Hailey Bieber's peptide lip treatment, sold only on Rhode's own website with zero retail distribution — and still worth enough to sell for $1 billion after just three years.
Rhode's Peptide Lip Treatment is a glossy, hydrating lip balm that was one of the brand's original three launch products in 2022, built around Bieber's "glazed donut skin" aesthetic. What makes Rhode notable isn't really the product itself — it's the business: a celebrity beauty brand that reached a billion-dollar valuation selling direct-to-consumer only, with no Sephora, no Amazon, and no Ulta for its first three years.
e.l.f. Beauty acquired Rhode in 2025 for $1 billion — $600 million in cash, $200 million in e.l.f. stock, and up to $200 million more tied to future performance — making it one of the fastest billion-dollar exits in beauty industry history. For comparison, Charlotte Tilbury took decades to reach a similar valuation before its own $1.5 billion sale.
What made this unusual is that Rhode had done it entirely direct-to-consumer, through its own website, with ten products total. An Amazon storefront was reportedly never even considered. Sephora distribution across the US, Canada, and UK was only just beginning as the deal closed.
Rhode's single biggest viral moment wasn't a lip product at all — it was the Lip Case, a silicone iPhone case launched in February 2024 with a built-in slot to hold one of Rhode's lip treatments. It turned a beauty product into a phone accessory people showed off constantly on camera, which did more for brand visibility than any single lip balm review could.
Rhode's rise stands out further against a run of celebrity beauty brand failures in the same window — Gwen Stefani's Gxve Beauty quietly shut down, Brad Pitt's $320-a-jar Le Domaine skincare was publicly mocked by industry founders, and Ariana Grande's r.e.m. beauty lost momentum after launch.