Kris Jenner Recalls Kylie's Teenage Business Breakthrough
Kris Jenner has expressed immense pride in her daughter Kylie Jenner's remarkable transformation from a teenager into a global beauty mogul. The matriarch of the Kardashian-Jenner family consistently praises her youngest daughter's exceptional business acumen and entrepreneurial spirit.
The Teenage Vision That Started It All
During a recent appearance on the SmartLess podcast, the seventy-year-old family manager revealed how she helped the twenty-eight-year-old Kylie Cosmetics founder launch her career. Jenner recounted a pivotal conversation from 2015 when seventeen-year-old Kylie approached her with a revolutionary business concept.
"She goes, 'Mom, I know what I want to do for the rest of my life, and it's beauty. And I want to, you know, do this Lip Kit, and now you've got to take this and run with it and figure out how to make it,'" Jenner recalled during the podcast interview with hosts Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett.
From Nervous Mother to Proud Manager
The experienced momager, who recently addressed Ray J's claims about Kim Kardashian's sex tape, described how she immediately sprang into action. Jenner contacted industry professionals to bring Kylie's vision to life while developing a comprehensive marketing strategy with her teenage daughter.
"I said, 'So, what are we doing about the marketing?' Like, you know, we need an ad in People Magazine, and we need to have a billboard,'" Jenner remembered telling her daughter.
Despite Jenner's initial anxiety about Kylie investing her entire Keeping Up with the Kardashians earnings into the venture, the teenager remained remarkably composed. "She goes, 'Are we okay, mom? Like, I know what I'm doing. Just relax,'" Jenner recalled Kylie responding with confidence beyond her years.
The Historic Launch That Changed Beauty
Jenner vividly remembers the morning Kylie Cosmetics launched in November 2015, describing it as a watershed moment that disrupted the entire beauty industry. "I'll never forget the morning she launched her brand, which was the first time she disrupted an entire beauty business," Jenner declared with evident pride.
The initial fifteen thousand Lip Kits, priced at twenty-nine dollars each, sold out in under sixty seconds, with some reports indicating the website crashed within four seconds due to overwhelming demand. "We thought the site crashed because we had to launch, and it was just sold out in seconds. And then we knew, you know. Then it was on," Jenner explained, adding that Kylie was "the first one to do that."
Building a Billion-Dollar Empire
Kylie leveraged her massive social media following to promote the brand, which generated over three hundred million dollars in revenue during its first year alone. The company evolved from a niche player into an industry powerhouse, reaching a reported valuation of nine hundred million dollars by 2018.
In 2020, Kylie finalized a landmark deal selling a fifty-one percent majority stake in Kylie Cosmetics to Coty Inc for six hundred million dollars. She maintained involvement in creative and marketing aspects while cementing her status as one of the youngest self-made billionaires in history.
The Personal Toll of Rapid Success
Despite the phenomenal commercial achievement, Kylie revealed to Vanity Fair that the initial launch period caused significant stress. "It wasn't very exciting for me for the first year because I was so stressed out that everyone would harass me on Twitter at the time because they couldn't get a Lip Kit," she confessed in the March interview.
"I couldn't handle it because I really wanted to just make everyone happy," the beauty mogul added, highlighting the personal challenges that accompanied her business breakthrough.
Celebrating a Decade of Success
The savvy businesswoman marked Kylie Cosmetics' ten-year anniversary with her family at a special event last October. Meanwhile, fans eagerly anticipate whether Kylie will accompany her boyfriend, Oscar-nominated actor Timothee Chalamet, to the Academy Awards where his film has received nine nominations.
The couple, who have been together for three years, have attended numerous awards ceremonies together this season, including the Critics Choice Awards, Golden Globes, and BAFTA Film Awards in London. Their affectionate public displays at previous Oscars ceremonies have drawn considerable attention, with photographs capturing intimate moments between the beauty mogul and the acclaimed actor.
