On June 1, 2022, Kim Kardashian rebranded her skincare product, KKW Beauty as SKKN by Kim. The newly launched brand features the star’s initials but she has been accused of stealing the name from Lori Harvey’s skincare company, SKN.
After rebranding her skincare product, fans noted the identical name and packaging to Lori Harvey’s SKN by LH and took to Twitter to call out the reality star, Binnews reports.
“Did Kim Kardashian just use Lori Harvey’s strategy for a skincare brand, or is it just me?,” a fan quarried while another fan said “Uh sounds close to SKN by Lori Harvey. Awkward,” one person tweeted, in response to Kim’s announcement.
“Kim naming her skincare brand SKKN when Lori Harvey’s skincare brand name is SKN doesn’t sit right with me. Seems like they’re stealing from a Black woman for the thousandth time,” another fan said.
According to Page Six, Kim’s legal team also received a cease and desist letter from Beauty Concepts LLC owned by Cyndie Lunsford some months ago. The letter noted that the company had already applied to trademark the SKKN+ name on March 28, just days before Kardashian filed her own trademark on March 30. Beauty Concepts is demanding that Kim abandon the branding, claiming that it would confuse customers.
Lunsford, a 28-year-old aesthetician and entrepreneur, who also operates social media accounts under the SKKN+ name, said: “I have painstakingly built my successful small business with my own sweat equity, hard work, and research. It’s clear that I established my brand first.”
Responding to the letter, Kardashian’s attorney told TMZ, “We certainly appreciate and support small businesses, and our hat is off to Ms Lunsford. But the question at hand is one of trademark law and we’ve not done anything deserving of legal action by her.”
Michael G. Rhodes added, “We are disappointed that she has chosen to run to the media knowing that we were scheduling a call for tomorrow, requested by her attorney. So while disagreeing with the letter, we’re hopeful that we can smooth things over once both sides speak.”
