HipDot is creating ‘collectible experiences’ with music-themed palettes
For indie make-up firm HipDot, collaborations have turn into the bread and butter — and there’s no scarcity of inspiration.
Since launching in 2019, HipDot has achieved make-up collaborations about ramen noodles, SpongeBob, “The Addams Household” and even the Monopoly board recreation, to call a number of. However it has additionally developed a specialised area of interest for music-themed magnificence collabs, following its runaway success in 2020 with emo rock band My Chemical Romance. On Tuesday, HipDot launched its newest model of music-themed magnificence, with two eyeshadow palettes formed like CDs for the rock bands Evanescence and Korn.
“Music and make-up are the proper matches as a result of they’re each about self-expression,” mentioned Jeff Sellinger, HipDot’s co-founder and CEO. “Music evokes moods and emotions the identical manner magnificence does; being entwined [with emotions] offers us the flexibility to attach these experiences.”
Sellinger declined to touch upon HipDot’s income, progress or fundraising. Shiny last reported in Dec. 2020 that HipDot had seen a 300% enhance in income that yr and beforehand obtained $2.5 million in seed funding in 2019. The collaborations with bands are licensing offers, however the manufacturers are actively concerned. Korn promoted the collaboration on its channel, and as of Tuesday’s launch date, the palette is already offered out. Each bands additionally weighed in on inventive, product and communications supplies, in accordance with HipDot.
Referring to the palettes as “collectible experiences,” HipDot needs to deliver the immersive component of albums to its shopper. Sellinger mentioned that album paintings and shade schemes have an extended historical past of creating music extra than simply auditory. However these parts have been misplaced because of the discount of music albums and discography into downloadable MP3s and streaming. Within the case of Korn, its “Comply with the Chief” album cowl encompasses a baby taking part in hopscotch towards the sting of a cliff and a gathering of children ready to comply with. Palette colours are earth-tone browns and gunmetal shades. Evanescence’s “Fallen” album is an up-close picture of the band’s co-founder and lead singer, Amy Lee, taken on her twenty first birthday. The palette colours characteristic a wide range of blues, grays and black.
A lot of the inspiration for HipDot’s new palettes got here from the wild success of its My Chemical Romance assortment. Despite the fact that the mid-aughts punk group hasn’t launched an album since 2010, when My Chemical Romance was introduced as a companion on HipDot’s Instagram, die-hard fan feedback flooded a Dec. 9 post. That submit obtained over 185,000 views and three,600 feedback, despite the fact that the HipDot Instagram solely had 166,000 followers on the time. The gathering featured a regular nine-shadow sq. palette, a liquid eyeliner and a double-edged eyeshadow brush.
A novel facet of the My Chemical Romance product launch was HipDot’s collaboration with followers on advertising supplies. It solicited from followers make-up appears impressed by the band and the palette, plus it tapped photographers who had been followers for distinctive photoshoots and reposted comedian strips concerning the make-up on its social channels, for instance. HipDot adopted up on the preliminary assortment with one other, centered on My Chemical Romance’s “Hazard Days” album, in July 2021. A “The Black Parade”-inspired palette launched in July 2022.
“What’s [helpful] is when a band creates a narrative round an album, which MCR does very properly. There’s a complete world, and that offers us extra to work with,” mentioned Mo Winter, co-founder and CMO of HipDot. “Though tremendous followers are usually not your typical magnificence influencers, they love to inform the story of a band, and it’s very genuine. It retains [us] from turning into generic and speaking an excessive amount of about ourselves.”
For the Evanescence and Korn palettes, HipDot will use comparable advertising methods, that means it can solicit followers to share make-up appears and work with photographers who’re current band followers, for instance. Sellinger mentioned he believes there’s extra alternative for music collaborations within the magnificence area. HipDot beforehand launched a five-product line with Kesha referred to as Kesha Rose in 2019. Based on the fan web site Keshapedia, the wonder line was not obtainable on the market as of Dec. 2022. Sellinger declined to touch upon why the road is not obtainable, saying HipDot put out a “nice expertise.”
“Customers need extra than simply placing logos on stuff,” mentioned Sellinger. “They wish to join with [products,] and that’s what we attempt to do by going deeper and bringing out the [artists’] DNA.”
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