“In order to give an honest review of a celebrity-owned product, it is important to put aside your admiration for the celebrity and focus on the product’s performance itself,” Bravo continues. “This can be difficult for some people to do, which can make it hard to understand if someone loves the product because it is good, or if they love it simply because it is coming from their ride-or-die celebrity.” She also considers the difference in resources between celeb-owned brands and small, independent ones. This alone can help determine the quality of the product as well as a marketing approach.

“You know a celebrity-owned brand is good when people are talking so much about how good a product is that folks who aren’t as familiar with the brand don’t even know it is celebrity-owned,” she explains. Taking that into consideration, it’s worth questioning the continued relevance of celeb brands in the beauty space. As consumer demands change to push for improved inclusivity and accessibility, ideally, a brand’s response should echo those efforts. If this is the case, then with increased reach comes heightened familiarity (even more so for celebrity beauty brands).

I took a look at some of the jaw-dropping numbers some of our favorite celeb-owned beauty brands have hit over the past year thanks to their massive TikTok presence. Cosmetify’s TikTok Beauty Index, by October 2023, revealed that Rare Beauty hit 3.5 million followers (with 50.3 million video likes and with 7.7 billion hashtag views), making it the second most popular TikTok beauty brand behind Huda Beauty. That being said, it holds the highest following and likes of any celeb-owned beauty brand on the platform. But as we head into 2024, I’m wondering if this generation’s most beloved beauty brands will continue to keep up with the fast-paced trend cycle of the industry.

“One of my mutuals Heather Hurst shared a great analogy about fashion trends that I believe applies to beauty as well. Basically, imagine every beauty trend is on a conveyor belt that circles round and round,” Bravo continues. “You do not have to grab everything off of the conveyor belt all at once.” In other words, if you’re not drawn to a product, its popularity alone shouldn’t be enough to inspire a purchase. In its simplest form, her biggest beauty advice when it comes to the industry’s trend cycle is as follows: enjoy what interests you and don’t feel pressure to invest in the rest because when it comes to trend cycles, everything comes back around… eventually.