Carol's Daughter had A-list investors — the stores still lost money every year

Carol's Daughter began in 1993 when Lisa Price started mixing hair and body products in her Brooklyn kitchen. She sold them at flea markets, built a following through word of mouth, and within a decade had a flagship store in Fort Greene, an e-commerce site, and a coveted spot on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

In 2005, the brand raised $10 million from a star-studded investor group that included Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, Jay-Z, Steve Stoute, and music executives Jimmy Iovine and Tommy Mottola. The capital was meant to transform a beloved indie brand into a national beauty powerhouse. Carol's Daughter launched on HSN, created an exclusive fragrance with Mary J. Blige, and in 2014 debuted a collection at Target.

But the seven retail stores — the foundation of the brand's growth plan — were quietly bleeding money. According to the company's own filings, most locations had been unprofitable since 2010. The celebrity investment and the Target deal could not compensate for brick-and-mortar stores that lost money every month.

In April 2014, Carol's Daughter filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Five of its seven stores were closed immediately, and 29 of 42 employees were laid off. Less than six months later, L'Oréal acquired the brand — buying the name, the online channel, and the Target partnership, leaving the physical retail behind. The Carol's Daughter of Lisa Price's vision was gone, and the lesson remained: celebrity investment cannot fix stores that were never profitable.