Hello, everyone. Welcome back.
Thank you so, so much for joining me.
Today I want to talk about a new release
that has people talking for a few reasons.
Kim Kardashian has released a new brand
and a new collection that has had
various reactions, some good, some bad.
The revamped, I guess brand from Kim Kardashian is
now going to be called SKKN By Kim.
I think that's how you pronounce it.
I don't know how to pronounce SKKN, but it makes sense.
And immediately, you know, just looking at the
new launch, it does look kind of beige.
Beige is one of my favorite colors. I don't mind.
Perhaps not as fun as we would like from
our new brand launches and new brands in general.
But let's take a closer look at this launch today because
I think I have some thoughts that may surprise you and
some that may not surprise you, if you know me.
Before we get into it, do consider subscribing.
Give this video a thumbs up and let me know
your opinions on this launch down below in the comments.
Whether you care or not, whether you're going
to buy it or not, it's always nice
to have an opinion about something.
So Kim K
announced her new launch in a video recently.
It was one of those like, I'm a... whatever.
Of course I'm going to do this. Which I really hate.
I hope that trend runs out in
like a week because it's so annoying.
In the video, she shows off her office, a 3D
print of her own brain, which is a weird thing
to have, a sunbed, which is a whole other situation.
Her office.
Did I say office already?
All this other stuff, it's a
little tour around her home.
Right at the end, she drops
that she is relaunching her brand.
I don't know if it's a relaunch.
I might say relaunch a few times throughout this
video, but it's kind of a whole new brand.
"I'm Kim Kardashian.
Of course I have all my
magazine covers covering my walls.
I'm Kim Kardashian.
Of course I have my
mannequin with my custom measurements
in my glam room.
I'm Kim Kardashian, of course I have my beauty campaigns
on loop on a big TV wall.
I'm Kim Kardashian.
Of course I have 3D models of my brain and my plane
in my office.
I'm Kim Kardashian.
Of course I have a tanning bed.
And a red light bed.
In my office.
I'm Kim Kardashian.
Of course, I'm launching lip
liners in 15 different nudes."
Let's touch on this release statement here
from Kim, that she has under the
post, because there's some choice words.
It says, "SKKN By Kim.
Where skin loving formulas meet high performance glam."
We can say glamour.
We don't have to keep calling it glam.
"I've recently been taking a skin first approach towards
my beauty routine. In developing SKKN By Kim Makeup,
my goal was not to only
create universally flattering cosmetics essentials..."
Keep that universal flattering in your head.
"But also to ensure that our products are clean."
There it is, clean.
"... hydrating and help improve the
look and feel of skin with every wear.
Meet your new makeup bag must-haves, inspired
by my iconic smoky eye and nude lip."
There have been others. Before and there will be after
who did this look.
It's all fine until the word clean comes into it.
This whole clean situation, brands really need to
stop, especially if they're a new brand and
you don't have to include the word clean.
There is no legal term or legal requirements
of using the term clean.
Your brand doesn't have to meet certain
standards to use the term clean.
Clean can be whatever the brand says it is, right?
And I know some people are like, but
this is what the brand means by clean. They mean this.
They mean this.
That's even worse.
That's even more of a problem that a brand
can make up what clean means to them.
It should be a blanket term.
Because there are brands
out there that say clean and have the same ingredients
in it as a brand that doesn't claim to be
clean or one, a brand that they claim to be
toxic, you know?
Moving on, moving on.
There seems to be a skincare focus to this brand, like she said.
I like a good lip combo
where it's like skincare, lip balm and lipstick together.
I think that's a really good approach.
Especially now, modern days, people are looking for more
skincare ingredients.
That is fading out a little bit
after its like big boom over lockdown.
But people still look for that.
So the collection includes ten velvety matte
lipsticks, £31 or $32.
15 long wearing matte
lip pencils, £22 pounds or $22.
And a matte eyeshadow palette with twelve shades, described as
universally flattering with cool and warm tones.
And this is £49 or $50. Yeah.
Let's touch on those prices very quickly.
The lipsticks, I guess, is commonplace in terms
of price for lipstick nowadays, especially if they
do have, like those skincare ingredients.
I'm not too mad about that.
The lip liner, honestly, I don't think
lip pencils should be above £15,
$15, unless they are something we've never seen before
or exceptionally smooth or glide on a certain way.
But these are just kind of like pencil pencils.
And actually, this brand doesn't scream luxury in
any way to be at that price point.
If you were to look at this and didn't know
it was SKKN By Kim and someone was like, oh, this
is Colorpop's new collection, you'd be like, yeah, fine.
And the palette, in my opinion, is severely overpriced.
$50 for this.
For basic nudes. 40 at a push. Right?
But let's not all be negative.
Let's start with a few pros.
Starting a brand like this with these
basics, I think is quite good.
I like the fact that there are more
pencils than lipsticks because not everybody always wants
their lip liner to match their lipstick exactly.
Sometimes we like it a bit darker.
Dramatically darker, mid darker, a
bit warmer, a bit cooler.
Although the choice in shades in terms
of warms and cools isn't great, it's
all very similar in terms of color.
I do like that the palette is
regular and kind of a staple.
I always try to look at new brands
and new products, new palettes, thinking, what if
this was someone's first makeup purchase?
Their first palette purchase?
So I guess it's okay to an extent.
And, I mean, I look at a palette like
this, and I see a matte highlight, a contour,
a bronzer, eyeshadow, eyebrows, potentially a powder lip line.
It's a good multi use palette if it's
the only palette you're to buy that year.
The lipsticks, I think, is a great launch, again, with the skincare
Lipstick, mascara, brow pencil are kind
of like return items for brands, right?
If you can nail the formula of these products and
it becomes a staple for someone throughout the day, if
they're using the same lipstick every day, the same mascara,
the same brow pencil and it runs out, the idea
of a return product is you want them to keep
coming back to your brand for that product.
Oh, this is my day lipstick that I wear during the day.
This is the best mascara I use.
If you nail those products, you have
a repeat customer all the time.
Foundation used to be like a staple like
that, but I feel like now we're often
trying more mascaras over and over again.
So... mascaras? Foundations, over and over again.
So I don't really think that's
a return product anymore, really.
Let's take a closer look
at the eyeshadow palette, right?
Let's take a look at these shades.
I want to question the universally flattering aspect of
this, because in the promo pictures from SKKN By
Kim, SKNN By Kim, it looks deep.
The shades look deep.
They have a depthness to them. A depthness?
A depth to them.
But when you're looking at the other promo
pictures from the brand itself, but also from
other people, it doesn't look the same.
It looks lighter.
The warmth from a lot
of these shades disappear completely.
They almost have these pastely
light white undertones to them.
Now, here's the deal, right?
When an eyeshadow palette is released, and a lot
of the tones tend to be quite light, a
lot of people say it's not inclusive, right?
And most of the time, they're right.
People who wear makeup and eyeshadow with deeper
skin tones do use these lighter shades.
But the issue is, from my experience as a professional
makeup artist, when it comes to using light pastels on
deeper skin tones, white light pinks, gray tones, it needs
to be paired up with something else to give it,
like, a seamless blend into the skin tone.
And this is kind of where this palette lacks.
It doesn't provide that on the bottom row at all.
So I'm not really sure about
the universal part in this palette.
I would tend to disagree.
Let's take a look at her old brand. Right?
KKW. KKW?
I do have to say, I think at this launch,
the new launch, is more of a solid base compared
to the first launch for a makeup brand.
The lipsticks and the liners seem to
have more thought put into them.
And the palette looks a bit more pro. Right?
Whereas the old brands, it seemed kind
of gimmicky, and it played on that,
like, Kim Kardashian contour kind of aspect.
It seemed more merchandise.
It seemed more like, yeah, gimmicky, I would say.
And the products were pretty terrible.
I did a video about the launch here.
I'll leave a link down below as well.
But the products weren't great.
The contour sticks, all this kind of stuff.
The first brand did give off, like influencer
own brand kind of vibes, I guess.
And if you compare the two side by
side, this one does seem a little bit
more luxury compared to the old release.
When a brand launches, a lot of the time
or a new collection comes out, a lot of
people are like, it's one of my...
I hate the saying.
It's like, everyone's like, who asked for this?
We don't ask for anything in life.
And I especially hate when it comes to brands
because new brands are going to launch everywhere.
Somebody always wants something different from you.
That's life.
However, in this case, people were
actually literally asking for this brand.
Kim actually teased it in a video where
people were saying they were asking for the
return of some individual products from the brand
previously, and I've seen it myself.
I've seen people say, like, can we
just have the Kim Kardashian makeup back
instead of anything else you're doing?
That would be great. Thank you.
And this was the kind of tease.
"Alright, guys, so I have been reading the
comments on the SKKN account, and so many of you
want us to bring color cosmetics back.
Kim, we need the makeup.
We are dying out here.
Kim, where is your makeup and fragrance?
I'm dying for it.
The world has been begging you.
Can we get a release date on makeup, though?
I hear you."
So that's my opinion on the launch.
I do want to look at some comments as well,
right, on the launch list.
I went to Trendmood because they tend to be quite universal in
terms of support and hate for new releases.
Someone said, "$50 for that
cardboard packaging is a crime."
"Who exactly was demanding this brand to come back?"
We know a lot of people.
"Well, whoever you are, I hope
you enjoy 52 flavors of beige."
"I feel like she's been out of the game for too long.
This would have been fine four years ago.
Maybe. The industry and what we
want as consumers have changed.
Not only that, her first line was very accessible.
This is very out of touch and doesn't
look like it's worth a $32 price tag."
"I get minimalist, but that $50 palette, for
real, looks like it came from dollar tree."
"So many hating girls in these comments.
If you don't like it, don't buy it. Simple.
The rest of us have been waiting."
There was another issue that came up with this, right?
A lot of people were looking at the
palette and being like, that looks suspiciously similar
to Makeup By Mario, one of his palettes.
And Kim's just copying him, straight
up copying her own makeup artist.
I have to say, no.
I can kind of see it, but no, it's not the same.
The structure of that palette, these
kind of nude palettes isn't unusual anyway.
Light to dark isn't something completely wild.
But I just want to show you Mario's palette here.
And the shades.
And the light shades.
Can you see in Mario's palette how there's
that option for transition for deeper skin tones.
That red in the bottom corner, the brown next to it.
With that redy tone, it has that
option to be able to transition these
lighter tones into many different skin tones.
And that's what I see when I see the palettes.
I see a light, almost like chalky palette
that is only really usable on itself.
Of course, you can mix it with the other eyeshadows
you have, but some people don't have other eyeshadows.
And when I see the Mario palette, I'm like, okay,
I could use those lighter shades on deeper skin tones
because you have a few shades in that palette that
will help me transition that shade, but that's from a
pro kind of point of view anyway.
I want to finish this video on a
thought that came to me after reading this comment.
"Going to sell out in minutes, and then
we will be waiting three months for a
restock on a lip liner named Nutmeg.
Then her stuff will be on display at Ulta
for about 2 seconds, and then what's left over
will be dirty testers that were not stolen."
So there's a theory that any Kardashian or Jenner
launch, whenever they make a brand up, no matter
what it be, is a cash grab.
They hype it up, it sells out, they
abandon ship, and it slowly just fades out.
And we've seen that a few times.
We have seen that a few times
with certain brands, certain collections, collaborations.
And you all know I hate the term cash grab
because, of course, people want to make money for it.
But a cash grab for me is when
a person's heart isn't in that brand by
the person whose name is attached to it. Right?
They don't know anything about the brand.
They don't work on trying to improve it.
They don't work on future collections.
They just do this one thing
and they're like, yeah, that's good. We made some money.
Let's move on.
So here's my question to you, I guess.
Do you think this is a passion project for Kim?
Will we see the brand grow and thrive,
release different collections, do different things, and expand
to something that was bigger than her previous
collection and previous business ventures?
Or will it be gone by the end of the year?
Let me know down below in the comments.
I would love to know your opinion.
Thank you so much again for joining me,
and I will see you very, very soon. Bye.