While Rhode is still enjoying the sweetness of “Strawberry Girl Summer,” the brand is ushering in a delightfully colorful “Tinted Fall.”
Fresh off the heels of Rhode’s limited-edition “Strawberry Glaze” Peptide Lip Treatment (and the accompanying Krispy Kreme Strawberry Glazed Doughnut activation), the skincare philosophy launched by Hailey Bieber has set its sights on a new product category: color cosmetics.
Officially launching September 28, Peptide Lip Tint is a tinted version of its best-selling Peptide Lip Treatment. Starting with four shades, the sheer-but-buildable colors melt onto lips for a hint of tint and glossy finish.
The “Strawberry Glaze” viral sensation launched at the end of August, and now one month later, Rhode is coming in hot with an entirely new product category.
And after high demand, five new European markets can celebrate and get their glaze on too: as of September 28, Rhode is expanding distribution in France, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Ireland. (This follows the brand’s launch into UK and Canada earlier this year.)
Bieber, who as a supermodel has graced the cover of a multitude of international glossies is flexing her muscles as a mogul.
From day one, Rhode’s ethos has been to create efficacious skincare essentials that nourish the skin barrier and give instant glow (at an accessible price point).
Using the same nourishing formula as Lip Treat, Lip Tint offers four fragrance-free shades — ribbon, toast, espresso, and raspberry jelly — for a rich, tinted gloss with a touch of sweetness that fits effortlessly into a Rhode routine.
“I think that skincare and beauty should be fun, and these tints are meant to be playful,” founder and Creative Director Bieber shares.
The Peptide Lip Treatments and Tints aren’t all play and no action: with efficacious, vegan, key ingredients including shea butter, peptides, cupuaçu, and babassu, the restorative formula of the Treatments and Tints leaves lips naturally plump, hydrated and nourished from within.
The names of the shades are reminiscent of food, while “ribbon” is an ode to Bieber’s childhood days as a ballet dancer.
“I love making the correlation between food and skincare and beauty because I also just love food! So I’m taking all these things that I love in my personal life — food, beauty, skincare, and dance — and trying to marry them all into one space, and express that creatively through my eyes.”
Every step Rhode takes is intentional, and Bieber is strategic.
“I think a lot of people don’t realize or know how far in advance we plan all this stuff out. From the beginning, before we even launched Rhode, there was a conversation around the categories that we see ourselves going into and what’s organic for me. Makeup was always going to come down the pipeline — it was simply a matter of what it was going to be.”
Once it was clear that Peptide Lip Treatment (aka Lip Treat and PLT) already had an existing, efficacious formula that people gravitated towards as a bestseller, “adding a nice tint of color to that product was the best way to start dipping our toes in this new category,” Bieber continues.
When it comes to Lip Treat’s epic success, it’s impossible to glaze over the numbers.
-Since the brand launched, Lip Treat has showed up as Rhode’s top-selling product — on pace to sell its millionth Peptide Lip Treatment.
-When the brand launched in June 2022, all Peptide Lip Treatment offerings sold out within three days and proceeded to build a total waitlist of 440,000.
-Rhode’s “Vanilla Cake” Peptide Lip Treatment drove Google searches of “lip treatment” to an all-time high.
-Total waitlist for all Peptide Lip Treatments, including the limited-edition “Passionfruit Jelly” that dropped earlier this spring and its most recent “Strawberry Glaze,” have totalled to upwards of 570,000.
There’s no doubt the momentum from the Krispy Kreme campaign and all things “Strawberry Glaze” is still piping hot, and amazingly, Bieber approached the iconic doughnut brand before having launched Rhode.
It’s Bieber’s ‘go big or go home’ attitude that ensures the brand is a manifestation of her vision and that she never settles for less.
“It was an idea that I had a very long time ago, since the beginning of the brand,” Bieber shares. “Before we even launched, we had a conversation with Krispy Kreme in 2021. I was like, ‘We have to do something with Krispy Kreme. They have the most perfectly glazed, delicious doughnuts in the world — it’s Krispy Kreme or nothing.’ It makes so much sense — glazed doughnuts vibes forever.”
When Bieber launched the “Strawberry Glaze Skin” smoothie with Erewhon (which is still going strong and selling 1,200 to 1,500 units per day), the now famous “Strawberry Glaze” flavor really came alive, becoming a signature for Rhode and Bieber — before the Peptide Lip Treatment of the same name launched.
Thanks to the smoothie, the nostalgic strawberry glaze scent was developed.
“I knew I wanted it to smell like a strawberry glaze frosted doughnut because that was my favorite doughnut as a kid — with sprinkles. I wanted it to have that nostalgic backstory. So we went back to Krispy Kreme and told them about the Erewhon smoothie and flavor. We wanted to know if there was any world where we could launch this Peptide Lip Treatment with Krispy Kreme, and this time, they were like, ‘As a matter of fact, we had a limited-edition strawberry glaze doughnut that we can bring back and it can be really fun. Let’s make it happen.’”
Nostalgia is a key pillar when it comes to Rhode’s branding and product development.
“When we were formulating the Peptide Lip Treatments, I wanted them to be super steeped in nostalgia, so that when people got their hands on it, it brought them back to a time where they would say, ‘Oh, this smells like that chapstick I had in middle school’ or ‘this reminds me of my favorite dessert’ or ‘this smells like something that was really important to me.’ And that’s always going to be important to me for the brand. We always have so much going on in our lives as it is, so being able to play in makeup and beauty is one of the pleasures we get in this world.”
Bieber’s “Strawberry Girl Summer” caption to her Instagram community of 50.6 million people ignited a storm of strawberry-themed makeup, manicures, looks, and overall social moments. We can call it a perfect storm of virality.
“I said to myself, let me just hint at this and kind of see where it goes, and then I started to see all these amazing TikTok creators do their own version of this makeup and call it ‘strawberry girl makeup,’ and I felt it was a really fun way to connect with other creators in the beauty community.”
As for Bieber’s effect on pop culture, beauty and fashion, it’s a phenomenon that can never be orchestrated, faked or imitated. It’s clear that as a founder, marketer and consumer, Bieber is a trendsetter and has a fingers on the pulse of what’s next — ensuring Rhode is poise for global success.
It’s Hailey Bieber’s glazed playground, and we’re all living in it.
“I’m not trying to force a trend on anybody,” Bieber asserts. “I just like to share what I’m into and what I’m doing. That’s why I love getting to play around as the Creative Director at Rhode — I get to have so much fun with these vibes and these ideas that are coming to my mind and then whatever catches on, that’s amazing. I love that. People gravitate towards certain things and as long as they’re having fun with it, I think that’s the whole point, right?”
Read the full article here
