Top 28 Beauty Influencers That Brands Should Know
Brand collaborations with beauty influencers are among the most popular campaigns on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. These creators offer consumers impeccable style, trustworthy recommendations, and product tutorials.
What is a beauty influencer?
A beauty influencer is an online creator who publishes content for skin, nails, hair, and makeup.
These creators focus heavily on quality ingredients, style, and best practices when shopping for and applying various beauty products.
Why influencer marketing works for beauty brands
Cosmetic companies are among the top retail brands to partner with influencers. Similarly, hair care, nail, and skin care brands achieve high results with beauty influencers.
Beauty customers are loyal fans of their favorite products, and knowledgeable creators offer them invaluable guidance and inspiration.
Why fashion brands also use beauty influencers
Beauty influencers often partner with fashion brands and vice versa, especially when it comes to fashion accessories like jewelry or headwear.
Because beauty influencers are first and foremost artists, their content is typically dynamic and colorful. Any brands that wish to adorn their products with this artistry may be a good fit for beauty influencers.
Types of beauty influencer marketing campaigns
Beauty tutorials
Beauty influencer marketing allows you to promote your products through how-to tutorials. Not only do they show off their skills, but they subtly promote your brand and products.
With tutorial videos, influencers usually list all of the products they’ve used in the caption or video description. Some influencers may post an image of the “final look” or create a before-and-after video.
This type of influencer content often attracts countless views. And the influencer’s followers are more inclined to take action when the creator promotes your brand during the tutorial.
Favorites
One of the best ways brands can utilize beauty influencer marketing is through “favorites” posts. Beauty influencers introduce their favorite beauty products to their audiences in a wish or top picks list in these posts.
While these posts don’t promote your brand exclusively, you can expect them to promote your products well. The complete list feels more organic and trustworthy to consumers.
You can further leverage your campaign reach with “favorites” posts by asking your influencers to include a link that directs their audience to the product page.
Skin care routine
Beauty influencer marketing doesn’t need to feel promotional. You can ask your influencers to create content around their skin care routines. These posts usually give the audience a sneak peek into the day-to-day lives of the influencers.
The audience loves to know what their favorite creators use. When they see these posts, they want to imitate the influencer by purchasing the exact products that the creator used in their post or video.
Giveaways
Giveaways generate tremendous engagement and reach. With beauty influencer marketing, you can offer your product as prizes. Followers enter to win the product by sharing, commenting, tagging, or all of the above.
The influencer creates content around the product and posts it on their account. They then ask the audience to participate for a chance to win.
Not only will people join for a chance to win, but the winners also get to try your product. If the winners like your products, they will become customers too.
The impact of beauty influencers
“Over 80% of consumers are more inclined to buy products that creators promote.” — GRIN, 101 Vitally Important Influencer Marketing Statistics
Beauty influencers combine the spirit of celebrity endorsements with product recommendations from a “trusted friend next door.” Because these creators stake their reputation on the quality of the brands they promote, followers are more likely to listen to them over branded ads.
That said, achieving success with beauty influencers requires understanding which creators fit your brand. Buyers can tell when a product endorsement is insincere. That’s why you must work with influencers who genuinely love your products.
Choosing the right beauty influencer
For the best campaign results, you should select your influencers carefully. To recruit the perfect team of beauty influencers for your brand, you should answer the following questions.
- What are your influencer marketing goals? Are you looking for more web visits, new product sales, general brand awareness, or a combination of the three? Your goals will determine what kind of beauty influencer is the best fit for your brand. Some of these influencers use exceptionally creative techniques for giveaways, product reviews, or tutorials.
- Does your audience align with the influencer’s audience? Most beauty influencers possess strong values and are not afraid to use their voice as advocates. Failing to find those influencers who align with your brand message could send mixed signals to customers and negatively impact campaign ROI.
- Does the influencer have excellent engagement metrics or only vanity metrics? Just because an influencer has a high follower and like count doesn’t guarantee that influencer fits your campaign. Influencers can manufacture these vanity metrics easily. Instead, it would be best to focus on post comments and shares. These engagement metrics will help you sort authentic influencers from fake influencers.
Types of beauty influencers
When organizing beauty creators into different categories, many marketers separate by size. The typical breakdown for influencers by size (or reach) is:
- Nano influencers: Fewer than 10,000 followers
- Micro influencers: 10,000–100,000 followers
- Macro influencers: 100,000–1 million followers
- Mega influencers (celebrities): More than 1 million followers
But you can identify types of beauty influencers by their style and content type. Here are a few kinds of beauty creators that your brand might want to work with:
- Tutor/Educator: These creators inform their audience about different products-their ingredients, how to apply them, where to buy them, etc.
- Artist: Some cosmetics and skin/hair care creators like to flex their creativity in elaborate designs on the face, body, hair, and nails.
- Guru: Like educators, beauty gurus are long-standing experts in their field.
- Entrepreneur: Many beauty creators have their own formulas and product lines, and they use their social presence to build their business and partner with other brands.
- Ambassador: Some creators are huge brand fans who are excited to promote that brand to their friends and family online. Most ambassadors have a small following (nano and micro influencers), but their audiences tend to be highly engaged.
- Activist: Within the cosmetics industry, there is a growing awareness for ethically sourced ingredients, skin health, and mental health. These creators are focused on promoting social responsibility within the cosmetics industry.
Qualities of a good beauty influencer
When building your creator shortlist and launching your outreach, keep the following qualities in mind to help you create a powerful influencer team.
- A good influencer should have an audience that is identical to your own. This approach is known as audience alignment, and without it, your campaigns will have minimal effect on that influencer’s followers.
- A good influencer is reliable. You will waste time and money on influencers who fail to deliver or don’t communicate regularly with your team.
- A good beauty influencer is knowledgeable. The more expert a creator is in their field, the more credibility your campaigns will have.
- A good influencer knows how to integrate products authentically into lifestyle content. Any product endorsements should feel natural, not awkward and forced.
Taking time to explore a creator’s content library or perform an initial audience analysis will ensure that you recruit the right influencers for your campaign.
Brands succeeding with influencer marketing
There is hardly a beauty brand that does not already work with influencers in some capacity. Cosmetics were leveraging celebrity endorsements decades ago, and trends in social media merely shifted brand strategies.
About-Face Beauty frequently partners with tutorial creators and encourages them to use branded hashtags, such as #afpartner, #aboutfacebeauty, #afinthewild, and #crueltyfree.
@aboutfacebeauty Can @Kameron Lester be any more perfect in our Matte Fluid Eye Paints + Fractal Glitter Gelly 😍 #fyp #aboutface #crueltyfreemakeup ♬ Toxic x Pony — ALTÉGO
Similarly, EM Cosmetics show up in countless makeup tutorials. This brand loves it when its influencers pair their products with complementary brands for more authentic campaigns.
Top 28 beauty influencers of 2021
Top 7 TikTok beauty influencers
@ashleyquiroz_ My first time installing a wig in 4ever. Ive just been living my bald life but here we go 👀 #wiginstall #wig #bald #hairvideos #hairtransformation ♬ FRONTIN — Omnily hunnye 🌬
Ashley Quiroz initially made a huge splash on YouTube with her AshGhotCakessTV brand. And even though she’s still popular on YouTube, she’s more recently gained a massive following on TikTok.
@dajjrambo #ad Styling my hair w/ @myafricanpride 💆🏾♀️ #ad #AfricanPrideDeepHydration #washdayroutine #type4hair #olivemiracle #moisturemiracle #myafricanpride ♬ Hrs and Hrs — Muni Long
Dasia Janae is a makeup tutorialist and artist who has dubbed herself “The Makeup and Hair girl.” She is a mom of two and engages fans on TikTok and Instagram. Dasia is also an active member of the #SephoraSquad.
trying to get my passion for makeup back because it’s really therapeutic i just need to feel motivated and inspired to do fun looks 🙂
Ellie Addis doesn’t just “do makeup”; she paints pictures of flowers and paw prints on her face. She’s not afraid to use sparkly lime green colors against mesmerizing pink hair. According to Cosmopolitan, “It’s impossible to watch one of Ellie’s videos and not want to wear all the colourful makeup at once.”
another bella hadid makeup bc she’s hot af xxx
Danielle Marcan is a marketing student, but perhaps she could teach her professors a thing or two about social media engagement. With nearly 2 million followers on TikTok and a million fans on Instagram, Danielle delights audiences with a wide variety of makeup styles.
Marcan is exceptionally skilled at comparing whole glam looks with a natural glow. She loves to collaborate with other influencers on new beauty experiments.
its a whole process
Abby Roberts is both a makeup artist and shrewd investor. She quickly surged to 17 million followers on TikTok and currently dabbles in real estate and bitcoin. Business Insider recently dubbed her a genius marketing strategist with a “global beauty empire.”
Mari Maria is an outgoing Brazilian beauty influencer who initially launched her career on Instagram and YouTube. Last year, she became a mother and delighted TikTok fans with regular videos tracking her pregnancy journey.
@dermdoctor GLASS SKIN DEWWWW??? @_aishanuuur #skincare #glassskin #versed ♬ original sound — Dr. Shah
Dr. Muneeb Shah is the “Derm Doctor” and educates his audience on proper skin care. Though he sometimes recommends products, he is most famous for his “cringe-worthy” videos of TikTokers using improper methods for applying/removing make-up and popping pimples.
Top 7 beauty influencers on Instagram
Vanessa says of her hobby-turned-career, “Makeup means an escape. An outlet. My own personal art form.” Her message of makeup as therapy resonates with thousands on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
Christen Dominique is three parts cosmetics influencer, one part fashion influencer, and one part cosmetic product creator. She is also a full-time mom and founder of Dominique Cosmetics.
Christen began providing makeup tutorials for her high school classmates. Later in life, she returned to college and began her beauty influencer career. Today, she touts over 4 million YouTube subscribers, plus a handsome following on Twitter and Instagram.
Fiorella Zrt is a makeup artist and business owner based in Florida. She uses her Facebook and Instagram to promote her business while providing one-of-a-kind tutorias.
Oghosa Ovienrioba leads a creator presence focused on “Beauty, Style, and Straight Talkin’.” An outspoken Christian, she loves to discuss all things lifestyle related to fashion, travel, makeup, and spirituality.
Chandni is an Indian beauty influencer who’s passionate about clothes, home decor, and travel. Her most popular posts focus on skin care and henna art.
German influencer Lisa Scharff is the “Mindful Beauty Coach” and one of the creators responsible for popularizing the #beautyinsideout hashtag on Instagram. She loves testing new cosmetics while reminding women that they are beautiful regardless of color, age, or size.
Despite being a prolific online creator, Vanessa Andrea has multiple sclerosis (MS). She is a skin care guru and lingerie influencer who loves to create giveaway contests for her fans and brand partners.
Top 7 YouTube beauty influencers
Eye shadow and nail artist Shannon Harris is among the most versatile beauty influencers. From blow-dry hair brushes to butt implant underwear, Shannon is delighted to test any product and offer straightforward advice to viewers.
Nikkie de Jager is a Dutch beauty influencer famous for her informal makeup tutorials. Fans especially love when Nikkie teams up with her fiance for shared makeup experiences.
As a teenager, Nikkie struggled with gender identity and suffered ridicule from peers. Today, she is an advocate for the LGBTQ community and has used her business success to touch the lives of many.
Kianna Naomi is an actress and YouTuber who focuses on fashion, lifestyle, and makeup tutorials. She started her channel in 2013 and has since accumulated more than 900,000 subscribers. Kianna has partnered with numerous major brands like Sephora, Pandora, Best Buy, and more.
Huda Kattan left the finance industry to create her own makeup product line. After partnering with family members, Huda Beauty products now line the shelves of mainstream cosmetics retail stores worldwide.
Throughout her entrepreneurial journey, Huda also flourished as an influencer. As arguably the leading beauty celebrity influencer today, she provides tutorials and product reviews on Instagram and YouTube.
Wayne Goss is a makeup artist and beauty product tester who offers helpful tutorials for men and women alike. Also a brand ambassador for Brandylish, he designs his own exclusive line of makeup brushes.
Michelle Phan is a cofounder of Ipsy and the current owner of Em Cosmetics. Michelle maintains her brand with surprising authenticity on YouTube and Instagram despite her corporate success.
Alissa Ashley gained her more than 2 million YouTube subscribers by posting beauty product reviews, makeup tutorials, and tips for how to live a healthier life. The Oakland, California, native is also a self-taught photographer who focuses on portrait and product photography.
Top 7 beauty bloggers
One of the hottest beauty bloggers today is Anna O’Brien. She has over 8 million followers on TikTok (plus another 800,000 followers on Instagram) and a creative streak that will astound you. Her authenticity and makeup artistry endear audiences around the world.
O’Brien also recently published a book, A Life Full of Glitter: A Guide to Positive Thinking, Self-Acceptance, and Finding Your Sparkle in a (Sometimes) Negative World. She advocates for victims of fat-shaming and promotes fashion as a way to love one’s body regardless of size or age.
Rachael Fuss became obsessed with skin care products to deal with skin conditions in her teens and early twenties. After launching her product review blog in 2018, she generated thousands of fans and regular readers.
Laura Alksne is a micro beauty influencer on Instagram and founder of alksne.lv. Though her main passion is beauty, she is also interested in fashion and DIY projects. Her blogs focus on tutorials and product recommendations.
Nneka Elliott is a Canadian actress and beauty blogger. She advocates “power looks” for career-driven women and engages fans directly on Instagram.
Michelle Wong has a Ph.D. in chemistry and uses her blog to unpack ingredients in leading cosmetics products. As a cosmetic chemist, she exposes toxic chemicals in products and explains which products are the healthiest for the skin.
This blog is run by two influencers, Robin Black and Nick Tamburri. While Robin is the beauty expert, Nick is an acclaimed documentary videographer. Together, they’ve built an impressive collection of written and video content.
Before establishing her blog, Susan Yara launched her career as a lifestyle influencer on YouTube. Due to her success as a media producer and editor, she primarily hosts expert guests and oversees content production from other beauty bloggers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Originally published at https://grin.co.
