Jaclyn Cosmetics’ Future Is Uncertain As Jaclyn Hill Closes Other Brands

Jaclyn Hill, the beauty influencer who helped make now-defunct Becca Cosmetics’ Champagne Pop highlighter pop, hasn’t been able to do the same for her own products.

She’s closing Koze, an apparel and accessories brand she launched last year, and Jaclyn Roxanne, a jewelry brand she launched in 2021. “What it comes down to is these brands are not serving me anything,” explained Hill in a nearly 18-minute YouTube video posted Friday to share the news with her 5.56 million subscribers on the platform. “They’re not bringing me happiness, and I don’t care about the money at this point.”

Jaclyn Cosmetics remains in business, but Hill admitted in the video that its future is uncertain. After three months in bankruptcy, Jaclyn Cosmetics owner Forma Brands, also owner of Morphe, Morphe 2 and Lipstick Queen, was salvaged by lenders scooping it up for $690 million. The company is believed to be deprioritizing Jaclyn Cosmetics, and there’s speculation the brand is leaving Ulta Beauty.

Hill didn’t comment on the brand’s relationship with Ulta or Forma Brands in her video announcing Koze and Jaclyn Roxanne are shuttering. Online, Ulta carries 35 Jaclyn Cosmetics products priced from $14 to $49, including Luxe Legacy Eyeshadow Palette, Poutspoken Liquid Lipstick, Plush Blush Blurring Cheek Tint and Face It All Brightening & Setting Palette.

Hill acknowledged she hasn’t done much to nurture Jaclyn Cosmetics since its disastrous debut in 2019, when customers claimed its lipsticks were lumpy and hairy. The brand ended up refunding purchasers of the lipsticks due to quality issues. In 2021, Jaclyn Cosmetics’ Sun Kissed Cream Bronzer shade range was slammed for being too narrow.

Discussing her work on the brand in her YouTube video, Hill said, “I just really stepped away, and I really just did the bare minimum, and I was given such an incredible opportunity to be in Ulta stores, and I’ve done the bare minimum supporting my brand in Ulta, which is crazy because that’s literally my dream.”

“I’ve done the bare minimum supporting my brand in Ulta.”

Hill’s video doesn’t delve into her brands’ profits, but brand consultant and cosmetic developer Kevin James Bennett reasons she’s closing Koze and Jaclyn Roxane because they’re falling short on that score. In a LinkedIn post, he wrote, “People are not buying, and she needs to clear out the remaining stock to cover her investment.” He added, “Jaclyn Cosmetics failed because it launched with contaminated merchandise and never issued a recall.”

Becca put Hill on the beauty industry map in a big way. In 2015, she collaborated with the brand on Champagne Pop, and it sold out of 25,000 units of the highlighter upon the product’s premiere at Sephora. The next year, the publication Women’s Wear Daily reported a Becca collection with Hill containing face palettes yielded $3.5 million in sales within five hours of its release.

In 2016, Estée Lauder acquired Becca for around $200 million when it was generating an estimated $80 million in sales. But Hill’s magic didn’t last for long, and Lauder shuttered Becca in 2021. At the time, TikTok’s popularity was surging, and many influencers who’d gained audiences on earlier social media networks struggled to find their footing on the platform. Hill has almost 750,000 followers on TikTok and 8.6 million followers on Instagram.

Influencers have had a mixed track record transitioning from creating content to creating brands. Sephora has parted ways with the influencer-fronted brands Item Beauty by Addison Rae, Selfless by Hyram and Lunar Beauty, although Selfless by Hyram subsequently landed at Target. Other brands tied to influencers like One/Size, Naturium, Summer Fridays, Sacheu Beauty and Live Tinted appear to be making headway at retailers such as Sephora, Ulta and Target.

In her video, Hill said, “People are launching brands and finding all the success through social media and here I am shutting my brands down. It’s very humbling. It’s been hard to get to this point where I’m just OK with that, where I’m OK with the fact that I’m closing down these brands, and the internet might have a lot to say about it, but I’m doing this for me. I want to get back to what makes me happy.”

While the fate of Jaclyn Cosmetics is still up in the air, it will continue to launch merchandise, according to Hill. In her video, she teased it has a new product slated to hit the market later this month. “It’s the most innovative product that I’ve ever created. You will see that I really put time and effort into this product with my team,” said Hill. “There’s nothing like it. There’s no formula that I have ever seen on the market like this. It is so beautiful and so unique, and I’m so excited for it to launch, and I just want to be able to give my brand the love that it deserves, even if it ends up shutting down, too.”