Below is the January 2023 edition of our Beauty Leaderboard Newsletter where we provide monthly data-backed insights on rising beauty trends, in-depth analyses of successful brand/influencer collaborations, and benchmarked rankings of global beauty brands.
Traackr Beauty Brand Leaderboard Ranking Insights
US Brand Spotlight: Rare Beauty + Positive Light Launch
Rare Beauty had a huge December, increasing VIT by 233% and jumping 6 spots from the previous month to take the top spot on the US Leaderboard.
Much of the success was due to the launch of the brand’s new Positive Light Highlighter and Brightener product line.
Rare hosted an event in New York to celebrate the launch and invited some top influencers to join including Meredith Duxbury (@meredithduxbury), Mikayla Nogueira (@mikaylanogueira), Sarah Wolak (@sarah_wolak), and Alix Earle (@alixearle), the hottest new influencer that no one can stop talking about (be sure to check out our 2023 Beauty SOI launching next week for more insights on the rapid rise of Alix Earle and the GRWM storytelling trend 🙃).
All of the above influencers produced top performing posts from the event that featured the brand’s owner, Selena Gomez. Alix Earle’s get-ready-with-me (GRWM) TikTok with Selena sat at the very top of best performing content, generating over 5.8M video views and 889k engagements.
Beyond those at the event, many other beauty influencers took to TikTok and Instagram to try out the newly launched products and share their thoughts. Surprisingly almost none of these posts were marked as sponsored.
The fact that so many beauty influencers (who are regularly paid a lot of money per post) chose to post organically about the new products highlights the impressive job that Rare has done in building a strong community that really believes in the brand’s products and values. It also serves as a perfect example of how important it is for brand’s to prioritize strengthening creator relationships and building a loyal community so that they aren’t reliant on increasing spend in order to maintain share of voice.
Tip: Want to learn how product seeding can help you build your community of influencers while increasing your brand’s share of voice? Check out this case study which highlights how Ole Henriksen was able to source new partners on YouTube in order to create a successful influencer gifting campaign.
UK Brand Spotlight: Maybelline + TikTok Beauty Trends
In December, Maybelline’s Instant Perfector 4-in-1 Glow finally launched within the UK market. The launch was highly anticipated as the product had been praised by many beauty influencers in the US as a great dupe to the beloved Charlotte Tilbury Flawless Filter. To build awareness for the UK launch, Maybelline activated a handful of rising beauty influencers to post on TikTok with high performing posts coming from Graces (@graces.faces_), Millie McCarthy (@milliemacmakeup), Naomi Mizrahi (@naomimiz), Chloe Mitchell (@glowybychloe), and Helen Doski (@helenndoski).
Maybelline did a good job in influencer selection for the campaign, selecting rising influencers across multiple tiers. When digging a little deeper into audience insights for these creators, all of the top performers have seen their audience on TikTok rapidly grow during the latter half of 2022. This isn’t unexpected, as Maybelline has consistently been ahead of the curve on TikTok and does a good job of putting out sponsored content that resonates with viewers and is on-trend. The brand has also been unafraid to experiment and try out new ideas. One unique example is the in-store product displays that have been popping up in Targets across the US and Europe. The displays are co-branded by Maybelline and TikTok, and feature the slogan “TikTok made me buy it”. The partnership is a compelling way for the brand to take the online consumer experience and blend it into the physical retail experience.
Tip: Feeling inspired heading into the new year? Hoping to see strong results like these on your influencer campaigns in 2023? Check out the list of 5 resolutions to improve your influencer marketing strategy that we put together to help you get off to a great start in blowing past your 2023 goals! :)
FR Brand Spotlight: NYX Cosmetics + Avatar Collab
For the third consecutive month, NYX has taken the top spot on the FR monthly leaderboard. And equally impressive, they increased their VIT by 33% and video views by 34% from the previous month.
As a quick reminder, last month we mentioned that TikTok has been surging in France and this month the trend continued with TikTok earning the most VIT of all platforms for the overall French beauty market for the fourth consecutive month. Thus, it comes as no surprise that top performer NYX saw impressive results on TikTok in December, with the brand earning 62% of their VIT for the month on the platform.
There were a handful of high performing posts all centered around NYX’s limited Avatar themed collection of products that they launched a few weeks prior to the film’s Dec 16 release. Yasmin Dastmalchi, US General Manager for NYX, mentioned in an interview with Popsugar that the movie’s artistry, vivid colors, and strong focus on diversity inspired NYX to pursue the partnership. And the top performing posts from influencers reflects this. The brand partnered with a diverse group of beauty and lifestyle influencers with top performers including Lisa Baptisa (@lisa.bpro), Orange (@orane.ae), Franck Colacicco (@ungarconstupide), Yanissa (@yanissaxoxo), and Jardin d’Eden (@jardin_d_eden).
Outside of Avatar themed content, rising beauty influencer Sapho (@saphoo) hosted a meetup alongside Franck Colacicco at an NYX store in Marseille on Dec 22. In the days leading up to the event, Sapho made a handful of playful and engaging posts on IG and TT where she would leave a cliffhanger at the end of the video for her followers and encouraging them to join her at the IRL meetup where she would reveal the answers.
Tip: So let's say you just finished up an exciting influencer marketing campaign like NYX did for their Avatar collection in December. While most of the hard work is done, there’s still one critical step left to take — campaign reporting. We know sometimes campaign reporting can be a bit intimidating, so we put together an easy-to-use template that you can use for your next campaign.
If you want to see how your beauty brand ranks, check out our monthly leaderboard here.
Most Mentioned Brands seen at the Golden Globes
The most engaging posts mentioning both the Golden Globes and beauty brands were on Instagram Reels and came from the makeup artists and beauty professionals who worked with the celebrities. Top posts often took viewers behind-the-scenes (BTS) in the moments leading up to the event as the celebrities were getting ready. For example, MUAs Nina Park and Etienne Ortega (both tagging Charlotte Tilbury) captured the final moments in the chair for Lily James and Michaela Jae.
For CHANEL, nail artist Betina Goldstein captured her doing the nails of both Lily James and Julia Garner in the hours leading up to the show and MUA Emily Cheng captured final prep moments for Garner as well. In the reels, both beauty professionals also listed the full list of products they used which we saw across many top posts as well.
1. Charlotte Tilbury
- 32 posts, 16.5k engagements, 142k video views
- Seen on Lily James, Michaela Jae, Milly Alcock
- MUAs: Nina Park, Etienne Ortega, Misha Shahzada
2. Chanel Beauty
- 32 posts, 13.3k engagements, 87.8k video views
- Seen on Lily James, Margot Robbie, Julia Garner, Daisy Edgar Jones
- MUAs: Pati Dubroff, Betina Goldstein, Emily Cheng, Nina Park
3. Dior Beauty
- 22 posts, 6.7k engagements, 59.5k video views
- Seen on Anya Taylor-Joy, Barry Keoghan, Elizabeth Debicki, Britt Lower
- MUAs: Georgie Eisdell, Christine Nelli, Mary Wiles, Molly Stern
4. Rare Beauty
- 22 posts, 77.7k engagements, 214k video views
- Seen on Selena Gomez, Li Jun Li, Jen Statsky
- MUAs: Hung Vanngo, Ernesto Casillas, Grace Pae, Courtney Hart
5. Revive Skincare
- 10 posts, 6.23k engagements, 4.66k video views
- Seen on Kaley Cuoco
- MUAs: Jamie Melser Greenberg
Unless otherwise specified, all data analyzed to support the “Trends to Know” section was pulled from a sample of 55,139 influencers located primarily in the United States, Canada and Europe