to her as so many of them are equally dumb and live for makeup and pouty lips, (not all but many in that age group). Her best marketing tool is herself, as proven by her bank account. Perhaps she isn’t dumb at all.
Depends on definition of dumb. In our (capitalist) culture here in the US, clearly, rich equals intelligence or preparedness for political office.
Serious question – does she plan to have the lip injections forever? that’s a lot of maintenance. does anyone in the family look at her and think WTF, exactly WHY did she do this to herself or are they all that far gone?
They are all that far gone.
She’s a white girl, it’s just so bizarre how she’s trying to Dolezal herself.
Not really anything surprising. The whole family seems to make a fortune off of a particular image of Black women. They are called all sorts of beautiful and the same black women they take from are derided and ridiculed for the same features. It is a story as old as time, mimicry. They laugh all the way to the bank.
Her fake lips aren’t that crazy. I mean some people who Are not black do have lips this full. My kids are half Asian and some of them have this size lips. And i don’t see why anyone would be mocked for this size or shape of lips (not that they should be mocked for bigger or smaller lips either of course). Her lips are only remarkable in that they used to be very thin and everyone knows they are fake, plus her whole face looks fake. Not to mention the body
The fact that people look up to her and spend money on her stuff is sad to me.
@Florucci I was mocked throughout my school years for having the big lips and it was always made in connection to my race. Those were different times then when big lips were seen as ugly.
Of course, black people aren’t the only ones with big lips but they have been mocked on blacks historically. Same with the specific body type. You should look up the article the NY Times did comparing Kim K to the Hottentot Venus. Kim K’s bought features are celebrated in that article and it was very insensitive to what Sarah Baartman went through. Just calling it as it is. The family does make money off of blackness and they know it.
That sucks. Will kids ever be kind? Must be nice to fully appreciate your full lips now. I got mocked for my butt a bit and really hated it and love it now. What a waste of negative energy. yes she’s milking that and the controversy about her hair styles it has played out well for her to be an obtuse Lolita doll
The only reason I clicked on this story (usually I ignore Kardashian stories out of principle) is to see if anyone else commented on that it seems like she’s trying to look like she’s black.
My first thought as well. Definitely working that angle.
How legit is the $420M number though? I haven’t been following Kylie’s business; but I remember when she first launched, her family would instantly buy the entire stock and sell it for a huge markup on eBay – thereby creating the illusion that her stuff sold out in seconds and was worth way more. Are they still doing shit like that or is Kylie F*cking Jenner really a cosmetics mogul now?
I thought the same- but may I nerd out for a minute?:
it’s $420mm in sales. At an average of $30 (very rough estimate I got looking at the site. It’s also the cost of her lip kits- which are the big seller), that’s 14 million units sold. You figure several people buy multiple units. Say average of 3? That’s about 4.5 million people. Do we think 4.5 million people bought her stuff? Or do we think less people bought way more than 3 units? I suspect many of her fans bought more than 3 items. They probably have as many items as they can get their hands on. Im not even a fan and I bought 3 to try out.
She did 10mm in sales on her birthday collection launch day alone. I think the math shakes out reasonably.
Ah! Thanks for nerding out Stripe, I appreciate it 🙂 I’m a fellow finance nerd myself
I just want to add that many people are buying her stuff and reselling it overseas. I am a make up enthusiast and at one FB Group some resellers sell her products with a 50% mark up. If she chose to expand overseas she would actually keep selling her stuff.
I tried one of her lipkits my sister bought while in the US and even though the quality was better than ColourPop, the fragrance put me off completely. It was too strong.
Stripe – I did the math too and I agree with you with the exception of the units per month numbers.
$420m in sales in 18 months breaks down to $23.3m/month. At $30 a pop she’d have to move at least 777,777 units per month. That’s A LOT of product. As they already stated they did very limited production numbers at first that’s the only figure that seems sketchy to me.
It’s legit. The industry was estimating between 180 and 300 million in sales. WWD reported the numbers.
One thing is certain: the Kardashians knows how to make money. That’s their talent.
Indeed. Their hustle is remarkable.
Why does she have to consistently pose like little Lolita. How can say she wants to be taken seriously and then blow her lips up to the point of ridiculousness and stare sultry into the camera. I have never in my 38 years on earth ever heard anyone else say they were insecure about their lips. Ugh. I suggest she ask Dany if she can babysit the dragons. Seems appropriate.
The thing about plastic surgery is that it only looks good when your face is stationary. It’s painfully obvious when a person does something like laugh, talk, or cry that their face doesn’t move correctly. It’s one of the many reasons the Kardashian/Jenners don’t smile it pictures. The sultry stare is on brand because a normal smile would look like a creepy wax clown.
Thanks Molly. I can remember watching an episode years ago. Kim said she refuses to smile because it gives you wrinkles. Hand to God, she said that. Even back then I thought, well you get every single imperfection, even hair removed from your face, why not enjoy a laugh and go to the plastic surgeon!! JK. It doesn’t seem possible people can be so self-involved.
The audience was making fun of her for being a ~basic no lip white bitch~ for years when she was a teen. Is it really so surprising she grew up to turn herself into an exotic blow up doll? The childhood you had is not someting today’s girls have. Plastic surgery is pushed on them from all directions.
Weeeelll… she does spend money on advertising, cause she’s the ‘product’ that has been heavily invested into. If she stayed her old self and used social media to cover a life of her traveling, let’s say, and raising awareness of important issues or just one, I wonder how many lip kits she would have sold. This image that has bern created of her of a vapid materialistic California girl sure does promote her brand or whoevers it is and lots of money continues being invested into it.
I was about to say this, too. All her clothes, surgeries, houses and trips are ad or PR investments of a sort, as well as all her packaging, lip posters, red carpet backdrops etc. But she is using instagram wisely though, there too, her hours on it are also billable brand hours.
It hurts to look at her. She looks so plastic.
It literally does make you feel uncomfortable looking at her. Worse for me is her half sister Khloe supposedly getting engaged to Tristan Thompson. The Cavs have definitely felt the kurse of the Kardashians and it ticks me off to no end. Coincidence? Reggie, Kris Humphries, Lamar, James Hardan, O’Dell Beckham. These chicks need to stay away from athletes. I know we didn’t want her at the Q, her presence put the whammy on us. I liked Tristan, but now he can leave with Kyrie.
I wouldn’t suggest looking at her in movement.. much worse.
Oh ffs…. Why can’t these wannabes just not disappear? Utterly stupid, shameless and earning tons of money because America made this family a thing. Why? Just why is this family so famous? Our society is a big fat joke….
How does instagram or twitter work for big organisatios,so even coca cola can splash all their products for free on social media platforms? Surely insta,twitter,fb would be losing billions?
Coke can splash their products on their OWN accounts to their OWN followers for free. They spend money to run promoted tweets and instagram posts that show up in the feeds of people who aren’t their followers. It’s basically like running commercials on the internet.
yeah, I don’t understand this. How do actually social media earn their profits?
I suppose it’s not 100% accurate to say she (haha, her managers I mean) doesn’t pay for advertising. Her products are sent for free to “influencers” on IG and YouTube for review. A positive review from Nikkie Tutorials (7m followers) or Jaclyn Hill (3 or 4 m followers) can skyrocket sales. So she is online only and doesn’t pay for print or video advertising so the cost is the product and shipping.
Whether or not these influencers are honest is another matter. The LA-based ones all want to be invited to Kardashian/Jenner parties and social events so I take their reviews with a grain of salt.
Oh, don’t let her fool you: she’s paid for all of this — with her soul.
^just came to say the same thing. She may not have paid with dollars, but she has paid. And continues to do so every day.
Oh, please, she has a platform, not many of us have that. She had ONE idea and millions of potential clients at her disposal. She wants to be a businesswoman? She has the money to go on to Uni. Get an education. Improve yourself.
She does pay for advertising. She’s had billboards up all over LA. She even posted them on her instagram.
One question about her lips. Will they look awful one day? Because a lot of rich Hollywood stars can’t seem to get their fake lips looking close to decent. Or maybe she doesn’t have that big implants and it’s a make up illusion?
You see, I think there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a young woman launching her own make-up line and succeeding with it. On the contrary, it should be something to celebrate. That being said, and considering the circumstances of this particular case…Eh. Just eh.
She sold her soul for advertising lol
But she frequently sends out press packages and pr boxes to beauty gurus and throws parties for industry insiders for each new season/line launch. Probably a pretty negligible amount out of $20 million, but it seems disingenuous to say $0 is spent advertising.
She probably doesn’t even know her PR team does that.
She might not spend money on media placement, but she hires professionals to take those photos that she uses on social media. Those are definitely done by a professional and I’m sure she has a team that manages her image bank and videos.
Sex sells. Men and people in general are visual. The Kardashians are famous for posting half nude pics on social media keeping all eyes on them while promoting products! It’s strategic to get enough people mesmerized with them so deep that they’ll buy dirt from them if the package has their name on it. Smh…
Is there any proof that this figure is actually accurate or this is just what kris jenner is telling the media? I checked forbes to see if there is any detailed explaination of this being true but don’t seem to find any legit source. I think this just another marketing ploy, make it seem the product is a must have top notch makeup brand to gather up more interest. I solely cant take kris jenner’s word for it wothout any evidence back up her claims
WWD says in the article that they did view the data that backs up Kris’ claim.
When kylie said that make up is her passion, her only passion, my feeling was is it your passion, or is it something somoene told you is your passion? I am in my thirties now and i can say i am pasionate about my job, but that is only because i have life experience and i have worked other low wage, less stimulating jobs for so long. I would not describe Kylies charmed ife as sad though.
She doesn’t pay for advertising, nor does she declare it when she gets paid to advertise products on social media either.