ENTREPRENEURSHIP
“This Is Insane”: Beauty Brands Scramble To Assess Tariff Impacts And Mitigation Strategies
After President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on some 180 countries and additional “reciprocal” tariffs on roughly half of them last week, Melissa Butler, founder of The Lip Bar, took to Instagram to explain to her followers that the 32% reciprocal tariff on Taiwan will send her brand’s cost of
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Rachel Brown·April 9, 2025·1 min read
The 30-second read
After President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on some 180 countries and additional “reciprocal” tariffs on roughly half of them last week, Melissa Butler, founder of The Lip Bar, took to Instagram to explain to her followers that the 32% reciprocal tariff on Taiwan will send her brand’s cost of goods soaring since it manufactures 85% of its makeup in Taiwan.
“Small business especially can’t afford these tariffs. This is insane,” she says in a video on the platform. “If y’all see our prices go up, this is why.” In a caption, she added, “Good luck to all the small business owners out there. You may want to raise prices and cut costs now.”
Beauty Independent was wondering how other beauty brands are reacting to the tariffs. So, for the latest edition of our ongoing series posing questions relevant to indie beauty, we asked 16 beauty brand founders and executives the following: How will tariffs impact your business? What are you doing about them?
The players
3 mentionedBrand
AS Beauty
Founded2019
HQNew York, New York, United States
Revenue Range$150M+
Brand
The Lip Bar
Founded2012
Investor
Addition
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