A rivalry is slowly forming between two celebrity run makeup companies, Kylie Cosmetics and Fenty Beauty. Kylie Jenner has been head of Kylie cosmetics since 2016 when she first began to sell her lip kits and the company morphed into a $420 million enterprise overnight. Fenty Beauty is run by Rihanna and launched on Sept. 8 of this year after being in the developmental stages for over two years. As Fenty Beauty sells face products such as foundation and concealers, consumers look towards Kylie to ask question where her face products are.  

On December 6, 2017, Jenner and her company released advertisements for a new concealer as well as a new formula for lipstick along with her annual holiday collection release. The concealer comes right on the tails of Fenty’s launch of their concealers, almost exactly three months after Rihanna released twenty shades of her Match Stix Matte Skinstick. Perhaps this is a coincidence, but it could be Jenner trying to compete with one of her first rival celebrity makeup brands.

There have been other companies run by celebrities, such as Goop run by Gwyneth Paltrow, that have been formed before Kylie Cosmetics was even up and running, but they didn’t pose a threat. Goop, for example, offers makeup on its website and endorses certain brands, but doesn’t make a Goop brand makeup. This doesn’t pose a threat to Jenner because these products are already on the market through other companies and aren’t exactly in the same competition. The endorsed makeup is typically more natural, more lightweight and more expensive. Jenner products are full coverage and are somewhat inexpensive for makeup.

Another celebrity-run brand is Flower Beauty, run by Drew Barrymore. This competes more with Jenner’s company as it offers a variety of different products such as lip products, brushes and powders like Jenner does. However, this company also isn’t much of a competitor for a variety of reasons.

To begin with, Drew Barrymore isn’t as relevant as Jenner or Rihanna and there’s not much buzz about her products. You can pick her makeup up at any Walmart or drugstore and they’re never out of stock, which could be considered a sign of failure by larger makeup brands. For example, Jenner has millions of customers on her site during an anticipated drop of products and a frenzy of people ordering the second it drops to where her products sell out in a matter of minutes.

Fenty Beauty is Jenner’s first real celebrity competition as Rihanna is very well known and the reviews are extremely good for her products. Her makeup is sold on fentybeauty.com and at the well respected makeup store Sephora, which is known for quality. Rihanna’s sales have been on the level of Jenner’s with entire stores and her website being out of stock. Used to running unopposed, Jenner may be in for a serious sale shock come holiday time.