DIBS Beauty Founders Courtney Shields & Jeff Lee On Building More Than an Influencer Brand
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It feels like every day a new beauty brand launches, often from a celebrity or influencer. It can be exhausting. But DIBS Beauty (which stands for Desert Island Beauty Status) isn’t just another influencer brand that will launch with a splash and disappear, promised CEO Jeff Lee. The brand did launch with a 20,000-person waitlist in 2021, but since then its continued to roll out products that connect with fans and create a community at the same time.
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Lee’s co-founder, Courtney Shields, came with a built-in fan base. The Austin, Texas-based influencer has been creating her own community for a decade. The two became connected through Tula co-founders Dan Reich and Ken Landis, who, along with other major players, backed DIBS Beauty at launch. They rolled out two products to start: highlighter Status Stick and blush-bronzer combo Desert Island Duo.
This summer, DIBS entered new makeup categories, with Baked Blush Duets ($34 at DIBS) and, most recently, Go To Glossy Balm ($22 at DIBS). StyleCaster caught up with the founders to learn more about how it all started.
How Shields and Lee Found Their Groove
At first glance, Lee and Shields seem to come from different places, considering Shields is an OG influencer and Lee went to Yale Law School and Stanford Business School. But Lee also traveled the world as a Miss Universe pageant contestant coach. He then went on to become COO at Alex Rodriguez’s investment firm A-Rod Corp, helping the athlete launch a Hims collab, The Blur Stick. He’s not just a CEO. He’s a product guy, he says.
“I care deeply about the product I work on, the formulations,” he said. “Shields is a very business-minded creative and able to basically balance the two together.” They both share a “lifelong love of beauty.”
“I’ve really created and cultivated a community of the most amazing people, the most amazing women,” Shields continued. “I was talking to them every day for years. So I knew what they wanted.”
The Mission of DIBS Beauty
“We really are aligned perfectly towards the mission, which is making makeup simple and effective and better,” Lee said. “Our goals are always the same to create the best product with no ego on our behalf,” Shields added. Lee looked at Shields’ audience and felt like they wanted uncomplicated, clean products that felt less intimidating than others on the market.
“There’s a great customer base of people who are advanced at what they do and makeup and they love our product because it’s so versatile and convenient,” he said. “But there’s an even bigger universe of people who are interested in it, they just don’t have the time or have a fear.” Of course, that doesn’t mean DIBS products are basic.
“It’s always about, how do we create the best things that we can bring to market? Where are the holes?How do we really create things that also feel very DIBS, because we’re all about uncomplicated color combinations? But it’s fun and sexy. It’s not boring.”
How Community Events Further the Brand
“Our events are very welcoming,” Lee said. “They’re not meant to do anything except make people feel whether they are there in person or not, that they can walk through the door and be comfortable and be friends with the team, with people that are on the ground with the brand itself. And that’s what we’re always aiming for.”
Shields echoed that statement, having built that positive community she’s proud of. “We have all all these influencers that attend events say that’s it’s so refreshing because everyone gets along. It’s not clicky. And the products really are for anyone. We have really well-known makeup artists doing Sofia Richie‘s makeup with our lip liners. And then we have like the mom down the street who doesn’t use any other makeup, but she carries the Duo in her purse.”
Why DIBS Started With Sticks
Sure, stick products are easy to use but it was an on-the-go mess that inspired Shields to launch DIBS’ first product, the Status Stick. “I’d used body shimmer and glow and it was this all-over body product, but they were really sticky and messy,” she said. “They got everywhere. I actually was on vacation one time when it exploded in my bag.” That’s when the Status Stick face-and-body highlighter was born. It gives you a head-to-toe glow wherever you are.
“I love the idea of DIBS being the makeup that goes everywhere you do because it’s really true,” she said. “I go out at night and I always have a lip liner. I have a Duo, I have a gloss.”
Status Stick Face-And-Body Highlighter
$36
The Desert Island Duo, a blush and bronzer stick, came next. “So many sticks to me were either chalky, you had to drag it into your skin to even get it to go [or] there wasn’t a lot of payoff,” she said. “There was no stick that was actually creamy and buildable and blendable. And no one was pairing the blushes with the bronzers.” It was also important for Shields to ensure there wasn’t just one blush and bronzer shade but at least six options so all skin tones can find their perfect Duo.
Desert Island Duo
Blush / Bronzer Stick
$36
DIBS Is More Than an Influencer Brand
“The goal was for DIBS to always supersede me, in essence, which is why it’s not called Courtney Shields Beauty very intentionally,” she said. “There’s no ego regarding that with me. I always wanted the products to stand alone.” Though, of course, it’s not like Shields has any reason to distance herself from the brand she helped build. “It’s a double edged sword in the sense where it’s like, there’s not a negative connotation with that for me personally because I love what I do,” she said. “I’m proud of what I do. I’m proud of how I’ve gotten to where I am.”
Shields loves when people find out about DIBS and use the products without knowing who she is. She appreciates her community but DIBS is meant to be for everyone.”There are people who have gotten there via way of me, and then there are people who have gotten there through TikTok, through their friends, through some girl in the bathroom. It’s kind of become this hybrid, which is cool.”
Lee agrees that the products can easily stand on their own. “I think the brand would have gotten to exactly where it is with these products,” he said. “Even if Courtney wasn’t an influencer. The fact is that it’s part of Courtney’s life and it has certainly helped the brand grow much faster. But people keep coming back.”
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