We’re back with fresh analysis of last month’s beauty leaderboard rankings, featuring insights on top performing brands like Armani Beauty, Glossier, and Maybelline. We’ll also highlight some of the hottest emerging beauty trends seen on the runway from top Designers like Prada, Dior, Proenza Schouler, and Tory Burch.
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Beauty Trend Analysis
US Brand Spotlight: Armani Beauty + Venice Film Festival
In September, Armani Beauty jumped from number 40 to number 7 on the leaderboard, and increased engagements by 650% MoM. So how’d they see such a huge spike in performance?
The brand was the main sponsor for the 79th annual Venice International Film Festival. During the event, which spanned from August 31 to September 10, Armani hosted a star-studded list of invitees —Sydney Sweeney, Sadie Sink, Maude Apatow, Barbara Palvin, and many more — to join them in Venice. The content posted from this A-List group performed extremely well and gained the brand a large boost in awareness across social media.
While most brands of course can’t recreate an event with this type of high profile, it still highlights how IRL events can generate an excitement that translates over social media to influencers’ followers. Exploring creative opportunities (unique IRL events, cross-industry brand collabs, etc) provides an opportunity for brands to strengthen their brand power and reach a new potential audience.
UK Brand Spotlight: Glossier + The Value of Long-Term Influencer Relationships
Coming in at number 20 on the September Leaderboard, Glossier jumped 54 spots in the rankings from the previous month and saw one of the biggest MoM improvements in VIT (226%).
Glossier relied on the Mega-tier of influencers (1M – 5M) for 55% of VIT. In particular, beauty influencer Danielle Marcan (@daniellemarcan) produced amazing results for the brand. Glossier had partnered with her on 5 sponsored posts throughout 2022 prior to September and saw good results. In September, they had her post 5 times (4 on TikTok, 1 on IG) and her posts performed incredibly well, generating 49% of the brand’s entire VIT for the month. This is a perfect example of a brand doing a great job of building a long-term relationship with a creator and continuing to strengthen it over time.
Glossier also had a handful of YouTube videos amongst their top performing posts. Many of them were from “day-in-my-life” or “product haul” type videos from lifestyle influencers where they raved about how much they love Glossier’s perfume, You.
Tip: Want more insight into how you can find good influencers to build long-term relationships with? Check out our recent case study on how Bite Toothpaste Bits was able to raise brand awareness and identify new long-term partners through their product seeding campaigns.
FR Brand Spotlight: Maybelline + Lifestyle TikTok Influencers
TikTok accounted for 80% of Maybelline’s VIT for the month, which increased 442% MoM from 1.27k to 6.89k.
In September, Maybelline relied upon the Mega and VIP tier influencers for the majority of their VIT. This is a shift from the previous month where the majority of VIT was generated from mid-tier influencers. The top performing posts came from VIP music artist Wejdene (@wejdene.bk) and Mega lifestyle influencers Raissa Gloria (@raissagloriaa) and Romane Bertrand (@rromaaane).
And Maybelline isn’t alone in shifting more attention towards TikTok. Within the French market, there was a 56% increase in TikTok posts for tracked beauty brands, with a 70% increase in engagements, and a 139% increase in VIT. Overall, TikTok generated 41% of total VIT in September across the 1,737 beauty brands in our benchmark, up from 25% the previous month.
While TikTok may not be here to replace Instagram like some originally thought, it clearly still packs quite a punch. If you’re wondering how to get your brand on TikTok, check out this article we wrote about the different content styles that it requires.
If you want to see how your beauty brand ranks, check out our monthly leaderboard here.
Beauty Trends to Know
The top beauty trends from the runway
September is one of the most exciting times in fashion with leading designers unveiling their Spring/Summer (S/S) collections on the runways across the major fashion hubs of New York, London, Paris and Milan. While the clothes naturally receive much of the attention, beauty enthusiasts are also treated to a variety of creative hair and makeup looks brought to life by some of the top professionals in the world. Below we highlight some of our favorites that were spotted in multiple shows throughout September.
1. Glitter
Glitter was seen across many collections, with designers adding a little bit of sparkle to their looks in a variety of ways, whether it be Peter Do’s sparkle eyebrows, Tory Burch’s mesmerizing silvery eye shadow, or Anna Isabella’s shiny silver under-eye look.
Content mentioning glitter makeup on TikTok (Q3 2022 vs Q2 2022):
- +20% activated influencers
- +29% total posts
- +32% engagements
2. Bold eye makeup
Heavy and dramatic eye makeup was a clear trend across the S/S collections, with bold winged cat eyes (Dior), exaggerated lashes (Prada), and smudged black liner providing a strikingly somber energy. These dark looks especially stood out against the bright and colorful looks often associated with springtime.
Content mentioning terms related to bold eye makeup on TikTok (Q3 2022 vs Q2 2022):
- +13% total posts
- +24% engagements
- +174% video views
3. Glass Skin
Shiny, glossy skin has been amongst the most popular trends in beauty over the past couple years. And, if the Spring/Summer runway shows are any indicator, it’s not going away anytime soon. While the naming varied — “Wet Skin” for Proenza Schouler, “Crystal Skin” for Burberry, or “Glass skin” for Eckhaus Latta — the brands all are aiming for a dewy, radiant and naturally glowing look.
Content mentioning glass skin on TikTok (Q3 2022 vs Q2 2022):
- +50% total posts
- +96% engagements
- +412% video views
If you haven’t already, make sure to sign up for our Beauty Leaderboard Newsletter. See you next month!
Unless otherwise specified, all data analyzed was pulled from a sample of 53,791 influencers located in the United States, Canada and Europe, and growth percentages compare January 2021 – September 2021 vs January 2022 – September 2022 in order to get a year-to-date comparison.
