by “I love winning – winning is my life,” said Serena Williams, sitting on a couch overlooking the backyard of her West Palm Beach, Fla. home.
About 30 feet away is a private tennis court, and a long wooden table to Williams’ left is covered in mood board images, from which several themes can be imagined – dewy skin, defined brows, a layer of neutral to bold. -colored lips. Scattered throughout the photos are cosmetic packaging boxes, each a bright yellow-green hue called “Wyn Chartreuse”—the signature color of Williams’ new makeup line, Wyn Beauty.
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“Our cartridge pays homage to the tennis ball, which pays homage to the championships, which pays homage to the idea of winning,” continued the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion, widely hailed as the greatest women’s tennis player of all time.
Since playing her final official tennis match at the 2022 US Open, Williams has been busy. She introduced her recovery brand, Will Perform, that Christmas in Target stores; welcomed her second daughter, Adira, last summer, and over the past year and a half has realized her vision for Wyn – a brand she started talking about with retailer Ulta Beauty before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m working on [Wyn] for about six years now,” said Williams, who teamed up with joint venture partner Good Glamm Group as well as Ulta to introduce the vegan, cruelty-free line. The launch comes not only at a time when the makeup category is booming – Circana reports that makeup sales will increase by 15 per cent in 2023 – but also when female athletes are quickly gaining traction in beauty, with buzzy brands like Glossier , Mielle Organics and La Roche-Posay are approaching the group for ambassadorships.
Female athletes running their own beauty brands – marked by tennis stars and SPF lines – is a more savvy phenomenon. Four-time Grand Slam singles champion Naomi Osaka launched her Kinlò sun care brand in 2021, and in 2014 Russian player Maria Sharapova – including five Grand Slam titles – became co-owner of Holly Thaggard’s Blackstone-owned Supergoop now.
The first elite athlete to employ her own makeup brand, Williams aimed to leverage not only her celebrity but her sport and experience as a Black woman and working mother for Wyn’s development.
“We feel for Wyn – for one, because he’s been doing it for a long time, but also because of what Serena shows the consumer. She is very powerful; she’s probably the most recognizable female athlete in the world, she’s got power and it just so happens that she’s always been passionate about beauty,” said Monica Arnaudo, chief merchandising officer at Ulta, where Wyn launches Wednesday online and in 680 doors, merchandise in chartreuse, gold and net gondolas in front of the store.
The retailer has benefited from the celebrity beauty boom, having snapped up beauty icon Tracee Ellis Ross and long carried the fragrance lines of Ariana Grande and Billie Eilish. “We’ve seen the success of those brands and how they identify with our guests,” said Arnaudo, adding that Wyn’s accessible price point makes the brand possible to capture a broad share of consumers. “We have the mass to achieve prestige to the point of transformation – Wyn lies right in the middle.”
Ranging in price from $18 for a hydrating lip serum to $29 for an SPF 30 gel-cream skin tint in 36 shades, Wyn aims to offer high-performance products that cater to an active lifestyle—whatever that looks like.
“One could work for 9 to 5; it could be me, mom — it could be someone who works at home and is on Zoom meetings. Active doesn’t mean you have to win Grand Slams or Wimbledon trophies – which is fine too, because – check,” Williams laughed. “It’s about that one-application formulation where you can apply it once and be able to rely on it all day long.”
Ulta will market the launch through a series of social content in which Williams details her locker room makeup routine and inspiration for Wyn; free brand gifts with purchase, and in-store voices by Williams encouraging shoppers to check out the line. While neither Williams nor Ulta commented on sales expectations for the launch, industry sources expect Wyn could make between $40 million and $50 million during its first year on the market.
Other offerings comprising Wyn’s 10-product range include 96 soft matte container stocking units in 20 shades; tube mascara; waterproof liquid eyeliner; eyebrow and eye pencils; hybrid lip and cheek color, and matte and satin lipsticks, each of which comes in 10 shades. The complex and lip products are infused with jojoba oil, sunflower extracts, squalane and other hydrating ingredients to provide nourishment during wear.
“Longevity was the most important thing to me,” said Williams, whose winged eyeliner became her on-court signature during the second half of her tennis career. “I was always on something – as a tennis player, you’re sweating and bleeding so it’s like, ‘What can I wear that best represents myself?’ – but that’s not very easy either.”
In other cases, Williams would struggle with products that didn’t properly suit her skin tone.
“For years I would travel to countries that didn’t make products for me, but I still had to show up to the press, to events and I had to look decent,” continued Williams, who as a result had to sustain . his own makeup skills at a very young age. “I had to promote myself, learn how to do my own face to be able to show years ago, when these 20 to 40 shade ranges didn’t exist.”
When creating Wyn’s skin tints and concealers, Williams started with the darkest skin tones first, working her way towards the lighter shades to ensure that people of all skin tones could use her products. The Ulta brand – which now carries 50 Black-owned and -based brands – takes one step closer to achieving the 15 Percent commitment. The retailer is approaching the halfway mark of 15 percent in its total selection; in hair care, it reached 15 percent in 2023.
In addition, Wyn embraces Ulta’s Conscious Beauty range, which is important to Williams. “A big key for me was ‘clean,'” she said, motioning toward her backyard fruit patch, chicken coop and bee garden. “As much as we understand gut health, we need to start understanding what is being put on our face. The place where the journey began is clean.”
Among Williams’ earliest encounters with makeup were her children’s regular raids of her mother’s red lipstick collection. “I used to put it on my lips, then my cheeks and my eyelids – then my dad would be like, ‘You can’t wear red lipstick,’ and I was like, ‘ Oops,’” said Williams, whose passion for beauty goes wide; in 2020, she started a 240-hour class to get her nail technician license. “I’ve been doing my nails since I was very young, so I’d love to learn those aspects.”
For Williams, who divides her time between Wyn, Will Perform and Serena Ventures, the venture capital fund she founded in 2017 to support underrepresented founders, part of the significance of this launch is the synergy it brings to her ongoing efforts. .
“They all come together in the end — whether it’s Will Perform or Wyn or Ventures — they all talk to each other, with Ventures like the mom,” said Williams, whose goal is to create Wyn’s debut collection than to curate their essentials line, with future innovation to be informed by consumer feedback.
“Those 10 items are, if you were on ‘Survivor’ and only had 10 things in your makeup kit and you still wanted to look good because you’re going to be on camera – this is it.”
Serena Williams’ Favorite Makeup & Hair Through the Years [PHOTOS]
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Launch Gallery: Serena Williams’ Favorite Makeup & Hair Through the Years [PHOTOS]
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