Lip-smackingly good

We may have, no matter how wide our understanding of it, underestimated social media.

That unstoppable force, that great Kaleidoscope of the good and the malignant, that conduit of opportunity and threat has utterly remade our world.

It has been implicated in influencing two of the most significant votes in recent years; it has been accused of offering a platform to vile and hateful forces.

But who could have imagined it might turn a 20-year-old cosmetics marketeer into the world’s youngest self-made billionaire.

Even if the “self-made” part of that is at best loose the success of reality TV star — another one — Kylie Jenner is spectacular.

Jenner, 20, half-sister of Kim, Khloe, and Kourtney Kardashian, established Kylie Cosmetics in 2016 with $29 lip kits with matching lipstick and lip liner, and has since sold over $630m worth of makeup.

Forbes values her company at nearly $800m.

Just two years after selling her first product she is well on the way to becoming a billionaire.

This says a lot about social media but it also shows how powerful celebrity-endorsed marketing can be.