For Marie López, aka enjoys Phoenix, it is cold shower. “This is the last year of Honestmind,” said content designer on a video on YouTube on July 21.
Honestmind is the ecological fashion brand launched in 2021 by the beauty YouTubeuse. During the last four years, he has offered co-creation with ethical marks. With an objective: highlight other responsible companies. But enjoy Phoenix’s struggles to find partners. In a recent LinkedIn publication, the company says that in the 40 brands with which Honestmind has collaborated, 10 have closed.
The honestmind closure is scheduled for September 2026. Meanwhile, their fans can get imagined clothes this time completely by the content designer and their teams.
“The challenge of being an entrepreneur is huge”
Like enjoying Phoenix, more and more content creators embark on entrepreneurship. Whether in the food industry with the pizzas of Mr. V, in fashion with the collections of the Mahfouf hotel in situations of Lena, in cosmetics with cosmetics Martine, the Gaëlle Garcia Diaz brand, or even the wine in the can with ocean and catering with a good quick kitchen: no sector is being demolished.
In France, ten years have passed since the first content creators have embarked on entrepreneurship. First motivated by the dream of creating its own brand, a project perceived as “a culmination” for many camaragraphs, the latter attempts above all to diversify its income.
The problem is that the notoriety of these web stars does not guarantee business success. And there is no failure shortage. Last example with Oceane Amsler. The influencer launched Maison Brat, his sparkling wine mark in the can in July 2024. But among the packaging problems, the recipe too sweet, the delivery delays and the restrictions in the Evin law, everything does not come out as planned. In total, only 110 cans were sold despite more than 17,000 registered in the bulletin.
“After several months of reflection and faced the challenges found, now I plan to turn the page,” explains Océane Amsler in a YouTube video.
The young woman had already launched a first clothing brand in 2021, called Cuckoo Guys. Since then, the claw, which would have won “lose money” in Oceane, has put the key under the door.
A double workload
The raids in clothing ready to wear are barely more encouraging. Therefore, Relícs, Math’s claw is made of films, has closed in less than a year. The Amixem clothing brand, Spacefox, did not spend the five -year course, arrested in 2023, at the same time as Yoko, the Ready To Wear collection launched in 2019 by Squeezie and her brother.
“It was an excellent adventure. But we underestimated the work that represents a brand,” says Squeezie in the podcast Zack in a free wheel. “It is economically complicated. It’s a crazy moment, these are battles with production factories, it was pressure,” says YouTubeur, who claims to have lost “hundreds of thousands of euros.”
“As with any entrepreneur, the business adventure is complicated for content creators,” he insists on Tech & Co Emilie Le Guiniec, co -founder of the DBM Communications Group and a member of the Executive Committee of the Union of Trade Trades and Creators of Content (UMICC).
A double workload difficult to manage, therefore. It is precisely because of these reasons that the brand of cosmetics other Beauty, launched by Sananas, lasted only a few months, despite its community of 2.7 million subscribers. “I could not administer the side of ‘Sananas’ while working at Otrera Beauty,” he details in a video in 2022.
“Being a good communicator is not enough”
Especially because “their online celebrity does not allow them to avoid all the other difficulties of entrepreneurship,” adds Emilie Le Guiniec. “Speaking its brand is to hire, manage profitability, know how to make a business model …” A difficult balance for Louise Aubery. The feminist cameraman, better known as my best, launched four years ago, I don’t know what, an inclusive and ethical lingerie.
“On November 24, 2020, I launched, I don’t know what was 22 years old, and I was convinced that there could be a more inclusive and more responsible lingerie. He had no experience in the fashion industry, but a strong desire to make things happen,” said the cameraman, in a press release on Instagram.
However, I don’t know what sunk, as reported. All employees left the company in early 2024, in the form of conventional ruptures or resignations. The means of research highlight the wrath of the subscribers, disappointed to receive products and low quality management considered “unhealthy” by many employees. For his part, Louise Aubery evokes a simple “rupture by mutual agreement”, as well as “accusations and words or defamatory, or partially representative of reality.”
“The creators of content go from an entertainment professional to the entrepreneur. It is not the same work and the same commercial logic,” summarizes Stéphanie Laporte, founder of the Social Agency Media Otta in Tech & Co.
Especially because the slightest error can be expensive. “If the right partners cannot find, or they are poorly recommended, a bad launch of the brand can compromise your online reputation,” the expert insists. Jaclyn Hill, an American youtuber, paid the price in 2019. When launching its cosmetics brand, hundreds of Internet users complained of damaged products, even rotten or defective. Enough to contaminate your reputation as a queen of beauty for several years.
“The market will mature”
“Many creators are cleaning the plaster because they are the first,” said Emilie Le Guiniec. “The market for content designers is still in their childhood. But it will mature, banks begin to be interested in it.” An opinion shared by Estelle Gueï, the director of the Digital Communication Agency and the influence of 2gr.
A recipe successfully applied by situations of Lena. The French pops of social networks is, before being an influencer, graduating from a fashion and communication school. His mother is also a stylist. A training in a very useful entourage when launching its clothing collection of the Mahfouf hotel, a real success every summer. Last May, his emerging BHV window attracted more than 70,000 people. The billing was two to three times greater than that of a classical ephemeral store.
Business adventures are more successful on the side of food and food, sectors that require less investments than beauty or ready to use. “These are more easily industrializable businesses,” says Stéphanie Laporte.
This is the choice by Mister V. The YouTubeur launched in February 2022 Las Pizzas Delamama in Auchan and Carrefour, frozen pizzas to less than 5 euros. In six months, 1.5 million had been sold. Last June, Tibo Inshape also installed its Inshape Nutrition Sports Nutrition brand in Carrefour supermarkets. Again, success is there. “In a month at the crossroads, my insha nutrition brand generated 1,153,845 euros,” he gets excited in a Tiktok video.
Source: BFM TV
