In late 2015, Kylie Jenner, the youngest sibling of the ultra-famous Kardashian-Jenner clan, launched her own makeup company after causing a commotion on social media with her visibly enlarged lips. Capitalizing on speculation about whether she had undergone a lip augmentation or was simply enhancing her features through some clever makeup techniques (she would admit to lip fillers in a May 2015 episode of The Kardashians), the then-18-year-old Jenner launched Kylie Cosmetics with the release of her Kylie Lip Kits. The kits, made up one liquid lipstick and matching lip liner, retail at $34 and quickly made Jenner the head of a company worth hundreds of millions.
In 2023, the Kardashian-Jenner family is bigger than ever and a new season of the reality show that put them on the map is headed to Hulu. The short trailer has a few notable moments but one of the most newsworthy is Kylie addressing a criticism the family has faced for decades — “All of us need to have a bigger conversation about the beauty standards that we’re setting,” the makeup guru and mother told her siblings in the teaser. “I don’t want my daughter to do the things I did,” she said before saying she regrets changing anything about herself at all. The trailer has already inspired a lot of discussion; many viewers agree a conversation about the standards the family sets, which many continue to criticize as unattainable, is long overdue.
The Kardashian-Jenners are responsible, at least in part, for setting many beauty and fashion trends, including some that require invasive surgery — think BBLs — or restrictive eating (Kim faced criticism for admitting to dropping 16 pounds in a few short weeks in order to fit into a dress once worn by Marilyn Monroe). Kylie is not immune to this criticism — the makeup guru’s lip filler and own makeup brand inspired many women to enhance their own lips, whether through cosmetic procedures of by purchasing their own lip kits, and as of writing, Kylie doesn’t seem to have any plans to slow down her business.
Kylie still operates Kylie Cosmetics but no longer owns the whole company
After launching Kylie Cosmetics in 2017, Kylie quickly turned the company into a billion-dollar venture (though financial publications like Forbes have disputed this number). In 2019, Kylie sold a 51 percent stake in her company to Coty, a beauty conglomerate which owns other makeup brands like Rimmel, OPI, and Covergirl. Per a report from People, Kylie and her team released an official statement after the sale, saying that Kylie would continue to focus on creative decisions and product development while Coty focused on growing the brand globally.
While Kylie has sold about half of her company, she still partially owns Kylie Cosmetics and is involved in creative decisions. Kylie Cosmetics continues to explore new branches of beauty, launching Kylie Skin in 2019 and the brand continues to release new products, like a new line of lipsticks released April 26.
We’ll see the results of the family’s conversation on beauty standards when he third season of The Kardashians premieres on Hulu on May 25.