Skims Beauty, Kim Kardashian's next cosmetics venture, is set to arrive in 2027 — and it marks her third attempt at building a lasting beauty business. According to Cosmetics Business, Kardashian teased the line across social media in June this year and all but confirmed the 2027 return in a September reply to a comment on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
The launch matters because of what it consolidates, not just what it sells. In March, Skims bought back Coty's 20% stake along with Kardashian's own 80% stake in the old beauty business, pulling her clothing, cosmetics, skincare and fragrance operations under one umbrella for the first time. The question Cosmetics Business poses is blunt: can she stick the landing in what it calls one of the fiercest and most competitive eras for beauty? For related coverage, see Physical vs. Chemical Exfoliation: How Each One Actually Works.
For readers who track celebrity brands the way they track ingredient lists, the more useful question is what changes the third time around. Here is the full timeline, and what each move signals.
How did Kim Kardashian's first two beauty ventures unfold?
The record, per Cosmetics Business, runs like this. Kardashian launched KKW Beauty in 2017, starting with makeup and fragrance. In 2021, beauty giant Coty acquired a 20% stake in the business for US$200m. A year later, the brand relaunched as SKKN by Kim. That is two names, two structures and one major outside investor in under five years.
Then came the reset. In March of this year, Skims bought Coty's share in the business, along with Kardashian's 80% stake. That deal brought everything — clothing, cosmetics, skincare and fragrance — under the Skims name for the first time. SKKN by Kim was shut down over the summer in anticipation of the relaunch under Skims.
Why the ownership shuffle matters
The Coty stake sale in 2021 and the buyback this March are the two facts that frame everything else. A 20% stake for US$200m valued the business at a moment when celebrity beauty was drawing serious institutional money. Buying that stake back, and folding the beauty assets into Skims, reverses the structure: one brand, one owner, no outside beauty investor. Cosmetics Business notes this is the first time all of Kardashian's businesses have sat under a single umbrella. This connects to our earlier piece, The Honest Guide to Buying Refurbished Beauty Tools.
It also explains the shutdown. SKKN by Kim did not fail publicly or get discontinued in a scandal — it was closed over the summer specifically to make room for a relaunch under Skims. That is a consolidation move, and consolidation usually signals that the founder's team wants a clean slate rather than a patched-over brand.
What does the 2027 launch actually signal?
Two signals stand out from the reporting. First, the confirmation came from Kardashian herself, in a September response to a comment on X, after a June social media tease. Founders rarely confirm a launch that way unless the timeline is real; a soft tease stays vague, a reply to a commenter is close to a commitment.
Second, the relaunch inherits Skims' brand equity rather than starting cold. KKW Beauty had to introduce itself in 2017. Skims Beauty arrives with a name already attached to a business spanning clothing, skincare and fragrance. Whether that equity transfers from shapewear to cosmetics is the open question — the reporting raises it but does not answer it.
Can a third attempt survive this market?
Cosmetics Business frames the current era as one of the fiercest and most competitive for beauty, and that framing is the piece's central tension. The facts support the difficulty: this is attempt number three, the previous structure involved a US$200m stake sale that has since been unwound, and the intervening brand was shut down entirely. None of that proves the new launch will struggle. It does show that the first two structures did not hold.
What remains unknown is the substance. The available reporting does not include product details, prices, formulations or a specific launch date beyond the 2027 window. For a label-reading audience, that is the part worth waiting on: whatever Skims Beauty promises, the ingredient lists and the pricing will be the evidence that counts. We will follow the launch as details land in beauty news coverage, and the business side sits alongside our fashion news reporting on the wider Skims operation.
The honest read for now: the ambition is consolidation, the timeline is 2027, and the market test has not started yet.
