Want to build a skincare line that sells for $1 billion? Find a celebrity face to represent the brand.
Hailey Bieber’s rhode line made $212 million in sales in the year ending March 31 after just three years of business. This week, she sold the direct-to-consumer brand to Oakland-based e.l.f. Beauty, which will put rhode products on shelves at the cosmetics chain Sephora.
But the sale price isn’t because rhode’s products are unique among the myriad skincare lines on the market, said a Northeastern University chemistry professor who co-founded a skincare company.
“Celebrity is probably the most influential value-add to the sale,” said Leila Deravi, an associate professor of chemistry and chemical biology.
Bieber, who married pop star Justin Bieber in 2018, launched the rhode brand in 2022. Her skincare regimen videos built her a social media following of 55 million on Instagram and 15 million on TikTok.
And it’s Bieber’s style and reach that make her celebrity status so lucrative for the company, Deravi said, which doubled its consumer base over the past year.
“She has this ‘clean girl’ aesthetic that people seem to resonate a lot with,” Deravi said. “It’s unique to celebrity-backed lines, because typically brands are all about more makeup, more glam, more glitz.”
Bieber’s success, Deravi said, can be chalked up to great marketing. As a result of her social reach, she has built a young and loyal following on her social accounts that translates into customers who purchase products directly from her website.
As a result of the sale, rhode products will be available for the first time in stores. Bieber will continue as founder, chief creative officer and head of innovation, but e.l.f. will expand the availability of the line.
And as a budget brand, e.l.f. benefits from acquiring Bieber’s line, Deravi said.
“For them strategically, the acquisition of rhode will put them into a prestige market, even though rhode’s prices aren’t crazy,” she said. Rhode’s products range from $20 to $40.
The company Deravi co-founded, Seaspire, produces marine-based raw ingredients for partner skincare product manufacturers. She also teaches an upper-level chemistry course at Northeastern where students explore the chemical composition and structure of personal care products and then develop their own.
Bieber’s influence showed up in the design phase of the course, Deravi said. Several students wanted to create products like Bieber’s milk glaze, a toner meant to be applied before moisturizer. The popularity of the product, Dervali said, seems to be mostly in its name.
“It’s just this combination of words that really took off,” she said. “There’s no sign of milk products in it. There are beta glucans, but those are polysaccharides that are found in many products.”
A good example, Deravi said, of the power of marketing.
“This is a vision of the clean girl, the authentic beauty,” she said. “Which is resonating with people, of wanting to be authentic through your skincare routine.”