The Top Brands and Influencers in the Beauty Industry
written by Elena Funk
Thanks to Instagram, YouTube, and now even TikTok, a multitude of beauty influencers have emerged in recent years. From tips on the best eye makeup to streaming live tutorials on celebrity looks, beauty influencers have a community of millions around the world. And their popularity continues to grow.
What is a beauty influencer?
A beauty influencer has expertise in makeup, hair care or skin care and gives advice and tips on this on all social media platforms.
Thanks to their huge popularity, beauty influencers are actively courted by brands big and small. From a company's perspective, working with a beauty influencer can help increase awareness and reach the right target audience. This can be especially rewarding for generating leads and driving conversions.
What are the most popular beauty brands on Instagram?
Beauty brands are also on Instagram to reach their followers. Here are the beauty brands with the most followers on Instagram:
Benefit Cosmetics
(approx. 10 million)
When looking at Benefit Cosmet ics, one thing quickly becomes clear - everything is pink. Benefit Cosmetics was founded in 1976 by the twins Jean & Jane Ford. Since 2008, other family members (respectively the daughter and niece) have also joined the company and are now considered an international authority on beauty.
The color pink is used across all social media channels. In terms of content, Benefit only differs with lots of "self-care" content, in which the inner beauty of the users is to be strengthened.
User-generated content can also be found here, it seems. However, a closer look suggests that this content is staged, as it all has the perfectly matching pink background. Nevertheless, the brand appears very likeable and inviting, almost humorous. It makes you feel like you quickly belong to the community.
Fenty Beauty
(approx. 11.6 million)
One brand that should not be missing from the list is Fenty Beauty. With 11.6 million followers on Instagram, the brand of musician and founder Rihanna is one of the most popular on social media.
Fenty Beauty was launched in 2017 with the intention of including all skin tones of a wide and difficult to assign palette. She discovered this as a gap in the makeup market and decided to fill it. 50 different shades are the result. The range was subsequently expanded with concealers and other products.
TikTok, YouTube, Twitter - Fenty Beauty can be found on all social media channels. However, the content is no different. Product images, user-generated content (UGC), celebrities or Rihanna herself draw the content strategy.
Anastasia Beverly Hills
(approx. 19.3 million)
It all started with products for the perfect eyebrows, such as brushes, gels and eyebrow pens, when beauty pioneer Anastasia Soare launched the first product line in 2000. She shaped and treated the eyebrows of numerous stars and celebrities and quickly became popular as a result, subsequently launching her first makeup line in 2014.
Anastasia Beverly Hills can also be found on the popular social media platforms. ABH, as it is officially abbreviated, can also be found on Pinterest with inspiring content. However, you won't find the founder herself on these channels. Here, too, the focus is increasingly on user-generated content, as well as numerous product images and tutorials.
1. Kylie Cosmetics
(approx. 25.8 million)
If this name makes your ears ring, you're right. Kylie Cosmetics was founded by Kylie Jenner. At just her early 20s, she and her company have been dubbed the world's youngest self-made billionaire (She's worth $1 billion). Despite the great help of her famous family, the company is considered "self-made" because she did not inherit, but built it herself.
Kylie Cosmetics has three different lines. In addition to the cosmetics line, you can also find Kylie Skin, skin care for women, as well as Kylie Baby, skin care for the little ones.
On the website, the company titles itself Clean & Vegan Beauty, and states that the compositions of the products are produced under stricter conditions than required in the US, Canada, or the EU.
In addition to Instagram, you can find the brand on all popular social media channels, such as TikTok, Twitter, & Facebook. The content differs only in the required dimensions and mainly shows Kylie herself, products or user generated content (UGC).
Which influencers in the beauty scene should you know?
116 million - that's how many people can be reached through the communities of the top 10 beauty influencers alone.
Because instead of going to the nearest hairdresser or beautician, followers today prefer to watch the videos and tutorials of their beauty idols and try to create appropriate looks with the help of their instructions.
Product tests and clear purchase recommendations are the special added value that the influencers offer, so that both newcomers and experts can certainly learn something new.
It is particularly striking and exciting that there are no women on the first two ranks of the top 10 beauty influencers. These are the top 10 beauty influencers in terms of Instagram followers:
10. Carli Bybel
(4.7 million followers:inside)
Influencer @carlibel via Instagram
9. Naomi Giannopoulos
(6.2 million followers:inside)
Influencer @vegas_nay via Instagram
@vegas_nay
Origin: USA
Born: March 12, 1973
Occupation: makeup artist, influencer
other channels:
YouTube
8. Jaclyn Roxanne Hill
(7.4 million followers:inside)
Influencer @jaclynhill via Instagram
@jaclynhill
Origin: USA
Born: July 20, 1990
Occupation: influencer, entrepreneur
other channels:
TikTok, YouTube
7. Bianca Claßen
(8.2 million followers:inside)
Influencer @bibisbeautypalace via Instagram
@bibisbeautypalace
Origin: Germany
Born: February 6, 1993
Profession: Influencer, Entrepreneur, Producer
other channels:
TikTok, YouTube
6. Nikita Dragun
(9 million followers:inside)
Influencer @nikitadragun via Instagram
@nikitadragun
Country of origin: USA
Born: January 31, 1996
Occupation: influencer, model, makeup artist
other channels:
TikTok, YouTube
5. Mario Dedivanovic
(10.8 million followers:inside)
Influencer @makeupbymario via Instagram
@makeupbymario
Origin: USA
Born: October 1, 1983
Profession: makeup artist, entrepreneur
Other channels:
TikTok, YouTube
4. Jeffrey Lynn Steininger Jr.
(13.7 million followers:inside)
Influencer @jeffreestar via Instagram
@jeffreestar
Origin: USA
Born: November 15, 1985
Occupation: influencer, model, entrepreneur, singer, designer
other channels:
TikTok, YouTube
3. Nikkie de Jager
(16 million followers:inside)
Influencer @nikkietutorials via Instagram
@nikkietutorials
Origin: Netherlands
Born: March 2, 1994
Occupation: influencer, presenter
other channels:
TikTok, YouTube
Nikkie de Jager is a Dutch makeup and skincare influencer. With her YouTube channel NikkieTutorials , she is one of the most subscribed channels on the platform with almost 14 million subscribers.
Nikkie has been known since around 2015, after her YouTube video "The Power of Makeup" went viral and inspired many other videos in which people showed their faces with and without makeup.
2. Bretman Rock Sacayanan Laforga
(18.3 million followers:inside)
Influencer @bretmenrock via Instagram
@bretmenrock
Origin: Philippines
Born: July 31, 1998
Occupation: Influencer
other channels:
TikTok, YouTube
Bretman is famous not only for his makeup skills, but also for the hilarious beauty videos he shares with his community.
The beauty darling is also popular for his cheeky personality, quirky sense of humor and confident style, and is now considered one of the top beauty Instagram influencers in the world. He also counts over 14 MIllion followers on TikTok. However, the content of the channels does not differ. You can always find the same videos.
1. James Charles Dickinson
(22.9 million followers:inside)
Influencer @jamescharles via Instagram
@jamescharles
Origin: USA
Born: May 23, 1999
Occupation: Influencer, Make-Up Artist
other channels:
TikTok, YouTube
James is based in New York. He is an original beauty blogger and makeup artist. On YouTube alone, he has 24.1 million subscribers, and with 36.2 million followers on TikTok, he sets the bar even higher. Here, James is much more relaxed and fun than on his other channels.
Truly, it can be said that James is the most successful beauty influencer in the world. He has also won numerous awards and became the first male influencer ambassador for cosmetics brand CoverGirl at the age of 17. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, he hosts "Instant Influencer," a new original series from YouTube.
Conclusion
Choosing the right social media beauty influencers depends heavily on the brand, campaign, and individual goals and target groups. In order to establish successful collaborations in this highly competitive field, influencers must be identified who can help reach new target groups. In the best case, future brand ambassadors are a natural fit for the brand, so that the collaboration resembles a symbiosis and goes beyond an "advertisement.
With IROIN® Discovery, a large influencer database of over 160 million accounts can be accessed and the search for suitable influencers can be made much easier. Using helpful KPIs and insights, profiles can be created according to the brand's own needs and downloaded in the form of setcards. Suitable influencers can thus be selected at a glance.
