Kylie Jenner Just Lost Her Billionaire Status

Makeup mogul, reality star and just all round super famous gal Kylie Jenner has just lost her billionaire status – but I don’t suppose she’s about to lose any sleep over it.

The 22-year-old entrepreneur was then seeing dollar signs like never before when she sold 51% of her business to beauty giant Coty in January this year, in a deal believed to be valued at $1.2 billion.

However, Forbes is now reporting that, after taking a look into the fine print of the deal, Kylie Cosmetics is actually a lot smaller and less financially profitable than the family have led us to believe.

According to the publication, the Kardashian-Jenner clan has gone as far as creating tax returns likely to be forged in a desperate attempt to look richer than they actually are.

Taking this into account, as well as the impact the current, global health crisis has had on beauty stocks, it’s extremely likely Kylie is in fact not a billionaire at all.

Just moments after launching in November 2015, Kylie’s $29 lip kits had all sold out, and by the end of 2016 the then-teen had secured a reputation as a serious contender in the cosmetic industry.

Following Kim Kardashian’s Forbes cover the same year, the family are said to have set out on a mission to get Kylie a cover of her own, telling the publication Kylie Cosmetic revenues were $400 million in the first 18 months, with an eye-watering take home of $250 million for Kylie.

In 2016, ‘momager’ Kris Jenner apparently displayed a tax return to Forbes detailing $307 million in revenues and personal income of more than $110 million for Kylie that year. This would’ve bagged Kylie a spot at number two on the Celebrity 100 list, just behind Taylor Swift, but something didn’t add up.

Forbes and a number of analysts all agreed it would be impossible to go from nothing to $300 million in sales in just one year, and so they opted to place her at a more realistic estimate of 59 on the 100 celebrity rich list of 2017, with earnings of $41 million.

By 2018, the Jenners claimed Kylie Cosmetics was bringing in a revenue of $420 million, a number which analysts dubbed as ‘totally possible’ given the popularity of the brand by this point in time.

In July 2018, the family got what they wanted as Kylie, aged just 20, was placed on the front of Forbes magazine, hailed as 27th on its list of richest self-made women.

‘At age 20, she was worth $900 million, we estimated, and would soon become the youngest self-made billionaire ever,’ Forbes recalled.

The true finances of Kylie Cosmetics were revealed in the Coty presentation following their purchase of 51% of the company.

According to the presentation, revenues over a 12-month period preceding the deal were $177 million; a figure much lower than the published estimates at the time. In fact, Coty revealed sales were up 40% from 2018, but business had only generated around $125 million that year, which is a far cry from the $360 million claimed by the Jenners.

Although Forbes can’t prove that the documents were false, they say it’s very likely Jenners have been lying to inflate their business the entire time. It’s also suggested Kylie’s business suffered a 62% decline in online sales between 2016 and 2018.