Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty is making a bet on the gaming business in the shape of a $250 makeup kit
Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty is launching a new collection in collaboration with Netflix’s “Arcane” series.
Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty is making a bet on the gaming business.
The beauty line is collaborating with “Arcane,” the animated action series that’s been turned into a hit Netflix show, for a makeup collection called “Fenty Beauty x Arcane: The Legends Vault.” The show is based on Riot Games’ “League of Legends.”
According to Fenty Beauty’s website, the collaboration is meant to showcase how “glam + animation collide.” The box set features several characters from “Arcane” and includes five limited edition shades of Fenty’s Gloss Bomb Universal Lip Luminizer. The line also includes a blue mascara, a gold highlighter, and a gold liquid eyeliner.
“I’ve always been inspired by powerful women and storytelling, and Arcane really brings that to life,” Priscilla Ono, a makeup artist from Fenty Beauty, said of the collaboration in a video released by the makeup brand last week.
The “Arcane” set retails for $250. It’s set to launch on November 2.
The intersection of gaming, television, and celebrity
The line’s launch represents the intersection of three major entertainment pillars — and it shows how gaming is moving further into the mainstream.
Rihanna might have made her name in entertainment, but it was Fenty Beauty that made her a billionaire. Forbes estimates she’s worth $1.4 billion, making her one of the world’s richest celebrities.
She launched the beauty brand in 2017 in partnership with the French luxury goods giant LVMH. Fenty made waves by offering products for a wide range of skin tones. By 2018, the brand had brought in around €500 million in annual revenue, LVMH said.
Today, LVMH owns half of the company. Fenty’s products are sold online and in Sephora, the major beauty retailer also owned by LVMH. In its 2023 year-end report, LVMH reported that Fenty posted robust growth.
This is not Fenty’s first collaboration with the gaming world. In 2023, it partnered with Roblox, the online gaming platform, to allow players to make their own Gloss Bomb lip gloss. She later released a limited edition lip gloss shade from the same collaboration.
It’s also not the first time Netflix has collaborated with a cosmetics company to promote one of its shows. In May, for the hit period romance series “Bridgerton,” Netflix launched a partnership with the cosmetics company Lush.
Gaming moves into the mainstream — and brings in a lot of eyeballs
News of the collaboration comes as “Arcane” is set to release its second season in November.
The first season of “Arcane” was released in 2021. It topped Netflix’s charts as the No. 1 English-language series globally from November 15 to November 21 of that year. Viewers watched 38.4 million hours of the show that week.
The second season is set to drop in three parts on November 9, 16, and 23.
Gaming is in the spotlight outside of Netflix, too — and the business of gaming is thriving.
“League of Legends,” the game on which “Arcane” is based, is in the final stages of the 2024 World Championship. So far, the matches have sold out arenas in two European cities.
T1 will now head to London’s O2 Arena in Wembley for the Worlds 2024 final, where it will face China’s BiliBili Gaming. Tickets for the finals range from $55 to $197.
Animated series based on games are also topping the charts.
Critical Role, the US company known for its long-running “Dungeons & Dragons” campaigns and sold-out arena shows, just released the third season of its Amazon-backed animation, “The Legend of Vox Machina.” Amazon is doubling down on its nerdworld bet, too, greenlighting a fourth season of the show for Prime Video.
Representatives for Netflix, Riot Games, and Fenty Beauty didn’t respond to requests for comment from B-17, sent outside business hours.
