This article on the Rhode lip case first appeared on British Vogue. Sign up to receive the Vogue Business newsletter for the latest luxury news and insights, plus exclusive membership discounts.
I have been stopped in the street. I have been interrogated at events. I have been harangued by friends and family. And I have been questioned by colleagues. But this isn’t because of a limited-edition accessory or can’t-get-hold-of fragrance. This is because of a phone case — a certain Rhode Peptide Lip Treatment-holding phone case that has been the talk of the town ever since it first dropped in February this year and has been the talk of the beauty town ever since.
Having had many (many) conversations about it with fellow beauty and fashion industry peers, I equate the sheer hysteria to multiple factors. The first being the Hailey Bieber effect: there is no denying the sway and influence (in the genuine sense of the word, rather than its modern adaptation) of Bieber and her ability to make anything from bob haircuts to nail trends a must-have. There is also the innovation – the Lip Case (as it’s called by the brand) is something that has never been done before and its sheer genius is much to be marvelled at. Then there is the product efficacy: to use the products is to know how they speak to the reparative glow they induce. But there is also the lesser-known reason, which is a certain president and chief brand officer, Lauren Ratner, who has been working behind the scenes alongside Bieber to shape and mould Rhode into the brand it is today.
Speaking exclusively to Vogue about the strategy behind the brand and its launches, she refers to Bieber as “the beauty whisperer”, someone who has an innate understanding of the beauty industry and what drives excitement and — importantly — sales. Having worked symbiotically on the brand from conception to launch and beyond, they have always been united in their idea of how to engage with the consumer: “When we met, we both saw similar whitespace for what Rhode could be and felt like there was an opportunity in the market to create a brand focused on these curated skincare essentials that were minimalist, highly efficacious and using high-performance ingredients, but at an accessible price point. I came on board to help her build the brand and bring her vision to life.”
Having previously held roles in marketing at both Michael Kors and Reformation before setting up her own LER Consulting business and coming on board with Rhode in 2020, before the brand launched in the summer of 2022, Ratner puts the brand’s success down to both her and Bieber not coming from traditional beauty backgrounds, which has meant they could be disruptive and approach a brand (in both product and marketing) in new ways. “We are building Rhode not following a traditional playbook. We are making decisions that are steeped in data and consumer insights, but they are also intuitive without any preconceived notion of what a launch or product should be, so I think that has allowed us to stand apart,” she adds.
Speaking about the Lip Case (a new drop lands today) specifically, she says, “We saw an opportunity to create a solution for a daily need. Our customer won’t go anywhere without their Peptide Lip Treatment, but it can be annoying to dig through your bag to find it or realise you left it at home. Since everyone has a phone glued to their hands, it was a natural fit to combine the two. The Lip Case is a product that marries both needs together in its simplicity.” It sounds so simple when it’s explained like this, and yet no one else has brought anything remotely close to market or sold their product in such an innovative way – the fact 200,000 and 400,000 people are on the wait lists for the Lip Case and Peptide Lip Tints, respectively, is testament to this.
So what is next for Rhode? The recently launched Rhode Kit of products housed in a covetable bubble bag has been another big moment, and there has been some teasing of some cheek colour coming from Bieber’s Instagram, but if there is one thing that we can be sure of, it is that whatever comes next is destined to be your next beauty must-have.
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