Rhode

The name almost didn't happen. After a "Bieber Beauty" trademark application was rejected, the founder fell back on her own middle name, and for a stretch in 2022 it became one of the most-discussed words in beauty. The aesthetic, though, had been in development far longer than the company — the "glazed donut" look went viral months before there was anything to buy, coined and modeled on social media until the demand effectively pre-sold the launch.

The brand was co-founded with Lauren and Michael D. Ratner — the latter a producer who had spent over a year shadowing the founder and her husband for a documentary series before she pitched him the skincare idea. That media-native team is a big part of why the discipline was so unusual for a celebrity line. Instead of flooding shelves, it opened with just three products — a peptide lip treatment, a barrier-supporting cream, and a glazing fluid — sold direct-to-consumer through its own site, with each launch staged like an event. The lip treatment and its viral phone-case carrier became genuine cultural objects, and a Krispy Kreme collaboration that turned a strawberry glazed doughnut into a lip flavor showed how fluently the brand merged product and meme.

The restraint paid off commercially in a way few peers manage, with net sales reportedly nearing $212 million in the fiscal year ending March 2025 — almost entirely before any meaningful brick-and-mortar rollout. The 2025 acquisition by a fast-growing mass-beauty company, with the founder staying on as chief creative officer, was a bet that her audience would follow the aesthetic onto store shelves, paying for a community as much as a chemistry set.

The honest read: the formulas are genuinely competent and pleasant, and the brand earns credit for editing where rivals pile on. But the price reflects the founder and the marketing machine as much as the actives, which are well-chosen yet not unique. Love the ritual and you'll be happy; buy purely on ingredients and cheaper equivalents exist.

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