WSJ Beauty Innovator Hailey Bieber's Rhode Success Story Lensed by Marili Andre
/Hailey Bieber [IG] was honored at last night’s WSJ 2025 Innovator’s Awards [IG] with the Beauty Innovator prize and with this in-depth, editorial touchup on Hailey’s life from every angle. Marili Andre [IG] is behind the lens for ‘How Hailey Bieber Made Rhode Into a $1 Billion Success Story’ [comp link].
Gabriella Karefa-Johnson styled Bieber in Brandon Maxwell, Calvin Klein Collection, Ferragamo, Givenchy by Sarah Burton, McQueen, Miu Miu, Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello, Tom Ford, Tory Burch and more. / Hair by James Pecis; makeup by Emi Kaneko
Rhode Had Best Ever Sephora Launch
WSJ writer Chavie Lieber catches up with Bieber a few hours away from her Sephora launch. By every press report, the LVMH-owned Sephora launch was successful with $10 million in two days of sales. It was not only the best launch ever for the beauty stores and online retailer, it beat the prior record-holder by 2.5 times, selling 3 Rhode items per second.
Returning a few days later, Lieber reports the shelves were empty as a little girl with a British accent was close to tears, as she wailed: “There’s no more blush from Haaayley Biebaaa!”
Viscious rumors have haunted Hailey and Justin Bieber’s marriage for months. Asked by Lieber if they had quieted with her sale of Rhode to Elf Cosmetics and Justin dropping a new album Swag II — the answer was ‘no’.
“But we’re both really finding our voices of who we are and, I believe, both really walking authentically in what it is we actually want to be doing.”
On Hailey’s WSJ Day, Justin Gets Down On the Doula Attending Jack Blues Birth
In a separate piece of news today, Bieber the husband said that he and the doula really had a serious clash when Hailey was in labor. Recall that Hailey had a long labor of 18 difficult hours, after doctors induced her in a hospital setting. In this case, the doula is present — in increasing numbers, because of their skills in helping the mother stay calm in a difficult birth, reports Google AI — verifying that Hailey was in a hospital because the birth had become high risk and required a full medical staff involved.
Justin felt the doula was taking over some of his responsibilities, and Hailey — in agony because she had refused an epidural as so many progressive, pregnant women do — made Justin apologize to the doula for creating a fight, when keeping her calm was the most important mission for the whole team.
Imagine being in total pain and agony headed towards 18 hours of labor; and your husband is fighting with the doula in charge of keeping you calm. Google AI outlines the hospital procedures for the doula, and she — not the husband — has a specific list of responsibilities.
Husbands can be very variable about how they handle being in the delivery room for an extended period of time or how good they are at delivering support. Not every truly wonderful husband is grade A in the delivery room. Giving birth is not always a Hallmark card event, especially after 18 hrs.
The day after Hailey Bieber is being celebrated as a WSJ Innovator, 14 months after a very difficult birth, her husband is competing with his own headlines, sharing private details of her agonizing birth. Hailey naturally wants to put all that drama behind her given her enormous love for her baby son Jack Blues, born in August 2024.
In addition, Hailey Bieber experienced postpartum hemorrhage, a dangerous problem of excessive bleeding. The condition nearly killed Serena Williams in the hospital after giving birth to her first daughter Olympia. Hailey described the situation as ‘very scary’.
Bieber’s post-partum challenges list goes on. Hailey was honest about them to help other women, but she also wanted to let go of negative past events over love for her family.
And Hailey was a lead partner in a business on fire — one she sold for $1 billion 10 months later. And yes, Hailey has good partners.
Also yes, Hailey and Justin Bieber have full-time help and she makes no apologies for that. Mom does stress that Jack is always with one of them or his godparents — even if the nanny is also present in the house.
The general public is not kind to Hailey Bieber. Given the success of her business, the problem is probably a very vocal, loud and proud sliver of the public who are invested in Justin Bieber’s life before Hailey are not kind to her. Very forcefully two weeks ago, the happily-married Selena Gomez told her supporters to knock it off and “leave the girl alone” referring to Hailey.
More Rhode Stories
Returning to the WSJ story, one of Hailey’s co-founders Michael D. Ratner shared with Lieber that when Rhode ran a lip gloss promotion with Krispy Kreme, he received a note from the doughnut CMO saying “he’d never seen anything like it.”
The biggest blockbuster of all was the February 2024 $38 iPhone case with a slot for lip gloss. Much of the Internet lost their minds over that one. Rhode has sold over 700,000 phone cases, the company said.
Hailey is in even greater demand in 2025.
“It doesn’t matter if the client is in automotive, hospitality, CPG—she’s always on the list,” says Ashlee Margolis, whose company, The A List, brokers brand and celebrity deals. “And she’s on the tippy top.”
 
             
             
                 
                 
             
               
               
             
             
               
               
      
      
    
  
  
    
    
     
      
      
    
  
  
    
    
     
      
      
    
  
  
    
    
     
      
      
    
  
  
    
    
     
      
      
    
  
  
    
    
     
      
      
    
  
  
    
    
     
      
      
    
  
  
    
    
     
      
      
    
  
  
    
    
     
      
      
    
  
  
    
    
     
      
      
    
  
  
    
    
     
      
      
    
  
  
    
    
     
      
      
    
  
  
    
    
     
      
      
    
  
  
    
    
     
      
      
    
  
  
    
    
     
      
      
    
  
  
    
    
    