Khloé Kardashian is famous enough that when I type her name, autocorrect fills in the accent mark above her “e.” She has 300 million Instagram followers, just 40 million shy of the entire US population. Her smallest movements on social media can become national news stories.
But commanding an audience bigger than many nations is no guarantee that those followers will turn into customers, especially in the fickle and crowded beauty industry. Even megastars like Rihanna and Taylor Swift have failed to stick the landing on fragrance — at least not yet.
To her credit, Kardashian laughed when I gently brought up these challenges via Zoom. “I’m very aware that fragrance is the hardest space in the beauty world to break into,” she said. “I’m really just happy to be here.”
11 months out from the launch of her solo scent, XO Khloé, Kardashian is readying to expand it into a fully fledged brand. Her strategy includes a hair mist, $32, with a lighter version of the original formula, and a new jasmine and musk scent, Almost Always, $80 both available from Monday. Almost Always was developed with master perfumer Alberto Morillas who also nosed the legendary CK One and modern classic Phlur Vanilla Skin. “When I say I want this to be a ‘long term beauty franchise,’ what I mean is that people should want these scents for decades,” Kardashian said.
“I’m not comparing myself to Elizabeth Taylor, but when I think of how that fragrance has such legs and such life, that’s what I imagine,” she said.
She’s off to a running start. XO Khloé, an $80 floral, fruity scent was an immediate hit. It launched into the plush UK department store Harrods in December 2024 before expanding to Ulta Beauty, where it currently boasts a 4.4 star rating among shoppers. Kardashian declined to give a sales figure; sources in the celebrity fragrance space suggest the fragrance is currently bringing in over $15 million a year.
“It really skyrocketed, right from the beginning,” said Tony Bajaj, chief executive of Luxe Brands, which licenses XO Khloé, adding that its goal is not short-term virality, but building a longer-term brand.
Kardashian is also uniquely positioned for success. Her marketing muscle combines her family’s fame, the branding acumen she displayed with her apparel line Good American and the pantheon of Luxe Brands, which has hit over $1 billion in sales with scents from Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj. Noreen Dodge, Luxe Brands chief marketing officer said Kardashian’s fans have really connected with the scent on an “emotional” level.
But celebrity beauty is a fickle beast. Earlier this month, her sister Kim Kardashian unveiled plans to relaunch beauty after her line languished under the care of US cosmetics giant Coty. Just last week, rumours swirled that Kendo, the beauty incubator within LVMH that created Fenty Beauty, is looking to offload its stake, while other brands like Drew Barrymore’s Flower have closed altogether. But the power of celebrity is still prescient: Kardashian’s other sister, Kylie Jenner, pulled off a marketing coup d’etat earlier this month with the “King Kylie” collection, honouring her brand Kylie Cosmetics’ ten-year anniversary, while Kim Kardashian’s Skims apparel brand is a juggernaut.
Luxe’s own executives admitted that it’s a precarious time to enter the market, as stars compete with agile Gen-Z whisperers like Phlur, Dedcool and Glossier, not to mention influencers like Mona Kattan and her Kayali brand. “Creative agility and the quality of execution matter an awful lot. You can recognise instantly when the talent is genuinely invested,” said Bajaj.
Kardashian said that being a family of entrepreneurs helps motivate her, but that each of her sisters ideate their own businesses independently. “I definitely bounce business ideas off my mom, because she’s one of the smartest women I’ve ever seen,” says Kardashian, but she insists that a “copy-paste” approach from her siblings’ businesses, wouldn’t read as authentic to her fans — or to her.
Underpinning Kardashian’s “authenticity” will be more blockbuster marketing. Dodge said that the brand benefits from Kardashian’s appearances on her own TV show, The Kardashians, as well as out-of-home campaigns, including projecting her face onto buildings across London during the holiday shopping season.
For her part, Kardashian says she remains committed to “nurturing and nourishing” the business as she did with Good American. “I can’t see myself doing a makeup line,” she said. “I mean, never say never, because then that comes and bites me in the ass! But when I say ‘long-term beauty franchise,’ I mean it…this is like a legacy.”
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