Rihanna, the Barbadian musician and nine-time Grammy award winner has been named a billionaire by Forbes.
With a further eight Billboard Music Awards and 13 American Music Awards under her belt, the ‘Umbrella’ singer is no stranger to success, or the limelight – but the majority of her wealth has not been earned from her singing career.
Fenty Beauty, named after the 33 year old’s birth name, Robyn Rihanna Fenty, began in 2017 as a joint venture with LVMH's brand incubator Kendo.
After lighting a fire under the inclusivity movement with her 50-strong foundation shades addressing the beauty needs of women with darker skin tones, Rihanna became the poster-girl of celebrity beauty brands and established her name in the sector.
According to Forbes, by the end of its first full calendar year, Fenty was bringing in around $550m in annual revenues, outpacing other rival celebrity brands, and was touted as one of Time’s ‘50 Genius Companies of 2018’.
This year, Fenty was crowned the wealthiest celebrity beauty brand of all time, almost doubling that of Jessica Alba’s The Honest Company in second, and with a net worth of £411.5m.
The success of Fenty’s make-up lines and skin care products, which entered the market in 2020, have projected its value to be US$1.4bn, which Forbes confirmed the singer owns 50% of.
The announcement by Forbes comes days before the singer releases Fenty’s first-ever fragrance, Fenty Parfum, which goes on sale next week.
Her success on and off stage now makes her worth $1.7bn, and earns her the title of the wealthiest female musician in the world, and second only to Oprah Winfrey as the richest female entrepreneur.
Savage x Fenty, a lingerie company also founded by the fashion mogul and TechStyle Fashion Group is worth $1bn, with her stake earning the former London, UK, resident around $270m.
Beauty’s billionaires
In joining the exclusive list, the Fenty Beauty founder becomes one of three billionaires named by Forbes who have established their fortune in the beauty space.
Despite having her status revoked in 2020, Kylie Jenner was named the youngest self-made billionaire by the publication in 2019 for the success of her namesake company Kylie Cosmetics.
Meanwhile, elder sister and founder of beauty rival brand KKW Beauty, Kim Kardashian propelled her net worth by $220m in a matter of months to join the billionaire’s club in April this year.
The bulk of Kardashian’s wealth, in spite of being a roaring success as a TV reality personality and fashion entrepreneur, comes from her make-up brand, which she sold a 20% share of to Coty, at $200m, in 2020.