£250k of sales in 72 hours; bought a new car; hired a PR; website rebrand; cover girl; board meeting with Lord Sugar; and rubbing shoulders with the stars.
Welcome to the world according to 2026 The Apprentice winner Karishma Vijay.
Her list of achievements since winning The Apprentice is already impressive, and she was only announced as the winner last Thursday!
• Her skincare brand Kishkin clocked up sales of £250k in just 72 hours;
• 7,000 customers worldwide;
• Long-time associate of Lord Sugar, Andrew Bloch, has been appointed to handle her PR;
• Kishkin’s website has undergone a rebrand, including details of her appearance on The Apprentice;
• Grown her social media following to nearly one million;
• Appeared on the cover of Luxurist magazine;
• Countless media interviews; and
• Turned 79-year-old Lord Sugar into a TikTok star
Even billionaire Lord Sugar, not known for lavishing praise, described her sales as ‘unbelievable’.
The exposure from The Apprentice launch party is set to add another £500k in sales, but even that might be a conservative estimate.
Why Karishma is set to make millions from The Apprentice
Karishma, who announced she’d got engaged two days before last week’s final, is on a mission to turn Kishkin into a ‘new obsession’ and wants to see it stocked everywhere from Harrods to duty free.
Karishma’s performance since winning The Apprentice will come as no surprise to anyone who watched her performances on the show, where she never finished in the bottom three.
The only candidate with her own Wikipedia page, the entrepreneur has spent 10 years building up her social media following, so she already has a ready-made audience for her expanded product range.
At the heart of her success is Brand Karishma. After becoming known as ‘the girl with acne’, she started sharing unfiltered images of her skin on TikTok and Instagram and built up a huge following.
She launched her beauty brand, Kishkin, on her birthday on April 18, 2024, and shared videos on social media illustrating the impact of her product, helping to drive demand.
Everything that has happened in the last week has merely built on what she’s been working on for the last 10 years.
It’s hardly surprising that Lord Sugar looks so happy with his £250,000 investment.
Pictured next to his new business partner on TikTok, he said: “Her figures are amazing. She’s sold so much of this stuff it’s incredible. 7,000 customers in two weeks. It reminds me of early days when I started and that’s one of the reasons she joined me as a partner.
“I saw in her certain things which I used to get up in the way our minds and brains think.
Thanks pops: Karishma Vijay and her Dad
“There was a time when I asked her to look me in the eye and say ‘does all this gear that you’re selling actually work?’ and she looked me in the eye and said ‘yes it does’.”
She opened up about her relationship with Lord Sugar in her first podcast interview since winning the show on ‘Project Possible’ with Rich Leigh.
“He’s the godfather of business and he’s on my phone,” she said. “He gives a sh*t.”
She continued: “Lord Sugar wants a very credible candidate to be his business partner but also somebody that is very real.
“He hates bullshitters, he hates schmoozers, he hates people who are just big fans of the show.
“It’s why I said ‘Lord Sugar, I’m not your biggest fan, I don’t know much about your show and I haven’t watched it for 20 years but I want your money, I need your investment and with or without you I’m going to make millions so you’re either coming along or you’re going to watch me do it’.”
Despite her new-found fortune, Karishma recognises that the success of Kishkin is heavily linked to her ongoing success as a content creator.
“People come to me to hear something silly,” she said. “On the internet all I do is talk sh*t.”
It’s the reason why her social media feed has a mix of videos of cute dogs, a pink car she’s bought, inside Lord Sugar’s boardroom and the miracle healing qualities of Kishkin’s skincare products.
Brand Karishma is even being discussed on Reddit. “I work out of a self storage place in Twickenham that Karishma also uses,” posted one user. “The guys at the office have said she went from two units to nine within weeks. Trolleys of boxes ready to go anytime I pull up.”
PR Andrew Bloch has worked with Lord Sugar for 26 years and said his new client is like no other winner.
“I’ve seen every winner come through this show but Karishma is relatable,” he said. “As a personality she’s relatable, she’s authentic. What you see is what you get. You know what she’s all about. She’s funny.
Karishma targets global domination after Apprentice win
“She has a big following on social media which is something we haven’t seen on the show before, certainly with a winner. Close to a million across her various channels and that’s powerful.”
One of the revealing comments on the Project Possible podcast focused on the sensitive subject of her parents’ divorce, and why she didn’t want her life defined by others.
She also said her life changed when she was hit by a car in Hammersmith in 2024 and was sent flying into the air.
Miraculously, she walked away unscathed but said seeing her life flash before her eyes changed her outlook. “I realised the value of life in that second,” she admitted.
She applied to go on The Apprentice ‘on a whim’ and the rest, as they say, is history.
The post £250k of sales in 72 hours: The rise of Brand Karishma appeared first on BusinessCloud.
