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The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Strategic decision · 2020–2025

Coty paid $200M for a stake in a Kardashian beauty brand — and sold it at a $71M loss

Coty bought 20% of KKW Beauty for $200M, relaunched it as SKKN by Kim — and sold the stake four years later at a $71.1M loss.

Coty Inc. · SKKN by Kim · KKW Beauty · Kim Kardashian (brand owner) · 2025-03-21

What happened

Coty agreed in June 2020 to buy a 20 percent stake in KKW Beauty, Kim Kardashian's cosmetics company, for $200 million — a valuation of $1 billion. The deal closed on January 5, 2021, and the brand relaunched on June 21, 2022 as SKKN by Kim, a skin-care line, then expanded into makeup on January 26, 2024.

On March 21, 2025, Coty ended the partnership: "Coty Inc. ... today announced the conclusion of its partnership with Kim Kardashian and the SKKN by Kim ('SKKN') brand, with the closing of the sale of its 20% stake in the brand to SKIMS." In its May 2025 earnings report, the company disclosed the divestment produced a $71.1 million loss.

The brand officially closed on June 29, 2025; the shutdown was reported publicly on September 18, 2025. The deal that had valued the business at $1 billion ended with Coty paying to leave: the stake it bought for $200 million was sold at a loss of more than a third of its value.

Why it happened

  • A celebrity-brand stake is a bet on one name: when the founder's own SKIMS company became the buyer, the old brand's reason to exist had moved on.
  • Coty paid a $1 billion valuation at the 2020 peak of celebrity-beauty deals; four years later a $71.1M loss was the price of exiting the hype cycle.
  • Relaunches changed the name and the category — KKW Beauty became SKKN by Kim, skin care became makeup — but never the dependency on the founder's attention.
What it cost$71.1M loss on a $200M stake; brand closedcostly

The lesson

A $200M bet on a celebrity's name is a bet on the name — when the founder's energy moved on, the only exit was a $71M loss and a closed brand.

Aftermath

SKKN by Kim closed on June 29, 2025, with the shutdown confirmed publicly in September 2025. Coty disclosed the $71.1 million loss on the sale in its May 2025 results. The founder's SKIMS business, which bought the stake, remained outside Coty's portfolio — a $1 billion valuation unwound into a footnote.

Sources

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