Hailey Bieber's Rhode Skin, explained with data

Hi :)

Welcome back to The Devil Wears Data newsletter. I use this newsletter to give further insights about the videos I’ve uploaded, discuss new videos I’m working on, as well as any other relevant news. (You can see what video I’m working on next by scrolling to the bottom of this email 😊).

But first…

Have you heard about or tried Hailey Bieber’s Rhode Skin? (Side note: Hailey Bieber is an American model and wife of pop star Justin Bieber).

If you’re in the United States or Canada, you may have. If you’re outside of North America, maybe the company isn’t a big deal where you are quite yet.

But regardless, the company had a really successful summer, opening pop-up shops in major cities like NYC and Toronto, and saw lineups that were hours long. This made me wonder how the the company got popular so fast, and also made me wonder if it’ll be available in Sephora or Ulta soon. If you haven’t heard of the company, there are a few things to know (according to data).

I worked with Brandwatch, a brand data analysis firm, to run the data around how Bieber’s company is doing…

1. Lots of online chatter about the company

   The team analyzed comments of celebrity-backed beauty brands on Twitter, online reviews, blogs, Reddit, forums, news sources, Facebook, YouTube comments and Tumblr (TikTok and Instagram were excluded, since that’s where a lot of sponsorship deals tend to happen and the data can get skewed by overly positive comments from influencers). The data analyzed is from April 01, 2023 to June 30, 2024. They found that Rhode Skin is the most popular online brand in terms of mentions, second only to Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty! It beat out Kylie Cosmetics, SKKN by Kim, Haus Labs, R.E.M Beauty, and others!

2. The online chatter about Rhode appeared to be negative (!)

   When compared to other celebrity-backed beauty brands, it appears that Rhode Skin had the most negative comments online. The chart below shows that bad comments online (in red) outweigh the good comments online (in green) for the company. Compare this to Drew Barrymore’s Flower Beauty (the top bar in the chart), which has a mostly green bar, and you can see that Rhode appears pretty negative. But this isn’t the WHOLE story. When the team dug further, they found that the negative sentiments around Rhode Skin were actually positive comments like “you’ll never make me HATE her!” The word ‘hate’ skews the data to appear negative, which shows that data isn’t always perfect or accurate, and can’t tell us the whole story until we further dig into it!

Neutral comments were excluded from the analysis. An example of a neutral comment is: " Anyone tried Rhode Lip Tint. Been seeing so many shops sell them lately but wondering if it is really worth it or is it just the same as other glosses/balms/tints? Any review here from a user of Rhode?" This comment, and comments like these, don’t really say anything positive or negative, so it wasn’t included in the analysis.

Overall though, the mentions of the company online are high, especially since the summer.

Watch the video for more insight:

I wanted to know how the heck this brand blew up in just TWO short years. Is it really because Hailey is an American It girl or is there something more there? Could it have been the marketing? The products? Both? Neither? I made a video about it this week, where I spoke to sources in the industry, and dug into the company’s strategies over the years. Here’s a link in case you missed it!

What’s next on The Devil Wears Data?

I’ll be interviewing a few of Shein’s indie fashion designers in my next video. I ask them what it’s like collaborating with the brand to create clothes, if they’re treated fairly, if they’re paid well, and if they considered some of the ethics of working with a brand like Shein, which is often criticized online for its climate impact and poor working conditions. If you haven’t watched my previous video about Shein, the link is here.

Feel free to reach out to [email protected] if you have suggestions or feedback. You can also find me on LinkedIn where I sometimes tag my sources (if they consent). And I don’t yet post on Instagram but I will in the future so feel free to find me there. Where else would you want to see the DWD? Let me know :)

Thank you so much for reading! And a BIG thank you for 1 million views on my channel!! More to come.