Global influencer marketing platform Traackr has collected the top 25 beauty brands in the US, UK and France and then ranked them using a ‘Brand Vitality Score (VIT)’: a metric that evaluates brand visibility, engagement, and trust through influencer content.
Based on this metric, the top 25 beauty brands are:
- Sephora
- L’Oréal Paris
- Rare Beauty
- Kylie Cosmetics
- Fenty Beauty
- Ulta Beauty
- e.l.f.
- YSL
- Huda Beauty
- Charlotte Tilbury
- Dior
- r.e.m beauty
- Maybelline
- Colourpop
- NYX
- Skkn
- MakeUp by Mario
- MAC Cosmetics
- Rhode Skin
- Milk Makeup
- Tarte
- Sol de Janeiro
- Neutrogena
- Two faced
- Summer Fridays
No single ‘winning’ creator strategy
According to director of brand marketing at Traackr, Kayla Quock, one of the notable insights about the top five beauty brands of 2024 is that there is no single ‘winning’ creator strategy.
“There are many different ways to approach influencer marketing that can deliver results for a beauty brand.”
Quock highlighted that Sephora takes a diversified approach to creator marketing, gaining visibility by working with creators of all sizes.
“Sephora tends to work with more macro-influencers than VIPs or mega-influencers,” she said.
Quock also noted that Sephora partners with celebrity beauty brand owners such as Selena Gomez and Rihanna as their retail partners, but that they also have one of the largest and most established creator communities, with over 29k unique influencers posting in 2024, thus earning more ‘VIT’ from organic content than paid.
Quock said that on the other end of the spectrum is L’Oréal, which earns most of its ‘VIT’ from celebrities like Kendall Jenner, Bethenny Frankel, Camilla Cabello, Heidi Klum and many more.
“They lean into a paid strategy with household names, earning more VIT from paid content than organic and working with creators as an extension of their larger brand campaigns,” she said.
Meanwhile, Rare Beauty, Kylie Cosmetics and Fenty Beauty all leverage their celebrity owners for a big portion of their ‘VIT’ earned (23%, 78% and 15% respectively).
“Kylie Cosmetics in particular relies mostly on the power of Kylie and Kris Jenner’s following, whereas Rare and Fenty have a more balanced approach and have built a loyal community of creators who are passionate about their mission and brand ethos,” she said.
Top 5 brands by beauty category
Broken down into categories the top five brands for each category were:
Colour cosmetics
- Rare Beauty
- Kylie Cosmetics
- Fenty Beauty
- Huda Beauty
- L’Oréal Paris
Skin care
- CeraVe
- Neutrogena
- Glow Recipe
- Drunk Elephant
- Sol de Janeiro
Hair care
- L’Oréal Paris
- Redken
- Dyson
- K18
- Olaplex
Fragrance
- Sol de Janeiro
- Dior
- YSL
- Kylie Cosmetics
- Armani