How Colourpop is Taking the Beauty World by Storm
By Maddie Casey
Source: Colourpop (twitter)
With their limited release on Sephora’s website back in October, Colourpop became the headline of all beauty news, and seemed to be all that anyone could talk about—beauty bloggers and common makeup-wearers alike. But this affordable makeup brand had a history long before its arrival to Sephora’s online store.
Source: Colourpop
Colourpop started out in 2014 in Los Angeles, California and was created by cosmetics brand, Seed Beauty. The makeup brand is marketed as being incredibly inexpensive as well as cruelty free, while still maintaining consistently high quality products. Many beauty bloggers have been raving about Colourpop since their early days, and those involved in the beauty community have been stunned by their extreme affordability and amazing quality; Colourpop products are less expensive than most brands at the drugstore, with some of their most raved about products including their Super Shock Shadows, Super Shock Highlighters, Ultra Matte Liquid Lipsticks and Lippie Stix.
This cosmetics brand has a unique system of marketing products—or at least they did, until the Sephora launch. Their target demographic is adolescent and millenial women and most of their marketing is done through social media and influencers. Why did Colourpop suddenly become talked about after its original launch, you may ask? Being spoken highly of by beauty Youtubers and bloggers is a great way of gaining traction these days, and the best way to achieve that is for companies to send their products in PR. So that’s exactly what Colourpop did.
Source: KathleenLights (YouTube)
In 2015, Colourpop gained media attention because of rumors surrounding their products and pop-culture icon, Kylie Jenner’s then-new makeup line. Since the lab that Kylie Cosmetics uses to create their products, Spatz Labs, is owned by the same company as Colourpop, rumors began to spread that Kylie’s lip kits were just repackaged Colourpop liquid lipsticks. Although Colourpop, Kylie Cosmetics and the owners of the parent company, Seed Beauty, denied these rumors and stated that Colourpop products had their own lab and were not even created in the same facility as Kylie’s, rumors persisted. This brought even more PR to Colourpop, an already social-media hyped brand, and highlighted its affordability especially as compared to other lines.
Source: Time.com
By late 2017, Colourpop already had a cult online following. However, with its release at Sephora, they officially hit the mainstream. Although their whole line is not yet available at Sephora, simply having products sold in-store is revolutionary for the brand. They are exponentially cheaper than most other brands sold at Sephora, and being on display exposes the brand to many people that their social media marketing hasn’t reached. People who have never even heard of Colourpop before can now try their products, and it’s definitely appealing when one of their single eyeshadows only costs $5!
Source: PopSugar
In the past few months, Colourpop has gone almost over-the-top with new releases. Within just a few weeks in the late fall, they released four eyeshadow palettes, and many people feel like they can’t keep up. The hype surrounding these releases is definitely contributing to the brand’s popularity and is a big part of the reason people just won’t stop talking about it. If, after reading this article, you’re intrigued to check Colourpop out, or you’re a longstanding fan who wants to try more, we have some good news. On January 5th, Colourpop launched 15 brand new Super Shock Single Eyeshadows. The shades are being raved about all over the internet for their vibrant colors and great pigmentation, and at $5 a (Colour) pop, they’re definitely worth checking out.
Source: Hypebae
