Most celebrity beauty brands launch at Sephora and pray. Kourtney Kardashian’s supplement line built credibility through Erewhon and Ulta first, then used Target and TikTok Shop to scale without destroying the brand. The sequencing matters more than founders realize.
Kourtney Kardashian and Simon Huck didn’t follow the celebrity beauty playbook when they launched Lemme in September 2022, which is probably why it worked. Instead of announcing a Sephora exclusive or a Target partnership with the requisite press release and influencer seeding campaign, they launched a direct-to-consumer offering with three gummy supplements and allowed the brand to build credibility quietly through retailers that mattered for positioning rather than volume. LemmeLive.com went live with Lemme Chill, Lemme Focus, and Lemme Matcha, and somewhere between that September launch and January 2024, the brand secured placement at Erewhon, Ulta Beauty, Revolve, and Amazon.
The retail strategy looked almost accidental from the outside, like Lemme was just picking up distribution wherever it made sense, but the cumulative effect of those placements created something most celebrity brands struggle to achieve, which is legitimacy that existed independent of Kourtney’s fame. By the time Lemme expanded to Target in January 2024, sixteen months after the initial DTC launch, the brand wasn’t a Kardashian trying to make supplements happen, but a wellness brand that Erewhon carried and Ulta stocked, and was founded by someone famous. That distinction matters more than most founders realize because it shapes how every subsequent customer perceives the brand, and it’s why Lemme’s TikTok Shop strategy succeeded when most celebrity supplement brands underperform in performance channels.
Why Target Reinforced Premium Positioning
Target became one of those rare retail expansions that reinforced premium positioning rather than diluting it, which almost never occurs when a brand moves from specialty to mass. Within days of launching at Target, Lemme became one of the retailer’s top supplement brands, and the velocity came from customers recognizing a brand they’d seen at Erewhon and Ulta now available at their local Target for the same $30 price point. The perception wasn’t “Target is selling celebrity supplements” but rather “I can get that Erewhon brand at Target,” which is a completely different psychological framework for purchase. Same product, same price, entirely different context that made Target feel like accessible distribution rather than a step down from prestige.
Why Creators Wanted to Promote Lemme
The TikTok Shop performance demonstrated why that sequencing mattered in ways that only become clear when you look at how creators talked about the brand versus how they talk about typical TikTok Shop supplements. Lemme launched on TikTok Shop with over 13,000 affiliates, who generated more than 53,000 videos, which equates to almost five pieces of content per creator, rather than the standard one sponsored post. That volume came partly from incentive design, where creators who made more videos earned higher commissions, but the real driver was that creators actually wanted to make that content because promoting Lemme gave them social capital in ways that promoting another random supplement brand couldn’t replicate.
University students creating TikTok content about Lemme weren’t just selling gummies they found scrolling through TikTok Shop, but were selling a brand carried at Erewhon, where Hailey Bieber gets her smoothies and a single grocery run costs $800. That association transferred to the creators themselves, so promoting Lemme made them appear to have access to premium wellness products rather than to be shilling for commission checks. The content reflected this difference in ways that are subtle but significant; creators showed Lemme displays at Erewhon, compared prices between Erewhon and Ulta and their TikTok affiliate links, positioned their codes as getting the Erewhon product cheaper.
Subscriptions Changed TikTok Shop Economics
Lemme also mastered the subscription feature in TikTok Shop, which changes the entire unit economics of using TikTok Shop as a customer acquisition channel. After a customer makes an initial purchase through a creator’s affiliate link, Lemme offers a subscription at checkout with 15% off for automatic monthly delivery, so the creator gets credited for the initial sale while Lemme captures lifetime value through recurring revenue that compounds monthly. The math makes TikTok Shop viable in ways that treating it as a one-time transaction channel never could, because customer acquisition through TikTok Shop costs roughly $50 when you factor in creator commissions and GMV Max spend (TikTok’s paid amplification tool that turns top-performing creator content into ads), which means a one-time purchase at $30 loses $20 per customer. The same customer, subscribing and generating $210 over six months at $35 per month, makes $160 per customer, and suddenly the channel that appeared to be burning money becomes the growth engine.
The subscription conversion rate stays high because of how Lemme positioned from day one, which brings us back to why the retail sequencing mattered.
Most Celebrity Brands Fail on Distribution
Most celebrity supplement brands approach distribution in ways that guarantee they’ll plateau after the initial launch spike, either by announcing a Sephora or Target exclusive at launch and relying entirely on celebrity fame to drive sales, or by launching DTC-only and burning money on Instagram ads without ever building enough credibility to justify retail placement. Both strategies cap growth because positioning never establishes beyond “celebrity made this,” which might drive initial curiosity but doesn’t build the kind of brand equity that supports subscriptions, repeat purchases, or creator enthusiasm six months later, when the celebrity has moved on to promoting something else.
Lemme avoided both traps by building retail credibility before scaling performance channels, which sounds obvious but requires patience most celebrity founders don’t have because they’re used to leveraging opening doors immediately rather than having to prove product-market fit first. The brand launched DTC to control the narrative and test whether customers wanted what they were selling, then added prestige touchpoints through Erewhon and Ulta that signaled quality without requiring the kind of volume that forces you to discount or compromise on positioning. Target came after those pieces were in place, which made the mass expansion feel like democratizing access to something premium rather than a desperate attempt to move inventory through whichever retailer would take it.
Target Launch Was a Milestone
Simon Huck told Glossy that he and Kourtney discussed Target placement “before we even had tangible products,” saying the brand felt like it belonged on Target shelves, but they didn’t go straight there because going straight to Target would have positioned Lemme as a mass brand trying to trade up rather than a premium brand expanding access. When Lemme finally launched at Target in January 2024, Huck hosted a breakfast event at the Westlake Village Target with Kourtney, Kris Jenner, and Khloé Kardashian, turning what could have been a routine retail expansion into a milestone moment that reinforced this was an arrival rather than a compromise. The spectacle worked because by that point, Lemme had already proven the business worked in channels that didn’t require celebrity endorsement to drive sales.
Content Volume Created Algorithmic Advantage
The TikTok Shop content volume created algorithmic advantages that brands optimizing for polished creative can’t match, because TikTok’s algorithm needs volume to learn what works and volume only comes from creators who genuinely want to make content rather than creators fulfilling sponsored post obligations. Lemme’s 13,000 affiliates generating 53,000+ videos meant the algorithm had massive amounts of data to optimize distribution, learn which hooks converted, identify which audiences responded, and push subsequent content to people most likely to buy. Brands making 100 polished videos with production budgets and creative directors can’t compete with that kind of organic creator enthusiasm because the algorithm rewards authentic engagement over production value, and authentic engagement only happens when creators believe promoting your brand makes them look good to their followers.
The brand is now the number one beauty ingestible at Target, according to company statements; maintains placement across all Erewhon locations; and drove $13 million through TikTok Shop in November, reaching $30 million in revenue within sixteen months of launch, with 25% month-over-month growth, according to Glossy reporting from January 2024.
Lemme worked because Kourtney Kardashian and Simon Huck understood that where your product sells determines what customers think it’s worth, more than product formulation, marketing spend, or celebrity endorsement ever could.
If this article interests you, listen to this week’s episode of The Art of the Brand which will launch on Wednesday. We spent a solid segment breaking down the stats and details that your brand needs to know to get ahead. If you respond to this email, my EA will save your response to send you the episode when it’s out.
Thanks for reading today,
Xx Camille
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