Kim Kardashian West can officially add "beauty entrepreneur" to her ever-evolving resume, alongside reality TV superstar, mobile gaming mogul and Forbes cover subject.
The 36-year-old announced her new cosmetics company, KKW Beauty, at Forbes' Women's Summit on June 13th. It was not an unexpected move given both the enormous success of younger half-sister Kylie Jenner's lip kit business and her own well-documented love of the "glam
" process, as professional hair and makeup application is known in entertainment circles.
"After 10 years of getting my makeup done every single day, I've really put that knowledge into action and production," said Kardashian West in an interview with Forbes a week before the launch.
Like Kylie Cosmetics, Kardashian West's new brand is manufactured by Oxnard, Calif. company Seed Beauty, best known until last year for cult favorite ColourPop, a line of bright, inexpensive makeup popular with young YouTubers.
On Wednesday morning at 9am Pacific, fans hovered over laptop keyboards and mobile browsers to snap up KKW Beauty's first product: a line of contour kits for those hoping to emulate the star's trademark defined, highlighted look for $48 plus shipping.
Kardashian West live-tweeted as each shade sold out, starting with 'Medium' just 12 minutes in and and 'Light' a few minutes later.
Less than three hours in, every shade of contour kit had sold out. A KKW Beauty representative confirmed there'll be a restock announced in the near future.
Neither the star nor her team would confirm just how many kits were sold on day one. Trade publication Women's Wear Daily posited on Tuesday that KKW Beauty would have at least 300,000 products at the ready, having used sales of a lipstick kit created in collaboration with Kylie Cosmetics in April as a "litmus test."
If that 300,000 figure is accurate, KKW Beauty sold $14.4 million in contour kits on Wednesday, all before lunchtime in Los Angeles.
Kardashian West's sell-out first day comes on the heels of allegations that promotional photos for KKW Beauty had been doctored, her skin darkened well beyond its natural shade. She responded to this blackface controversy in the New York Times, saying: "We saw the problem, and we adapted and changed right away. Definitely I have learned from it."
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