Like many women who first started experimenting with make-up in the 1980s, I still expect my products to cost £4.99. When Louis Vuitton launched their £120 lipstick last week, it was the latest painful reminder that they really don’t. Like designer fashion, designer make-up has rocketed in price. And while there’s status to be derived from a Dior handbag or a Prada coat, only a fool would pay over the odds for Dior or Prada make-up.
Or so I thought – until I discovered Victoria Beckham’s Kajal eyeliner. The opposite of an impulse buyer, I research the hell out of everything I purchase – usually to the point that I end up not purchasing it at all. But Victoria’s eyeliner had been raved about on so many Instagram accounts – by women I respect – that I couldn’t help but wonder if it would be the answer to my ageing eyes’ prayers. What did I have to lose?
Well, £32 – four times the price of the Barry M eyeliner I’d been using since my teens (not literally the same one – conjunctivitis is never a good look), and £12 more than my favourite Mac liner. But then, this wasn’t just any eyeliner. This was VB’s Satin Kajal Eyeliner, a creamy, smudge-free, waterproof eyeliner infused with skin-loving ingredients for long-lasting wear, gliding on smoothly for eye-calming comfort in a single swipe that delivers dramatic eye definition any way you wear it.
Whether or not it saved my make-up bag is irrelevant. Of far greater importance is that Victoria Beckham’s Satin Kajal Eyeliner might save the company. On Tuesday, Victoria Beckham Holdings (VBH) revealed £4.5m of losses for 2024; the company’s 12th consecutive year in the red, amounting to a total of more than £68m in losses over 10 years.
Her critics have understandably leapt on these figures as evidence that Beckham really should have stuck to singing. But the situation isn’t nearly as gloomy as these figures suggest. As well as reporting its fourth consecutive year of double-digit revenue growth, sales (both on her website and in her flagship London store) grew by 26 per cent in 2024, representing a turnover of £112.7m, with a pre-tax profit of £2.2m. Impressive results at any time, but particularly so, given the current, perilous state of the luxury market. In the same period, heritage brand Gucci saw sales fall by 25 per cent.
Despite her well-received Paris catwalk shows and tireless dedication to promoting her own clothes, it’s not her £990 tuxedo jacket or her £1390 “Victoria” tote that are buoying sales, but her £32 eyeliner. So popular is the product that one is sold every 30 seconds, according to the brand. This is backed up by Selfridges, which reports that it’s not just the bestselling product in Beckham’s beauty range, but their bestselling eyeliner.
This is no mean feat in the hyper-competitive beauty market. Yes, Beckham has clout, as a former Spice Girl with a footballer husband and an enviable lifestyle through which to promote her fashion and beauty brands to her 32.9 million Instagram followers. But so does Selena Gomez (417 million followers), Hailey Bieber (55 million followers) and Kylie Jenner (392 million followers) – all of whom helm beauty brands, and are Beckham’s direct competitors – not to mention all the eyeliners formulated by Guerlain, L’Oréal, Estée Lauder and myriad other legacy brands which for decades have been household names.
As for how Beckham has achieved such success with a brand she only launched in 2019, it’s a mixture of tenacity and keenly-timed business sense. Her 2017 collaboration with Estée Lauder helped her to learn the ropes, but as with her fashion brand, Beckham is completely self-taught. Where the fashion world judges any lack of formal training harshly, the beauty world is more forgiving – which is one of the biggest reasons that her £32 Kajal eyeliner has emerged as such a hero product. It was inspired by her own love of a “smoky eye”, and formulated to her exacting (and she’s very exacting) specifications. Heavily promoted across all of her social media channels, it quickly became a bestseller, aided by regular make-up tutorials on Tiktok, which have amassed tens of millions of views.
If she’s the best advertisement for her own clothes, Beckham is an even better advertisement for her own beauty products; a 51-year-old mother of four who is as time-pressed as the rest of us, despite her formidable net worth. Her self-deprecating humour works well on TikTok, a platform that prizes “realness” over remoteness. “Victoria is the ultimate ambassador for the products she creates and uses, and has generated real desirability around her beauty line, thanks to the perfect balance of buzz, expertise and access,” notes Melissa McGinnis, the director of beauty at Selfridges. “Products are always innovative, both to the beauty collection as a whole, and to her legions of fans’ daily beauty routine. Everything feels considered and personal. The Kajal is one of those instant classics that everyone needs: it’s easy to use, buildable and blendable.”
Elite saleswoman as Beckham is, her beauty brand’s success will always rest on the quality of its products. As the overwhelmingly positive 34,634 reviews on her website attest, the eyeliner really is a hero product. Of the 21 colour options, I bought the bronze, a warm brown with a subtle iridescence that looks less harsh than a darker shade, glides on easily and lasts all day. It’s easily the best eyeliner I’ve ever used.
The Telegraph’s beauty director, Sonia Haria, is another fan. “Victoria has turned a very ordinary make-up bag item into something highly covetable,” she says. “They are not cheap, but they perform brilliantly – it’s no surprise that they consistently sell very well, and have become the product in her range that has cut through to a mass audience. It comes in lots of shades, too, so has collectable appeal: I know women who have a reasonably cheap and cheerful make-up collection, plus a good few of Beckham’s eyeliners in the mix. As a beauty editor, it’s a product I recommend time and time again, and use regularly myself.”
Given that her beauty brand (which comprises make-up, skincare and fragrance) is said to account for 20 per cent of total sales, some industry insiders are wondering whether she will scale back the fashion element of her business to focus more on beauty. This is unlikely. “Fashion is an essential part of Brand VB’s cachet,” says one source. “Much as a couture collection drives perfume sales, her catwalk shows have a similar role to play in driving her beauty offer.”
Approached for comment, a spokesman for VBH cited new product launches, plus plans to open in more department stores in the UK and France, as evidence of its commitment to womenswear. “We’ve seen a remarkable evolution into a global luxury business with real resonance, generating over £100m in sales, despite the tough backdrop,” says David Belhassen, VBH’s board director and founder of NEO Investment Partners. “The brand’s increased desirability is a testament to the strength of our vision, the power of Victoria’s iconic image and style, and the dedication of our team.” July’s appointment of a new chief executive, Sybille Darricarrère Lunel (who previously held a senior position at Christian Dior Couture), shows further commitment to growing the brand.
As will a forthcoming Netflix series, due to air in October and set to do for Victoria what 2023’s hit David Beckham documentary did for her husband. Focusing on her spirng/summer 2025 Paris Fashion Week show, the series will follow her journey from launching the business in 2008 alongside a deeper look into her rise in fashion and beauty. No need to ask which eyeliner Victoria will be wearing.