This story was published on February 8, 2022 and updated on June 21, 2022.
Happy launch day to America's most prolific jack of all trades, Kim Kardashian: reality TV star, underwear designer, Balenciaga model, and now, skincare mogul.
Keeping Up's main character just debuted her latest enterprise, SKKN by Kim, a nine-step skincare routine priced at a hefty $673.
According to The New York Times, the new venture effectively replaces KKW Beauty, which announced last summer that it would rebrand and relaunch with a "more modern, elevated, sustainable brand and experience."
Coty, Inc., an investor in KKW Beauty and SKKN by Kim, has had skin on the brain for a while. "It’s really going to be the year of skincare at Coty,” Sue Y. Nabi, the French conglomerate's chief executive, told Business of Fashion in February.
Kim's new brand reflects an industry-wide shift away from time-consuming trends such contouring and baking — practices that the Kardashians helped popularize, ushering in the reign of "Instagram Face" — and a move towards more natural-looking beauty.
Indeed, mainstays from KKW Beauty such as body foundation and contour sticks feel outdated set against today's cosmetics landscape, which focuses more on accentuating features instead of concealing and re-engineering them via strategic shading and clever optical illusions.
As is the case with most things involving the Kardashian-Jenners, SKKN by Kim has already generated a fair amount of controversy — namely, for its onomatological likeness to Lori Harvey's SKN by LH and SKKN+, a Black-owned skincare studio founded by esthetician Cydnie Lunsford.
I haven't tried SKKN by Kim yet, so I can't speak to the efficacy of the products, which Kardashian reportedly applies "down to nips." But before you shell out $673 in the hopes of attaining the reality TV star's skin, keep in mind that any celebrity isn't relying solely on creams and serums — the vast majority are also getting regular facials, dermatological treatments, and injectables such as Botox and filler.
