Rhode 引爆 Sephora 的背后
Source: Rhode Website
两周前Hailey Bieber创立的护肤品Rhode 正式登陆 Sephora 实体店（而且“碰巧”是与先生 Justin Bieber 发布最新专辑Swag II 的同一天）。从结果来看，这次首发只能用“爆炸性成功”来形容。根据网上杂志Puck 的报道，Rhode是 Sephora 历史上规模最大的新品首发。
今年 5 月，Rhode 被 E.l.f. Beauty 以 10 亿美元的高额交易收购，然后在北美劳动节后正式登陆 Sephora。在上架之前，Rhode 已经被预测会带来不错的销量，但现在从数据看来，即便是这个乐观的预期，也远远低估了它的真实表现。
那么为什么说Rhode 的首发周是“爆炸性成功”呢？首先是首日销量，达到了 1500 万美元，打破了 Sephora 的历史纪录，超过了此前由 另外两位名人网红Rihanna 的 Fenty 和 Selena Gomez 的 Rare 所保持的成绩。前两天还看到Hailey Bieber 本人在纽约证券交易所敲钟，并且穿着西装非常可爱，并且有点羞涩地在Bloomberg等商业记者面前谈论自己的成功经验。我想曾经“只是“Bieber太太的她从未想过今天会取得这样的惊人商业成绩。
我前两天去了多伦多Eaton 中心的Sephora，Rhode的柜台前也是人头攒动。据说纽约Soho地区那家店里，几小时内，Rhode的大部分彩妆产品和部分护肤产品售罄，证实了Rhode 产品的强大吸引力。品牌此次在 Sephora 仅上线 16 个 SKU（其中包括套装和迷你版），真正算下来只有 10 款左右单品，却能创造如此销量，实属罕见。
那么熟悉Hailey的都知道，Rhode是她在三年前才创立起来的，原本是一个轻量级直销品牌，团队小、开销少。Rhode 的产品风格走的是“简洁极致”、“干净女孩”等美学趋势。但是在E.l.f. 收购之后，Rhode 迅速扩张团队，建立起与大型零售商合作所需的批发与供应链体系。如今来看，E.l.f. 的经验与资源帮助 Rhode 在仅仅四个月之内就平稳完成了这次过渡。
在我的“柠檬变成柠檬水“播客里，我们曾经聊过Rihanna的Fenty品牌，Selena Gomez的Rare，以及金小妹Kylie Jenner的Kylie Cosmetics彩妆品牌。他们都曾经历过像Rhode这样一炮而红的现象，比如Kylie的唇膏套装在 2015 年问世时风靡一时，让她迅速成为亿万富翁。然而十年过去了，如今几乎谁还在关注谈论 Kylie 的美妆产品呢？
因此这个现象也反映了当下美妆零售的现实，那就是品牌生命周期被极大缩短。过去动辄数是十年的合作，如今往往只有 3 到 5 年。正因为如此，LVMH旗下的Sephora ，现在也正在重塑零售品牌的运营方式，他们更加注重短期独家合作和快节奏新品，而不是依赖可在百货公司随处可见的老牌。比如，他们最近推出了创作者平台，让网红可以在 Sephora 开设自己的个人“店铺”，有点类似亚马逊的模式，借此推广更多新的独立品牌。
这个做法让Sephora 收益巨大，只要他们不断获取下一个会火爆的品牌，钱财就会滚滚而来。这些品牌不一定需要长期存在，但能够在短期内带来巨大关注度与销量。当某个品牌退潮时，Sephora 可以迅速切换资源，扶持下一个潜力股。这种高效的迭代能力，让它始终处于行业潮流的前沿。
所以，Rhode 在 Sephora 的成功，不仅是 Hailey Bieber 本人的一次巨大胜利，也代表了当代零售与品牌逻辑的转变 - 在这个快节奏的行业里，没有哪个品牌能永远保持巅峰。
那么这种爆发式成功也带来了一些问题 。对消费者而言，这可能意味着不断被新品牌吸引，难以建立对某个品牌的长期忠诚；对 Sephora 而言，这些爆红品牌吸走了店内所有的氧气，让其他品牌在销量上受压制，未能带动他们的销量；对 Rhode 自身而言，挑战在于如何超越“短期爆款”，培养真正的消费者黏性，把一时的热度转化为长期竞争力。
因此Rhode 的夏天无疑是辉煌的，但在短周期零售逻辑下，它能否成为一个真正的长期品牌，仍是未知数。
而对于 Sephora 来说，答案已经很清晰：通过不断引入下一个 Rhode、下一个 Fenty、下一个 Rare，它不需要依赖任何单一品牌，就能稳坐全球美妆零售的头号商家。
The Summer of Rhode: Explosive Success and the Short Lifecycle of Modern Beauty Brands
Two weeks ago, Hailey Bieber’s skincare brand Rhode officially landed in Sephora stores, “coincidentally” on the very same day her husband Justin Bieber released his latest album Swag II. The result? Nothing short of an explosive success. According to my favourite online magazine Puck, Rhode marked the largest new product launch in Sephora’s history.
Back in May, Rhode was acquired by E.l.f. Beauty in a blockbuster $1 billion deal, and just after Labor Day it hit Sephora shelves across North America. Even before launch, Rhode was expected to perform well, but the actual numbers far exceeded even the most optimistic forecasts.
Why call it an “explosive success”? First-day sales alone reached $15 million, breaking Sephora’s all-time record and surpassing the debuts of fellow celebrity brands like Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty and Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty. Just a few days ago, Hailey Bieber herself was seen ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, looking chic in a tailored suit, a little shy as she spoke with Bloomberg and other business journalists about her vision for Rhode. For someone once regarded as “just Bieber’s wife,” this milestone must have felt surreal.
When I visited the Sephora store at Toronto’s Eaton Centre recently, Rhode’s counter was just as packed. In New York’s SoHo, I heard that most of the brand’s items sold out within hours on launch day, proof of Rhode’s strong consumer appeal. Remarkably, the brand launched with only 16 SKUs at Sephora (including kits and mini versions), which really boiled down to about 10 individual products, and yet achieved extraordinary sales.
For those who know Hailey, Rhode is a relatively young brand, founded just three years ago as a lean direct-to-consumer operation with a small team and minimal overhead. Its products embody the “minimalist” and “clean girl” aesthetic. But after the E.l.f. acquisition, Rhode quickly scaled up, building wholesale and supply chain systems to support large-scale retail distribution. In just four months, E.l.f.’s experience and resources helped Rhode transition smoothly into Sephora.
On my podcast Turn Lemons Into Lemonade, we’ve discussed other celebrity beauty brands like Rihanna’s Fenty, Selena Gomez’s Rare, and Kylie Jenner’s Kylie Cosmetics. All of them experienced explosive launches similar to Rhode’s. Kylie’s lip kits, for instance, became a cultural phenomenon when they debuted in 2015, helping her become a billionaire seemingly overnight. Yet a decade later, few are still talking about Kylie’s beauty line.
This highlights the current reality of the beauty retail market - brand lifecycles have shortened dramatically. Where partnerships once lasted decades, today they typically last only 3 to 5 years. That’s why Sephora has been reinventing its retail strategy. Instead of relying on legacy brands you can find in any department store, Sephora now prioritizes short-term exclusives and fast-moving launches.
For example, it recently introduced a creator platform that allows influencers to set up their own personal “shops” inside Sephora, similar to Amazon storefronts, promoting emerging brands directly to their customers. This approach has been hugely profitable. As long as Sephora keeps capturing the “next big thing,” the money keeps rolling in. The brands don’t need to last forever, as long as they burn bright in the short term. And when one fades, Sephora can swiftly switch to the next. This strategy keeps the retailer firmly at the forefront of beauty trends.
Back to Rhode, its success is not just a personal victory for Hailey Bieber, it’s also a reflection of a broader shift in how retail and brand-building now work. In today’s fast-paced beauty industry, no brand can stay on top forever.
Of course, such explosive growth comes with challenges. For consumers, it could mean constantly being drawn to new brands, making long-term loyalty harder to achieve. For Sephora, blockbuster brands like Rhode can dominate attention, overshadowing other labels instead of boosting them.. And for Rhode itself, the challenge lies in moving beyond the “short-term hype” to cultivate deeper consumer stickiness and turn momentum into lasting competitiveness.
So yes, Rhode’s summer has been nothing short of glorious. But whether it can become a true long-term brand in an industry defined by short cycles remains uncertain.
For Sephora, however, the path is clear - by continuously introducing the next Rhode, the next Fenty, the next Rare, it doesn’t need to rely on any single brand. That’s how Sephora secures its position as the undisputed global leader in beauty retail.