🎉 WeArisma joins forces with NielsenIQ (NIQ) to, for the first time ever, measure the impact of Creator Marketing on sales.
The beauty marketing landscape is evolving. Uncover the key shifts shaping the industry and connect with the initiatives currently fuelling impact in the new age of the creator economy.
Published On: July 1, 2025
Creator marketing remains a powerful strategy for beauty brands looking to forge meaningful connections with their audience. But, shifting consumer preferences are changing what good looks like.
We’ve discovered that influential creator voices have collectively generated up to 19-times more earned media value (EMV) than brand-owned accounts. This notable shift in outlook commands new ways of thinking about earned media success, especially in industries like beauty.
Now more than ever, community and resonance building should lie at the heart of every brand-earned media strategy. Newcomers with social-first approaches are changing the beauty playing field, encouraging brands to rethink how they reach, attract, and retain consumers.
We’re entering a bold new chapter for creator marketing in beauty – and it’s focused on creating genuine connections. Keep your finger on the pulse with these needle-moving insights from our ‘Beauty State of Influence 2025’ report.
Influential voices are delivering outstanding creator marketing results for the world’s best-performing beauty brands.
By building close-knit relationships with their communities, creator marketers play a vital role in driving preferences, extending their reach and earning audience engagement beyond the scope of brand-owned media channels.
Here’s an overview of the impact of creator marketers in beauty based on our data:
✔️ Generated up to 19X EMV than brand owned account
✔️ Created up to 73X more content that brand’s own accounts
✔️ Reached up to 26X more consumers than owned accounts
✔️ Cultivated up to 83X more engagement
The most influential voices in beauty have become brands in their own right, forming deep parasocial bonds with their communities. These relationships result in emotional connections that inspire genuine interactions and drive meaningful marketing results.
Read: How to write a good influencer brief: 7 non-negotiables
Our analysis has uncovered a wealth of beauty-based creator marketing trends that not only highlight the current state of the industry – but you can use to shape your strategy.
The rise of celeb-owned brands like Fenty, Rare, and R.E.M. have upped the game on how to market to Gen Z. These brands are achieving unprecedented dominance by building deep connections with their fans.
At the forefront of this movement is Fenty. Rihanna’s star power plays a significant role in generating organic engagement at press previews and events, where she connects with beauty influencers during meet-and-greets.
Beauty brands are embracing fresh partnerships to meet consumer demand for novelty and depth. The expanding female fan base in traditionally male-dominated sports is grabbing the attention of beauty brands.
These partnerships include e.l.f. sponsoring the Wonder Women of Wrestling Varsity Tournament, Glossier teaming up with the USA women’s basketball team, and Charlotte Tilbury collaborating with F1 Academy.
Beauty is at the heart of the ‘dupes’ trend, which currently contributes 40% of the industry’s $568M EMV conversation. Budget-friendly brands are swift to adapt to trends and bring new products to the market.
For Gen Z, finding quality for less has become a new social status, with influencers playing a key role in boosting trust in challenger brands. In response, heritage brands built on long-standing excellence can lean into their values to deepen affinity.
The “high-maintenance to stay low-maintenance” trend is gaining traction in beauty routines, emphasizing upfront investments in treatments that minimize daily effort.
Brands like Maybelline, Anastasia Beverly Hills, and St. Tropez have capitalized on the trend with dedicated product lines, while Kopari has seen interactions and EMV double throughout 2024. Influencer Alix Earle is a prominent advocate of this trend, showcasing her “effortless” hacks to millions of engaged fans on TikTok.
From glazed doughnut skin to cherry cola lips and beyond, TikTok is brimming with food-inspired beauty trends, and beauty brands have taken notice.
Hailey Bieber’s Rhode Beauty primarily relies on associating its products with sweet treats like cinnamon rolls and ice cream, offering these indulgences to customers who wait in line for hours on end. Glossier’s fresh Black Cherry collection, which hinges on the fruit’s aromatic smell and taste, has already amassed 4.5M Engagements on just 108 Mentions.
“Glazed blush”, “boyfriend blush”, and “sunset blush” are everywhere you look, with stars like Sabrina Carpenter, Hailey Bieber, and Zendaya leading the trend.
Rare, Rhode, and Patrick Ta Beauty have harnessed the trend to their advantage, releasing dreamy palettes and creamy blend-able formulas. However, blush enthusiasts have been warned – nail the trend or risk falling into the dreaded category of “blush blindness.”
Ripple Impact definition: The total brand impact generated by influential voices compared to that generated by brand-owned accounts.
Measuring Ripple Impact through our platform provides a clear indication of the campaign impact that influential or creator accounts are making compared to their brand-owned counterparts. Here’s a glimpse at the numbers across beauty categories.
What’s interesting in this particular category is that for leading brands including Chanel and Prada, brand-owned accounts earn a larger share of Ripple Impact in terms of EMV and Impressions. These numbers go against the grain of the overarching trend where influential voices drive the lion’s share of the results.
To conduct our industry-wide analysis of the beauty brands making the biggest creator waves across categories, we tracked a mix of metrics (in addition to the likes of EMV, Engagement, and Impressions). These include:
So, which beauty brands are currently leading the way with their creator marketing initiatives? Whether you’re talking skincare, fragrance or makeup, certain beauty brands are making a significant impact with their creator marketing strategies.
Fragrance shows a slightly subdued Ripple Impact compared to skincare and makeup. But Dior is bucking the trend with its iconic fragrances, Miss Dior and J’Adore, driven by highly influential collaborations with Jisoo and Rihanna.
Skincare giant Sephora has also generated a significant Ripple Impact. The brand’s success stems from a tightly knit community of beauty enthusiasts who are constantly tapped into must-have makeup and product launches.
In total, this collective of beauty enthusiasts contributed close to 3x more EMV, resulting in a staggering $1.9 billion and 8x extra Engagement. Sephora continually refreshes its curated ‘Hot on Social‘ shopping edit with trending products creating a TikTok buzz that’s hard to ignore.
Garnier’s tried-and-tested products continue to appeal to beauty consumers across all demographics, especially among ‘skinfluencers’.
The brand’s products and strong community connections have secured the top spot across EMV, Engagements, Impressions, and Mentions.
Read: Winners of The Met Gala 2025 (Brands + Influencers)
Metrics like Earned Media Value (EMV) are well suited for showing which brands spend the most on exclusive partnerships. But these metrics don’t necessarily spotlight those that are building the most authentic connections. We’re talking about those that extend to target customers or names that travel far beyond the communities of brands or even influential voices and into the vast interlinked social media web.
Partnerships with influential voices – rooted in strong resonance and credibility – empower brands to reach and influence far more target consumers than they could through their own social media channels alone.
Well-positioned creator partnerships founded on aligned brand values and clear goals will significantly improve the outcome of your campaigns. To measure your success, uncover your hidden impact, and demonstrate what good looks like, reaching beyond vanity metrics is essential. It’s where the real insight lives.
For a deep-dive insight into our unique platform data and the latest influential trends in beauty, download the full interactive ‘Beauty 2025 State of Influencer report’.
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