Full Coverage: Kylie’s Comeback; Kenvue’s Woes

Welcome back to Full Coverage. Thank you again to everyone who is spending time with me each Thursday.

Before I get started, you may have noticed that BoF has launched a series of expert briefings like The Kicks You Wear with Mike Sykes, The Frayed Edge with Sarah Kent and the one you’re reading right now. Please be sure to check them all out, but special shouts this week to Sarah, who is one of the smartest reporters I know. Sustainability is an incredibly muddled topic with plenty of greenwashing, but Sarah manages to cut through the bullshit and tell you what’s really happening. She used to cover the oil and gas industry and has a diligence I’ve never seen, so she can see right through any “2050 net-zero emissions plan.”

I’m back in New York, and while watching “Chad Powers” (not sure if I recommend) was promptly served another series of Ram Trucks ads on Hulu. This one featured a bald eagle, the moon landing, a seven layer dip, George Washington driving a Ram and SO much more. I took that as a sign to write about the state of American beauty.

When I think about American beauty, my first thought is, honest to God, cowboys. My second at this moment is Kylie Jenner.

King Kylie Pulls The Nostalgia Marketing Lever

For the last few days, my social feeds feel a lot like a time portal. And it’s largely due to Kylie Jenner.

Since the youngest Kardashian-Jenner announced her King Kylie collection, a celebratory range of lip kits, glosses and eye palettes launching on Oct. 18, I’ve seen her clad in handcuffs and leather hot pants, sporting blue and blonde hair, singing on “4 Strikes” with Terror Jr. (it’s actually streaming on Apple Music) and breaking out of jail with mom Kris Jenner.

It’s all part of Jenner’s push to both mark her namesake beauty line’s 10-year anniversary and (hopefully) bring her culture-defining brand back into the now.

According to Jenner, 2016 is 2026.

In some ways, watching those Instagram and TikTok videos felt good. I am a sucker for the right kind of nostalgia, and it reminded me how disruptive Jenner was in creating a celebrity makeup brand (and using the streetwear drop model direct-to-consumer and traffic-causing trucks to sell products). 2016 is also very hot right now. All over TikTok, people are reminiscing about Drake’s “One Dance,” The Chainsmokers, Coachella in its heyday, the buzz around President Barack Obama’s impending run, life before the omniscient algorithm and, yes, Jenner.

In other ways, it felt a really long time ago.

Jenner sold a majority stake to Coty for $600 million dollars in 2019, but since then, neither has done anything that inspired the brand. International doors have driven topline sales, but not strengthened sentiment. In 2022, it launched a partnership with Macy’s, but it failed to make a splash given the retailer’s lack of gravitas in makeup. It also didn’t work without Jenner pushing the partnership and products in her worlds. Reports have surfaced over the last two years that Jenner wants to buy the brand back.

At the same time, Jenner’s aesthetic has changed. The look she once championed — overlined matte lips, maximalist brows — she herself has pulled away from for a lighter touch. So has everyone else.

But she still has plenty of power. According to Spate, Kylie Cosmetics still has a very high monthly popularity score of 45.3 million, though its search traffic is down 25 percent since last year. The brand did not respond to requests for comment.

Jenner still dominates the social media conversation too. Launchmetrics reported that the King Kylie Collection generated $5.7 million in media impact value, which measures print and online buzz, within 48 hours and the corresponding campaign yielded $10.6 million in MIV during the same time frame.

Jenner and her team would be smart to integrate other faces into the brand, much like her sister Kim has done with Skims or her friend Hailey Bieber with Rhode.

They also need to figure out a stronger US retail partner. There is an argument that Revolve has the right cachet (there is connection there since Kendall Jenner is FWRD’s creative director) but it doesn’t move enough volume. Walmart could be interesting for a value play (if prices came down), as is relaunching with Macy’s (if they can figure out makeup). One beauty insider recommended she start direct selling — QVC, but with sex appeal — but I doubt Jenner could make that kind of time commitment. It’s a smart idea, though, and a good place to plug her fashion line Khy and canned beverage label Sprinter.

Then there is the product piece, while Kylie Cosmetics’ lip liners can be hit or miss compared to the current products in the market. The fragrance has done well and insiders have compared its skin tint to Victoria Beckham Beauty quality.

I haven’t tried it, but with King Kylie’s comeback, I just might.

Kenvue Can’t Catch a Break

On Tuesday, rumours intensified that Kenvue, the Johnson & Johnson consumer health spinoff that owns brands like Neutrogena, Aveeno and Maui Moisture was planning to sell off its beauty division. This was the result of President Donald Trump and health secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. linking the company’s Tylenol to autism in September, a claim that is 100 percent unproven.

The backstory: Even before the Tylenol misinformation debacle, the company was still reeling from the cancer and asbestos lawsuits related to talc in J&J products (Kenvue became an independent entity in 2023 and still had some liability.) It also settled a fight with activist investor Starboard Value in March over the company’s disappointing performance in skincare and beauty.

Though Tylenol is part of Kenvue’s self-care division, alongside Zyrtec and Nicorette, its other segments like beauty (Neutrogena, Aveeno and Ogx) and essential health (Listerine, Band-Aid) are feeling the pain. The company’s stock price is down almost 12 percent in the last month, despite the fact that Kirk Perry, interim chief executive, announced a strategic review of the company’s brands in August. Obviously this process has accelerated since the Tylenol chaos. Goldman Sachs is reportedly leading its process.

My take: Kenvue’s beauty arm has had a rough go. The market seems to have forgotten that it’s only been a year since the division had a proper leader. Just last November, Andrew Stanleick, formerly of Hydrafacial and Coty, was appointed as president of skin health and beauty for North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa. More recently, former L’Oréal exec Penelope Giraud, who had a big say in Cerave, was tapped as president of skin health and beauty for Asia Pacific and Latin America, and Kevin Shapiro joined from Coty to spur skincare and suncare growth at Neutrogena. In that time, there have been culture clashes between Kenvue’s J&J healthcare alums and its new beauty executives. People close to the company said that the mood is highly emotional but largely focussed on the day-to-day.

There’s also more macro challenges. While Band-Aid and even Tylenol can rest on their name recognition, it doesn’t work that way in beauty. These labels have maxed out their door counts and regional plays; it’s about making what works work harder. Neutrogena, specifically, is in a fight to the death with Cerave, but has made inroads with Gen Z and Millennials thanks to campaigns with Tate McRae and others. However, even if it regains lost ground, some mass brands are having a hard time in the US because of the dire state of drugstores, with products under lock and key and more shopping happening on Amazon.

Right now, I don’t think Neutrogena, Aveeno and Ogx will have a better outcome under different owners. It’s not necessarily about optimizing retail doors or cutting costs, which is what private equity companies do. These lines need product innovation, marketing support and social relevance. This new beauty team could do the job, but will the market let them?

What I’m Reading

Linda Wells has reported on the newest plastic surgery innovation: tiny fractures to permanently reconfigure ribs in pursuit of the “Barbie waist.” Apparently women in their 30s and 40s are the best candidates, since their ribs will not heal themselves back in place. I remember watching an episode on “The Jerry Springer Show” about a woman doing this in the 1990s without my mom knowing. To each their own, but woof. [The New York Times]

To my protein obsessed friends: According to Consumer Reports, some protein powders contain too much lead. The organisation found well over the daily limit in the majority of supplement brands they tested, some varieties with higher concentration than others. For a scary example: Plant-derived proteins were, “on average, nine times the amount found in those made with dairy proteins.” [Consumer Reports]

The SPF formula mess has bigger ramifications for all of beauty, as Princeton Consumer Research’s testing has been called into question across categories. [The Business of Beauty]

Kim Kardashian tells Alex Cooper on “Call Her Daddy” that Skims Beauty is in flight … and will go back to its makeup roots. [Call Her Daddy]

See you next week!

Priya