One thing that has caught my attention for a while now is the fact that almost every celebrity, be it a movie star, pop star or an influencer, all have their own makeup lines or some sort of beauty line. And I was always curious as to why all of them would be willing to take a risk in business and the beauty/makeup business in particular since it is known to be super competitive with giants like Maybelleine and L’Oreal Paris. So I did some research. Since the 1920s, huge makeup giants like Maybelleine have used silent stars in their print ads. They have relied on celebrities for endorsements since the beginning. Not only that, but in comparison to other business industries, the beauty industry is known to rely a lot more on celebrity endorsements. And this is for good reason to because according to Patti Williams, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School “,This is a category celebrities are believed to be knowledgeable about.” And as a result licensing deals have taken place in modern times. This means that the celebrities face will be used on all the different products of the brand and they get paid a portion of the money. When an entire industry relies on the image of the celebrity, the celebrity would obviously want to make a majority of the money rather than the bits from a licensing deal. This makes sense as to why celebrities like Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande, Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner have all opened their own makeup lines. Artists like Ariana Grande uses her power as an artist and uses her songs as the theme music for advertising her makeup line. The art of makeup is now in control of celebrity artists.
