Could Kylie Jenner’s Lip Filler Announcement Impact Her Business?

Influence mastermind Kylie Jenner and her cosmetics empire are going strong. But how might a surprise announcement that she’s no longer enhancing her lips affect her business?

Jenner, who turns 21 next month, appeared on the cover of Forbes earlier this week, where she was credited as the youngest person to make the publication’s annual list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women. News of her skyrocketing $900 million net worth quickly made the rounds, but even before the cover came out, she made headlines for something unrelated: her fillerless lips.

Replying to a fan who commented on a July 8 Instagram that she “looks like the old Kylie,” Jenner responded, “I got rid of all my filler.” The announcement came as a surprise, as Jenner has been credited with popularizing the plumped lips trend, especially in younger patients. In 2015, she famously denied having had lip injections, eventually coming clean in a May 2015 episode of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” that she had in fact had them done. Six months later, she launched her first line of lip kits, with all three shades selling out in seconds.

Kylie Cosmetics is now worth $800 million, according to Forbes, and has expanded beyond the lip category. The brand now offers eyeshadow palettes, concealers, brushes and highlighters, and though Jenner has said her bestseller list changes frequently, much of the focus around her business is on lips — though not specifically hers.

Data from Tribe shows that Kylie Cosmetics accumulated more than $293 million in earned media value in 2017, and over a third of that — $117 million — mentioned “lip” in the written content.

Google Trends shows that over the past five years, people searched more for Kylie Jenner than they did for Kylie Cosmetics — and they searched more for Kylie Cosmetics than they did for Kylie’s lips. In the last three days, people searched more for Kylie Jenner’s worth, age and height than they did her lips, according to Google. Top searches for Kylie Cosmetics in the last three days were for its worth, where to buy it and who owns it.

Data suggests that though people are generally more interested in Kylie’s personal life and her business than they are her lips, those lips contribute a large part of her business. The lip kit was, after all, her debut product.

Jenner and her sisters are known to reinvent themselves regularly — Kim Kardashian declared contouring dead in 2016 and released a contour kit one year later — and removing her fillers doesn’t guarantee that Jenner won’t get them again down the line.

Given her impact on the plumped lip trend, it’s possible a shift in the market for them is ahead. It’s also possible that Jenner is gearing up to focus more on other categories for Kylie Cosmetics. She could even be planning a new set of offerings to match her new look.

Reinvention is good for business, indeed.

More from WWD.com:

Kylie Jenner’s Kylie Cosmetics on Way to Becoming $1B Brand

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