Let’s unpack the tragedy of Kylie Cosmetics right now. Starting with the fact that this business, originally launched by Kylie Jenner in 2015, has been on the decline for a while now.

The guy I dated before I met my husband used to buy me a shit ton of Kylie Cosmetics lip kits. I’m referring to back in 2017, 2018.

I remember at the time trying to sharpen the lip liner pencils with the full chunks of color chalk product falling out with the sharpener. I thought maybe I just got a bad batch or something, but when I moved on from that relationship, I never invested in any Kylie Cosmetics products on my own.

And I damn sure never requested any of these products from my husband, who I’m married to now.

But I’m not here to bash Kylie Cosmetics. There’s a huge chance the products have gotten better since I used them myself several years ago. I still just find it very interesting to dig into the fact that the company has been on such a decline recently, when it had such a meteoric rise to the top, and it was doing so well for an impressive stretch there.

Let’s start with actual numbers. Kylie Cosmetics has experienced a major decline from $68.7 million to below $30 million in recent years when it comes to its e-commerce revenue. Evidence that 60% of buyers turned out to be one-time customers indicates that there isn’t a strong level of customer retention.

That means people bought products, weren’t satisfied, and never went back. In 2019, a company called Cody Inc. purchased a 51% majority stake in Kylie Cosmetics for $600 million. The transaction valued the overall enterprise at roughly $1.2 billion. But it turns out that wasn’t the most lucrative decision for Cody as an investor.

Over this past year, the stock for Cody Inc. has dropped by about 56% according to MarketBeat. I find it absolutely insane that there was so much hysteria surrounding Kylie Cosmetics when it first launched.

Kylie dropped that sexy, bad girl vibes music video teaser to promote the brand… but the world was a completely different place at the time. Its current performance in terms of sales is nowhere near what it once was.

Customer demand has plummeted, and it really makes you question how the most hyped celebrity beauty brand lost its magic.

I gathered 10 reasons for what I believe Kylie Cosmetics has become more of a tragedy than anything else. So let’s unpack the downfall of Kylie Cosmetics together.

People are financially struggling right now

For starters, a lot of people are financially struggling right now. Financial hardships are not a joke. The job market is terrible, and people who are well overqualified for roles in their industries are struggling to find adequate work. Many people are settling for less in positions where they are being underpaid, and others have been collecting as much unemployment help as they possibly can before it runs out. Others have been forced to move back in with their parents, sell their cars, and give up their level of independence to scrape by. AI has become a new factor getting in the way of people finding work. On top of that, this current administration has cut so many government jobs, which has forced government employees to try to seek non-government jobs, creating more competition for everyone. The rising cost of living is also worse than it’s ever been, thanks to this administration. Gas prices, rent prices, grocery prices, and everything else are completely out of control. Regular, everyday people can’t afford a lot of the things we used to be able to easily pay for. For me personally, I lost my career in professional journalism to AI in June 2025. It forced me to become an independent culture journalist here on this YouTube channel; fortunately, I’ve been able to monetize my channel to make money here. And I also enrolled in a program to become a yoga instructor, so I can start earning money that way as well. Even though I graduated from college as an English major and spent seven years building my portfolio for companies like iHeartRadio and RapTV. None of it mattered one AI took over the world. And there are a lot of people in a similar position who haven’t had the opportunity to monetize social media or figure out another path towards earning money. That being said, a lot of people just don’t have extra money to spend on Kylie Cosmetics or celebrity beauty products in general. One little bottle of lip stain from Kylie costs $24. One lip kit costs $35. The facts are that not everyone has a budget for this right now. Especially when you can spend a fraction of that cost for comparable non-Branded products from CVS or Walgreens.

The Forbes billionaire controversy

Another reason revolves around the Forbes billionaire controversy. Forbes gave her the cover of their magazine when she was 21 years old, claiming that she was the youngest self-made billionaire ever. It was a big deal, and even that headline was controversial since people debated whether or not she was self-made, since she’s very clearly a nepo baby as the younger sister of Kim Kardashian. But that wasn’t even the biggest issue of all. Forbes publicly retracted Kylie‘s billionaire title by making allegations that she inflated her revenue documents. It caused severe damage to Kylie‘s public trust and credibility. People started questioning the authenticity of her brand overall. Forbes was really cold with that one. Kylie tried to defend herself in a series of very cringe tweets. Forbes dropped a headline titled, “Inside Kylie‘s Web of Lies and Why She Is No Longer a Billionaire.” Kylie responded with, “What am I even waking up to? I thought this was a reputable site. All I see are a number of inaccurate statements and unproven assumptions lol I’ve never asked for any title or tried to lie my way there ever. Period. Even ‘creating tax returns that were likely forged?’ That’s your proof? So you just thought they were forged? Like actually what am I reading? But OK. I am blessed beyond my ears. I have a beautiful daughter and a successful business, and I’m doing perfectly fine. I can name a list of 100 things more important right now than fixating on how much money I have.” I feel like that was the start of the end for Kylie Cosmetics, even though that scandal went down in 2020. Things just have never been the same since then.

[Watch the video above for the full list!]