Fenty Beauty

Fenty Beauty is a cosmetics brand launched in 2017 by Rihanna in partnership with LVMH's Kendo Holdings, known for its inclusive shade range and direct consumer engagement approach. The brand has expanded into skincare, haircare, and fragrance, and is pioneering conversational commerce through AI-powered advisors on messaging platforms. The brand is widely credited with compelling the broader cosmetics industry to extend foundation shade ranges after its 40-shade launch exposed the gap as a commercial rather than logistical constraint. LVMH's Kendo infrastructure provides manufacturing scale and distribution reach while Fenty operates with a lean headcount and a high-margin DTC orientation — a structure that makes its early investment in conversational commerce tooling relatively low-risk to test at meaningful scale.

First mentioned: April 2026