The creative agency Milk Studios is known for its fashion-savvy and buzzy events. And in Feb, it jumped into new territory when it launched its own retail production, Milk Makeup.

The 85-slice line covers pretty standard territory: concealer, foundation, blush, highlighter, eyeliner, brow pencils, and a variety of eye coatings. The colors are saturated, they shimmer, and much of the makeup has a glossy finish. Everything is cruelty-free. Standout products are riffs on classics, like its "Holographic Stick," which is a purple-tinted highlighter spruced upwardly with real meteorite dust and pearl powder. There are besides opalescent middle pigments, sticky eyeshadows that feel like they could withstand a week at Called-for Man—or in my experience, a rainy rooftop rave subsequently which I fell asleep fully fabricated upward. (Even in the shower it took some scrubbing to remove the eyeshadows.)

Milk Makeup'southward hook is a grapheme: the Milk Girl. Company cofounder Mazdack Rassi says this "daughter" is the kind of person who takes five minutes to put on her makeup in the back seat of a cab as she's being ferried between chichi events. She's too cool to want a total makeup mask. Accordingly, Milk encourages swipes of colorful eyeliner and dabs of lip color. The vibe is experimental—a trial-and-error spirit that encourages consumers to purchase a medley of simple-to-execute looks. Everything is meant to exist practical: Blotting papers double as rolling papers; all products are designed to be rolled on or applied with a finger. No brushes or powder puffs necessary.

Milk Makeup'southward blotting papers double as rolling papers, naturally.

"The tagline, 'Milk Girls do their makeup quick' was a concept I internalized into tangible products and formulas," says Milk Makeup COO Dianna Ruth, who'south worked for Hard Processed, Sugar, Hello Kitty, and Bliss. "One-handed like shooting fish in a barrel application, no additional tools, good-for-yous ingredients, and quick merely expressive makeup."

Milk is not the start production firm to launch its own line of cosmetics. Smashbox Studios, a Los Angeles photograph studio, debuted a makeup line in 1996. Simply Milk's new venture is less an extension of its photo studio and more representative of niche brand power. Large brands similar L'Oréal, Clinique, and Revlon no longer dominate the entire market. Pocket-size cosmetics companies are breaking through.

"People want to know that they have something special," says Karen Grant, global dazzler analyst at the NPD Grouping. Last year, the market analytics firm noted big growth for independent prestige beauty brands. Among the top v growth companies for 2015 were three independents: Anastasia, Too Faced Cosmetics, and Information technology Cosmetics, which sold to L'Oréal for $1.2 billion this year.

The key to the 85-slice line is simplicity and spontaneity.

Grant says one of the big reasons freestanding makeup labels are getting and so much love is considering of a alter in shopping attitudes. Consumers are trusting individual products rather than committing to one brand. Makeup companies no longer have to have everything, she says, they only have to accept that one sought-later on production: "It'southward less almost having a wide array than having something that they're known for. Anastasia Beverly Hills Dazzler and Cosmetics, founded in 1998, has been successful considering of its focus on eyebrow products, for instance. This phenomenon has paved the style for newbies like Kylie Jenner, whose line of neutral matte lipsticks sold out in thirty seconds concluding year.

Merely it's not only consumer values that have changed. The rise of beauty vloggers, Twitter, Facebook, and Medium are too a contributing cistron. In September, NPD reported that more people were turning to the net for makeup advice than print or circulate. Makeup users largely rely on trusted friends or word of oral fissure to source new products, but what defines a friend may depend on how sometime you lot are.

For millennials, friendly tips come up from social media feeds and YouTube videos even despite complaints that these high-paid "influencers" are just part of the corporate car. The report says the internet is one of the top five channels for ownership makeup, ranking "simply below department stores merely ahead of direct sellers, national chains, and dazzler supply stores." Which means social media is at present a cardinal marker of success and relevance. According to a new written report, Jenner's cosmetics take appeared in social posts more than than 1.3 1000000 times since launching in October 2015. Compare that with Estee Lauder's mere 373,000 mentions. Online is also where makeup buyers are increasingly going to shop, according to NPD. For the 12 months catastrophe in October, online makeup sales were up 36% compared to 13% for retail sales.

Since Milk Girls "do their makeup quick," every product is designed to exist rolled on or applied with a finger.

"Like my 15-year-erstwhile niece, when I was with her in Minneapolis, she comes dwelling and goes directly upwards to her room, does her homework, then goes on YouTube," says Milk cofounder Rassi. In social club to appeal to this generation, Rassi tells me, he's trying to become part of it. He spends nights reading blogs and watching vloggers talk shop and monitors how these reviews affect sales. He says a vlogger reviewing Milk'south products out of Ohio can lead to the sale of hundreds of lipsticks in a given evening. "So Vogue will talk about [us] and nosotros'll sell four," he says.

Rassi knows the way world well. His wife, Zanna Roberts, a senior editor at Marie Claire, partnered with him on Milk'due south nascent line. And Milk Studio's connection to the New York fashion aristocracy is well established. On any given day, you might see photographer Terry Richardson or Annie Leibowitz walking its hallways. The studios also host Vogue comprehend shoots likewise equally Way Week track shows from the likes of Proenza Schouler and Chromat.

"People show up on our doorstep and they but want to brand stuff," Rassi says, hunched over a low coffee tabular array stacked tall with thick art books. He is very tall and I am very brusk, and I imagine he's trying to create more intimacy in the chat by leaning in. We're sitting in his white-walled former warehouse office infinite where sunlight streams in through skylights in a vaulted ceiling. The walls are covered with skateboard decks and giant photographs, near recognizably, a portrait of Kate Moss from her Calvin Klein days and Steve McCurry'southward Afghan Girl.

It's this culture of fine art-chic absurd that Rassi has tried to inject into his makeup brand. In an introduction video, Milk defines the make as encompassing "punk fashion," "art kids," and "the next generation"—or Gen Milk for brusk. As for the "it" Milk Girl, she certainly doesn't adhere to binary definitions of gender. The visitor'southward website features a diverse set of women and men to represent the Milk Girl. There are three men among Milk'south lookbook of 47 "girls," ane of whom is transgender. So far, almost five% of Milk Makeup's customer base is male.

Milk Makeup is sold at Sephora and Urban Outfitters.

Milk doesn't yet have the attain of its similarly minded competitors similar 50'Oréal's Urban Disuse and LVMH's Kat Von D Makeup. Concluding yr, 50'Oréal'south cosmetics brands generated $6.06 billion in annual revenue; Estee Lauder, $four.2 billion. Milk, a private company, hasn't released revenue figures, but momentum seems to be strong. When information technology debuted, Milk sold out of its signature Holographic Stick in a calendar month. Its Cooling Water stick followed, selling out in two months along with three other products, suggesting that Milk might be capable of creating the "it" products Grant mentioned before. Milk Makeup is now sold in 100 Sephoras and 50 Urban Outfitters around the country.

What does growth look like moving forward?

It could mean being scooped up by ane of those massive brands. "The big guys are on an conquering rampage," Grant says. "When you are hot and they feel you tin add a unique dimension to their portfolio, they are going to acquire you." Beauty-brand acquisitions are up 44% this yr, co-ordinate to CBInsights. Revlon, L'Oréal, Estee Lauder, Unilever, and Johnson & Johnson are among the biggest acquirers. If Milk tin prove its makeup brand tin can pump out must-accept products to a devoted younger audition, it could win big in a sale.

Though Milk Studios is familiar with this process—last year, information technology sold its MADE Manner Week incubator to WME IMG—Rassi says he's not looking to break off the cosmetics branch just yet: "At this bespeak, less than a year in, our No. 1 priority is to grow the company and scale."