I am a massive makeup collector. New collections are my cocaine, new products get my heart pumping and when a new brand drops, you’ll be sure I am there on the launch date.
My latest obsession is Rihanna’s new brand Fenty Beauty. Named after her family’s name, our RiRi has teamed up with the massive makeup creators Kendo to produce a makeup line “so that women everywhere would feel included” according to the website. Kendo’s portfolio of brands today consists of Kat Von D Beauty, Marc Jacobs Beauty, Fenty Beauty and Bite Beauty. Hence why they call themselves “an innovative brand incubator”.
The brand first hit the shelves of Sephora and online on the 8th of September 2017, and the beauty community went nuts. Rihanna’s aim for the brand was to make “women of all ages, all sizes, all skin tones, all religions, and all cultures to feel included”. So to get the ball rolling, she launched the line with 40 foundation shades, with the expectation to add more. I love this idea because I have a very fair complexion with my white skin and ginger hair. So whenever I buy makeup, most foundations are too dark for me; either they make my skin look yellowy for some unknown reason or they just don’t have any coverage. Rihanna had found a gap in the market and she went for it. She recognised that there was no brand to present such a vast colour selection nor was there a brand with core beliefs aiming to represent everyone, hitting the target of making everyone feel more beautiful through the aid of her makeup line. This is why the brand is flourishing globally in less than a month.
The week of the launch, every beauty blogger/vlogger/writer used their platform to express their thoughts about the new line. It was like the line had arrived at PR utopia. To give you an estimation of what that is like: I am subscribed to 25 YouTubers whose channels are dedicated to beauty product reviews, tutorials and gossip; out of those 25, 14 of those channels put up a video of their perspective on Fenty Beauty and let’s just say I was not upset about that in the slightest.
However, one product stole the show, shining brighter than the platinum plagues from her bombastic song catalogue: Fenty Beauty paid attention to the trends and gave the people what they wanted. A blinding, metallic gold highlighter like no other: Trophy Wife. Labelled as Rihanna’s favourite product from the collection, this golden gem flew off the shelves. Instagram was immediately obsessed; glittery stripes on girl’s cheekbones with #trophywife saturated the feed of users. Twitter was then not far behind. It got so popular, that people began to make memes about the success of the highlighters.
How did Fenty beauty get the advertising campaign so turned up? With Rhianna asking ‘What’s my [brand] name?’ I believe that a major boost to sales was, of course, the celebrity endorsement. Rihanna was the driving force behind the campaign, she is the backbone for making everything desirable. Back in 2010 when Rihanna dyed her hair red; her fans followed suit and the army of Elmo’s (Sesame Street) was born. Girls today are still trying to get red pigment outta their hair from that phase. Herein lies the same idea, Rihanna wears her Gloss Bomb lip gloss; girls everywhere want it. She is talented, beautiful business magnate who has built up a reputation of creativity and empowerment, remaining distinctive, fearless and sexy all whilst presenting herself with flawless makeup.
In saying that however, the proof is in the pudding. Or in this case, the full line of products. Like I said, everything was made by Kendo’s labs and as a result, the quality stands alone like no other.
Each formulation has been moulded with the current trends of makeup in mind. The creative team behind Fenty Beauty has everything perfectly designed; from the pigmentation to the colour selection, right down to the packaging of the box the products came in. And for this, the team has earned my admiration.
As you probably can tell, I own a few pieces from the initial collection and most certainly, this is just the beginning of my Fenty Beauty relationship. I have already seen the new Galaxy themed range, due to come out for the Christmas holidays and it is very different to the core selection. Greater emphasis on razzle-dazzling, occasional glamour rather than the everyday makeup. Nevertheless, I will straight up fight someone if I can’t get my hands on one, two or three of the products.
Nicole Service is a third-year student on the BSc in Communication Management & Public Relations at Ulster University. She can be contacted on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-service-056016130.