Beauty Influencer Marketing has become increasingly popular in recent years. Social platforms such as Instagram, YouTube and TikTok continue to lead the way in this field as they provide a space for beauty influencers to showcase their skills, share tutorials, reviews and recommendations, and connect with their followers on a personal level. This has created opportunities for brands to partner with these influencers to promote their products and leverage their credibility, reach and influence. Several beauty brands have experienced rapid growth by leveraging influencer marketing. Read on to see how beauty brands from Rihanna’s cult brand Fenty Beauty to Kylie Jenner’s famous lip kits, have powered their growth through Influencer Marketing.
Brands That Have Made Beauty Influencer Marketing Really Work
Anastasia Beverly Hills
Anastasia Beverly Hills (ABH) is a cosmetics brand that achieved tremendous success through Influencer Marketing. ABH collaborated with beauty influencers and makeup artists who showcased their highly pigmented eyeshadow palettes, eyebrow products, and highlighters. The brand’s association with influential figures in the beauty community helped them gain widespread recognition and a dedicated following.
Fenty Beauty
Fenty Beauty, founded by singer Rihanna, disrupted the beauty industry and achieved remarkable growth with the help of influencer marketing. Fenty Beauty’s inclusive range of foundation shades and diverse product offerings resonated with consumers worldwide. They collaborated with a diverse group of influencers and beauty gurus, showcasing their products on various skin tones and celebrating diversity in beauty. This approach not only drove sales but also positioned Fenty Beauty as a trailblazer in the industry.
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Glossier
Glossier is a direct-to-consumer beauty brand that gained popularity through strategic influencer partnerships. They collaborated with influencers who embodied the brand’s minimalist, natural beauty aesthetic. Glossier’s “skin-first” approach and emphasis on skincare products resonated with consumers seeking a fresh and effortless look. By harnessing the power of influencer endorsements and user-generated content, Glossier quickly became a cult favourite in the beauty community.
Kylie Cosmetics
Kylie Cosmetics, founded by Kylie Jenner, utilised influencer marketing to build a billion-dollar brand. Jenner collaborated with influential beauty vloggers and influencers who created tutorials and reviews featuring her lip kits and other makeup products. The combination of her celebrity status and the influencers’ endorsements generated massive buzz and contributed to the brand’s rapid growth.
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Morphe
Morphe, a makeup brand known for its high-quality brushes and eyeshadow palettes, experienced significant growth through influencer marketing. They collaborated with beauty influencers and makeup artists who created tutorials and looks using Morphe products. These collaborations helped Morphe gain a strong presence on social media platforms, particularly YouTube, and establish itself as a go-to brand for both professionals and beauty enthusiasts.
Charlotte Tilbury
Charlotte Tilbury, a renowned beauty brand, has engaged in influencer gifting as part of their marketing strategy. The brand has collaborated with influencers and celebrities to promote their makeup and skincare products through social media platforms.
Charlotte Tilbury often sends PR packages or gifts to influencers, which include a selection of their popular products. These packages are designed to create excitement, encourage influencers to try the products, and generate buzz among their followers. Influencers then share their experiences with the gifted products, creating content such as unboxing videos, tutorials, or reviews.
In addition to gifting, Charlotte Tilbury has also formed long-term partnerships with influential beauty content creators. These collaborations may involve sponsored posts, brand campaigns, or the influencers becoming ambassadors for the brand. These partnerships help drive brand visibility, credibility, and engagement as influencers share their love for Charlotte Tilbury’s products with their audiences.
Charlotte Tilbury’s influencer gifting and collaborations have contributed to the brand’s growth and popularity, allowing them to reach a wider audience and establish themselves as a coveted beauty brand.
Rhode
Hailey Rhode Bieber’s brand, Rhode Skin has utilised everything from popular trends to unique packaging when gifting to influencers, and it has been very effective. Hailey is already the ultimate it-girl and leans into trends like “Glazed Skin” to promote her products. Rhode also partners with an impressive list of influencers — gifting new products when they launch for fresh content creation. The influencers include Kensington Tillo , Tsutsumi Hoang, Olivia Jade and Ariana Greenblatt. These influencer partnerships are key to the promotion of Rhode’s viral products like the Lip Peptide Treatment and the Lip Case (a phone case that holds a lip peptide tint), and Rhode’s sleek and signature packaging makes for ideal unboxing content— This combination is the perfect formula for successful influencer marketing.
Rare Beauty
Celebrity-founded beauty line, Rare Beauty, is another influencer-brand match made in heaven. Selena Gomez is the most followed woman on Instagram and is beloved by the masses. Known for her authenticity, Selena has greatly enhanced Rare Beauty’s brand values. Rare beauty has curated a strong connection with customers through TikTok content that is relatable and real. Rare beauty works with influencers that align with not only Selena’s image but the brand’s overall message of positivity and transparency. Partnering with a wide range of influencers, Rare beauty has gifted to macro- influencers Alisha Marie, Dellara, and Mikayla Nogueira and nano-influencers Kimber Rose and Cynthia Di Meo. These strategic partnerships and curated content has strengthened Rare Beauty’s customer loyalty and target audience.
Milk Makeup
Milk Makeup has grown and maintained its popularity through customer personalization and specific influencing tactics. Milk prioritizes partnerships with micro and macro influencers, regularly featuring them on their Instagram and TikTok. They gift new products to beauty influencers like Ron Hernandez, Sara Wren , and Jackie Ainato as part of influencer partnerships. They feature influencers that relay a sense of attainable beauty through their content featuring Milk products. Prioritizing new influencers, utlizing popular trends, and using bright and unique packaging keeps the brand fresh and exciting.
YSL Beauty
YSL has recently rebranded its beauty line, with Dua Lipa as the new global face of the brand. Being a luxury brand, YSL needs to be strategic with its chosen influencers. Even though the re-branding took place in February, it has already created tons of buzz for YSL. Having such a popular and relevant celebrity as an ambassador has helped the rebranding quickly grow in popularity. YSL hasn’t only partnered with mega-celebrities, they also regularly gift to micro and mid-term influencers like imemma.z and Olivia Miller so they can then feature them on their TikTok. In turn, this has increased YSL’s brand demographic reach and the creation of popular but on-brand content.
L’Oréal Paris
L’Oréal Paris has been a huge part of the beauty community for a long time, and has been very strategic in their marketing and product campaigns. TikTok influencers like [profile link]Mikayla Nogueira[/profile-link] have played a huge role in their product names getting out there. It is important for brands like L’Oréal who may already be well-established, to keep up with the times, and right now, influencers have some of the most powerful voices in impacting product sales and brand recognition.
Huda Beauty
Huda Beauty joined the beauty scene in the late 2010s and had a huge impact on makeup trends. Here we are in 2024 and they are still extremely relevant and popular— this is because of their marketing strategy. They collaborate with influential men and women in order to boost word of mouth about their products and further circulate the brand name. Huda Beauty has done a great job of ensuring that their products offer appealing benefits to customers, as well as beautiful packaging to reinforce those positive associations. Their liquid blushes, for example, have done really well and exhibit bright and fun packaging.
Elf Cosmetics
Elf Cosmetics has made a name for itself as one of the most affordable makeup brands that delivers quality, long lasting products. One of the key ways that they have been able to achieve this image is by utilizing very specific influencers to create positive associations with their brand name. One of the best examples of this is having Katherine Legge endorse and rep the brand. She is the only female driver in the Indianapolis 500 right now, and she looks absolutely stunning both on and off the track. Elf has caused a lot of buzz with this one, as their spokeswoman is so well known and loved. Having such a great female role model be one of the faces of elf’s brand is a brilliant way to both promote both their message and values, but also all of the products that are a part of Katherine Legge’s campaign.
Maybelline
Maybelline has had long-term relationships with their influencers— the most well-known one being Gigi Hadid. This is such a great way to establish trust amongst customers, as short term deals can sometimes come across as disingenuous. Gigi Hadid has been one of the faces for Maybelline for years now, and customers love to see that consistency. This great marketing approach, coupled with the brands impressive product lines, has allowed Maybelline to remain one of the biggest brands in the makeup industry.
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