Jamie Kern Lima Net Worth

Jamie Kern Lima has an estimated net worth of $670 million, according to Forbes America's Richest Self-Made Women 2025, Jamie Kern Lima profile (figures as of Forbes America's Richest Self-Made Women 2025). That is up from $440 million in 2018.

Jamie Kern Lima is an American entrepreneur known for co-founding IT Cosmetics. Before that, she worked in television as a morning news anchor and reporter. In 1999, she won a Baywatch competition, appeared on the show, and was crowned Miss Washington USA. She also spent time on Big Brother in 2000. Later, she moved into local news work at KNDU and then KPTV, building an on-camera career before starting a business.

She launched IT Cosmetics in 2008 with her husband, Paulo Lima, after struggling to find makeup that worked with her rosacea and hyperpigmentation. The company had a slow start as retailers turned down the products. A breakthrough came on QVC, where she demonstrated the concealers on air and sold out during a 10-minute segment. She later appeared in more than 1,000 live QVC shows. In 2016, L'Oréal bought IT Cosmetics for $1.2 billion in cash.

How Jamie Kern Lima built her wealth

Most of Jamie Kern Lima's fortune comes from IT Cosmetics, the makeup company she co-founded in 2008. She created the line after testing products that could better cover redness and uneven skin tone. She and Paulo Lima even sketched out the business plan while flying to South Africa for their honeymoon. As the brand grew, QVC became a major platform, and IT Cosmetics turned into the network's largest beauty brand.

The biggest money event in her career came in 2016, when L'Oréal bought IT Cosmetics for $1.2 billion in cash. Forbes says she pocketed an estimated $410 million from the deal. She stayed on as CEO and became the first female chief executive officer of a L'Oréal brand, then stepped down from day-to-day operations in 2019. Since selling the company, she has invested in more than a dozen businesses, including Dutch Bros Coffee and Duckhorn Portfolio.

Forbes net worth and money milestones

Forbes has tracked Jamie Kern Lima among America's Richest Self-Made Women for years. Its estimate was $440 million in 2018, stayed at $440 million in 2019, then moved to $460 million in 2020. In the next few years, Forbes raised that figure to $500 million in 2021, $550 million in 2022, and $575 million in 2023 as her post-sale wealth base continued to build.

The latest Forbes estimate is $670 million in 2025, up from $650 million in 2024. Her wealth story is tied first to the 2016 sale of IT Cosmetics and then to what she did after cashing out. Instead of relying on one company alone, she put money into more than a dozen businesses. That mix of a large exit and later investments helps explain why Forbes' estimate kept climbing over time.