The results are in for the success of SKKN by Kim’s January 26 makeup launch, and they are unremarkable.
The collection marks Kardashian’s return to the traditional cosmetics business following the shuttering of KKW Beauty in 2021. But it is also a departure from the former brand, which was founded in 2017 and centered around the then-popular contour makeup look. The new collection features three nude-themed products: a 12-shade eyeshadow palette, a lip liner in 15 shades and a lipstick in 10 shades. The Classic Matte Eyeshadow Palette was still available for sale as of Tuesday afternoon, while three shades of the Soft Matte Lip Color and one shade of the Lip Liner are sold out.
The expansion back into makeup for Kardashian comes after a period of fervent rumors around Sept. 2023 that both Kim Kardashian and her sister, Kylie Jenner, wanted to buy back their respective beauty brands. The chatter owed the potential move to the sisters’ dissatisfaction with Coty Inc.’s leadership and the direction of the brands. No changes have come to pass. During the first quarter of fiscal year 2024 earnings call in Nov. 2023, the Coty executive team remarked that Kylie Cosmetics was “doing very well,” but there was no mention of SKKN by Kim.
Last week, consumers’ reaction to SKKN by Kim’s makeup launch was subdued, indicating that the brand’s uncertain direction may continue.
According to SimilarWeb, ahead of the launch, from Dec. 24 to January 21, web visits to SKKN by Kim’s site were less than 5,000 a day, for a total of under 89,000 visits. Comparatively, Kylie Cosmetics had over 20,000 daily web visits for a total of over 582,000 during the same period. Comparatively, nearly 4-year-old Makeup by Mario, founded by Kim Kardashian’s makeup artist Mario Dedivanovic, had nearly 7,300 a day for a total of 205,000. And JLo Beauty, with an equally notable global celebrity at the helm, had approximately 6,800 daily visits for a total of 191,000.
On the day of the launch, web traffic to SKKN by Kim doubled to 10,800, driven mostly by social posts from the brand, organic search and paid search, according to SimilarWeb data. By the next day, Saturday, January 27, web traffic had dropped back down to below 5,000 visits.
Furthermore, data from consumer trend data platform Spate showed that SKKN received 16,800 average monthly U.S. searches in 2023, but organic search is now down 71% year-over-year.
SKKN by Kim has steadily promoted the collection on its social media pages since Jan. 16, when Kim Kardashian posted a video on TikTok and Instagram highlighting requests, pleas and cajoling comments from makeup fans excited to try the new products. SKKN by Kim’s social accounts have a combined 6 million followers. The video garnered 1.8 million views on TikTok and 188,000 likes on the brand’s Instagram account. Kardashian herself did not repost this video on her social media, where she has 364 million Instagram followers and 9.5 million TikTok followers. Instead, she first promoted the launch on January 17, with a static image on Instagram. She did not reference the launch on TikTok until the collection’s launch day.
“I’ve recently been taking a skin-first approach towards my beauty routine,” said Kardashian in a press release. “In developing [my new makeup], my goal was not only to create universally flattering cosmetic essentials but also to ensure that our products are clean, hydrating, comfortable, and help improve the look and feel of skin with every wear. Just like our skincare collection, our makeup was inspired by the beauty secrets I’ve gathered from industry experts over the years.”
While TikTok product review videos from the likes of Whitney Simmons (@WhitneyySimmons; 2.6 million TikTok followers) and Alexis Frasca (@AlexisFrasca; 332,800 TikTok followers) were positive, comments on the videos reveal a mix of sentiments. Some commentators scoffed at the price tag of the $22 lip liners, $32 lipsticks and $50 palette, even though other prestige brands like Tarte and Nars reveal similarly priced products. On Reddit, a post from January 18 showed how some people reacted to an Instagram post about the then-impending launch. One commentator lamented the focus on matte makeup, when “gloss and oils are all the rage,” while others said they disliked the small-scale launch of products and others wished for items similar to KKW Beauty, including a contour stick.
The bigger critique was the similarity between the brand’s palette and Makeup by Mario’s Master Mattes Eyeshadow Palette, which also retails for $50 and launched in 2020. Manny Gutierrez, better known as Manny MUA (@MannyMUA; 1.7 million TikTok followers), examined the palettes side by side and found similarities but clarified that they aren’t identical. Meanwhile, Stephanie Valentine (@Glamzilla; 2.1 million TikTok followers), commented that she liked the shades of the nude lip liners but said people could probably find similar shades at a drugstore. And Mikayla Nogueira (@MikaylaNogueira; 15.4 million TikTok followers) said she thought the palette “looks cheap … it’s Colourpop level.” She said many other brands, like Natasha Denona and Huda Beauty, offered comparable options, but she also praised the shade and texture quality of the makeup.
It is worth stating the obvious that it is still early days for both the current collection and future expansion of makeup from SKKN by Kim. The distribution is, for now, solely DTC e-commerce. As more consumers get their hands on the products and try them for themselves, more widespread and detailed reactions are set to hit social channels.
