Miranda Kerr beauty brand gets bigger as other celebrities fail to make a mark
Many of our top celebrities, including Lara Worthington, Jennifer Hawkins and Natalie Imbruglia have attempted to emulate the success of supermodel Miranda Kerr, but haven’t come close to reaching the same heights.
Confidential
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The last decade has seen the Australian celebrity beauty brand churn go into overdrive. However, they have almost all quietly disappeared, some less than a year after launching.
While it sounds like a good idea at the time, being a celebrity doesn’t automatically lead to success when it comes to beauty brand launches – with many failing to capture consumer attention in an already saturated market.
Jessica Gomes’s Equal Beauty, Jess Hart’s Luma Beauty, Natalie Imbruglia’s Iluka, Lara Worthington’s The Base, Elsa Pataky Purely Byron and Jennifer Hawkins’ JBronze have all quietly disappeared in recent years, some within a year of launching.
According to many insiders, an attempt to commodify themselves to make money and extend their time in the limelight is a common draw for our local celebrities.
And with many already having the title of brand ambassador on their CV, many want to add CEO too.
“For many it is an ego-boost,” one insider said. “For others, they realise their time in the public eye is limited – and launching a beauty range is a way to extend it. It’s often due to that being their main intention that the lines fall flat.”
In 2021, the beauty market in Australia generated a revenue of $7.7 billion, and many of our celebs want to get a piece of the pie.
The businesses going under often comes at a loss for the celebrities, with substantial amounts needed to get the brands off the ground.
Sunday Confidential understands Kerr started with around $2m to launch her hugely successful organic skincare brand Kora, while Hart’s Luma brand required around $1.5m to get going.
“The skincare and beauty industry is already completely oversaturated and the increase in celebrity skincare launches doesn’t help,” one expert said.
“Often celebrity skincare lines lack innovation and launch similar products to what’s already in the industry, so that’s why they often fall flat.
“Miranda Kerr is the perfect example of someone who has not done this. Hers is the only certified organic skincare brand sold globally.”
Many argue most Australian celebrities are attempting to emulate Kerr’s hugely successful Kora business, which was launched in Australia in 2009.
Kora Organics is reportedly up 75 per cent year-on-year in North America, almost doubling, and now has 30 employees in the US, another 30 in Australia, and has expanded into 40 countries including the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Italy, Singapore and Hong Kong.
“For so long, people thought that I was just the model for the brand or that it was just a licensing deal, but I built this company from the ground up – with my own money, my own ideas, out of my passion and desire to put out really powerful, healthy, certified products that I didn’t see available to people,” Kerr said.
“I own 95 per cent of the company and I don’t take a salary because I reinvest all of the profits back into the business.”
George Moskos is considered the go-to guy for celebrity skincare lines in Australia, having helped Hart, Imbruglia and Kerr launch their companies.
He said unlike Kerr, often celebrities don’t anticipate the workload that goes into launching and maintaining a successful beauty brand.
“If I am going to talk to anyone about starting their own range, I am really brutally honest with regards to the time commitments and the fact that there will be challenges along the way,” Moskos, who is now working with online medicinal cannabis clinic Greencare, told Sunday Confidential.
“It’s hard work and it’s stressful.
“There’s a big difference between being the face of a brand and running the business. Running it requires 30 hours a week at minimum and being the face of it requires 20 hours a year. That’s where it can go wrong for these celebrities,” he said.
“They often don’t realise this when they come from their comfortable space.”
FONZIE A KING OF TIKTOK CULTURE
FAMOUS TikTokker Fonzie Gomez is set to hold the biggest meet and greet in Culture King’s history next weekend.
The store is reportedly reluctant to promote the appearance, with many anticipating that the event could be shut down to an enormous crowd.
“For the past three years, I’ve travelled the world filming interviews in New York to LA, London, Switzerland, Dubai, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia,” Gomez said.
“Since day one, Simon’s brand has been a key part of my wardrobe and our partnership continues to support my TikTok journey,” he said.
“Come win thousands of Culture Kings and be interviewed by me on the 12th of November at Sydney Culture Kings Pitt Street Mall.”
“I had my first solo M&G at Westfield Bondi Junction in February 2020. I had only been on TikTok for three months and over a thousand people turned up.”
“Culture Kings has become my long-term partner, which I wear in every single TikTok interview.
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