Hyram Yarbro and Addison Rae are the latest content creators-turned-founders to discover online fame alone doesn’t translate into beauty sales.

Sephora has dropped Addison Rae’s Item Beauty and Hyram Yarbro’s Selfless by Hyram, which launched at the retailer to much fanfare in 2021. Both influencers failed to develop brands that resonated with their followers.

Following disappointing sales, influencer controversies, layoffs and store closures, the beauty incubator’s assets are to be acquired by lenders.

It’s hard to break into beauty, on or offline, even if you’re owned by Amazon. As retailers from Trader Joe’s to Moda try to establish dominance in a category with endless points of distribution, it takes more than just populating your site or shelves with bottles and tubes of skin care to get shoppers to see you as a viable seller of beauty. It takes authority, and usually, exclusive focus (Sephora and Ulta Beauty aren’t trying to sell fashion, after all).