Live Nation Entertainment, the world’s leading live entertainment company, today announced that it has partnered with about-face and af94, the award-winning and high-performance color cosmetics brands created by Halsey. The Live Nation partnership will offer fan experiences throughout venues and festivals, encouraging individuality and makeup experimentation. Live Nation also made an equity investment to support the growing brands as they provide live music fans with an outlet for creativity.
“Makeup and music go hand in hand. I don’t fully become Halsey until the transformative moment in front of my mirror, where I lay out my kit. It’s the creative before the creative,” said Halsey, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of about-face and af94 brands. “The Live Nation partnership will usher in a new way to experience the intersection of live entertainment and makeup. Infused with confidence and freedom, everyone in attendance will have the chance to transform in the way that I have long lived to do. Live Nation has given me a platform to express my vision to my audience on stages across the world. Our future together will mean seeing the audiences’ visions come to life from the crowds.”
About-face and af94 will create experiences at many Live Nation venues and festivals, offering product sampling, self-guided application, and a range of virtual and actual ‘try and buy’ integrations with their long-wear, performance-driven, highly pigmented products. According to fan insights from Live Nation, people often experiment or enhance their look for shows, with 84% of fans saying live music events encourage freedom in self-expression.
“Halsey has always pushed boundaries, broken beauty norms and disregarded public opinion in favor of supporting personal forms of self-expression and Live Nation is proud to support that by partnering with about-face and af94,” said Russell Wallach, Live Nation’s Global President of Media and Sponsorship. “Integrating these brands at concerts and festivals encourages boundless creativity, and we’re excited to see what fans lean into as they experiment at shows.”
“This is a huge milestone for us; we are beyond honored to partner with Live Nation and bring about-face and af94 to their millions of concertgoers each year,” said Natalie Sperling, CEO of about-face and af94 brands. “The partnership will also allow us to create more of our signature formulas that lean heavily into artistic colors and continue to push boundaries for product performance and long wearability,” added Jeanne Chavez, Co-Founder and CIO, about-face and af94 brands.
Inspired to create about-face when they couldn’t find super-performing makeup, Halsey set out to develop true-to-promise formulations in a cool range of colors and textures. about-face is a cleanly formulated, conscious brand of vegan and cruelty-free products. Winning over 10 prestigious awards across signature franchises, including back-to-back Allure’s Best of Beauty 2021 and 2022, about-face is also one of the leading high-growth emerging brands at Ulta Beauty.
Halsey also launched a second brand, af94, in July 2022 with quality, accessibility, and affordability in mind. Designed for Gen Z, af94 was co-created with Walmart and launched as the retailer’s #1 trend cosmetics brand in over 3,000 doors nationwide.
Live Nation has already included the brands at key events, kicking off the multi-year partnership at Lollapalooza with an about-face glitter bar and complimentary makeup applications. This Fall, fans will have the chance to try fun, art-inspired looks at iconic venues, including Irving Plaza, The Wiltern, and The Tabernacle, among many others, and at highly-anticipated music festivals, including Rolling Loud New York and When We Were Young. The Live Nation investment in about-face and af94 brands reflects the company’s deep belief in the product, mission-driven brand pillars and messaging, and business potential.
about-face and af94 are both portfolio companies of Celebrands.