For its first-ever collaboration, U Beauty has partnered with Christina “Tinx” Najjar on a limited-edition shade of its best-selling $68 The Plasma Lip Compound. The lip treatment, which comes in a clear option as well as 12 shades, has become a cult favorite for the brand since it first launched in March 2022. The brand expanded the SKU with its first three tints in June 2023.
Lip products have become increasingly important to both makeup and skin-care businesses, as lip balms, glosses and oils have become status symbols. According to previous Glossy reporting, as of December 2023, 2023 sales of lip treatments were up 58% year-over-year to $207.9 million. At U Beauty, unit sales of the Plasma product have increased 124% in 2024, and dollar sales are up 120%. From 2022 to 2023, unit sales grew 105% year-over-year while dollar sales increased 97%.
“I’ve always felt that the lips are the most neglected body part. … You would spend hundreds of dollars on your eye creams and your face creams, … but you’d just grab any lip gloss or Chapstick,” said U Beauty founder Tina Chen Craig, an influencer herself. “[With the Plasma Lip Compound] I wanted to create a product that would hold in the hydration. We were already doing it for the skin, why couldn’t we do it for the lips?”
Craig said she started following Tinx during the pandemic when Tinx became known for her “rich mom” content. “I went through my divorce and dating, and I followed her for her dating [content],” she said. “I just think she’s just so fun. We then became friends offline.”
Tinx, the TikToker-turned-podcaster-and-author, has 570,000 followers on Instagram and 1.5 million on TikTok. Her loyal followers trust her opinion, whether it’s about an “Erewhon smoothie or a face cream she’s obsessed with,” Craig said. For her part, Tinx has previously created collections of Rich Mom merch and collection of “emotional support” water bottles. She’s also taken part in collabs with Moon oral care and Tabasco hot sauce and worked with beauty brands including Kiehl’s and Bliss. But, prior to U Beauty, she had never co-created a beauty product.
According to Craig, Tinx was “an organic fan” of U Beauty and posted about its products “regularly” before the collaboration came to be. “We started seeing a lot of movement and traction [based on her posts],” Craig said. So she decided to initiate a partnership with Tinx to create the perfect shade, the result of which is a new shade dubbed Rom Com.
“Before Rom Com, my favorite Plasma shade was Rose, which is just a very beautiful, girly pink,” Najjar said. “I wanted to make something that was like Rose, but a little bit more sparkly. Rom Com is kind of like your lips, but better. … You can do it with a liner for nighttime or you can do it for daytime with nothing. … I wanted something that was easy and kissable and very fun.”
When asked how her followers will respond to the $68 price point, Najjar said, “My followers trust my recommendations. When I say, ‘You guys, I spend my own money on this,’ which I do spend my own money on U Beauty, they know it’s worth it. …. I also think it’s important to have little luxuries in your day. That’s something I talk about all the time with my followers: What are the little things you can do to spark joy? Personally, I like having super soft lips.”
To promote the product, which will only be available until it sells out, Tinx and U Beauty did a full-day photo shoot, as well as a video shoot on the streets of Los Angeles. The latter involved Najjar and Craig interviewing people including couples, a riff on the shade’s cheeky name.
“We [asked couples] how they met and asked people how dating is going. TL;DR: Dating is not going well for anybody on the streets of L.A.,” Najjar said. “But the resounding message that I got from all the couples [is that] everybody meets in such random ways, and that fills me with joy. I love hearing love stories.”
The brand will promote the content on Instagram, where it has 158,000 followers.
As for the name, Najjar said, “When you think of a rom-com, you just think of positive, fun, happy, crushes, kissing — all of those things. … And I’ve never heard of a makeup [product] called ‘Rom Com’ — it’s just something different.”
