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Kat Von D Departs + Sells Ownership Shares Of Kat Von D Beauty To Pursue Vegan Shoe Line And Music Tour -- KENDO Brands Acquires Remaining Stake, Renames KVD Vegan Beauty

After 12 years of partnership, KENDO becomes the sole driving force of the vegan beauty brand.

The brand remains committed to high-performance, vegan, cruelty- free makeup.

January 16, 2020 – San Francisco, CA:  Kat Von D Beauty announced today that founder Kat Von D has made a full departure from the brand to focus on other artistic endeavors (namely, her vegan shoe line and upcoming album), thus making KENDO the sole owner and force behind the beauty line. Effective immediately, the brand will now be called KVD Vegan Beauty.  

The company will continue offering its current product lineup, as well as creating new, innovative high-performance, vegan, and cruelty-free makeup for consumers all over the world. KVD Vegan Beauty continues to value self-expression and compassion, and be an early adopter of buzz-worthy collaborations with entertainers, brands, arts organizations and animal charities. The development of the KVD Vegan Beauty brand and its iconic products have been the result of a twelve-year partnership between Kat Von D and KENDO.

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David Suliteanu, CEO, KENDO stated:
"I want to thank Kat for helping to change the beauty industry with us. The products we created together have stood the test of time and become icons. KENDO, along with our global retail partner, SEPHORA, look forward to the continued growth of KVD Vegan Beauty under KENDO's leadership, ownership, and direction. We are fully positioned to continue the brand's growth and development in both product and marketing. We have developed a very strong product pipeline for 2020 and beyond. The same KENDO team that made history with KVD Vegan Beauty is ready to do it again. "

Kat Von D, Founder and Artist explained:
"This past year has been one of great change for me. As many of you know, I gave birth to my beautiful baby boy, launched my vegan shoe line, and am now busy prepping to release my long-awaited album in the Spring, followed by an international tour! As much as I wish I could balance all of this, on top of continuing my makeup line, it has become clear to me that I just can't do everything at the maximum capacity.

With that said, I've decided to step down as founder (and from all other capacities) of Kat Von D Beauty, and sell my shares of the brand, turning it all over to Kendo, my partners for the past 12 years. This was not an easy decision, but after careful consideration, I decided I wanted the makeup line to continue to thrive and grow, and KENDO is primed to do just that."

The brand launched in 2008 with four red lipsticks. Today, KVD Vegan Beauty has more than 250 innovative products in almost every beauty category. It is sold globally, in every major market, in 36 countries around the world, primarily at SEPHORAs and kvdveganbeauty.com.  Since its inception, KVD Vegan Beauty has won extensive awards, nationally and internationally, for innovative and best-in-class product formulas, packaging and marketing. Thus, resulting in long list of time-tested, best-sellers, including but not limited to:

  • Tattoo Liner, a worldwide icon and our #1 product
  • Everlasting Liquid Lipsticks, sparked the liquid lipstick revolution
  • Shade + Light Contour Palette, led the contour craze
  • Go Big or Go Home Mascara, a volumizing vegan mascara powered by plant-based fats
  • True Portrait Foundation, a truly lightweight, liquid-to-powder, high-performance vegan foundation  
  • Lolita, the universal, beloved, chestnut-rose shade sold in lipsticks, eye and lip liners, and eye- shadow palettes

ABOUT KVD VEGAN BEAUTY
KVD VEGAN BEAUTY is an iconic, global, high-performance, vegan and cruelty-free beauty brand that's disrupted the industry since the brand's debut in 2008 -- with 4 high-pigment, long-wear, cruelty-free red lipsticks. In 2010, we created our #1 award-winning eyeliner—Tattoo Liner—and it remains the uncontested holy grail of liquid eyeliner. After pioneering the liquid lipstick craze, we changed the beauty industry again in 2016 when we reformulated our entire line to be 100% vegan, without sacrificing the performance we're known for. Today, we have more than 250 innovative products in every category, hundreds of awards and we're distributed in 36 countries around the world exclusively at, Sephora, Sephora inside JC Penney and Debenhams in the UK and Ireland and www.kvdveganbeauty.com // Follow us @kvdveganbeauty

ABOUT KENDO BRANDS
KENDO BRANDS solely owns and operates KVD VEGAN BEAUTY. KENDO is an innovative beauty brand incubator that creates and acquires beauty brands and turns them into global powerhouses: FENTY Beauty by Rihanna, Ole Henriksen Skin Care, Marc Jacobs Beauty, Bite Beauty, Lip Lab Stores, and KVD Vegan Beauty. KENDO offices are in San Francisco, Paris, Dubai, London, Sydney and Singapore.  

PRESS CONTACT for KVD VEGAN BEAUTY:  [email protected]