'Real Housewives' star Lisa Rinna launches her own beauty line and surprises absolutely no one with the brand's first three products

From the Lip Pioneer herself comes Rinna Beauty’s first products – lip kits in Lisa Rinna’s own favorite shades.

Lisa Rinna has been iconic in every role she’s had— actress, author, Real Housewife, and entrepreneur. Now she’s adding a new hyphen to the mix with today’s launch of her own beauty line, Rinna Beauty.

It just seems right to kick off the vegan and cruelty-free line with what the Lip Pioneer knows best. Rinna Beauty’s first product drop features the Lip ICON Kits which are launching in three different nude variations: Legends Only (a nude pink), No Apologies (a nude coral), and Birthday Suit (a classic nude). Every kit features a lipstick, a lip gloss, and a lip liner, and each can be purchased individually. 1% of each purchase is donated to The Trevor Project.

In honor of the line’s official launch, we talked with Lisa about the process of creating Rinna Beauty, her personal skincare journey, and her advice for Gen Z.

Well, I’m the lip pioneer. And that’s it right there— we’re starting with lips. I know my own lips and I have worked very hard on the formulation of the lip gloss and the lipstick and the lip liner, and you’re getting lips from Lisa Rinna! There are great, great lines out there, and there are tons of them. But… they don’t have Lisa Rinna lips!

Speaking of, your Lip ICON kits are dropping in three shades. Which one of them is your personal favorite?

Here’s the thing: I am pretty simple, and we’re starting out really simply. I like a nude pink, I like a nude coral, and I like a nude. It’s very hard for me to pick because I wear all the different shades at different times, but you know it’s not rocket science. It’s nude pink, it’s nude coral, and it’s nude. Of course, we’re gonna go into everything but I wanted to start out with exactly what I wear and exactly what you’ve seen on me. Everyone’s always saying: “What color are you wearing? I need that!” So I’m giving you that.

I follow you on Instagram so I’ve seen how they look on you and they’re just stunning shades.

Thank you!!! Thank you, they’re really pretty and they’re all very similar. They’re close— but that’s what I wear, do you know what I mean? That’s why I’m giving them to you, and I’m thrilled that you love them!

I’m such a fan of a good nude and these seem like the standards, like the perfect nude look – all three of them.

It really is. And we worked really hard on it and I could have gone in little different directions. Honestly, it was hard to pick these three because I could have done even more variations of it and finally they were like “Lisa, you just have to choose,” because we had a lot to choose from.

That kind of leads into my next question. Fans of beauty are no longer satisfied with just the final product. Like we all care about the ingredients, the packaging, and the story behind it. There’s a lot more focus on the process as well as the product. I was wondering: What was your favorite part of the Rinna Beauty process?

It’s quite an intense process. And to speak to what you’re saying, we went vegan and cruelty-free and our carbon footprint is very small so we are very conscious of the size of the box. When you get the box, it is very small. We really sought it out so that we hit all of those marks because you’re absolutely right. It’s not just about the final product.

I have loved the entire process, to be honest with you, because we created everything from scratch. We created the brand, we created the logo, we created the box, the box it gets shipped in— it’s going to be like a gift so when you open up the box there’s tissue paper with the logo on it. I mean we have just kind of covered everything and the box is so cute! I just saw it yesterday. It’s very small, and it’s exactly how it should be. I don’t know if you’re getting a lot of Amazon boxes these days— they’re big! And you’ve gotta cut them up. I was like, “We don’t need to do that! We’re selling lip kits and lipstick right now.”

And then, of course, I love the process of finding the right colors and finding the right components, and finding the right lip gloss formulation —which took me forever— and the right lipstick consistency and the right pencil consistency! It took me a long time because it happened during COVID so everything took longer, but I was really specific as to what I like in a lipstick and a lip gloss and a lip liner. I stayed really, really true to that.

You’ve talked about how the Lip ICON kit is the starting point but that you’re going to expand out. I wanted to talk about skincare for a little bit because we’re also a skincare site, and your skin is notoriously always flawless. Do you have any skincare tips or products that you absolutely swear by?

Thank you so much for saying that because I’ve always had problem skin. I had horrible acne growing up and I had terrible melasma, so for you to say that I have great, flawless skin is like… words I never thought I would hear. I have worked very hard on my skin and getting it to a place where I felt comfortable on camera.

For the first time in my life, I just did a CO2 laser which is pretty heavy-duty, and we weren’t sure I could do it because of my skin color and because of the melasma. But I found a doctor who I really loved and trusted and I have to tell you— it’s been one of the greatest things for texture and for acne scars because I had a lot of acne scars, whether you could really see them or not. It has really helped my skin so miraculously.

I was turned onto Dr. Barbara Sturm’s products about two years ago and it stopped my breakouts and it lightened my skin tremendously, so that was a big moment for me. I would say those two moments in the last two years have been breakthrough moments for me.

That sounds great. It kind of touches on the progress of tech and how a lot of new technologies for skincare wouldn’t have been available even ten years ago, maybe even five.

The technology is so amazing. You know, the lights that you can use, the LED lights— I’m into all of it, and I just think that it’s all about maintenance and what we have at our fingertips right now. I mean, it’s remarkable. It really is.

I have to say: you’re my favorite Housewife across all of the franchises! An iconic part of Housewives are the taglines and they’re a really fun introduction to who each woman is at the start of the show. I was wondering: what would be Rinna Beauty’s Housewife intro?

I’ve had a couple of lip intros. My first one was something like, “If it doesn’t come from these lips, it’s not true” and I had “These lips were made for talking and that’s just what they’ll do.” What would Rinna Beauty’s be? You know, taglines are hard and you have to sit with them for a minute… “I’m the lip pioneer, and don’t you ever forget it.” I like that one!!

I loved how you defended the content of “The Big Fun Sexy Sex Book” this season on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and how you were glad that you could offer that information to your daughters and a younger generation. I was wondering, a little bit more PG, what kind of skincare advice would you love to impart on your daughters and the rest of Gen Z?

I imparted onto them constantly: sunscreen, sunscreen, sunscreen, sunscreen. I’m like a broken record with my girls because you just don’t think you need it. You just don’t think of what’s going to happen— sun damage is what ages us, I think, more than anything.

A lot of Gen Z thinks of sunscreen as something they just do at the beach and you have to get it across that it’s something you need to use every day.

That’s what I’m trying to get across. I will tell you: it’s not easy. They just don’t think about it in their daily routine, and I’m trying to get them —they’re 19 and 22— I’m really trying to get them to do it now because I really wish that that had been something [I did] back in the day. It was not important back in the day. We were literally lying on foil in the backyard with baby oil on, which horrifies me.

I’ve gotten my girls to wear hats when they’re in the sun because they still want to sunbathe and all of that and you just can’t stop that, but I’ve really driven it home that you’ve got to cover your face. You’re going to get sun damage and you’re going to be mad about it in 25 years so take care of it now. I would say to all my Gen Z-ers out there: use sunscreen every day. I use sunscreen the minute I wake up in the morning. After I brush my teeth, I put my sunscreen on because the minute you hit the light, the minute you hit your computer screen, you are getting light to your face and it starts to damage it.

That’s a great message to send out. The more we hear it and the more it’s spread around, the more it’s going to start to sink in.

I hope so! If I had done that back in the day, I would have been in a better position than I am now, having to deal with the skin issues I have to deal with.

My final question is also geared towards our Gen Z readers: what kind of advice would you offer to your younger self?

I would say: never take no for an answer. Never take no for an answer, have more fun, and don’t worry about things so much— it always works out. I could go on and on. But I think those are important ones.

Thank you so much for chatting with me! I’m so excited to try Rinna Beauty!

I hope you love it! Obviously, it’s a work in progress, you know? We will continue to evolve and with the first launch, we’ll see what people like and we’ll go from there. It’s just all exciting.

TL;DR

–Rinna Beauty formally launches TODAY, featuring three lip kits in nude, nude coral, and nude pink shades

– All kits feature a lipstick, a lip gloss, and a lip liner

– Buy HERE for $45 per kit