Hailey Bieber Is In Control

Courtesy of Rhode

For the past two years, beauty enthusiasts have been keeping their eyes peeled for details on Hailey Bieber's highly-anticipated beauty brand: Rhode.

Since trademarking the name in early 2021, the online community has buzzed with predictions on the products and when they'd launch, and Bieber has quenched their thirst by dropping a few hints along the way. Even recently, she teased Rhode on Instagram while on vacation and on her YouTube channel while prepping for the Met Gala.

Well, the wait is finally over — and at long last, Rhode is available for purchase on rhodeskin.com for under $30. (Yes, you read that right.)

In anticipation of the launch, InStyle spoke to Bieber to learn all about her latest venture.

Here, she talks about what it was like to develop a beauty brand, the importance of her YouTube channel, Met Gala prep, and how it all ties into taking control of her narrative.

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How are you feeling now that Rhode is here?

I'm good! It's here, which is so crazy. I saw the PR box in person for the first time two days ago and I was like, "Holy shit." It just made it so real.

Courtesy of Rhode

You took a dermatology course to learn more about skincare ingredients. What was the most interesting thing you learned?

I did a 14-day online course. I don't even know how I found it, I just wanted to learn just about the fundamentals of skin. I really enjoyed it because I love medical anything — I swear I was a doctor in a past life. It was a good learning tool to understand the way things get penetrated into the skin, the different layers of the skin, and how deep you want things to go.

You've said that part of the reason you started your YouTube channel was to take control of your narrative — is Rhode an extension of that?

Rhode is definitely an extension of it. When I started the YouTube channel, it was right alongside the time I started having conversations about Rhode. I don't look at Rhode as just a skincare and beauty brand, I want it to grow and become a beauty media platform. I would love for it eventually to evolve into something where you can make, share, create content, buy, sell — I don't want it to just be a brand. From the start, the whole idea was to birth Rhode through the YouTube channel and use that as the platform to let people in on my life, my beauty philosophy, who I am, and get to know me. It's been very freeing because I get to control what goes out there and what's being said. It was an opportunity for me to open up more than I ever have publicly, while still feeling safe and comfortable with what was being put out and what was going out there. And it's fun for me. The second it's not fun for me anymore, or if it feels like a chore or like something I'm not passionate about anymore, then I'll move on. But at this moment, I really enjoy it and it's been very rewarding.

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What's been your favorite part about developing Rhode?

It's definitely been developing the aesthetic and the vibe and the formulas. For me, one of the biggest two things are the formulas, the ingredients, being very diligent about the efficacy of the formulas, and creating really stable and amazing formulas. Then, there's the packaging, colors, and imagery. Branding has been such a fun way for me to be able to really express my creativity.

Courtesy of Rhode

What's been the most difficult part of developing Rhode?

There have been a lot of challenges. For me, it's been just having to be patient [while] waiting for things. There were shipping delays, so many things you don't think about until you're in it, and there are bumps along the way. There are mishaps that happen, things get sent to you and they're not the right color, they're not the right thing, and then you have to pivot. This is honestly what has taken the brand so long — making sure that we weren't cutting corners on anything. We would receive, let's say, color of the packaging and they were like, "It's just 15% off on the color," and I'd be like, "we have to fix it." I'm so OCD, I'm like, "It has to be perfect." And what I realized, in the end, is it's not going to be 100% perfect, but that's okay. That's most things in life. Nothing is ever 100% perfect, but we've done everything we possibly could to make it the best it could possibly be.

What was it like to test the different formulas?

I had a lot of friends and family members test it, and I was always the one testing [products] from the very beginning. So with the Barrier Restore Cream, we reformulated it 16 times, and I actually really enjoyed that process because you really get to dive into the ingredient world and say, "Okay, this didn't work for me. Let's take this out. Let's add this. Can we bump up the percentage of this by this amount? I didn't have any crazy stories or anything crazy happen in the testing process, I was just giving it to people and receiving their feedback and trying to make any adjustments based on certain feedback.

Courtesy of Rhode

All the products are priced under $30, was that intentional?

Yeah, that was intentional. And the reason for that was because I just really don't believe that skincare has to be expensive to be great. I think it really just depends on your actives, your percentages, your formulas. When I'm creating this brand, I'm creating a whole world — it's the world of Rhode. I want people to be able to be included and step inside the world of Rhode, and that means it has to be accessible and attainable for everyone.

On your YouTube, you said you used Rhode products to prep for the Met Gala — which ones did you use to get that glazed donut skin you're known for?

The Peptide Glazing Fluid and the Barrier Restore Cream. I will say, I don't claim that I started the glazed donut thing. I didn't invent that comparison or that phrase. I think within skincare there are a lot of fun food comparisons to texture and look. I just love donuts, and I like the idea of looking like a freshly glazed Krispy Kreme donut. I just think that's the vibe that at night before I go to bed, I just want to have that layer of just yummy, glowy, dewy, glazey vibe.

You're on so many peoples' beauty mood boards — who do you look to for inspiration?

I look back a lot on the supermodels, women of the nineties. I look back on Christy Turlington and old Kate Moss vibes and just look at how stripped back, raw, and natural a lot of their vibe was and is to this day. I just relate to that in a big way. I love just imagery from the nineties. I love style from the nineties. But I also just love the way that I felt like they're just natural skin and beauty just shined through in such a big way — I'm inspired by that.

How do you decide what you respond to online and what you ignore?

I think with anything, you have to be cautious of what you're giving life to and giving energy to. I've found that in this time, in my life, when you decide to bring attention to things, it's just going to exacerbate it, make it bigger, make it worse, and turn it into a whole other thing. On the flip side, I think there are scenarios where it's valid to defend yourself and respond, but I think 99% of the time responding is just like, you can't control what people think of you, can't control what they're going to say, don't get to control what the media says about you, and you can't make people see you differently when they have an idea of who you are that they've created of you in their mind already. Sometimes there's no reversing it and no trying to convince them otherwise and it's just such a waste of energy.