These celebrity beauty brands are actually rather good

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It’s 11am on a Friday and the busiest counter in Space NK’s King’s Cross store in central London is Rare Beauty, the make-up line from singer Selena Gomez.

Wanting to understand its popularity, I get chatting to Tara, a glowy 36-year-old who has come down from Oxfordshire for the day to buy beauty products and has “made a beeline for the concealer”.

She’s intrigued to see if Rare Beauty is as good as she’s heard on social media, adding that the brand’s concealer is £10 cheaper than her usual Dior one. She’s not here because of its famous founder though: “The fact that it’s a celebrity puts me off. Maybe it’s a bit naff.”

Well, quite. For everyone who is drawn to celebrity fragrance, skincare or cosmetics because they admire the face behind it, there are those who think there is nothing cheesier and more deluded than buying a product because someone famous in a completely different field cashed in.

But the celebrity beauty juggernaut rolls on. According to a report by consumer intelligence company Nielsen, sales in the category in the US grew 33 per cent between 2021 and 2022, hitting $762mn in 2022. “2023 is set up to have another successful year: dollar sales are at $357mn to date,” the company said in June this year.

It’s a bit of a gold rush, but while there have been duff celebrity lines — such as Twentynine Palms from actor Jared Leto, who told Vogue at launch that he had “never been really interested in beauty products”, (reportedly he has since ended his relationship with its parent company) — there are also some surprisingly good ones.

Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising. The beauty landscape has changed dramatically in the more than three decades since Elizabeth Taylor came out with her first perfume Passion in 1987 and supermodel Iman launched her eponymous beauty and skincare line in 1994.

“Compared to the ’90s or the beginning of the 2000s, celebrities want to be associated with good-quality products — they are following the premiumisation of the market,” says Audrey Depraeter-Montacel, global lead for Accenture’s Beauty industry practice.

“They know that their brand image can be dented if they put out bad brands, so there is more care around finding the right partner, and things like high-quality, clean ingredients and recycled packaging, rather than just licensing something.”

I’ve sampled enough “miracle creams” with mundane results to know that J-Lo’s Firm + Flaunt Targeted Booty Balm is unlikely to give me her shapely posterior. But there are some celebrity brands that excel at make-up. I’m a fan of Gomez’s buttery, easily blended Warm Wishes Effortless Bronzer; the Perfect Strokes Longwear Gel Eyeliner, which glides on and stays put; and Soft Pinch Liquid Blush for dreamy, soft-focus colour (all from £19, spacenk.com).

Another stellar line for the natural but modern look is model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley’s Rose Inc. Its Skin Enhance Luminous Tinted Serum (£39, roseinc.com) aces the barely-there base. It’s a hydrating gel with little colour pigments that give a fresh, even complexion on application. And then there’s Victoria Beckham’s range. Not everything is brilliant — the new Vast Lash mascara has a rather cumbersome brush — but the Satin Kajal liner (£30, victoriabeckhambeauty.com) has a gloriously smooth, creamy texture, and the Bitten Lip Tint gel (£35), with a novel jelly texture, enhances natural lip colour and can also be used on the cheeks.

A major skincare surprise came via The Outset, co-founded by actor Scarlett Johansson. She lists quite a few motivations for launching her merch, including “so you could get clean, fresh, moisturised and out the door in under 2 minutes, 33 seconds”. I have been using the Gentle Micellar Antioxidant Cleanser (£26), Restorative Niacinamide Night Cream (£44) and Ultralight Moisture-Boosting Oil (£36, all at theoutset.com) and I’m convinced my sensitive skin looks fresher and plumper, with fine lines reduced. Bonus points for being fragrance-free.

Another unfussy but effective range is musician Pharrell Williams’ Humanrace, which comes in refillable containers. The 7D Retrograde gel cleanser (£40, selfridges.com) leaves skin clean but not tight, and the 7D Mystifying gel moisturiser (£53) provides light hydration.

As for haircare, I didn’t have high expectations for TV presenter Jonathan Van Ness’s potions, but the JVN Embody Volumizing Foam (£25, cultbeauty.co.uk) really thickens well.

However, when it comes to celebrity fragrance, I can’t say I’ve been bowled over: more knocked out. Scent is subjective, but I found Harry Styles’ new collection a mixed bag; Bright, Hot has an arresting woody, vanilla intensity, but Closeness is oddly cheap smelling for a fragrance costing £135. Meanwhile, Ariana Grande’s Cloud range is pleasant enough, but Mod Blush is cloying and overripe, making me think they forgot to put “notes of compost bin on a hot day” on the label. To quote her song (and the name of another of her fragrances), Thank U, Next!