Stop chasing likes and start building genuine meaning was the crystal-clear message from the chief product officer (CPO) at global beauty empire Rare Beauty at Vogue Codes 2025.
Addressing hundreds of attendees at the Sydney event on Saturday, CPO Joyce Kim brought equal parts heart and insight to delivering a keynote that cut through industry noise with a firm message around brand purpose.
“Success isn’t just measured by market share or by profit, but how many people we empower, how many barriers we break down, and how many lives we impact positively,” Kim said.
“As you build your careers, your brands and your dreams, ask yourself not only what you want to achieve, but how you can positively affect those around you?
“Truly successful brands aren’t just built, they’re developed.”
Kim, who had jetted in from the US, unpacked how Rare Beauty, the disruptive brand founded by actress and singer Selena Gomez, continues to grow its global cult status without following the standard playbook.
The brand launched exclusively at Sephora in 2020, with Joyce the driving force behind its innovative product strategy, collaborating closely with founder Gomez to bring her vision to life.
She confessed she’s still taken aback at times when Gomez impromptu calls her to riff off new product ideas and thoughts.
Discussing the experience of working with Gomez, Kim said what struck her wasn’t the celebrity factor of working with the star, but it was the mission.
Floored by Gomez’s clarity of vision, the star wasn’t trying to slap her name on a product, but she wanted to “change the conversation in beauty”.
In a beauty industry often dominated by filters, hype cycles and unattainable ideals, Rare Beauty is quietly (and powerfully) rewriting the rules. At the heart of its success? A brand philosophy rooted in the three values of “authenticity, inclusion and purpose”.
The trio of buzzwords may sound like a deceptively simple answer to what makes Rare Beauty so special, but as a deeper shift in what beauty brands are beginning to stand for takes place, Rare Beauty is walking the talk and has been since day one.
Designed with inclusive packaging that considers dexterity challenges, and money going to a charity that addresses mental health and self-acceptance, “inclusion is at our heart,” Kim said.
“I truly believe that what makes a brand great is an aspiration to do something more important than just sell products,” she said.
“Rare Beauty’s purpose is to break down unrealistic beauty standards and nurture self-acceptance. Beauty should be a source of joy and comfort, not insecurity”
From day one, Kim said that Gomez was clear the brand wouldn’t just sell makeup, but would commit to creating meaningful change.
Rare Beauty donates 1 per cent of all sales to Gomez’s nonprofit Rare Impact Fund, which has a mission to mobilise US$100 million for organisations increasing access to youth mental health services and education globally.
“Every time someone purchases Rare Beauty, they’re not just buying products, they’re contributing to making mental health support more accessible and accepted. To me, that’s innovation in action.”
The CPO shared how accessibility, storytelling, and calculated leaps of faith are redefining the future of beauty.
One of the brand’s proudest milestones was its accessible packaging, which was not necessarily part of the original blueprint but stemmed organically from Gomez.
Kim revealed that the unique design, celebrated by users with dexterity challenges, began as an unintentional outcome of Gomez’s own lived experience with lupus, which can affect hand function due to joint pain, stiffness and muscle weakness.
It’s Rare Beauty’s soft-touch finishes and signature rounded, ball-shaped caps that help make products easier to grip and open.
“When we launched, we started seeing all this amazing organic content on TikTok of people that deal with dexterity issues, saying, ‘Oh my gosh, Rare Beauty packaging is easier to use’”.
“We were then like, okay, how do we validate or quantify this claim that people are saying, because it’s amazing that we’re helping people.”
Rather than just ride the wave of praise, Rare Beauty took it further, partnering with California’s Casa Colina Rehabilitation Institute to test and validate their products through a new accessibility framework. The result was the launch of the Made Accessible Initiative, which now influences at least one product design annually.
With no standards in the beauty industry around packaging usability, Rare Beauty created one, and is hoping that other brands build on its work and help raise the bar.
Reflecting on the evolution of social media, Kim acknowledged the platform’s early power and its current limitations.
In the early heyday of social she said it was exciting space where a small brand could blow up overnight
“It was so magical, because you could have these little brands, where they were literally able to create massive communities, have a following and sell products without this huge marketing budget, just because of word of mouth,” she explained.
“It was really amazing. It was democratic thing. You could have a really great product and a really great point of view or voice, and a little bit of luck and timing and it could really take off.”
A far cry from today’s brand-crammed platforms vying for eyeballs, frequently changing algorithms and constantly evolving consumer expectations.
According to We Are Social’s Digital 2025 Australia report, more than 58 per cent of Australians now turn to social media for brand and product research to inform their purchase decisions. However, Kim stressed that Rare Beauty, which on Instagram alone has 8.3 million followers (which pales in comparison to Gomez’s 419m), treats social media as a storytelling tool, not a sales machine.
“Our social media is an extension of our brand values. We use it to build community,” she said.
“We don’t just use it as an opportunity to take a beautiful picture of a product, post it and hope that it’s just going to generate sales. We really use it as a storytelling element. We use it as a way to speak to and build our community and come to the table and the conversation with transparency.
“Chasing that like or view value is not going to build brand equity in the long term. It’s really about keeping your core vision of your brand values.”
Reflecting candidly about her own unconventional path and how she moved between roles and industries, Kim explained how she trusted her gut and found inspiration in surprising places.
Having begun her career working within the action sports industry, being more familiar with skateboarding and surfing back then, Kim’s career was not rooted in beauty.
She also worked at apparel and footwear company Sole Technology before becoming an early employee at NYX Professional Makeup.
As the then VP of global product development at NYX, she played a pivotal role in driving innovation in product at the business. After the acquisition of NYX by L’Oréal, she stayed on to help globalise the brand, expanding in markets worldwide.
Kim encouraged young creatives and career changers to embrace unexpected opportunities, even the ones that don’t sparkle on paper.
“Be open to new opportunities — even the ones that feel completely boring to you,” she said.
“There are transferable skills in everything. When you shift industries, like I did, it can be a big change — one I didn’t expect. But if I hadn’t made that leap, I wouldn’t have discovered the value I could bring from a different perspective.”
Kim could not have been clearer about the future of beauty being rooted in purpose, that it has to be about how brands are making people feel, designing with intention and showing up authentically.
“That’s what will define the next era of beauty,” she said.
“If there’s one thing my journey at Rare Beauty and with Selena has taught me, it’s that the beauty industry, and frankly every industry, is at its best, when it genuinely cares.
