Nov 30 2015….3 minutes only

That was the time it took for Kylie Jenner to sell out 15, 000 pieces of her very first lipkitsbyKylie thereby launching the empire that has become Kylie cosmetics.  Kylie Jenner’s Lip kits are sold exclusively  were only on her website.

On the day of the very first launch the lip kits site crashed because so many people were logged onto the website trying to buy. In a few minutes all the Lip kits were sold out.

Fast forward 2017, Kylie cosmetics has made 420 Million dollars in retail sales and would have achieved 1billion in retail by 2022 according to Fortune magazine.

How did she do it? : She leveraged celebrity power + wise use of social media + the art of Suspense X a little scarcity = success.

Since 2015, she has never had a physical store (except popups) always sold online and she always produced in limited quantity making the product literally scarce.

Her fans and Customers are always waiting for the next product, using her social media handle, she perfected the art of the tease.

Before she launches a new product, she would tease on social media with pretty lip colors, opinion polls and count downs.  She always gives an exact date and time for the launch.

Twitter, snapchat and Instagram had all the information about her new product. When a new range is launched, she always sell out in minutes.

Kylie cosmetics has added a whole new range of products to her empire: Ky lighters, blushers, and KY shadows. she kept to the same strategy of a good tease, limited quantity and the feeling of scarcity that makes her fans scramble for it every time.

14.4 million in three hours  

That was how long it took Kim Kardashian to sell out all 300,000 face contouring Kits. Yes, Kim Kardashian also jumped into the beauty gold mine to produce her own makeup line under the label KKW beauty.

According to her she would focus on base make up like powders and foundations and infuse anti-ageing materials into hers. Her target audience was more mature and different from Kylie. So it was important to state that there would be no competition.

Kim produced contour kits. A makeup item she loves that gives her face a sculpted look. Each pack of Kim’s contour product contained four shades: light, medium, dark and deep dark. It came with beauty brushes and applicator sticks for $48.

Kim and Kylie also worked together to produce lip kits. On the day of launch, they sold all 300,000 within a few minutes with 13.5million in the bank.

Kim’ also uses a lot of social media to market her product but with a bit of maturity. She did only use pictures and teasers she gave makeup tutorials and answered questions about how to use the product.

90 products, 17 countries and 1600 Sephora stores.

Rihanna made it clear she did not come to play when she launched her beauty line fenty beauty. The number of products, the spread and the fact she took it into physical stores kind of made the Kardashian beauty business model look like a joke –at least initially.

Rihanna’s Fenty beauty was launched September 8 this year, barley 3 months after KKW beauty.  It came with foundation powders which has about 40 shades  .

Fenty beauty wins with Color variations and dark tones, there was every possible color for even the darkest of skin tones.She got a lot of credit and positive feedback for ensuring black women were not an afterthought.

Rihanna’s social media strategy was also different. She did not make it about her. Kylie was about her huge lips and Kim was about her contoured face.

She made it about regular everyday people. The street girl. The black girl, the pretty one, etc. everyone was literally represented in the fenty brand. She did not make it a just the way I use it type of product.

So it seems like she is winning, Right?

Well, we are so not sure.

She has not sold out on any one product: maybe that’s because she produced in larger quantities?

Kim kardashian’s product just won allure Contour of the year.

Though fenty beauty has made 72million on earned social media value ( YouTube mentions about her brand) but we have no feedback on hard cash for sales

Make up tutorials for Rihanna and Kim side by side shows that Kim’s product has a better blend

So time would tell who would take the crown.