Fashion Nova is turning its attention from fast fashion to fast beauty. On June 14, the home of that knockoff Miu Miu set will launch NovaBeauty, a whopping 48-piece collection of lipstick, lip liner, and lip gloss.
"Beauty is an integral part of the Nova look," Fashion Nova CEO Richard Saghian told WWD. According to the executive, makeup — particularly lip gloss and lip liner — is the most-requested category from customers over the past two years.
NovaBeauty will range from $10 to $12, a price point comparable to most drugstore-stocked brands. WWD reports that the line will expand via "frequent drops," a model that mirrors Fashion Nova's approach to clothing (a nightmarish strategy, at least from a sustainability standpoint).
The announcement of NovaBeauty points to the continued rise of "fast beauty," a genre used to describe brands that develop and release products at lightening speed in order to stay on top of trends. Some examples of prominent fast beauty purveyors: ColourPop, Makeup Revolution, and Kylie Beauty.
Fashion Nova isn't the first fast fashion retailer to cash in on cosmetics. In 2021, Zara launched a collection of lipstick, blush, eyeshadow, and nail polish. Swedish giant H&M has offered makeup, hair care, and beauty tools since 2015.
While some purport that the production of fast beauty results in less waste than fast fashion, the ultra-low prices of, say, Zara's $9 nail polish and Fashion Nova's $10 lipsticks encourage a buy-try-throwaway mode of consumption. It goes without saying that buying a cheap product (most likely packaged in plastic), using it a handful of times, and discarding it isn't exactly eco-conscious.
Fashion is facing a "slow" reckoning, but what about beauty? The same intention we put into our clothing purchases can — and should — extend to our makeup bags, too.
