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Case Study: Dove’s “Real Beauty” Brand Campaign

Case Study: Dove’s “Real Beauty” Brand Campaign 6 min read

In the world of skincare, Unilever’s Dove has not only solidified its position with products promising moisture and softness but has also reshaped the beauty industry through its groundbreaking “Real Beauty” campaign, launched in 2004 . This article delves into the multifaceted facets of Dove’s campaign, exploring its inception, objectives, social impact, marketing mix analysis, key elements, pros and cons, and the profound long-term implications it has had on the brand and the beauty industry as a whole.

A Revolutionary Approach to Beauty Standards

Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign embarked on a revolutionary journey by challenging and redefining the prevailing beauty standards. Departing from the conventional models seen in beauty ads, Dove opted for authenticity, featuring real women of diverse body types, ages, and ethnicities. This bold move aimed not only to celebrate the natural beauty of women but also to inspire a global conversation on self-image and societal perceptions of beauty.

The Objectives: Beyond Skin Deep

The campaign’s objectives were multifaceted. Firstly, Dove sought to broaden the narrow beauty standards dictated by media and society, offering a more inclusive definition of beauty. Secondly, it aimed to stimulate a global conversation, urging people to reconsider their perceptions of beauty. Lastly, Dove sought to boost women’s self-esteem by featuring diverse women, fostering a positive self-image.

Impacting Society: Beyond Beauty Products

The social impact goals were evident from the outset – Dove aimed to change the narrative around beauty, inspiring women worldwide to embrace their unique beauty. Furthermore, the campaign sought to influence other brands and the advertising industry to adopt a more inclusive and realistic portrayal of women.

Analyzing the Marketing Mix

Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign serves as a stellar example of a well-executed marketing mix, strategically incorporating the four Ps – Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.

• Product : Beyond skincare, Dove sold an idea – a new definition of beauty that was inclusive and diverse.
• Price : The brand maintained its value-based pricing strategy, reinforcing the message that real beauty is not a luxury but a right accessible to every woman.
• Place : Widely available globally, Dove’s products reached a broad audience. The digital presence further expanded its global reach, making it a conversation transcending borders.
• Promotion : The campaign leveraged unconventional strategies, featuring real women across various mediums, from TV commercials to digital platforms.

Key Elements of Authenticity

The campaign’s authenticity lay in its use of diverse models and the introduction of the “inner goddess” concept. By showcasing real women of different ages, sizes, and ethnicities, Dove aimed to boost self-esteem and change the narrative around beauty.

Navigating Pros and Cons

While the campaign successfully shifted beauty ideals towards inclusivity, it faced criticism for inconsistencies, particularly concerning Unilever’s ownership of brands with contradictory messages. Instances of racial insensitivity in certain ads also sparked public outcry. Despite these challenges, the campaign significantly impacted the beauty industry and resonated positively with consumers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpaOjMXyJGk

Results and Outcome of the Campaign

Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign was not only a triumph in challenging traditional beauty standards but also an exceptional success in terms of its financial impact and long-lasting resonance. The results can be analyzed based on the information provided:

Free Media Exposure:

The campaign generated remarkable buzz, resulting in free media exposure worth 30 times Dove’s initial spend . This indicates the campaign’s extraordinary reach and effectiveness in capturing public attention.

Website Engagement:

The campaign’s website drew a substantial 1.5 million visitors . This high level of engagement suggests that people were actively seeking more information about the campaign, indicating a strong public interest and involvement.

Viral Videos:

Dove strategically released a series of viral videos that resonated with viewers. These videos aimed to showcase the self-critical nature of women regarding their appearance while highlighting their true beauty. The viral nature of these videos amplified the campaign’s impact and facilitated widespread conversation.

Inclusive Advertising:

Dove’s decision to feature women of all shapes and sizes in their underwear, with the tagline “ Tested on real curves ,” was a pivotal move . It challenged the conventional use of runway models in beauty advertisements and celebrated the diversity of everyday women. This approach resonated positively with the target audience, fostering a sense of representation and inclusivity.

Financial Impact:

The most tangible result of the campaign’s success was reflected in Dove’s finances. The company experienced a remarkable 10% increase in revenues within a single year. This substantial growth indicates not only a positive response from consumers but also the campaign’s effectiveness in driving sales.

Long-Term Sustainability:

The campaign’s enduring success is noteworthy, considering it is still running nearly 20 years later. This longevity underscores its sustained impact on Dove’s brand image and continued relevance in addressing societal perceptions of beauty.

Inspiring a Movement

The revolutionary impact of Dove’s campaign transcends the beauty industry. It has inspired other brands across various sectors, from lingerie with Aerie’s #AerieREAL campaign to cosmetics with CoverGirl’s #IAmWhatIMakeUp initiative. Even sports apparel, as seen in Nike’s ‘Better For It’ campaign, has embraced inclusivity, inspired by Dove’s groundbreaking initiative.

Conclusion: A Lasting Legacy

Dove’s Real Beauty campaign has left a lasting legacy in the marketing world, not only for its strategic approach but also for the profound impact it had on societal perceptions of beauty. The campaign’s success can be attributed to several key factors that set it apart from traditional marketing strategies.

Emotional Connection:

Dove’s ability to tap into people’s emotions played a pivotal role in the campaign’s success. By addressing a sensitive and prevalent issue – women’s self-image – Dove created a deep emotional connection with its audience. The campaign resonated with the insecurities many women face, fostering a sense of empathy and understanding.

Empowerment Over Exploitation:

Unlike some marketing campaigns that leverage fear, shame, or the desire to conform to societal standards, Dove chose a path of empowerment. The brand celebrated women for who they were at that moment, rejecting unrealistic beauty standards perpetuated by the media. This approach not only differentiated Dove from its competitors but also contributed to building a positive brand image.

Everyday Product Focus:

The decision to center the campaign around everyday products, such as soap and body wash, showcased Dove’s commitment to promoting realistic beauty standards in everyday life. This strategic choice allowed consumers to actively participate in promoting a new paradigm while purchasing products they regularly use. This broad appeal significantly contributed to the widespread success of the campaign.

Affordability and Accessibility:

Dove’s commitment to offering affordable and accessible products further amplified the impact of the Real Beauty campaign. By keeping prices reasonable and ensuring widespread availability in stores like Target, Walmart, and convenience stores, Dove made it easy for a diverse range of consumers to support the cause. This inclusivity ensured that the success of the campaign wasn’t limited to a specific demographic with higher purchasing power.

In conclusion, Dove’s Real Beauty campaign stands as a testament to the power of authenticity, empathy, and social responsibility in marketing. By addressing a societal issue with sensitivity and promoting positive change, Dove not only garnered customer loyalty but also contributed to a broader conversation about inclusivity and self-acceptance. The campaign’s impact transcended the realm of marketing, leaving a lasting legacy and setting a benchmark for brands aspiring to make a meaningful difference in society through their advertising efforts.

Also Read: Dissected: Snickers “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” Campaign

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Fenty Beauty Marketing Strategy 2024: A Case Study

Fenty Beauty, created by Rihanna in 2017, revolutionized the beauty industry with its groundbreaking marketing strategy. Focusing on inclusivity and authenticity, Fenty Beauty challenged traditional beauty standards and became a trailblazer in the industry. In this case study, we will delve into Fenty Beauty’s marketing strategy, uncovering its key tactics and analyzing the impact it has had on the beauty industry.

Key Takeaways:

• Fenty Beauty launched with 40 shades of foundation, offering the widest range of tones at the time.
• The brand’s revenue growth has been impressive, with $300 million in 2020, $400 million in 2021, and $500 million in 2022.
• Fenty Beauty expanded its market presence, entering the Middle Eastern, European, and Asian markets.
• The brand has a strong online following, with 2.6 million TikTok followers and 908,000 YouTube subscribers.
• Fenty Beauty’s award-winning AI app for foundation color matching enhances the customer experience.

Fenty Beauty made waves in the beauty industry with its inclusive approach, offering a wide range of foundation shades to cater to diverse skin tones. This commitment to representation and diversity resonated with consumers, leading to rapid success. In fact, the brand achieved an astonishing $100 million in sales within its first month of launch, solidifying its position as a game-changer.

Within just two months of its debut, Fenty Beauty was featured in Time Magazine’s list of greatest inventions, alongside iconic names like Tesla and the iPhone X. The term “Fenty effect” was coined to describe the profound impact of the brand’s foundation shades, providing options for individuals with various skin tones.

One of the key factors contributing to Fenty Beauty’s success is its customer-centric marketing strategy . The brand prioritizes personalized interactions with consumers and adopts a colloquial tone on social media, fostering a sense of authenticity and relatability. Additionally, Fenty Beauty’s campaigns showcase models of diverse backgrounds, including different skin tones, ethnicities, body types, disabilities, hijabs, and LGBTQ+ identities, setting new standards for inclusivity and representation.

The brand’s emphasis on diversity has not only set a benchmark in the beauty industry but has also influenced other brands to prioritize inclusivity, particularly among Generation Z consumers. Fenty Beauty’s marketing strategy goes beyond traditional advertising, leveraging the power of word-of-mouth marketing and the celebrity backing of Rihanna herself.

With its global product reach spanning 137 countries, Fenty Beauty has successfully captured the attention of beauty enthusiasts worldwide. Social media has played a significant role in the brand’s marketing efforts , with 2.6 million TikTok followers and 908,000 YouTube subscribers. The brand’s engagement rate is ranked 6th worldwide, showcasing the strong connection it has established with its audience.

Fenty Beauty’s marketing strategy highlights the power of authenticity, inclusivity, and customer-centric approaches in the beauty industry. By disrupting traditional norms and setting new standards, Rihanna’s cosmetics brand has created a lasting impact that extends far beyond its innovative products.

The Shifting Landscape of the 2010s

In the 2010s, the beauty industry witnessed a significant transformation fueled by changing societal norms and values. As the rising Gen Z generation began shaping marketing expectations and values, beauty brands were compelled to adapt their advertising tactics to stay relevant.

Gen Z, known as the most diverse generation in history, has driven the shift towards inclusivity and authenticity in marketing. Inclusive Marketing 2.0 goes beyond basic diversity and emphasizes authentic representation, diverse voices, purpose-driven initiatives, and inclusive language.

Recognizing the importance of catering to Gen Z’s values and expectations, brands like Nike, Dove, Ben & Jerry’s, and Fenty Beauty have successfully embraced inclusive marketing practices through strategic initiatives led by Gen Z strategy agencies. It has become essential for brands not only to offer a wide range of products but also to take a stand on social and environmental issues to create a positive impact.

Fenty Beauty, founded by renowned artist Rihanna, revolutionized the beauty industry by introducing a diverse range of foundation shades to cater to all skin tones. The brand’s commitment to inclusivity garnered widespread acclaim and commercial success, earning $27 million in media value within just one month of its launch.

Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty has emerged as a frontrunner in the cosmetics industry, projected to surpass competitors like Kylie Cosmetics and KKW with its annual revenue. The brand’s largest consumer groups include African-American, Hispanic, and Asian shoppers, highlighting its appeal to diverse audiences.

Notably, Fenty Beauty consumers are highly loyal and invest an average of $471 annually on makeup, surpassing spending by consumers of other well-known brands like Kat Von D, KKW, and Kylie Cosmetics.

Rihanna’s influence as an A-level artist extends beyond cosmetics. She commands substantial advances for clothing and footwear lines and receives a percentage cut of gross sales. Her overall N-Score for marketability outperforms the music industry average, and her fans are more likely to make purchases related to her brand compared to other celebrities.

The rise of artists as influential figures has been observed in the industry, with retail now being referred to as “the new media.” Major labels are expanding their brand partnership teams and placing a greater emphasis on fashion collaborations to secure strategic deals with artists.

In conclusion, the beauty industry underwent a significant shift in the 2010s, driven by the rise of Gen Z and their values of inclusivity and authenticity. Fenty Beauty’s marketing strategy exemplified these trends, disrupting the market with its diverse product range and strong brand messaging. As the industry continues to evolve, staying attuned to marketing trends will be crucial for brands looking to connect with this influential generation.

Fenty Beauty’s Marketing Strategy Revealed

Fenty Beauty revolutionized the beauty industry with its groundbreaking marketing strategy, centered around inclusivity, authenticity, and social media engagement. By leveraging digital marketing and social media campaigns, Fenty Beauty set new industry standards and captured the attention and loyalty of millions of consumers worldwide.

From its inception, Fenty Beauty prioritized inclusivity, launching with an unprecedented 40 foundation shades, catering to diverse skin tones and undertones. This move challenged the status quo and established Fenty Beauty as a brand committed to diversity and representation. With the expansion of its foundation range to 50 shades, Fenty Beauty addressed a significant gap in the market, ensuring that every individual could find their perfect match.

Fenty Beauty recognized the power of social media in connecting with its target audience . The brand’s strong social media presence, with over 10 million followers, allowed for enhanced consumer engagement and popularity. Fenty Beauty’s Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube platforms became hubs of creativity, showcasing diverse models, behind-the-scenes content, beauty tutorials, and product insights.

Through its marketing campaigns, Fenty Beauty emphasized authenticity and real-life representation. The brand’s commitment to showcasing a diverse range of models, predominantly Black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) individuals, resonated with consumers from ethnic minorities who had previously felt underrepresented in the beauty industry.

Fenty Beauty positioned itself as an accessible luxury brand, offering high-quality products at a competitive price point. Priced at $35, the brand’s foundation provided a more affordable option compared to competitors like Estée Lauder, whose foundation costs $42. This pricing strategy allowed Fenty Beauty to appeal to a wide audience, further expanding its customer base.

Fenty Beauty’s marketing approach focused on “showing, not telling.” By prioritizing authentic storytelling rooted in culture and emotionally resonant with consumers, the brand created a genuine connection. This approach earned the loyalty of consumers who felt seen and represented by Fenty Beauty’s campaigns.

The success of Fenty Beauty’s marketing strategy can be attributed to its commitment to diversity, authentic storytelling, and social media engagement. By challenging industry norms and capturing the hearts of consumers, Fenty Beauty set a new standard for inclusivity in the beauty industry and paved the way for positive change.

Innovative Product Launch and Authenticity

Fenty Beauty made waves in the beauty industry with its groundbreaking product launches that challenged industry norms. One of the brand’s standout features was its foundation line, which offered an impressive range of 40 shades. This broad spectrum of shades catered to all skin tones and undertones, setting a new benchmark for inclusivity in the industry. By going above and beyond the industry standard of around 33 shades, Fenty Beauty positioned itself as a brand that valued diversity and aimed to be inclusive for everyone.

But it wasn’t just the extensive shade range that made Fenty Beauty’s product launches unique. The brand’s commitment to authenticity played a pivotal role in shaping its marketing strategy. Fenty Beauty’s advertising campaigns featured models from diverse backgrounds, showcasing real-life representation and resonating with consumers who yearned to see themselves reflected in beauty advertisements. This authenticity not only set Fenty Beauty apart from its competitors but also inspired a cultural shift within the beauty industry.

To further enhance its authenticity and connect with its target audience, Fenty Beauty leveraged social media platforms. Rihanna, the founder of Fenty Beauty, boasts an impressive following of 57 million on Instagram alone. Her personal brand and influence played a significant role in raising awareness for Fenty Beauty. By aligning her powerful social media presence with the brand’s target audience, Fenty Beauty was able to tap into a vast pool of potential customers and create a buzz around its product launches.

In addition to Rihanna’s Instagram, Fenty Beauty utilized platforms like YouTube to provide product development insights, beauty tutorials, and collaborations with influencers. With nearly 800,000 subscribers on its YouTube channel, Fenty Beauty was able to connect authentically with its audience, sharing valuable content and building a loyal community.

The success of Fenty Beauty’s product launches and its commitment to authenticity influenced the beauty industry as a whole. Competitors were compelled to expand their shade ranges and embrace diversity in marketing, a phenomenon now known as the “Fenty Effect.” This industry-wide change signifies the powerful impact that Fenty Beauty has had and continues to have on the beauty industry.

The Fenty Effect and Industry-Wide Change

The launch of Fenty Beauty in 2017 caused waves throughout the cosmetics industry, revolutionizing brand positioning and setting new marketing trends. Fenty Beauty’s groundbreaking approach to inclusivity and diversity not only propelled the brand to remarkable success but also triggered a significant shift in the entire beauty landscape.

With a staggering $72 million in sales generated within just one month of its launch, Fenty Beauty quickly cemented its position as a game-changer in the industry. The brand’s annual revenue skyrocketed to an impressive $582 million, outperforming competitors and taking the market by storm.

Emphasizing the importance of representation, Fenty Beauty’s 40-shade foundation was met with high consumer demand. Despite consistent restocks, darker shades consistently sold out, showcasing the brand’s ability to effectively cater to a wide variety of skin tones. Fenty Beauty’s commitment to inclusivity did not go unnoticed, leading to other beauty brands expanding their shade ranges in response to what became known as the “Fenty Effect”.

Time magazine recognized Fenty Beauty as one of the “Inventions of the Year” for its broad shade range and use of diverse models in marketing campaigns. This accolade solidified the brand’s influence and status in the industry, further fueling the demand for inclusive beauty products.

The impact of the “Fenty Effect” prompted other beauty brands to reevaluate their marketing strategies and product offerings. The industry standard for foundation shades shifted from a limited range to a minimum of 40 shades, as brands realized the importance of catering to diverse consumer needs.

In response to Fenty Beauty’s success, beauty brands began extending their shade ranges, with some launching 50, 60, or even 100 foundation shades. Achieving a wide range of foundation shades became a priority, with a focus on maintaining the quality of the formulation to ensure customer satisfaction.

The influence of Fenty Beauty goes beyond the cosmetics industry. Rihanna, the mastermind behind the brand, leveraged its success to expand her fashion empire. Under various Fenty brand names, she launched skincare, lingerie, and luxury fashion lines, capitalizing on the brand’s global recognition and popularity.

As a result of Fenty Beauty’s groundbreaking approach and industry-wide impact, the beauty industry underwent significant changes in representation and product diversity. The brand’s commitment to inclusivity not only transformed the marketing strategies of other cosmetic companies but also empowered consumers by providing them with a broader range of options that catered to their individual needs.

With the Fenty Effect paving the way, the beauty industry continues to evolve, with brands now striving to create more inclusive and representative products for consumers around the world.

Leveraging Social Media and Entertainment

Fenty Beauty’s social media campaigns and influencer partnerships have been instrumental in establishing its strong presence and loyal community. With over 10 million followers on Instagram and 641,000 followers on Twitter, the brand has successfully leveraged social media to engage with its audience and build a passionate following.

One of the key strategies employed by Fenty Beauty is the use of branded hashtags like #Fentyface and #Fentybeauty, which have generated 145,000 and 4.5 million posts respectively. These hashtags encourage users to share their Fenty Beauty experiences and create user-generated content, fostering a sense of community and inclusivity.

Fenty Beauty’s social media content showcases a wide diversity of products, featuring multiple skin tones and body types. This inclusive approach, reflected in the brand’s initial launch of 40 foundation shades (later expanded to 50), embraces the beauty of individuality and resonates with users seeking representation in the beauty industry.

The brand also utilizes the hashtag #fentybeautyuniversity to provide tutorials and beauty tips, catering specifically to college students. This targeted approach allows Fenty Beauty to connect with its target audience on a deeper level and establish itself as a go-to beauty resource among young consumers.

Collaboration is another key element of Fenty Beauty’s marketing strategy. By partnering with sister brands like Savage Fenty and Fenty Skin, the brand extends its visibility and engagement, tapping into diverse consumer segments and cross-promoting its products.

In addition to its strategic use of social media, Fenty Beauty’s witty, fun, and trendy personality resonates with its audience, creating a friendly and relatable brand image. This aligns with the preference of 83% of people for friendly brand interactions and helps foster a strong emotional connection with consumers. The brand effectively uses pop culture references and internet slang in its social media communication, further enhancing its relatability and establishing itself as a trendsetter in the beauty industry.

Fenty Beauty’s social media prowess and community-building approach have given it a competitive advantage in the beauty industry. The brand’s commitment to inclusivity and its ability to connect with its audience on a personal level have positioned it as an irreplaceable part of the lives of its users. By constantly innovating and engaging its community, Fenty Beauty continues to dominate social media and drive industry-wide change.

Affordable Luxury and Future Prospects

Fenty Beauty’s brand positioning as an accessible luxury beauty brand has been a key factor in its success. By offering high-quality products at an affordable price point, Fenty has tapped into a consumer desire for both luxury and inclusivity. This unique brand positioning has allowed Fenty Beauty to stand out in the highly competitive cosmetics industry.

As the cosmetics industry continues to evolve, marketing trends indicate a growing demand for inclusive and diverse beauty products. Fenty Beauty’s commitment to inclusivity, evident in its expansive foundation shade range and representation of individuals with albinism, has resonated strongly with consumers. The brand’s dedication to diversity has not only set it apart from its competitors but has also earned it a loyal and devoted customer base.

In addition to its inclusive product range, Fenty Beauty has successfully leveraged social media influencers to enhance its brand visibility. Collaborating with influential figures who align with the brand’s values and aesthetics, Fenty has been able to reach a wider audience and generate higher engagement. With an impressive following of over 10 million users on Instagram, Fenty Beauty has effectively built a community of engaged and loyal fans.

Fenty Beauty’s ability to capitalize on marketing trends and adapt to changing consumer preferences has positioned the brand for future success. By expanding into skincare and fragrance lines, Fenty Beauty has demonstrated its commitment to providing a comprehensive beauty experience. Additionally, the brand’s partnership with luxury conglomerate LVMH has further propelled its growth and global presence.

Furthermore, Fenty Beauty’s commitment to sustainability and eco-friendly practices has further strengthened its brand positioning. The brand’s phased approach to phasing out eco-unfriendly packaging showcases its dedication to environmental responsibility, appealing to consumers who prioritize sustainability.

Looking ahead, Fenty Beauty’s affordable luxury brand positioning and commitment to inclusivity positions it as a frontrunner in the cosmetics industry. By staying attuned to marketing trends and consistently delivering innovative, high-quality products, Fenty Beauty is well-equipped to navigate the ever-changing beauty landscape and maintain its success.

Filling a Gap

Fenty Beauty’s brand positioning in the cosmetics industry was solidified by its commitment to inclusivity and addressing a significant gap in the market. Upon its launch in 2017, Fenty Beauty released the ProFiltr foundation with an impressive range of 40 shades, the most extensive offering at the time. This bold move immediately garnered attention and set the brand apart from competitors.

Recognizing the lack of diversity in the beauty industry, Fenty Beauty aimed to provide options for people of all skin tones and undertones. By offering a wide range of foundation shades, the brand ensured that customers with different skin tones could find a perfect match for their complexion. This inclusive approach resonated with consumers who felt overlooked by other brands and propelled Fenty Beauty to the forefront of the industry.

With a strong focus on diversity and inclusiveness, Fenty Beauty revolutionized the cosmetics industry and influenced marketing trends. The brand’s commitment to representing and catering to various body types and skin tones set a new standard for inclusivity in product representation and marketing campaigns. Other brands, such as Revlon and Dior, recognized the success of Fenty Beauty and have since made efforts to catch up in terms of diversity and inclusiveness.

The market response to Fenty Beauty’s inclusive approach was overwhelmingly positive. The brand’s foundation shades, along with other products, received praise from fans, bloggers, and celebrities alike. Rihanna leveraged her brand recognition and involvement of influencers and fans to prove the high quality of Fenty Beauty products.

By filling this gap in the industry and positioning itself as a brand that caters to all individuals, Fenty Beauty not only achieved financial success but also became a true game-changer in the cosmetics industry.

Using Influencers

Fenty Beauty’s marketing strategy extends beyond its groundbreaking product offerings. The brand has successfully tapped into the power of influencer partnerships to amplify its reach and connect with a wider audience. By collaborating with influencers who align with its brand values, Fenty Beauty has been able to position itself as a leader in the beauty industry.

One notable example of Fenty Beauty’s influencer campaigns is the Eaze Drop’lit All-Over Glow Enhancer campaign in 2023. This campaign featured both influencers and everyday users applying the product on Instagram, showcasing its versatility and generating excitement among consumers. By leveraging the influence of these individuals, Fenty Beauty was able to create buzz and generate positive word-of-mouth.

The brand also embraced the world of gaming and collaborated with Roblox for the Fenty Beauty + Skin Experience in mid-2023. This interactive virtual experience aimed to engage a younger audience and promote key products like the Fenty Skin Melt Awf Jelly Oil Makeup-Melting Cleanser. By partnering with Roblox and utilizing influencers within the gaming community, Fenty Beauty was able to reach a new demographic and expand its customer base.

In addition to these larger campaigns, Fenty Beauty has also successfully collaborated with individual influencers to showcase its products and drive engagement. For instance, the brand partnered with TikTok influencer Meredith Duxbury, whose video featuring Fenty Beauty garnered an impressive 3.4 million views. These collaborations not only showcase the effectiveness of influencer marketing but also align with Fenty Beauty’s emphasis on diversity and inclusivity.

Fenty Beauty’s use of influencers extends beyond social media platforms as well. Collaborations with celebrities like actor Daniel Kaluuya further highlight the brand’s commitment to inclusivity. Kaluuya promoting Fenty Beauty’s Pro Filt’R Foundation in shades #480 and #490 not only showcased the range of shades available but also reinforced the brand’s mission of “Beauty for Everyone.”

With a robust presence on social media platforms, Fenty Beauty has harnessed the power of influencer partnerships to enhance its marketing strategy. The brand has over 12.7 million followers on Instagram, 2.6 million on TikTok, and 906K on YouTube, among other significant social media followings. These partnerships have contributed to Fenty Beauty’s success and have played a crucial role in its growth as a leading celebrity cosmetics brand.

By collaborating with influencers and utilizing their platforms, Fenty Beauty has been able to directly engage with its target audience and build credibility. These partnerships not only showcase the brand’s products but also align with its focus on diversity, inclusivity, and engagement with diverse audiences. Through influencer marketing, Fenty Beauty continues to stay at the forefront of the beauty industry and build a loyal customer base.

Fenty Beauty’s Key Marketing Strategy Tactics

Fenty Beauty, with its innovative marketing strategies and diverse range of products, has positioned itself as a leading brand in the cosmetics industry. By effectively utilizing digital marketing, social media campaigns, and influencer partnerships, Fenty Beauty has successfully captured the attention and loyalty of consumers worldwide.

Inclusivity and Celebrity Endorsement

A key aspect of Fenty Beauty’s marketing strategy is its commitment to inclusivity. The brand’s foundation range, comprising an impressive 50 shades, caters to a diverse range of skin tones and undertones. This emphasis on diversity has resonated with consumers, fostering a sense of representation and inclusion.

Rihanna, a global icon and the founder of Fenty Beauty, serves as the ultimate celebrity endorsement for the brand. Her involvement not only lends credibility but also reinforces the brand’s mission of “Beauty for Everyone.” Rihanna’s personal touch and genuine passion for the brand have played a significant role in establishing Fenty Beauty as a celebrity cosmetics powerhouse.

Social Media Engagement and Visual Storytelling

Fenty Beauty’s digital marketing efforts have focused on leveraging the power of social media platforms. The brand has built a strong presence on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok, engaging with followers through interactive content and captivating visuals.

The brand’s social media campaigns have showcased influencers and everyday users, highlighting the versatility and impact of Fenty Beauty products. The “Eaze Drop’lit All-Over Glow Enhancer” campaign in 2023, for example, featured influencers and individuals from diverse backgrounds, promoting an inclusive and relatable image of the brand.

Fenty Beauty has also mastered the art of visual storytelling, using impactful imagery and captivating videos to convey the brand’s values and product benefits. Collaborations with prominent publications like Harper’s Bazaar for skincare routine videos and engagement with BootsUK for the #FentyFace campaign have further amplified the brand’s message.

Influencer Partnerships and Global Reach

Recognizing the power of influencer marketing, Fenty Beauty has strategically partnered with a diverse range of influencers to extend its reach and connect with target audiences. Collaborations with influencers like Meredith Duxbury on TikTok and the brand’s ambassador program featuring stars like Madison Beer, Kane Lim, and Nikita Kering have significantly contributed to Fenty Beauty’s global resonance.

By partnering with major retailers like Sephora, Ulta, Kohl’s, and Boots in the UK, Fenty Beauty has ensured broad accessibility to its products. These partnerships have facilitated the brand’s expansion into new markets and increased its visibility among potential consumers.

Through these key marketing strategy tactics, Fenty Beauty has cemented its position as a trailblazer in the cosmetics industry. By embracing inclusivity, leveraging social media platforms, and forging strategic partnerships, the brand has successfully built a loyal fan base and achieved remarkable financial success.

The Benefits of Fenty Beauty’s Social Media Strategy

Fenty Beauty’s social media campaigns and digital marketing have played a pivotal role in the brand’s success. By harnessing the power of social media platforms, Fenty Beauty has been able to connect with a wide audience, build a strong brand presence, and drive sales. Through strategic and innovative social media tactics, the brand has redefined beauty standards, fostered inclusivity, and cultivated a loyal community of beauty enthusiasts.

One of the key benefits of Fenty Beauty’s social media strategy is its ability to reach and engage with its target audience. By utilizing platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, Fenty Beauty has been able to showcase its diverse range of products and celebrate inclusivity. Through visually appealing and relatable content, the brand has effectively captured the attention of beauty enthusiasts of all skin tones and backgrounds.

Fenty Beauty’s social media campaigns have also created a sense of community among its followers. By encouraging user-generated content, such as makeup tutorials, product reviews, and before-and-after photos, the brand has empowered its customers to become brand ambassadors. This has not only strengthened the bond between Fenty Beauty and its customers but has also provided authentic testimonials and real user experiences that build trust and credibility.

Furthermore, Fenty Beauty’s digital marketing strategy has helped the brand increase its brand awareness and drive customer engagement. By leveraging social media influencers, collaborating with celebrities, and partnering with industry experts, Fenty Beauty has been able to expand its reach and tap into new markets. These partnerships have not only generated buzz and excitement but also provided valuable insights into the preferences and desires of the target audience.

The success of Fenty Beauty’s social media campaigns is evident in the brand’s impressive sales figures. In its first year of operation, Fenty Beauty generated 500 million euros in sales, and within its first 40 days on the market, it made $100 million in sales. These numbers are a testament to the brand’s ability to leverage social media to drive business growth and establish itself as a force to be reckoned with in the beauty industry.

Fenty Beauty’s marketing strategy has disrupted the cosmetics industry and set a new standard for inclusivity and authenticity. By launching with a groundbreaking range of 40 foundation shades, the brand challenged traditional beauty standards and inspired others to follow suit. Leveraging Rihanna’s online presence, Fenty Beauty engaged directly with consumers, fostering stronger brand-customer relationships.

With a global reach of 137 countries, Fenty Beauty showcases its commitment to inclusivity on a global scale. The brand’s emphasis on authenticity and real-life representation in its advertising campaigns has enhanced relatability and attracted a diverse audience. By challenging conventional norms, Fenty Beauty not only drove sales but also revolutionized the beauty industry.

Through collaborations with individuals of various skin types and tones, Fenty Beauty has fostered a stronger sense of community and customer loyalty. The brand’s commitment to diversity representation in corporate culture and products has advocated for inclusivity across different demographics. With a direct-to-consumer approach and strategic use of social media platforms, Fenty Beauty has gained greater control of the customer experience and higher profit margins.

As Fenty Beauty continues to prioritize innovation and partnerships with influential figures, its marketing strategy will remain at the forefront of the cosmetics industry. By embracing inclusivity as a core value and advocating for social change, Fenty Beauty has not only contributed to empowering individuals but has also created a cultural resonance that sets it apart from other brands. With a genuine commitment to making a difference, Fenty Beauty has proven that inclusivity and authenticity are not just marketing trends but powerful tools for success.

What makes Fenty Beauty’s marketing strategy unique?

How did fenty beauty disrupt the beauty industry, how did fenty beauty leverage social media in its marketing strategy, what impact did fenty beauty have on the beauty industry as a whole, how did fenty beauty position itself as an accessible luxury brand, what gap did fenty beauty fill in the beauty industry, how did fenty beauty utilize influencer partnerships, what were the key marketing strategy tactics used by fenty beauty, how did fenty beauty’s social media strategy benefit the brand, what is the future outlook for fenty beauty, related posts:.

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Nina Sheridan is a seasoned author at Latterly.org, a blog renowned for its insightful exploration of the increasingly interconnected worlds of business, technology, and lifestyle. With a keen eye for the dynamic interplay between these sectors, Nina brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to her writing. Her expertise lies in dissecting complex topics and presenting them in an accessible, engaging manner that resonates with a diverse audience.

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Breaking Barriers: Fenty Beauty's Marketing Strategy Case Study

Fenty Beauty, the brainchild of global superstar Rihanna, stormed the beauty industry in 2017, revolutionizing the way cosmetics are marketed and sold. With its approach to inclusivity and nonconformity, Fenty Beauty disrupted the status quo, challenging traditional beauty standards and setting a new benchmark for other brands to follow. Fenty Beauty's launch in 2017 marked a watershed moment for the beauty world, as it showcased a groundbreaking foundation line with an unprecedented 40 shades catering to a diverse range of skin tones. 

Rihanna's involvement and passion for inclusivity propelled Fenty Beauty to become more than just a cosmetics brand ; it became a symbol of empowerment for individuals of all backgrounds. By daring to go against the grain, Fenty Beauty proved that a luxury brand can simultaneously embrace both edginess and sophistication, challenging the conventional notion of exclusivity. As we delve into the depths of Fenty Beauty's marketing brilliance, we will uncover the strategies that catapulted it to stardom and explore the ripple effect it created, inspiring other beauty brands to embrace diversity and embrace change, but first, let’s get to know its history.

The Shifting Landscape of the 2010s

Before delving into Fenty Beauty's strategy, let's set the stage with a glimpse into the macroeconomic and cultural trends of the 2010s. The past decade in America witnessed significant social change, marked by movements for inclusivity and individual freedoms. As more Americans deviated from traditional norms, social conversations around race, gender, and sexual identity took center stage, paving the way for brands to embrace diversity and authenticity. In this evolving landscape, Fenty Beauty's emphasis on inclusivity and nonconformity resonated deeply, aligning perfectly with the societal shift towards acceptance and diversity.

Fenty Beauty's Marketing Strategy Revealed

Fenty Beauty's Chief Marketing Officer attributed the brand's success to three key strategies: exclude no one, let values inform the process, and show, don't tell. From the very beginning, Rihanna's vision for Fenty Beauty was crystal clear - to cater to everyone, irrespective of skin tone or ethnicity. In a market dominated by a limited range of shades, Fenty Beauty launched 40 foundation shades, emphasizing inclusivity in a way no other brand had done before.

To achieve its vision of inclusivity, Fenty Beauty made a bold move by releasing 40 foundation shades right from its debut, shattering the industry's norms. Rihanna's dedication to catering to all skin tones and undertones was evident, and the well-crafted nuance of each shade became a testament to the brand's commitment to representation. In addition to its diverse shade range, Fenty Beauty also chose to let its values inform the entire process of brand creation . The brand was sincere in its acceptance of all people and embraced diversity both in its product offerings and its marketing campaigns . Rihanna's track record of advocating for social issues further reinforced the brand's authenticity and message. Rather than relying on conventional marketing tactics , Fenty Beauty opted to show, not tell. The brand used Rihanna's strong online presence and social media platforms to convey its luxurious image, emphasizing the importance of authenticity and real interactions with consumers. Through YouTube tutorials, social media campaigns, and behind-the-scenes glimpses, Fenty Beauty engaged its audience and created a sense of community.

By combining these three strategies, Fenty Beauty successfully redefined the beauty industry's standards and set a new benchmark for inclusivity and nonconformity. The brand's impact extended far beyond cosmetics, sparking a global movement known as the "Fenty Effect," which challenged other beauty brands to follow suit and embrace diversity in their offerings. Fenty Beauty's approach to marketing will undoubtedly be remembered as a groundbreaking moment in the history of the beauty industry.

Innovative Product Launch and Authenticity

Choosing to launch with a foundation, a rather safe product such as a lip kit, in the cosmetics industry, Fenty Beauty's bold move paid off immensely. The brand's foundation range catered not only to different skin tones but also to various undertones, catering to the diverse needs of consumers. Fenty Beauty's marketing campaign highlighted authenticity and real-life representation, using models of all races, sizes, and backgrounds. This sincerity struck a chord with consumers, earning the brand's admiration and loyalty.

Fenty Beauty's decision to launch with a foundation was a calculated risk that set it apart from traditional beauty brands. By focusing on creating a diverse range of foundation shades that matched various undertones, the brand demonstrated a genuine commitment to inclusivity and representation.

In contrast to the polished and airbrushed images commonly associated with beauty advertisements, Fenty Beauty opted for authenticity and real-life representation. The brand's choice to feature models of different races, sizes, and backgrounds in its marketing campaigns resonated with consumers, making them feel seen and valued.

This emphasis on authenticity and inclusivity not only earned Fenty Beauty a dedicated following but also inspired a cultural shift within the beauty industry. The brand's approach showed that beauty should be about embracing individuality and celebrating diversity, ultimately paving the way for other brands to follow suit.

The Fenty Effect and Industry-Wide Change

The impact of Fenty Beauty's launch was so significant that it sparked what is now known as the "Fenty Effect." Other beauty brands were compelled to follow suit, expanding their shade ranges and promoting inclusivity in their marketing . The brand's commitment to diversity set a new standard for the industry, challenging conventional norms and making beauty accessible to all. This industry-wide change signalled a shift towards greater inclusivity and representation, breaking away from the conventional beauty standards that had been upheld for decades. Fenty Beauty's commitment to diversity not only transformed its brand but also set a new benchmark for beauty companies worldwide, inspiring a more inclusive and accepting beauty landscape.

Leveraging Social Media and Entertainment

Fenty Beauty's social media strategy played a pivotal role in its success. Rihanna's strong online presence, combined with creative product launches and engaging tutorials, garnered immense consumer interaction and boosted the brand's popularity . The brand leveraged social media to stay connected with consumers and to showcase the diversity and versatility of its products. Fenty Beauty's 10M social media presence allowed the brand to connect with consumers on a personal level and showcase the versatility of its products. Rihanna's active engagement on social media, along with the brand's innovative product launches and tutorials, created a captivating online experience that resonated with consumers and fueled the brand's popularity. By leveraging social media as a platform for creativity, interaction, and trendiness, Fenty Beauty solidified its position as a market-driving brand in the beauty industry.

Affordable Luxury and Future Prospects

Fenty Beauty positioned itself as an accessible luxury brand, offering high-quality products at a price point that appealed to a broad audience. This unique blend of luxury and inclusivity ensured that consumers felt special and valued when using Fenty Beauty products. The brand's continued success in the future will depend on how it maintains its luxury image while expanding its distribution channels and product offerings.

Fenty Beauty's ability to strike the balance between luxury and accessibility allowed it to capture a wide consumer base and solidify its position as a game-changer in the beauty industry. By maintaining a reputation for high-quality products and genuine inclusivity, the brand established a loyal customer following that continues to support its growth. As Fenty Beauty looks ahead, its prospects will depend on its capacity to adapt to evolving consumer trends, expand its global reach, and innovate in ways that uphold its commitment to diversity and authenticity. With Rihanna's visionary leadership and the brand's already proven track record, the world eagerly anticipates what groundbreaking strides Fenty Beauty will make next in the beauty sphere.

Fenty Beauty's commitment to affordable luxury went beyond makeup, as the brand ventured into new product categories, including skincare and fragrance lines. Building on the success of its makeup range, Fenty Beauty launched a series of innovative skincare products designed to cater to a diverse range of skin types and concerns. From cleansers and moisturizers to serums and masks, the brand's skincare line emphasized the importance of self-care and empowerment through a personalized beauty routine.

Moreover, Fenty Beauty made an impactful entry into the fragrance market by introducing a fragrance that embraced the brand's values of individuality. The fragrance showcased a variety of scent undertones that were breaking away from the traditional scene. By doing so, Fenty Beauty once again challenged norms and demonstrated its dedication to promoting a more inclusive and authentic beauty experience.

The expansion into skincare and fragrance not only broadened the brand's product offerings but also allowed Fenty Beauty to reach an even wider audience. By maintaining the ethos of accessible luxury, the brand continued to provide high-quality products that consumers could incorporate into their everyday lives. Fenty Beauty's foray into skincare and fragrance exemplified its adaptability and foresight, setting the stage for further growth and prosperity in the ever-evolving beauty market.

Celebrity and Influencer Endorsement

Fenty Beauty leveraged the power of celebrity endorsements to create buzz and attract attention. Rihanna's involvement in the brand and her genuine passion for inclusivity resonated with consumers and added credibility to Fenty Beauty's mission. Fenty Beauty collaborated with beauty influencers and makeup artists to showcase its products and create buzz among their dedicated followers with Youtube review videos, and Tiktok tutorials featuring Fenty products. These influencers demonstrated the versatility and effectiveness of Fenty Beauty products through tutorials and reviews, further solidifying the brand's reputation.

The strategic use of celebrity endorsements and influencer collaborations allowed Fenty Beauty to tap into a vast audience of loyal fans and beauty enthusiasts. Rihanna's iconic status and authentic connection to the brand elevated Fenty Beauty's appeal, drawing in consumers who admired her artistic vision and commitment to diversity. By partnering with influential makeup artists and beauty gurus, Fenty Beauty expanded its reach to niche communities and gained credibility through word-of-mouth marketing .

The brand's choice to collaborate with influencers who shared its values of inclusivity and self-expression ensured that the message resonated with their audiences authentically. Fenty Beauty's products became a part of viral makeup challenges, trends, and online conversations, further solidifying the brand's position as a leader in the beauty industry. Through celebrity and influencer partnerships, Fenty Beauty was not only able to drive immediate sales but also cultivate a community of advocates who continue to champion the brand's values and products.

Global Expansion

Fenty Beauty strategically expanded its reach by shipping products to 137 countries worldwide. The global expansion of Fenty Beauty allowed the brand to break geographical barriers and tap into diverse markets with unique beauty needs. By shipping products to 137 countries, Fenty Beauty demonstrated its commitment to serving a global audience and catering to the beauty aspirations of people from various cultural backgrounds. This expansion not only bolstered the brand's revenue streams but also contributed to its cultural influence, solidifying its status as a trailblazer in the cosmetics industry on a worldwide scale. As Fenty Beauty continues to embrace diversity and accessibility, its global presence is poised to shape the beauty landscape for years to come.

Collaborations with Retailers

Fenty Beauty partnered with major retailers like Sephora and Ulta Beauty, leveraging their existing customer base and in-store presence to increase brand visibility and accessibility.

The strategic collaborations with retailers like Sephora and Ulta Beauty proved instrumental in Fenty Beauty's rapid ascent in the beauty market. By aligning with established and reputable beauty retailers, Fenty Beauty gained access to a vast network of brick-and-mortar stores, expanding its physical presence and making its products readily available to a broader audience. These partnerships not only boosted sales but also helped Fenty Beauty foster lasting relationships with consumers through personalized in-store experiences and expert beauty consultations.

Influential Awards and Recognition

The brand's products received critical acclaim and won several prestigious beauty awards, further boosting its reputation and credibility within the industry. Fenty Beauty's innovative products garnered widespread recognition and appreciation from beauty experts and influencers alike. The brand's Pro Filt'r Soft Matte Longwear Foundation, in particular, received accolades for its extensive shade range and flawless finish. These influential awards solidified Fenty Beauty's position as a frontrunner in the cosmetics industry and demonstrated its commitment to excellence and quality. The recognition also provided valuable marketing opportunities, allowing the brand to showcase its award-winning products and gain even more traction in the competitive beauty market.

Fenty Beauty's marketing strategy will go down in history as a masterclass in inclusivity and nonconformity. By daring to break the beauty industry's mould and setting new standards, the brand has made a lasting impact on the cosmetics industry. As consumers increasingly demand authentic representation and diversity, Fenty Beauty's groundbreaking approach will continue to shape the future of beauty marketing and inspire other brands to embrace inclusivity wholeheartedly.

Updated on November 2nd, 2023

Fenty Beauty's introduction of an AI-powered shade finder for foundation marks a significant and innovative update to their website , perfectly aligning with their brand ethos of inclusivity and diversity. They have revolutionized the way clients find their ideal base by utilizing state-of-the-art AI technologies. The brand's innovative use of AI, which also enhances the brand's customers ' experiences, highlights Fenty Beauty's commitment to the cutting edge of beauty technology. This app-only feature demonstrates their familiarity with the needs of today's mobile consumers and their ability to combine the digital and real worlds. Fenty Beauty has simplified the process by having clients simply scan a QR code with their mobile devices. This is a smart marketing initiative that not only demonstrates their commitment to serving customers of all skin tones but also sets them apart as an innovative company that values its customers highly. Through this initiative, Fenty Beauty continues to reaffirm its position as a leader in the beauty business, making cosmetics buying more personalized, efficient, and pleasant for consumers worldwide.

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From Start-up to Sensation: Unraveling the Success Story of SUGAR Cosmetics

• Published Date : Thursday July 27, 2023
• Last Updated November 11, 2023

Suraj Shrivastava

Chief Link Building Strategist

The Indian personal care industry has a total market size of US$12 billion (as per 2023 reports) , with increased opportunities due to the emergence of e-commerce platforms and D2C models. Previously, the Indian beauty sphere consisted of a few global giants like Maybelline, Revlon, Lakme, and Mac, to name a few.

Now the scenario has turned gradually, with local brands coming to the forefront and dominating the market with innovation and tactics. Sugar Cosmetics is a great example of a homegrown brand that has scaled from almost nothing to a Rs 300 crore business.

Humble beginnings

The history of Sugar Cosmetics starts in 2012, with Vineeta Singh and Kaushik Mukherjee founding a new company from scratch. They were classmates at IIM Ahmedabad. Their main goal was to provide cosmetics to the masses at an affordable price with no compromise in quality.

So they quit their jobs, gathered some capital, and finally started selling cosmetics at a few local boutiques, from which they got a great response through word-of-mouth publicity.

Sugar Cosmetics went from a modest operation to a functioning company in less than a year. Now that their goods were being sold in shops across the nation, Vineeta Singh and Kaushik Mukherjee even had famous people as fans who loved their products and endorsed them to the masses.

Meet the fantastic founders!

Vineeta singh.

Vineeta Singh is an entrepreneur and the CEO and cofounder of Sugar Cosmetics. She was born in 1983 in Anand, near Ahmedabad, to a medical practitioner mother and a biophysicist father.

As a young girl, she wanted to be a doctor and study at AIIMS, a highly reputed-medical college in India. Soon after her birth, they shifted to Delhi, where Vineeta did her schooling at the famous Delhi Public School, RK Puram.

During her school days, she was very much an all-rounder with a passion for badminton and running, always managing to be in the top 1% of scorers in her school.

Later, for her undergraduate studies, she went to IIT Madras to pursue a BTech In electrical engineering and further did an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, which was the opposite of her childhood dream of being a doctor.

After her studies, she got a job offer of Rs 1 crore, which she rejected to start her heroic entrepreneurial journey, and the rest is history.

Then she came into the limelight when she got featured as a shark in the reprised Indian version of Shark Tank. People loved her for her clarity and analytical skills. She is also an active feminist and promotes female-owned businesses.

Kaushik Mukherjee

Kaushik was born on June 17, 1983, in a middle-class Bengali family in Kolkata, and attended Don Bosco School.

Later, he studied Electrical Engineering at Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences (BITS) Pilani before pursuing his MBA at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, where he was named Best All-Rounder of his batch.

This is where he met Vineeta Singh, with whom he later collaborated to launch Sugar. They finally tied the knot in 2011.

He participated in sports such as swimming and football while studying for his MBA. He also sang, drummed, and played the sitar in the university’s music club. He was also a member of the IIMA’s Finance Club.

Mission and vision

Sugar Cosmetics’ mission statement says, “We believe in every interpretation of beauty. Bold to subdued, quirky to crazy, every day to glam goddess!

We aim to celebrate every aspect of you, no matter what your style is. So, go ahead and pick your faves.” says the official site of Sugar Cosmetics .

Sugar Cosmetics strives to achieve high-quality standards at affordable prices for the masses. They have established a great D2C business model with great capture in the retail segments of the beauty industry.

Sugar’s business model

Sugar operates on a direct-to-consumer (D2C) business model. The business employs an omnichannel strategy to market its goods, which entails selling them on various E-Commerce sites like Nykaa, Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, etc. Its sales in India and abroad form a big part of its revenue share.

A hybrid online-offline business model is used by Sugar Cosmetics, which has more than 10,000 sales outlets spread across more than 130 locations in 28 states.

After the pandemic, the company has been focusing on developing business strategies that can strengthen the client-brand relationship even further. Their revised business model includes cost-cutting, social media marketing, team restructuring, and e-commerce dominance.

Magnetic marketing: Sugar’s best-kept secrets

Sugar Cosmetic believes in the optimal use of marketing and also dedicates a large chunk of its annual budget to this facet of the business. Without that, they wouldn’t have experienced the massive success they already have!

Here, we are going to discuss the marketing strategies they put into action, which led them to boost their customer base and skyrocket their sales.

1. Affordable range

It provides consumers with comparable effective prices as compared to the beauty giants Lakme and Maybelline. As the products were priced with the middle-class population in mind, the company heavily endorses make-up products at affordable prices.

2. Astounding packaging

Even though the company’s products are reasonably priced, there are no efforts left in the packaging sector. The products come in attractive packaging with high-quality content and a cult following among the youth.

3. Optimal use of internet marketing

• Sugar Cosmetics also made an effort to market their goods through the Internet. Instagram and YouTube have produced the best results for them out of all the digital platforms!
• They also promote their products through Social Media influencers. They collaborate with a famous content creator who targets their audience and captures a mass audience at cheaper prices as compared to conventional marketing strategies.
• Last but not least, they will also continue to rely on BTL activities for their marketing. Organizing trade shows, telemarketing their products, sending direct mail to the targeted audience, and focusing on search engine marketing are all producing positive results.

The rise and rise of Sugar Cosmetics

Over the course of six rounds, Sugar Cosmetics has raised a total of $87.5 million in funding. Their most recent funding came from an angel round on September 3, 2022. Nine investors are funding Sugar Cosmetics.

The most recent investors are A91 Partners and Ranveer Singh. On January 13, 2022, ENN Beauty was purchased by Sugar Cosmetics.

As of today, Sugar Cosmetics Net Worth is Rs 300 crore .

2. Valuation and turnover

According to the most recent reports, it is valued at $500 million (4,133 crore rupees). And if we talk about the turnover, In FY22, Sugar Cosmetics generated total operating revenue of INR 210.9 crore from India, as against INR 117.6 crore in FY21. With a projected 70% growth rate by 2024 , Sugar Cosmetics is ready to become the second-largest brand in the color cosmetics category.

Despite an increase in sales, Vellvette Lifestyle-owned Sugar Cosmetics reported a widening of its loss to INR 75 crore in the financial year 2021-2022 (FY22) from INR 21.1 crore in the previous fiscal year.

Although its operating revenue from the sale of its cosmetic and beauty products increased by almost 75% to INR 221.1 crore in FY22, the startup still reported a 255% YoY increase in its loss. The figure stood at INR 126.4 crore in FY21.

The startup, which has a $500 million market cap, is growing in the US, Russia, and West Asia with the goal of going global soon. According to Sugar Cosmetics CEO Vineeta Singh, the company needs perfect timing to enter the IPO stage, where it can attempt to become the most well-known brand in the market while also experiencing the fastest profit growth.

Naturally, the market places a high value on profitability, and Sugar wants to clear that hurdle over the course of the upcoming year.

SWOT analysis

• High-end materials that are designed in state-of-the-art facilities.
• Online as well as offline.
• Easy application
• Large target audience
• Brand awareness amongst youth
• less recognition internationally
• Mediocre promotional campaigns on social media platforms
• No big celebrity endorsements
• Relatively low budget as compared to global brands

 Opportunity

• Able to change its products with shifts in trends.
• Launch a wider range of products
• Increase presence in the marketplace with digital and influencer marketing

 Threats

• The competitors have more capital to invest in marketing campaigns
• Owing to changes in trends, many products get outdated
• Many competitors launch the same product at even more competitive prices

Staying ahead in the game

Sugar faces fierce competition with the other established cosmetics brands in the country; to name a few, we have Nykaa, Myglamm, Lotus, Purple, Mamaearth, Lakme, Maybelline, etc.

To create a space in the industry, one has to find a gap in the market and bridge the gap for the audience. Luckily, Sugar Cosmetics has been very successful in doing so, By various strategies listed below:

1. Bridging the gap

Sugar Cosmetics charted the prices of all red lipsticks available on the market using the least common denominator—red lipstick. They discovered that there were no competitors in the Rs 599–Rs 699 price range.

They consequently made the decision to join that band. Even though investors did not find it exciting at the time because they believed it to be a niche market, the brand stuck with it.

“That is one of the benefits of developing consumer brands in India. “Today’s niche is tomorrow’s mass market,” Mukherjee observed. This way, they were able to capture large audiences by playing in the rare air.

2. Accessibility to the masses

With affordable pricing and premium quality, Sugar Cosmetics adds value to thousands of lives every day, is light on their pockets, and offers a variety of products. It is often observed that sugar strives to make their products accessible to the economic majority of the population in India, that is, the middle class.

3. Making gizmos its best friends

Sugar’s owned media generates 4 billion views per year. The company was very careful to avoid promoting bottom-of-the-funnel messaging on top-funnel platforms. The brand took Social Media influencers into the spotlight and used the right approach to build a loud voice for the brand.

Its digital footprint has helped it scale the business, by constantly trying new strategies and reflecting on previous failures to grow even stronger with increased revenues.

4. Going omnichannel

The brand adopted a step-by-step strategy. D2C was the beginning, followed by availability on partner portals and other e-commerce sites, and finally shop-in-shops. Launching its exclusive brand outlets and kiosks came next. There are currently more than 114 Clients and kiosks for the brand. The company has also entered the high streets. Their future plan now is to get into travel retail.

5. Devotion towards feedbacks

Actions speak louder than words, and when it came to sugar, words—in the form of customer reviews—spoke about what they wanted and got it done by the brand, leading to its rise in the Indian market.

On marketplaces and e-commerce websites, Mukherjee has made it a habit to read reviews of the products his business sells. The feedback from customers has provided Sugar with a wealth of insightful information that it has used to enhance and diversify its product line.

The insight even allowed Sugar to create some innovative products, including matte eyeliners and foundation sticks.

“You’re never really ready… And you’re never really ready. But as long as you’re willing to put your heart into something, and feel strongly about it – at least you’ll have the calming peace of knowing that you tried,” – Says Mukherjee.

Vineeta and Kaushik’s 11-year journey started in 2012. They were full of doubts, insecurities, and fears, but they never gave up, and today we all know the brand by its faces and embrace the long yet beautiful journey of Sugar Cosmetics.

Suraj Shrivastava at ForgeFusion shares simple, effective ways to grow your business using SEO, content marketing, and AI, learned from helping over 50 companies. When he's not working, he loves teaching others or watching documentaries.

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Case Study: Fenty Beauty

Lyndal | Founder (ide)ate Studio

Organisation: Fenty Beauty

For decades, the beauty industry held a narrow vision of who deserved to be represented on its shelves. Foundation shades catered primarily to lighter skin tones, leaving a vast majority of consumers feeling excluded. Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty, launched in 2017, shattered this paradigm with a revolutionary approach to inclusivity.

The Problem

Before Fenty Beauty, the foundation struggle was real. People of colour, particularly those with darker complexions, faced a constant battle to find a foundation that matched their skin tone. Existing brands offered limited shade ranges, often with undertones that didn’t complement a variety of complexions. This lack of representation wasn’t just frustrating, it sent a clear message: you weren’t part of the beauty conversation.

Rihanna (yep, that Rhianna), recognised this gap in the market and the need for inclusivity.

Inspired by her own experiences, she envisioned Fenty Beauty “so that women everywhere would be included.” The brand launched with a record-breaking 40 foundation shades, catering to a wide spectrum of skin tones and undertones. But Fenty Beauty went beyond just the number of shades. Formulas were developed for all skin types, ensuring a flawless finish for everyone.

Fenty Beauty’s impact transcended sales figures. With an annual revenue of $582 million and a valuation of $2.8 billion, it quickly became a top beauty brand.

But the true victory was the message it sent: beauty is for everyone. Women of all backgrounds finally saw themselves reflected in the beauty world, a feeling of empowerment that resonated deeply.

‘The Fenty effect’ is a term now used to describe the knockon effect in forcing the wider industry to develop inclusive ranges too.

Why Fenty Beauty Worked: Rethinking the Target Audience

Fenty Beauty’s success stemmed from a fundamental shift in perspective. Traditionally, the beauty industry focused on a “dominant” customer — typically a white, youthful-looking woman. But Fenty Beauty looked beyond this limited view.

Here’s how they did it:

• Thinking Beyond Dominant Groups: A Total Addressable Market (TAM) analysis typically considers factors like age, income, and location. Fenty Beauty went a step further, acknowledging the importance of ethnicity, gender expression, physical ability, and body size in shaping consumer needs and desires. This broader perspective allowed them to develop products that catered to a much larger and previously underserved market.
• Decentering Dominant Groups: Fenty Beauty’s marketing and design choices reflected a conscious effort to move away from centring whiteness as the default standard. Their campaigns featured a diverse range of models, and the brand actively partnered with underrepresented communities. This authenticity resonated with consumers who finally felt seen and valued.

Key Takeaways

Fenty Beauty serves as a powerful case study in the power of inclusive innovation. By prioritising representation and understanding the needs of diverse consumers, brands can unlock a wider market and establish genuine customer loyalty.

Here are some key takeaways for businesses looking to follow Fenty Beauty’s lead:

• Conduct a TAM Analysis with inclusivity in mind: Expand your analysis to consider factors that impact feelings of inclusion and spending habits beyond your traditional demographics.
• Co-create with Underrepresented Communities: Engage with diverse groups during the product development process. This ensures solutions that are effective and resonate with those they aim to serve.
• Avoid Stereotypes : Don’t make assumptions about what inclusivity means to different demographics. Actively seek out feedback and perspectives to ensure your approach is authentic and respectful.

By following these steps, brands can move beyond performative inclusivity and create products and experiences that truly celebrate the beauty in all its diverse forms. The beauty industry may have been slow to catch on, but Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty has shown the world the power of inclusivity — a revolution that extends far beyond the world of makeup.

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• TikTok creators say beauty industry still has an inclusivity problem after popular makeup company generates backlash , NBC News
• Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty Is The World’s Biggest Celebrity Beauty Brand , Essence

Written by Lyndal | Founder (ide)ate Studio

Exploring the nexus of diversity & innovation through (ide)ate Studio: https://www.ideatestudio.io/

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The Skin Care Effect: A Case Study

Previous economic recessions have shown us that while consumers may make changes to their budget to reduce spend, they still allocate a portion toward purchasing affordable, everyday luxury items. These may not be something as large and expensive as a new car, but instead something smaller, like a tube of lipstick that brightens someone’s day in a small but important way.

This trend has traditionally been nicknamed “the lipstick effect,” a concept often attributed to Leonard Lauder. However, we at TULA have seen a different trend emerge during the coronavirus pandemic, what we call, “the skin care effect.”

TULA in the news: TULA Partners with Cloverly & TerraCycle

Resilience in a Challenging Market

Skin care products have seen a strong performance amid the current pandemic, according to NPD data .

Skin care sales in the natural beauty segment rose 11% early in 2020, while prestige makeup saw a sales drop of 37%, according to NPD data in Q2 2020. So, while consumers are not purchasing color cosmetics or wearing as much makeup, we’re really seeing them think more about their skin.

Bottom line: the program resulted in an increase of 28% in AOV /basket size for those that engaged with our skin care advisers.

To illustrate, at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, TULA experienced an uptick in product purchases as the number of coronavirus cases began to surge and shelter-in-place orders were implemented across the United States.

For the full article, check out Global Cosmetic Industry's February 2021 digital magazine.

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Building loyalty that’s beyond skin deep

Leveraging the personal touch to hook consumers in a crowded market.

With a century of history and distribution in over 129 countries around the globe, Maybelline New York is one of the world’s most recognizable cosmetics brands. However, the beauty industry landscape is constantly evolving, and consumer interest is even more driven by the latest and hottest trends than in other categories. To keep its brand perception fresh and reinforce its leadership position, Maybelline turned to AMP to encourage women to explore new looks by taking trends and colors from the catwalk to the sidewalk.

Here’s how we helped increase awareness and drive consumers to retail through a one-on-one beauty consultation like no other.

Standing Out in the Beauty Battle

The beauty and cosmetics categories are packed with thousands of brands offering similar products, all fighting for the attention of consumers. While a leading brand like Maybelline may be viewed as a beauty mainstay, it may also be viewed as tradition-bound and susceptible to challenger brands. In such a crowded category, inducing trial is just as essential for a leading brand as it is to start-ups in order to continue standing apart from the pack. However, getting consumers to experiment with cosmetics is notoriously difficult, particularly if the product is new to the market.

Glamour and Inspiration from a Fashion Icons

As the multitude of fashion and beauty media outlets demonstrate, a sizable percentage of female consumers look to fashion icons and celebrities for make-up inspiration, and Maybelline customers are no different. Many women yearn to be part of glamorous experiences like backstage at Fashion Week. We knew that by leveraging Maybelline’s long-standing connection to the fashion world, we could create events that would evoke a similar experience of glamour and exclusivity.

Taking the Red Carpet on the Road

To deliver the exclusive feeling of New York’s high fashion world to consumers, we helped Maybelline introduce the Color Studio Tour – a dedicated studio that treated visitors to an unforgettable VIP experience. Color Studio provided custom on-site makeovers and makeup consultations using Maybelline products, exclusive Fashion Week content, free product trials, and coupons to drive to retail.

Maybelline set out to reach consumers across the country by bringing Color Studio to events of all types and sizes for maximum reach.

Experiential

Fashion week nyc.

The Color Studio made a big splash at New York Fashion Week, with a 20’ x 40’ space that welcomed consumers not attending the show to get a glimpse into the allure of Fashion Week. The studio offered complimentary make-up consultations and an interactive Maybelline NY vending machine. Best of all, the ultimate fashion icon herself, Anna Wintour, made appearances on-site and distributed branded Fashion Week t-shirts and other VIP giveaways.

Walgreens Integration

We also created an exclusive Color Studio experience, built specifically for Walgreen’s, that transformed their in-store beauty sections into a backstage at Fashion Week experience. Monitors ran footage of the live runway shows while consumers were treated to on-site makeovers from professional stylists, driving immediate sales.

Shecky’s Girls Night Out

To establish reach on a broader scale, we partnered with nationwide promoter and media company Shecky’s Girls Night Out to bring Color Studio to its events. The Color Studio at Shecky’s events included an on-site retail partnership with Target that allowed consumers to purchase products on the spot. A custom-built catwalk allowed attendees to flaunt their new Maybelline NY look and share it with friends via social media.

College Campus Tour

Finally, Color Studio went back to school with a college campus tour that provided tips, tricks and makeovers during college fashion weeks. This tactic not only raised awareness among an influential female demographic, it also created a lasting bond with a new wave of brand loyalists: Millennials.

Our work with Maybelline New York’s Color Studio extended the brand’s reach both online and offline, reinforcing its credibility and market leadership in the category. More specifically, the campaign amplified brand awareness in desired demographics, encouraged product trial, and continued to drive consumers to retail through on-site sales.

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Beauty Industry Case Study: Top Line

Supplying beauty salons since 1998 with professional equipment and furniture, Top Line is a noteworthy example of how a beauty company has acted to endure the test of time. While the industry is getting overcrowded with local and international competition, there’s also the issue of adapting to the expectations of their clientele.

This is why Top Line decided that their core business needed to fuse with solutions stemmed from the latest Martech innovations. With Flaminjoy by their side, Top Line succeeded in revamping their online store without losing sight of their years-long identity.

First, Top Line searched to reinforce its strengths. With high standards, an ample product portfolio, and an active presence through various national programs, the brand drew closer to an audience with a clear affinity for visual experiences.

In time, Top Line realized how important it is for companies to engage in a conversation with a public that communicates in pictures. If anything, it’s customized recommendations and unconventional product presentations that grasp the attention of the social media generation.

Top Line challenges – Product discovery

First and foremost, our Top Line case study takes us on a fast track to significantly improved product discovery. The company was looking into upgrading an already established online store. Their professionally curated list of first-class brands and luxurious products was starting to dwindle under its own weight. Therefore, the challenge was to turn an inventory of 12,000+ beauty products into an interactive system of recommendations . It was also crucial to be easy to navigate.

On the one hand, the company was in need of straightforward and compelling customer journeys to encourage fluid product discovery. On the other hand, the eCommerce platform needed to hold fast to an overwhelmingly extensive product portfolio which is also one of its core business pillars.

The challenge lost its grip the moment Top Line gave clients a voice. By implementing shoppable galleries into category pages, Top Line started collecting user-generated content automatically under interactive and visual stores.

With the implementation of themed shoppable galleries in a matter of days, the Top Line eCommerce website took a sudden turn for the better. From disruptive, the index of 12,000+ products turned into fuel for a neverending list of inspirational recommendations.

Top Line clients who have purchased and tested a variety of cosmetics and devices became brand ambassadors through their social media content. In their turn, new visitors are enjoying happy and candid faces of people who recommend a certain combination of products in each photo.

By activating Flaminjoy’s Visual Content, Top Line got access to a robust source of inspirational and authentic images of their products. The company saved time and money by skipping content production altogether. Instead, they’ve leveraged social media content that their community is creating by itself.

After weeks of running shoppable galleries, Top Line registered an increased activity within their category pages as well as a sales boost. These improvements indicate that consumers trust and enjoy UGC.

Top Line challenges – Entertainment

Top Line wanted to offer their site visitors not just any shopping experience, but an entertaining one. At the checkout, consumers want to feel like they’ve made choices that bring them joy. So why not enhancing this feel-good sensation proactively to encourage new customers for a swift return?

This is why the necessity for an entertaining feature arose. Top Line searched for fresh features that can sway users to enjoy their time on site and lose themselves in the moment. What happened next closed the gap between inspired shopping research and a desire for having fun.

With the assistance of Flaminjoy, Top Line embedded a playful feature called “Shop your mood.” By switching a colorful and interactive wheel in any position, users are presented with a selection of products. What’s special about each collection is that featured products can instill the desired frame of mind.

Whether they want to resurface their inner diva, turn on their sensual side or enjoy a SPA session at home, Top Line visitors need only to go for the recommended cosmetics. Users can now order products simply because they can summon good vibes instantly.

At any moment, embedded pins are ready to cast users from the “Shop your mood” wheel to product pages with one click. These pins alone are turning the entertaining feature into a standalone customer journey tilting the balance for an increased conversion rate.

By switching on entertaining features on their official website, Top Line adds value to all shopping sessions. Consequently, the company scored better conversion rates while visitors lingered across Top Line product pages longer than usual.

Top Line challenges – Offline-online synergy

A strong push on a spectacular online presence is rendered powerless in the real world. Usually, brick-and-mortar visitors are deprived of all the experiences brands have prepared them across eCommerce.

Top Line refused to take the offline-online divorce for granted. Instead, the beauty company looked into natural means to bring the two mediums together. The solution appeared to be as simple as it is now for Top Line stores to immerse visitors into a digital world of authentic beauty.

Top Line discovered that store customers can be naturally introduced to their digital content through Omnichannel communication. In-store displays warped those carefully curated collections of user-generated content directly into the offline.

This way, Top Line retail stores started acting as hands-down product presentations and sources of inspiration at the same time. Through the Flaminjoy API integration, the most engaging photos from real Top Line customers are unfolding under curious eyes familiar to social media visuals.

From the Top Line side, expenses were cut to a minimum thanks to an automatic customer journey with zero need for technical assistance. In the meantime, store visitors are enjoying more opportunities to interact with the brand and watch its impact on the virtual beauty community.

Therefore, there was no surprise in perceiving an increased buzz in social listening which translated in greater brand awareness. Overall, Top Line streamlined an immersive in-store customer experience with a minimum of effort involved.

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A Complete Case study on the Marketing Strategy of Dove & it’s Campaigns

By Aditya Shastri

Marketing strategy of dove – introduction.

Some brands have grown exponentially since their inception. Dove is one of them. It started its journey in 1957 from the US and now the products are sold around 150 countries. How did they manage it? What did they do to increase their customer base? How did they manage to keep their consumers coming back? We think that Dove’s Digital Marketing Strategy played a major part in all this.

To keep up with the market, Digital is the new and effective space to tap on. IIDE helps learn you how to effectively use digital space to advertise and showcase your brand to a tremendous number of consumers. It provides different types of digital marketing courses and supports in-depth learning.

This case study analyses a few e-marketing strategies used by the company to give you an insight into what they have been doing.

Unilever is the parent company of Dove, originating in the United States. Dove products are manufactured in Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, South Africa, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, and the United States.

Dove has a wide range of products which cater to the needs of men, women and toddlers as wekk. Dove’s logo is a silhouette profile of the brand’s namesake bird. Vincent Lamberti was granted the original patents related to the manufacturing of Dove in the 1950s, while he worked for the Lever brothers.

Dove’s Marketing Strategy

The primary ingredient of the Dove products is synthetic surfactants along with palm kernel and other vegetable oils and salts derived from animal fats such as tallow. At the same time, Dove products are accredited under PETA and hence, there is no animal testing involved in the manufacturing process.

• The biggest advantage being freshness and moisturizing properties of Dove products for women, its venture into Baby Dove has been an excellent marketing strategy. Mothers around the world have instantly fallen in love with products like baby bar and body wash to baby lotion simply because of their quality. While rich moisture products keep the tender skin soft, sensitive moisture products keep skin safe from allergies.
• For men, in January of 2010, Dove brought out the Dove Men+Care that includes shampoo, body wash, and deodorants.

Target Audience

Women who are active online became the core focus of Dove’s target market on digital and social media. The brand focused on females, ages 18 to 35, who valued natural, healthy beauty products. Naturally, for such socially engaged and image-conscious women, “selfies” were hugely popular.

SEO Case Study

WHAT WOMEN WANT was a dove initiative for using SEO to create the highest engaged Hair Care content destination in India.

Brand insight

Dove, as a brand has for long contained the beauty heritage in the mind of the beauty aspiring Indian consumers. The Indian beauty market is getting cluttered due to the influx of newer brands in the segment. Multiple brands arrive, make claims, promise, and often leave the consumers confused about the right products for them. Trust and belief were declining among the audience. They were needed to bring relevance to Dove’s hair care products and engage with the audience. Being surrounded by fashion and beauty brands, getting women to be loyal and in constant conversation was difficult. But, according to the studies, women in India, are looking for content that will help them stay beautiful.

Consumer insight

Women want to be well turned out for every occasion be it hanging out with friends, or a wedding, or even an everyday corporate do. They also lacked in information sources- magazines, beauty blogs, etc. the dilemma of ‘deciding what is right for them continued. No single platform existed to cater to all their questions in one place, in a manner they could trust and rely upon. So, Dove created its website. Space where women can have relevant and customized conversations about their beauty needs without brands telling them what to do.

The creativity of the communication and activation was divided into 3 phases:

• Phase 1 – Keyword Analysis & Selection

While doing analysis, found websites need optimization for Brand & Generic keywords both also detailed research and finalized the keywords relevant for the category and consumers, apart from brand keywords.

• Phase 2 – Content analysis and Generation

They found content on all topics related to hair problems/solutions. With the help of the client and content team, they made changes in the existing pages and also added new content to make the website user and SEO-friendly.

• Phase 3- Website Flow and Link Building

They built a unique strategy to get quality links from different domains which would support brand presence over the web for the brand and generic queries.

Dove Hair Care took the center stage for the hair care universe while being the authority on all things related to hair care for Indian consumers.

• 54% organic traffic increase

A year into the new launch, Dove Hair Care is the bible for over 1.2 Million people

• 787 hours of watch time

Sticky content consistently pushed daily ensured revisits to our content pages with less than 30% bounce rate.

• Ranked No. 1 in the hair category

58% of new users acquired through SEO optimization. Ranked No. 1 within the hair category – Beauty/Fashion/ Style community online

SEO helps you target your audience and with the help of correct and accurate keywords helps you rank on the search engine. Let’s tear into the previous advertising strategies and the marketing campaigns they carried out.

How Dove Has Evolved

At the very beginning of the 1950s, Dove focused its advertisement on showcasing the benefit of their beauty bar – “that it is made with ¼ cleansing cream and that it creams while it cleans.” The ad was highly comparative, asking women to try Dove for themselves and compare it with other usual soaps available in the market and feel the difference.

Dove is all about being different. The advertisements from 1960 had started getting more ladylike, featuring naturally beautiful and thin models. The 1970’s advertising period moved ahead and took a turn toward the anti-aging benefits of using Dove soap. This advertisement crossed all the barriers and went against what Dove stands for today. The period of the ’80s and ’90s focused heavily on comparative advertising, using test strips to show the difference between the moisturizing qualities of Dove compared to the harsh chemicals mixed in other soap bars. The same method of advertising persists for the company.

Dove’s social media platforms are strong with 27 million followers on Facebook and 194k followers on Twitter. On each platform, Dove used campaigns to focus on specific products. While Dove’s Facebook page focused on campaigns every month or so, its Twitter handle is much more active.

Here are some of the social media contents:

Empowering content

Non-conventional beauty standards content

Testimonials

Eco Friendly & animal care

Body confidence

Care for consumer

Aesthetics and colour / flatlays

Trends/ Happenings

Consistent themes

DOVE advertising strategy from the 1950s to 1990s

Dove started its journey through its first advertisement in 1957 featuring its “1/4 Cleansing Cream”. The ad encouraged users to have an experiment over themselves by cleansing half of their face with ordinary soap and the other half with Dove soap and feel the difference in how velvety and smooth their skin looks. Here is the link to that video- click

A print advertisement published on May 9, 1957, used the tagline, “Suddenly DOVE makes soap old-fashioned!” This advertisement, like the other ads of the 1950s, emphasized Dove’s creaming qualities and differentiated it from other soaps. In reality, Dove did not refer to itself as a soap but it called itself a “bath and toilet bar” as a new way to differentiate itself from the other products.

Dove’s advertising strategy from the 2000s to 2013

A Dove TV advertisement in 2006 was launched showing the photograph of a real woman after she had her hair and makeup done, and lighting adjusted. This ad was also a part of Dove’s earlier Campaign for Real Beauty.

In 2013, Dove beauty bar ad conducted an experiment that directly differentiated Dove soap from one of its leading competitors, Ivory. The woman in the ad used a test paper to show how ordinary soaps strip the skin saying, “If it can do that to test paper, imagine what it can do to your skin.” The ad was very well concentrated on differentiating Dove from other soap bars. This ad brought back the aromatics of Dove’s previous ads which were very much experiment-based and directly compared Dove with other top soap brands.

Dove’s Campaigns

The dove campaign focuses on making women feel confident in the skin they are in. They also aim to create a world where beauty is a source of confidence and not anxiety. Let’s look into some of them.1. Dove started it’s marketing campaigns in 1957 with the “Simple Face Test” and has come a long way since to the “Campaign of Real Beauty”. Their ads were made with the intention of changing the norms. Another advertising campaign called “#ChooseBeautiful”, showed how feeling beautiful and confident comes from within. They also tried to address the issue of body shaming faced by women of different physiques and asking the question of whether beauty comes only in one size.

2. Dove and Vogue India came together to showcase that women from different parts of the country have their own beauty. They produced a series of campaigns in order to break the stereotypical meaning and definition of beauty where women with different hair color, skin tone, physique, height and shape can face the camera confidently and say that they feel beautiful and confident by using Dove.

3. Another hard-hitting campaign by Dove called “Choose Beautiful” is a survey with a signboard that depicts “Average” and “Beautiful” in order to find out how women around the world feel about themselves.

4. This campaign video showed women with different types of getups with a hint of cluelessness over which entrance to select, where some of them are confidently entering through the “Beautiful” door while some awkwardly and in a shy manner entered through the “Average” door. At the end, women were interviewed and all of them stated confidently that they would enter through the “Beautiful” door next time around and most women did exactly that.

5. FBI-trained Forensic artist Gil Zamora was a part of Dove’s Real Beauty campaign where he made two sketches of each woman, one was narrated by the woman herself and the second sketch was described by another person. After both the sketches were completed, he revealed two sketches, it was seen that the one described by another person was glow happier and fresher, which made the women emotional and conscious about the fact that they were more beautiful than they thought.

Via their empathetic approach for branding, Dove has managed to receive a wide and tremendous size of audience. They first understand women’s insecurities and then put their conscious efforts to make them feel better instead of selling their product. They become a top of the mind brand by empowering women. Let us now check out their social media presence.

Social Media Presence

Dove has the highest number of followers over various social media platforms compared to other top brands like Ivory, Olay, and Suave. Dove has a large fan following on Facebook, they try to keep users actively engaged with discount coupons and by answering the queries and comments posted on their page in detail and within a short period of time.

Dove on Facebook

Dove’s social media presence is gigantic and very much interactive. Their Facebook page is updated almost daily which has helped them to drive the fan following to 25.6 million over the platform. The Facebook page is less about direct selling of the products and much about selling the brand name and image. The posts are about encouraging women to be self-confident and celebrate who you are, just the way you are. Dove celebrates real women, using images of women who do not fit the orthodox requirement of a model, and receives a lot of respect and followers for its commitment to celebrating real women. Every comment on the Facebook page is properly and timely responded that creates a decent customer relationship.

Dove on Twitter

Dove’s Twitter page is full of empowering posts that have driven the fan following to over 183,300 followers over the platform. The brand posts very few promotional messages via Twitter page, unlike their Facebook page. Dove highly emphasizes developing a brand personality and defining and broadcasting their beliefs.

The Dove Website

Dove’s website focuses on screening how Dove works and assists in improving the health of the skin. The website also has information about social missions for which they are working like celebrating real women, supporting positive self-esteem, and defining beauty as confidence. The women featured in their advertisements are neither celebrities nor models or actresses; rather they are fresh-faced, natural, and women of all ages. The Dove Insider program encourages interaction with the brand and develops a sense of community.

They empowered women, understood women’s insecurities and provided them with solutions to their problems and thereby, building trust and brand loyalty.

Since 1957, the Dove soap has come a long way and in this long journey, it has been accompanied by extensive body care products from the brand of the same name. Using cruelty-free and moisturizing ingredients for the products, the main aim of Dove has always been to enrich the beauty and confidence of women especially along with men and infants. 

From soaps to shampoos, deodorants to hand wash, the product line of Dove is long and reliable for getting moisture, pure and clean skin that is naturally smooth to touch. The controversies regarding Dove advertisements being racist are subdued by its campaign to break the conventional definition of beauty. Dove is a one-stop solution for all skin and hair care products. 

Similarly, IIDE is the one-stop solution for all your digital marketing skills. It helps you level up your digital marketing game by providing various courses to revamp your brand. All you have to do is register and develop the enthusiasm to learn. Before you make a decision, sign up for our completely free-of-cost masterclass led by Mr. Karan Shah, the founder, and CEO of IIDE, and learn the basics of digital marketing from the expert and then make your decision.

Thank you for taking out time and reading the case study. Comment down your suggestions and recommendations for Dove’s Marketing Strategy. Share and educate your friends with the same.

Author's Note: My name is Aditya Shastri and I have written this case study with the help of my students from IIDE's online digital marketing courses in India . Practical assignments, case studies & simulations helped the students from this course present this analysis. Building on this practical approach, we are now introducing a new dimension for our online digital marketing course learners - the Campus Immersion Experience. If you found this case study helpful, please feel free to leave a comment below.

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Aditya Shastri

Lead Trainer & Head of Learning & Development at IIDE

Leads the Learning & Development segment at IIDE. He is a Content Marketing Expert and has trained 6000+ students and working professionals on various topics of Digital Marketing. He has been a guest speaker at prominent colleges in India including IIMs...... [Read full bio]

The marketing strategy of Dove blog provided valuable insights into their brand positioning and customer-centric approach. How does Dove’s strategy resonate with diverse consumer demographics?

Dove has used powerful emotive advertising campaigns and digital and social media marketing to connect with its customers.

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FOR THE LOVE OF BEAUTY SAMPLES

Beauty enthusiasts enjoy shopping for and trying new beauty products, especially those formulated for her needs. They navigate a beauty obstacle course to discover what works for her. When they find a product they like, they want to talk about it! Our collection of beauty case studies for leading beauty brands demonstrate the power of ‘try it, buy it’. Based on first-party survey data, Brandshare campaigns deliver high product trial and purchase intent.

96% PRODUCT TRIAL

+167% PURCHASE INTENT

For its new product launch, a notable fragrance brand distributed a peel-and-sniff insert with four distinct scents within e-commerce packages to surprise and delight consumers who love wearing fragrance. The campaign included digital media, social influencers, conversational commerce, and add-to-cart connectivity to drive purchase.

6.4% Engagement Rate

218K products carted

$4.4MM carted value

154% social engagement overperformance

A leading facial cleansing brand distributed samples to a highly targeted group of e-commerce shoppers to effectively engage with appearance-conscious, active and college-based women. Results included increased brand awareness, product trial and the conversion of consumers who previously preferred competitive products based on survey feedback.

93% product trial

+159% purchase intent

49% shared the experience on social

A hair care brand distributed shampoo and conditioner samples to effectively reach and connect with their target audience. Results included increased brand awareness, product trial, consideration and market share. A custom follow-up survey gathered valuable market research and consumer feedback.

97% product trial

75% intend to purchase in next 30 days

67% shared the experience on social

“My hair has never felt so silky and have so much shine. I’m hooked and on my way to Target to buy some today!” - Christina, Woodland Hills, CA

A leading beauty brand partnered with a well-known e–retailer to distribute mascara samples and ran a corresponding digital campaign. The campaign reached consumers who are beauty and fashion enthusiasts both through sampling and social media. Results included increased brand awareness, product trial, consideration and purchase. Insights were gathered through a custom survey emailed to consumers. Awareness driven was through Instagram and Facebook.

94% product trial

45% purchased the product after trying the sample

439K social post views

To reach beauty enthusiasts and consumers with sensitive skin, a skincare brand teamed up with Brandshare to distribute samples of its moisturizer. The e-commerce sampling campaign resulted in increased brand awareness, product trial and consideration. A custom follow-up survey gathered valuable market research and consumer feedback.

99% product trial

73% purchase intent

$600K+ total carted value 

A luxury fragrance brand partnered with Brandshare to distribute samples to a highly targeted audience of fashion-focused affluent shoppers. The campaign resulted in increased brand awareness, product trial, and purchase intent. Insights gathered through a custom follow-up survey provided valuable market research and customer feedback.

83% product trial

82% purchase intent

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Case Study | How to Build an Independent Beauty Brand

• Joan Kennedy ,
• Diana Pearl

Key insights

• Founder-owned-and-operated brands have forged a greater presence in the beauty industry thanks largely to social media and savvy community building.
• Success hinges first and foremost on knock-out products that stand out online and on store shelves as insight from Glow Recipe, K18 and D.S. & Durga shows.
• Partnerships with the likes of Sephora as well as big industry players like Estée Lauder are helping beauty start-ups scale at a pace that suits their size; investors too have played a role, fuelling blockbuster exits.

Independent beauty brands in recent times have figured out what has eluded resource-rich conglomerates for years: how to not only sell to consumers, but also serve them with unique products and experiences while building communities online and off.

Founder owned-and-operated brands have long been a presence in the industry. But the 2010s ushered in a golden age for independent labels. Spurred by the direct-to-consumer boom and the emergence of e-commerce platforms like Shopify, it was easy for these start-ups to open their online storefronts, while eliminating the need to pitch to wholesale partners.

The rise of social media also helped. For one thing, social media advertising was relatively cheap, allowing unknown brands to quickly acquire customers. For another, social media became a place for brands to connect with consumers directly, creating online “communities” of loyal customers who follow and engage with the brand, sharing its virtues with their own followers. On Instagram, in particular, founders could become immediately recognisable as their brand’s public face, and discuss the efficacy of their products and the worthiness of their missions.

Industry incumbents were quick to recognise the threat. Brands owned by Estée Lauder Companies, L’Oréal, Procter & Gamble, Puig and Coty had name recognition, but struggled to resonate with consumers, particularly the younger ones. Attempts to launch their own indie-inspired brands mostly flopped. So they embraced a time-honoured approach: if you can’t beat them, buy them. Most, if not all, of these big brands have acquired at least one independent beauty brand in recent years.

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“If you were to come out with an independent brand 20 years ago, the concern would have been that you’d be squashed by L’Oréal or Estée,” said Sonya Brown, partner at Norwest Venture Partners. “Today, the tables have turned. These independent beauty companies are the ones that are at the forefront of innovation and growth. And the big conglomerates continue to be acquisitive, which is one of the reasons [venture capital and private equity] investors continue to support the space, because there’s a known exit path.”

Today, the infrastructure exists for indie brands to hit it big quickly: more and more brands will launch bolstered by venture capital funding, and retailers like Sephora and Ulta Beauty are willing to give buzzy young brands shelf space, even after only a year or less in business. But there are many more brands vying for funding and spots on retailers’ shelves, including labels founded by influencers and celebrities along with dermatologists and makeup artists. Competition is more intense than ever.

This case study unpacks what it takes for an independent beauty brand to stand out and grow by examining lessons from three indie start-ups: skin care label Glow Recipe, hair care brand K18 and fragrance purveyor D.S. & Durga.

Glow Recipe — founded by former L’Oréal employees Christine Chang and Sarah Lee in 2014 — jumped on the booming Korean Beauty trend with its fruit-inspired products in 2017. The founders spoke with BoF about how their team considers the way a product appears online from the get-go, at its formulation stage, as well as how they are able to quickly respond to trends and tailor communications to particular channels. In August 2022, Bloomberg News reported that the brand tapped investment bank Goldman Sachs to advise on its sale, at a valuation of between $400 million and $500 million.

Fragrance brand D.S. & Durga debuted in 2008, at a time when David Moltz readily admits today that he and co-founder (and wife) Kavi Moltz had little business experience. The founders leaned heavily on traditional principles of brand building to create a “personality” for every fragrance in their portfolio, pairing each with a playlist in order to highlight its connection to and inspiration from music. It’s a multi-sensory approach that has helped D.S. & Durga reach its goal of sustained growth — its sales have increased by 90 percent year on year since 2020.

As a new entrant in a hot category, having arrived on the scene in 2020, hair care label K18 provides evidence that despite greater competition, it’s possible for independent brands to scale quickly. Launched at the height of the pandemic, the brand leaned into TikTok virality to help its signature product, the Leave-In Molecular Repair Hair Mask, fly off shelves. Sales in 2022 — its second full year in business — are expected to exceed $125 million.

For many independent beauty brands, the promise of a lucrative exit is a major motivator through the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. But as the three brands in this case study demonstrate, there’s no avoiding the pre-exit heavy lifting.

Click below to read the case study now.

Editor’s Note: This case study was revised on Nov. 4, 2022, to correct information about D.S. & Durga’s fundraising history. The brand has raised three rounds of funding since 2018.

Joan Kennedy is Editorial Associate at The Business of Fashion. She is based in New York and covers beauty and marketing.

Diana Pearl is News and Features Editor at The Business of Fashion. She is based in New York and drives BoF’s marketing and media coverage.

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Women's Health

Toxic beauty

Are your personal care products putting your health at risk.

The average woman uses 12 different beauty products every day — cleansers, conditioners, hair dyes, fragrances, skin care products, scented lotions, nail polish, and makeup, to name a few. Take a quick glance at the labels, and you'll see a cocktail of chemical components.

You might assume that all these ingredients have been tested to ensure that they're safe for long-term use. That's not the case.

At least on the federal level, no one is checking to make sure that the chemicals you're putting on your body are harmless. "Products are tested to make sure they don't cause short-term problems, such as skin irritation. But they're not tested for long-term safety," says Dr. Kathryn M. Rexrode, associate professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Women's Health at Harvard Medical School. The FDA steps in only if people actually complain about a product because they suspect it harmed them. Prior to that, the onus is on the company alone.

"Just because it's on your shelf doesn't mean that it's safe," says Tamarra James-Todd, the Mark and Catherine Winkler Assistant Professor of Environmental Reproductive and Perinatal Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. With this in mind, women should take some time to consider what they're putting on their bodies each day and how it could potentially affect their health, she says.

Hair dye and breast cancer

There's reason for concern about many of the chemicals in popular personal care products on the market today. Case in point: a study published online Dec. 3, 2019, by the International Journal of Cancer found a link between hair dye and breast cancer. Women in the study who used permanent hair dye at least once in the 12-month period leading up to the study had a 9% higher risk of developing breast cancer than women who didn't use hair dye. And when the study authors broke the findings down by race, they found an even higher risk for African American women. Women in that group who used any permanent dye in the previous 12 months had a 45% higher risk of developing breast cancer compared with women who did not use hair dye. It didn't seem to matter how often or for how many years the women had used the dye.

The findings were not surprising, says James-Todd. "We conducted a study a year ago in which we saw similar findings for hair dyes," she says. Some hair care products contain more than 5,000 chemicals, including some known to disrupt the body's natural hormone balance or to have cancer-causing effects in animals, according to study authors. Even so, studies looking at hair dyes in the past have been a mixed bag, with some finding links between health problems and dye use, and others finding no link. The differences found in more recent studies, says James-Todd, may be due to the fact that they are testing different products. Today's products use different chemicals than older formulations, which were not linked to health risks in some previous studies.

Analyzing the study results

Authors of the 2019 study drew on data from the Sister Study, which enrolled more than 50,000 women — the healthy sisters of women with breast cancer — ages 35 to 74. The study ran from 2003 to 2009 and used questionnaires, which were updated every three years. The surveys included questions about how often women used hair dye, as well as what colors and types of dye they used and whether it was permanent or semi-permanent. The study also used information gathered about other hair products, specifically chemicals used to straighten hair. The average follow-up period for the study was a little over eight years, and the current analysis included information gathered through 2016.

The analysis also linked hair straightening products to a higher risk of breast cancer. These chemical products were associated with an 18% higher risk of breast cancer in women who used them in the 12 months before the study period. The more often women used straightener, the higher the risk. Women who used the products every five to eight weeks had a 31% higher risk of going on to develop breast cancer compared with nonusers. Although African American women in the study were more likely than others to use straighteners, the increase in breast cancer risk was similar for all races.

There didn't appear to be an elevated breast cancer risk among women who used semi-permanent dyes, except among women who used the dyes at home. Researchers speculated this may be because they were more likely to get the dye on their skin, or to use the dyes in spaces that weren't well ventilated, leading them to breathe in higher amounts of chemicals.

Interpreting the study results

It's important to note that all the participants in the 2019 hair dye study were deemed to have a high risk for breast cancer because their sisters had the disease. This means that the findings might not apply to the average population. However, because this particular study already focused on a group of women that were at high risk because of family history, it's likely that the additional elevated risk seen in African American women was not due to genetic factors, says James-Todd. It's more likely to reflect environmental factors, such as differences in the chemicals used in products typically marketed to these women, she says. In the past, scientists have found higher concentrations of problematic hormone-disrupting chemicals in products marketed to African American women, said study authors.

In addition, they noted that breast cancer rates have been increasing in recent years among African American women, who are more often diagnosed with aggressive types of breast cancer and are more likely to die from the disease.

What to take from the study

So, does this mean that women should stop using hair color entirely? Dr. Rexrode says it's too soon to say. "Over all, I don't tell people never to dye their hair again based on this paper. But a 40% increased risk is large enough for concern," she says. So, the findings also shouldn't be ignored, and the topic warrants more study.

For the average woman in the study (that is, one whose sister had breast cancer), exposure to hair dye increased her baseline risk of breast cancer, she says. While there are certain breast cancer risk factors that you can't control, such as your family history or how old you were when you started menstruating, you can choose your hair products and how often you use them.

Reducing your chemical exposure

While researchers continue to look into this issue, James-Todd and Dr. Rexrode say there are several steps you can take to reduce potential risks related to personal care products.

Do your research. When choosing a product, look at the label to see what chemicals it contains, and determine if it's something you want to use. Organizations such as the nonprofit Environmental Working Group ( www.ewg.org ) have analyzed many common products and provide information about potential safety concerns. The organization ranks some common beauty products on a scale from 1 to 10, from those generally thought to be safe to those that contain chemicals that raise more concerns, says James-Todd. "Find out as much as you can about what you are using," she says.

Find safer alternatives. If products you are currently using contain potentially harmful chemicals, switch to a safer option if one is available. The nonprofit Silent Spring Institute has a smartphone app called Detox Me that you can use in the store to scan product barcodes. If a safer option is available, it will let you know. It also offers a Detox Me Action Kit, which allows you to send a urine sample to have your chemical exposure levels tested to get an idea of how your levels compare to others in the United States. The kit also gives you ideas on how to reduce your exposure.

Be skeptical of product claims. Many companies are legitimately working to develop safer products, but some manufacturer claims are dubious. Many companies will remove chemicals that have been highlighted as problematic, such as bisphenol-A or phthalates (chemicals known to be endocrine disrupters, substances that mimic or suppress human hormones). But they may then replace those chemicals with ones that are equally problematic. So, the products aren't really safer, and in some cases, they may be even worse than the original, says James-Todd.

Pare down. While it may be tempting to fill your bathroom shelves with all the latest lotions and potions, making more judicious choices may be a better option. Limiting your options to products you consider essential can reduce your exposure. "For example, I love perfume, but I don't wear it anymore," says James-Todd.

Go natural. Many beauty treatments can be mixed up in your kitchen. Look online for recipes for natural skin and hair treatments. But be aware that some "natural" consumer products can also bring health risks. For example, essential oils are often recommended as an alternative to perfumes and fragrances. But some, in particular lavender and tea tree oils, have estrogenic properties that can pose some of the same health risks as their chemically laden counterparts, says James-Todd. Natural does not always mean safer.

The bottom line: "Women should be thinking carefully about the products they use," says Dr. Rexrode. "And I think we should be demanding more information about their safety."

Image: © helen_tosh/Getty Images

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• News & Analysis on Cosmetics Innovation

Cosmetics 27: case study of a skin protection brand

10-Apr-2018 - Last updated on 10-Apr-2018 at 12:56 GMT

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Find the companion article to this one here ​.

We caught up with cosmetics brand leader Michele Evrard, founder of Cosmetics 27, on what makes successful skin care for a modern consumer base.

A French-based company, Cosmetics 27 is a brand which specialises in natural skincare products that “specifically target skin regeneration and health”.

It’s a brand which has microbiome-related products, as well as a strong anti-pollution and naturals focus. It also offers cosmeceuticals as a key part of its portfolio.

When did you launch, and can you give us an overview of Cosmetics 27? ​

In 2009, after more than three years of research, development and testing, I launched Baume 27.

Initially the product had a very personal purpose: develop the formula that I had imagined, a “one step” treatment that would take care of my sensitive, dry skin and maintain a good, healthy skin tone, density and quality, just for my own use and to achieve my own goal of a true “cosme-ceutical” product.  

I developed the Baume 27 just like a pharmaceutical preparation.  The Baume 27 was followed by two other products (Essence 27 & Cleanser 27)  and the story the brand, Cosmetics 27, started in 2010.

Today the line includes 11 SKU’s. I purposely want to keep it short, targeted, efficient & useful with each new product!

What’s the inspiration for the brand, and to what consumer demands does it respond? ​

My time is in great part invested in studying new research on the skin and search for natural active ingredients, an area of innovation.

The place that I wanted to make in an ever competitive “anti-ageing” driven market: change “anti” to “pro”, move the obsession for re-becoming young to ageing well, better, healthier and therefore feel better, look naturally better!

My objective is to bring efficacy & results with a new regeneration of natural cosmeceuticals.

What are the major challenges you see facing the industry in Europe? ​

Dealing with innovation as the initial idea of innovation in this industry is fast evolving.

I have been in the beauty industry a long time and I am more positive about the future than ever! The industry has drowned consumers in never ending better, plus, improved …claims, miracle products,…these will keep flowing for a while as some new markets are still emerging.

Yet, the true innovation, in my opinion will come from a new approach to skincare that will include new criteria, concepts, mindsets and  focus on health, longevity, better living, ethic much more than wrinkles!

The foundations of these new grounds is already here with the trends for probiotics, microbiome and genome as a way to skincare, environment protection, prevention as a treatment.

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What beauty players can teach the consumer sector about digital disruption

After many decades of stable outperformance, the fast-moving consumer-goods (FMCG) sector is at a crossroads . Consumer preferences have upended the long-standing FMCG marketing playbook, while digital technologies are revolutionizing the way consumers engage with brands and shop. In this context, many FMCG companies are getting serious about change.

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As they look for inspiration, they will find that one FMCG industry—beauty—is way out in front, serving as a bellwether of changes to come elsewhere. The beauty-industry case study reveals how profoundly consumer preferences and behavior are changing, how “born digital” challenger brands use new marketing messages and outlets to capitalize on these changes, and how some incumbents are adapting their competitive advantages to win.

The beauty sector is advanced because of the way beauty-loving consumers engage with the category. For decades, they have sought out innovations, embraced the stories behind brands, and enjoyed the shopping experience, solo and with others. For decades, these characteristics have shaped how beauty brands marketed and sold their products. But today, digital is dramatically expanding the beauty consumer’s connection with brands and products. A strong case could be made that the influence of digital marketing and social media has gone further, faster, in beauty than in any other FMCG industry. The others can therefore benefit from its experience.

The rise of born-digital challengers

The global beauty market—including bath and shower, fragrances, hair care, makeup, and skin care—is a $250 billion global business, according to Euromonitor. Historically, large legacy brands have ruled the industry, both in market share and in prestige. Recently, however, born-digital brands have become the big growth story, particularly in color cosmetics, a category well suited to digital marketing because of its visual nature. From 2008 to 2016, color-cosmetics challenger brands grew by 16 percent a year, four times as fast as legacy companies. They now account for 10 percent of the color-cosmetics market, up from 4 percent in 2008 (Exhibit 1).

Dig a little deeper and other themes emerge. One is that, according to McKinsey analysis, the upstarts are almost all single-brand beauty companies, which account for almost 50 percent of the $2.7 billion in venture-capital (VC) investments the beauty industry has received since 2008 (Exhibit 2) and 80 percent of VC funding in 2017. Another is that 31 percent of the beauty companies that get VC funding emphasize “conscious consumerism”—they use natural or organic ingredients and commit themselves to following certain social or environmental standards. Another 5 percent focus on minority groups. Finally, the growth of born-digital challenger brands is accelerating: more than 70 percent of the $2.7 billion in VC investments were made from 2014 to 2017.

There are five major reasons for the recent success of challenger brands in the beauty industry.

The growth of consumer engagement on social media

The consumer has spoken. According to the WaR Agency, a London-based marketing firm, seven out of ten people surveyed said they want to learn about products through content rather than advertising. To a large degree, consumers seem to be acting on that idea: beauty was the third-most-searched topic on Google in 2016, and the number of views of beauty videos on YouTube rose by 67 percent from 2015 to 2016. YouTube is already the world’s leading beauty platform, with more than 1.5 million beauty videos (accounting for 4.6 billion views) uploaded each month. Color-cosmetics products particularly appeal to the selfie generation because of their visual nature. Online videos (or “vlogs”) not only teach consumers how to apply makeup but also promote the rise of “micro-influencers”—those with 10,000 to 100,000 followers.

Traditional brands account for a relatively small share of YouTube views; born-digital brands are at the top of most social leaderboards. Anastasia, founded in 1997 as an eyebrow specialist (and now with annual net sales of $340 million), has 16.2 million followers on Instagram, more than any other beauty company. On its social-media platforms, Anastasia averages more than 60 posts a week, led by 600 influencers. Its online sales in the United States increased by 150 percent in 2016, faster than those of any other player in the industry, and retail sales rose more than 100 times from 2012 through 2015. And four-year-old, UK-based Charlotte Tilbury has ten times as many YouTube subscribers as the average legacy brand.

The evolving product and shopping preferences of the millennial generation

A devotion to social media isn’t the only way millennials—people born from the early 1980s through the late 1990s—differ from their elders. According to McKinsey research, they are three times more likely than baby boomers to assume that newer brands are better or more innovative and three times more likely to say they typically learn about new products or brands from social media. Traditional FMCG marketing vehicles, such as in-store displays, print advertising, and television commercials, therefore influence millennials less. As beauty consumers, they are quick to try new products, and they change their preferences often. Asked “when was the last time you purchased a new cosmetics brand?,” 48 percent of millennials active in the category replied, “in the last month,” versus 19 percent of boomers. Millennials place a higher priority on what they consider to be authentic and personal. They expect to be able to try anything once—free of charge. They crave newness in beauty; they want the experience to be fun and prefer informal interactions.

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A new marketing formula made possible by digital.

By engaging with consumers—mostly millennials—directly through social media rather than traditional advertising, challenger brands have created a new way of marketing (Exhibit 3). It is more than transactional; rather, it is about creating a relationship. Encouraging the exchange of product experiences via Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube is a powerful way of building a community around a brand and can help to enhance its perceived quality. By encouraging these practices, brands cultivate the sense that consumers are present at the creation. Importantly, this new approach to marketing allows born-digital players to charge relatively high prices.

By contrast, some younger consumers view older brands as lacking an authentic story. That makes it more difficult for brands to connect with them through social media, despite their increased efforts.

The growth of omnichannel and online-only beauty retailers

A major part of the value proposition of omnichannel beauty retailers and online-only beauty sites is access to different brands, including new ones, and the ability to interact with a community larger than a friend or two in front of a mirror. Sephora, Ulta Beauty, and other omnichannel retailers that let consumers sample their products are growing rapidly. So are some online-only beauty retailers. This growth is expected to continue. In the United States, Sephora’s same-store sales are rising by 7 percent a year, and the company plans to open 20 new stores a year through 2020. Ulta Beauty, whose same-store sales are growing by 14 percent annually, has a goal of opening 100 new stores a year through 2019.

These companies encourage people to try products in a fun, unintimidating environment that allows them to experiment across a wide range of different brands, from mass to prestige, eliminating yesterday’s compartmentalization. According to the research firm L2, 60 percent of Sephora.com’s users and 47 percent of Ulta.com’s users shop by product category. That practice encourages exploration—a significant change from the past, when people tended to shop by brand. New technologies, such as augmented-reality apps, allow consumers to upload selfies and then to experiment digitally with different products. The truly daring can upload pictures and ask others to “like” (or not) the result. In addition, subscription services , such as Ipsy ($103.5 million in VC funding in 2015) and Birchbox ($86.9 million in 2016), offer a regular stream of new products, often from smaller brands.

These trends have supported the rise of direct-to-consumer brands, such as ColourPop and Glossier. ColourPop began in 2014 as an online-only cosmetics brand that offered high-value “wallet friendly” products and a fast innovation cycle. This proved to be a winning formula. ColourPop, one of the fastest-growing beauty brands ever, now offers an exclusive collection for Sephora.

Glossier, which evolved from the popular beauty blog Into the Gloss (founded in 2010 by Emily Weiss), has become an influential cosmetics brand beloved by social-media influencers. It offers a relatively small collection of products—albeit sometimes with waiting lists 10,000-people long—so it can’t afford to miss the mark. Glossier turns for ideas to its customers and works with 100 of its top ones to get real-time feedback.

The sophisticated use of contracting

Challenger brands tend to concentrate on marketing and to outsource most other aspects of the business, including product innovation. This strategy of concentrating on the brand’s development keeps fixed costs low and provides for rapid innovation cycles. It also means, however, that new formulations are often the intellectual property of the manufacturers, rather than the brands themselves, and can therefore also be used by competitors.

The majors respond

The major beauty companies still lead the market: annual sales of the biggest are several times those of all the upstarts combined. Of course, the changing dynamics are well known to them. While some were slow to react, others have capitalized on digital opportunities, often with excellent results. The big players have adopted three major strategies.

Acquisitions. In 2016 alone, Bloomberg estimates, traditional companies made 52 acquisitions of beauty-related companies, many of them small ones with digital expertise.

Consider Estée Lauder’s 2017 purchase of a minority stake in Toronto-based skin-care company Deciem. Founded in 2013, it has a cult following among millennials and a reputation for innovation and marketing savvy. Estée Lauder has also bought digitally oriented make-up companies such as BECCA (2016) and Too Faced (2016). L’Oréal has made three major acquisitions of challenger brands in the past five years—Urban Decay (2012), NYX (2014), and IT Cosmetics (2016).

While the fate of some of these acquisitions is still unclear, especially given their high multiples, the purchase of Urban Decay looks like a winner, with sales tripling from 2012 to 2015. So does the purchase of NYX, where sales, driven by international expansion and healthy growth in the United States, quadrupled from 2014 to 2016.

Adaptation. Traditional beauty-industry leaders are investing substantial resources in digital media and influencer marketing, and they are working to foster engaging user-generated online content. They are also far ahead of companies in other FMCG industries in building digital organizational capabilities: since 2010, for instance, L’Oréal has hired 1,600 digital experts and added a digital officer to the C-suite. This investment seems to be paying off: L’Oréal’s Maybelline brand clinched the number-one spot in L2’s 2017 Digital IQ Index for beauty—the first mass brand to do so.

“All of our brands are spending increasing amounts in digital and social,” noted Estée Lauder’s group president, Jane Hertzmark Hudis, in an online interview with the fashion site Glossy. “It’s not about how a brand defines itself today; it’s how an audience defines you in their mind.… Consumers tell our stories now.” When Estée Lauder launched its new Double Wear Foundation, it therefore did so on Facebook. It has also begun using augmented reality to help consumers with their questions. On the whole, traditional beauty companies are making strides in using social-media influencers and digital channels. Artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and digital technologies will continue to be important tools for both old and new beauty brands.

Incubation. One characteristic of beauty’s 21st-century challengers is the speed and verve of their innovation; then they tell those stories to the world through social media. An internal incubator within a larger business can support and participate in the growth of smaller brands. In 2010, the French luxury brand LVMH created Kendo, a beauty incubator with a mandate to build brands (either from scratch or through acquisition) that could then be sold by LVMH’s retailer, Sephora. Kendo and its brands have extensive autonomy, and the managers, many with backgrounds in start-ups, have a distinctively risk-oriented outlook.

LVMH has accepted this higher degree of risk as the price of doing business in the current environment. Kendo has delivered some big hits, such as Marc Jacobs Beauty, an award-winning brand launched in 2013, and Kat Von D, which is expanding internationally. More recently, Fenty Beauty, started by Rihanna in September 2017, has been hitting a popular nerve, particularly for nonwhite women. An incubator allows larger players to innovate more rapidly and to nurture smaller brands rather than wait to make expensive acquisitions.

Next steps for FMCG companies

From 2012 to 2015, the top 25 US food-and-beverage players accounted for 45 percent of sales but for only 3 percent of sales growth, according to Nielsen. Over the same period, most of the top 25 global FMCG players have experienced declining earnings and below-average shareholder returns.

To do better, and to get ahead of the competition from a rising generation of niche and local players, FMCG companies need to understand how their consumers are changing and should then adapt their marketing and channel strategies to suit. Whether the product is lipstick or diapers, it is essential to engage consumers . That means deploying expertise in digital marketing, social media, and the increasingly important influencer ecosystem, while building the advanced-analytics and channel-management capabilities needed to understand consumer behavior.

Global customer and channel management: What the best CPG companies do

The first step for FMCG companies is to examine their portfolios to understand where they are most at risk of disruption. In view of the beauty sector’s experience, the most vulnerable areas have several of the following attributes: significant emotional engagement among consumers, high profit margins, low shipping costs as a percentage of average ticket, low regulatory barriers, and the ability to outsource parts of the value chain. In segments that tick at least three of these boxes—including bathroom fragrances, eyewear, mattresses, and men’s razors—serious born-digital challengers have already appeared.

Second, like the beauty powers, major FCMG players need to embrace a very different retail environment. The clout of mass retail is diminishing as the e-commerce giants continue to grow—by a robust 26 percent a year since 2011—and as discounters and club stores build market share, particularly in the grocery sector. FMCG companies must learn how to use these new channels and to strengthen their operations and procurement practices to offset pressure on prices.

One approach is to create new organizational structures, such as incubators or corporate VC funds, which can help companies to improve innovation outcomes, develop new brands, and compete with challengers. Many major FMCG companies have built command-and-control structures focused on execution. The operating model of the future, however, is likely to be agile. Inspired by the software industry, it will have a dynamic front end that is close to the consumer and supported by a stable backbone of support functions. This new model will be implemented by networks of multifunctional teams that pursue specific goals and then go on to something else. The culture is not so much about hierarchy as about attracting, engaging, and flexibly deploying talent.

To build this model, top FMCG companies can draw on their historically strong business infrastructure, such as back-office functions, cost-management systems, and supply-chain management. But they also need to build excellence in new areas, such as digital marketing, advanced analytics, and e-commerce.

As the influence of digital technologies works its way through category after category, their importance in the beauty industry isn’t expected to diminish. Over the next few years, industry incumbents will probably continue their efforts to get better at managing and scaling small brands; more incubators will emerge; social marketing techniques will evolve; and consumer engagement will continue to rise. Beauty will therefore continue to serve as the bellwether of change within the consumer-goods sector—and will go on showing how companies can adapt to win.

Sara Hudson is an associate partner in McKinsey’s London office , where Jessica Moulton is a partner. Aimee Kim is a senior partner in the Seoul office .

The authors wish to thank Vanessa Goddevrind and Kayla Miele, as well as Jasmine Genge and Anna Tarasova of the Startup and Investment Landscape Analytics team, for their contributions to this article.

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• Caitriona Brennan 2 ,
• Tal Luzzatto-Knaan 1 ,
• Gail Ackermann 2 ,
• Daniel McDonald 2 ,
• Karsten Zengler 2 , 5 , 6 ,
• Rob Knight 2 , 5 , 6 , 7 &
• Pieter C. Dorrestein 1 , 2 , 5 , 8  

BMC Biology volume  17 , Article number:  47 ( 2019 ) Cite this article

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Use of skin personal care products on a regular basis is nearly ubiquitous, but their effects on molecular and microbial diversity of the skin are unknown. We evaluated the impact of four beauty products (a facial lotion, a moisturizer, a foot powder, and a deodorant) on 11 volunteers over 9 weeks.

Mass spectrometry and 16S rRNA inventories of the skin revealed decreases in chemical as well as in bacterial and archaeal diversity on halting deodorant use. Specific compounds from beauty products used before the study remain detectable with half-lives of 0.5–1.9 weeks. The deodorant and foot powder increased molecular, bacterial, and archaeal diversity, while arm and face lotions had little effect on bacterial and archaeal but increased chemical diversity. Personal care product effects last for weeks and produce highly individualized responses, including alterations in steroid and pheromone levels and in bacterial and archaeal ecosystem structure and dynamics.

Conclusions

These findings may lead to next-generation precision beauty products and therapies for skin disorders.

The human skin is the most exposed organ to the external environment and represents the first line of defense against external chemical and microbial threats. It harbors a microbial habitat that is person-specific and varies considerably across the body surface [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]. Recent findings suggested an association between the use of antiperspirants or make-up and skin microbiota composition [ 5 , 6 , 7 ]. However, these studies were performed for a short period (7–10 days) and/or without washing out the volunteers original personal care products, leading to incomplete evaluation of microbial alterations because the process of skin turnover takes 21–28 days [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. It is well-established that without intervention, most adult human microbiomes, skin or other microbiomes, remain stable compared to the differences between individuals [ 3 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ].

Although the skin microbiome is stable for years [ 10 ], little is known about the molecules that reside on the skin surface or how skin care products influence this chemistry [ 17 , 18 ]. Mass spectrometry can be used to detect host molecules, personalized lifestyles including diet, medications, and personal care products [ 18 , 19 ]. However, although the impact of short-term dietary interventions on the gut microbiome has been assessed [ 20 , 21 ], no study has yet tested how susceptible the skin chemistry and Microbiome are to alterations in the subjects’ personal care product routine.

In our recent metabolomic/microbiome 3D cartography study [ 18 ], we observed altered microbial communities where specific skin care products were present. Therefore, we hypothesized that these products might shape specific skin microbial communities by changing their chemical environment. Some beauty product ingredients likely promote or inhibit the growth of specific bacteria: for example, lipid components of moisturizers could provide nutrients and promote the growth of lipophilic bacteria such as Staphylococcus and Propionibacterium [ 18 , 22 , 23 ]. Understanding both temporal variations of the skin microbiome and chemistry is crucial for testing whether alterations in personal habits can influence the human skin ecosystem and, perhaps, host health. To evaluate these variations, we used a multi-omics approach integrating metabolomics and microbiome data from skin samples of 11 healthy human individuals. Here, we show that many compounds from beauty products persist on the skin for weeks following their use, suggesting a long-term contribution to the chemical environment where skin microbes live. Metabolomics analysis reveals temporal trends correlated to discontinuing and resuming the use of beauty products and characteristic of variations in molecular composition of the skin. Although highly personalized, as seen with the microbiome, the chemistry, including hormones and pheromones such as androstenone and androsterone, were dramatically altered. Similarly, by experimentally manipulating the personal care regime of participants, bacterial and molecular diversity and structure are altered, particularly for the armpits and feet. Interestingly, a high person-to-person molecular and bacterial variability is maintained over time even though personal care regimes were modified in exactly the same way for all participants.

Skin care and hygiene products persist on the skin

Systematic strategies to influence both the skin chemistry and microbiome have not yet been investigated. The outermost layer of the skin turns over every 3 to 4 weeks [ 8 , 9 ]. How the microbiome and chemistry are influenced by altering personal care and how long the chemicals of personal care products persist on the skin are essentially uncharacterized. In this study, we collected samples from skin of 12 healthy individuals—six males and six females—over 9 weeks. One female volunteer had withdrawn due to skin irritations that developed, and therefore, we describe the remaining 11 volunteers. Samples were collected from each arm, armpit, foot, and face, including both the right and left sides of the body (Fig.  1 a). All participants were asked to adhere to the same daily personal care routine during the first 6 weeks of this study (Fig.  1 b). The volunteers were asked to refrain from using any personal care product for weeks 1–3 except a mild body wash (Fig.  1 b). During weeks 4–6, in addition to the body wash, participants were asked to apply selected commercial skin care products at specific body parts: a moisturizer on the arm, a sunscreen on the face, an antiperspirant on the armpits, and a soothing powder on the foot (Fig.  1 b). To monitor adherence of participants to the study protocol, molecular features found in the antiperspirant, facial lotion, moisturizer, and foot powder were directly tracked with mass spectrometry from the skin samples. For all participants, the mass spectrometry data revealed the accumulation of specific beauty product ingredients during weeks 4–6 (Additional file  1 : Figure S1A-I, Fig.  2 a orange arrows). Examples of compounds that were highly abundant during T4–T6 in skin samples are avobenzone (Additional file  1 : Figure S1A), dexpanthenol (Additional file  1 : Figure S1B), and benzalkonium chloride (Additional file  1 : Figure S1C) from the facial sunscreen; trehalose 6-phosphate (Additional file  1 : Figure S1D) and glycerol stearate (Additional file  1 : Figure S1E) from the moisturizer applied on arms; indolin (Additional file  1 : Figure S1F) and an unannotated compound ( m/z 233.9, rt 183.29 s) (Additional file  1 : Figure S1G) from the foot powder; and decapropylene glycol (Additional file  1 : Figure S1H) and nonapropylene glycol (Additional file  1 : Figure S1I) from the antiperspirant. These results suggest that there is likely a compliance of all individuals to study requirements and even if all participants confirmed using each product every day, the amount of product applied by each individual may vary. Finally, for weeks 7–9, the participants were asked to return to their normal routine by using the same personal care products they used prior to the study. In total, excluding all blanks and personal care products themselves, we analyzed 2192 skin samples for both metabolomics and microbiome analyses.

Study design and representation of changes in personal care regime over the course of 9 weeks. a Six males and six females were recruited and sampled using swabs on two locations from each body part (face, armpits, front forearms, and between toes) on the right and left side. The locations sampled were the face—upper cheek bone and lower jaw, armpit—upper and lower area, arm—front of elbow (antecubitis) and forearm (antebrachium), and feet—in between the first and second toe and third and fourth toe. Volunteers were asked to follow specific instructions for the use of skin care products. b Following the use of their personal skin care products (brown circles), all volunteers used only the same head to toe shampoo during the first 3 weeks (week 1–week 3) and no other beauty product was applied (solid blue circle). The following 3 weeks (week 4–week 6), four selected commercial beauty products were applied daily by all volunteers on the specific body part (deodorant antiperspirant for the armpits, soothing foot powder for the feet between toes, sunscreen for the face, and moisturizer for the front forearm) (triangles) and continued to use the same shampoo. During the last 3 weeks (week 7–week 9), all volunteers went back to their normal routine and used their personal beauty products (circles). Samples were collected once a week (from day 0 to day 68—10 timepoints from T0 to T9) for volunteers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, and 12, and on day 0 and day 6 for volunteer 8, who withdraw from the study after day 6. For 3 individuals (volunteers 4, 9, 10), samples were collected twice a week (19 timepoints total). Samples collected for 11 volunteers during 10 timepoints: 11 volunteers × 10 timepoints × 4 samples × 4 body sites = 1760. Samples collected from 3 selected volunteers during 9 additional timepoints: 3 volunteers × 9 timepoints × 4 samples × 4 body sites = 432. See also the “ Subject recruitment and sample collection ” section in the “ Methods ” section

Monitoring the persistence of personal care product ingredients in the armpits over a 9-week period. a Heatmap representation of the most abundant molecular features detected in the armpits of all individuals during the four phases (0: initial, 1–3: no beauty products, 4–6: common products, and 7–9: personal products). Green color in the heatmap represents the highest molecular abundance and blue color the lowest one. Orange boxes with plain lines represent enlargement of cluster of molecules that persist on the armpits of volunteer 1 ( b ) and volunteer 3 ( c , d ). Orange clusters with dotted lines represent same clusters of molecules found on the armpits of other volunteers. Orange arrows represent the cluster of compounds characteristic of the antiperspirant used during T4–T6. b Polyethylene glycol (PEG) molecular clusters that persist on the armpits of individual 1. The molecular subnetwork, representing molecular families [ 24 ], is part of a molecular network ( http://gnps.ucsd.edu/ProteoSAFe/status.jsp?task=f5325c3b278a46b29e8860ec5791d5ad ) generated from MS/MS data collected from the armpits of volunteer 1 (T0–T3) MSV000081582 and MS/MS data collected from the deodorant used by volunteer 1 before the study started (T0) MSV000081580. c , d Polypropylene glycol (PPG) molecular families that persist on the armpits of individual 3, along with the corresponding molecular subnetwork that is part of the molecular network accessible here http://gnps.ucsd.edu/ProteoSAFe/status.jsp?task=aaa1af68099d4c1a87e9a09f398fe253 . Subnetworks were generated from MS/MS data collected from the armpits of volunteer 3 (T0–T3) MSV000081582 and MS/MS data collected from the deodorant used by volunteer 3 at T0 MSV000081580. The network nodes were annotated with colors. Nodes represent MS/MS spectra found in armpit samples of individual 1 collected during T0, T1, T2, and T3 and in personal deodorant used by individual 1 (orange nodes); armpit samples of individual 1 collected during T0, T2, and T3 and personal deodorant used by individual 1 (green nodes); armpit samples of individual 3 collected during T0, T1, T2, and T3 and in personal deodorant used by individual 3 (red nodes); armpit samples of individual 3 collected during T0 and in personal deodorant used by individual 3 (blue nodes); and armpit samples of individual 3 collected during T0 and T2 and in personal deodorant used by individual 3 (purple nodes). Gray nodes represent everything else. Error bars represent standard error of the mean calculated at each timepoint from four armpit samples collected from the right and left side of each individual separately. See also Additional file  1 : Figure S1

To understand how long beauty products persist on the skin, we monitored compounds found in deodorants used by two volunteers—female 1 and female 3—before the study (T0), over the first 3 weeks (T1–T3) (Fig.  1 b). During this phase, all participants used exclusively the same body wash during showering, making it easier to track ingredients of their personal care products. The data in the first 3 weeks (T1–T3) revealed that many ingredients of deodorants used on armpits (Fig.  2 a) persist on the skin during this time and were still detected during the first 3 weeks or at least during the first week following the last day of use. Each of the compounds detected in the armpits of individuals exhibited its own unique half-life. For example, the polyethylene glycol (PEG)-derived compounds m/z 344.227, rt 143 s (Fig.  2 b, S1J); m/z 432.279, rt 158 s (Fig.  2 b, S1K); and m/z 388.253, rt 151 s (Fig.  2 b, S1L) detected on armpits of volunteer 1 have a calculated half-life of 0.5 weeks (Additional file  1 : Figure S1J-L, all p values < 1.81e−07), while polypropylene glycol (PPG)-derived molecules m/z 481.87, rt 501 s (Fig.  2 c, S1M); m/z 560.420, rt 538 s (Fig.  2 c, S1N); m/z 788.608, rt 459 s (Fig.  2 d, S1O); m/z 846.650, rt 473 s (Fig.  2 d, S1P); and m/z 444.338, rt 486 s (Fig.  2 d, S1Q) found on armpits of volunteers 3 and 1 (Fig.  2 a) have a calculated half-life ranging from 0.7 to 1.9 weeks (Additional file  1 : Figure S1M-Q, all p values < 0.02), even though they originate from the same deodorant used by each individual. For some ingredients of deodorant used by volunteer 3 on time 0 (Additional file  1 : Figure S1M, N), a decline was observed during the first week, then little to no traces of these ingredients were detected during weeks 4–6 (T4–T6), then finally these ingredients reappear again during the last 3 weeks of personal product use (T7–T9). This suggests that these ingredients are present exclusively in the personal deodorant used by volunteer 3 before the study. Because a similar deodorant (Additional file  1 : Figure S1O-Q) and a face lotion (Additional file  1 : Figure S1R) was used by volunteer 3 and volunteer 2, respectively, prior to the study, there was no decline or absence of their ingredients during weeks 4–6 (T4–T6).

Polyethylene glycol compounds (Additional file  1 : Figure S1J-L) wash out faster from the skin than polypropylene glycol (Additional file  1 : Figure S1M-Q)(HL ~ 0.5 weeks vs ~ 1.9 weeks) and faster than fatty acids used in lotions (HL ~ 1.2 weeks) (Additional file  1 : Figure S1R), consistent with their hydrophilic (PEG) and hydrophobic properties (PPG and fatty acids) [ 25 , 26 ]. This difference in hydrophobicity is also reflected in the retention time as detected by mass spectrometry. Following the linear decrease of two PPG compounds from T0 to T1, they accumulated noticeably during weeks 2 and 3 (Additional file  1 : Figure S1M, N). This accumulation might be due to other sources of PPG such as the body wash used during this period or the clothes worn by person 3. Although PPG compounds were not listed in the ingredient list of the shampoo, we manually inspected the LC-MS data collected from this product and confirmed the absence of PPG compounds in the shampoo. The data suggest that this trend is characteristic of accumulation of PPG from additional sources. These could be clothes, beds, or sheets, in agreement with the observation of these molecules found in human habitats [ 27 ] but also in the public GNPS mass spectrometry dataset MSV000079274 that investigated the chemicals from dust collected from 1053 mattresses of children.

Temporal molecular and bacterial diversity in response to personal care use

To assess the effect of discontinuing and resuming the use of skin care products on molecular and microbiota dynamics, we first evaluated their temporal diversity. Skin sites varied markedly in their initial level (T0) of molecular and bacterial diversity, with higher molecular diversity at all sites for female participants compared to males (Fig.  3 a, b, Wilcoxon rank-sum-WR test, p values ranging from 0.01 to 0.0001, from foot to arm) and higher bacterial diversity in face (WR test, p  = 0.0009) and armpits (WR test, p  = 0.002) for females (Fig.  3 c, d). Temporal diversity was similar across the right and left sides of each body site of all individuals (WR test, molecular diversity: all p values > 0.05; bacterial diversity: all p values > 0.20). The data show that refraining from using beauty products (T1–T3) leads to a significant decrease in molecular diversity at all sites (Fig.  3 a, b, WR test, face: p  = 8.29e−07, arm: p  = 7.08e−09, armpit: p  = 1.13e−05, foot: p  = 0.002) and bacterial diversity mainly in armpits (WR test, p  = 0.03) and feet (WR test, p  = 0.04) (Fig.  3 c, d). While molecular diversity declined (Fig.  3 a, b) for arms and face, bacterial diversity (Fig.  3 c, d) was less affected in the face and arms when participants did not use skin care products (T1–T3). The molecular diversity remained stable in the arms and face of female participants during common beauty products use (T4–T6) to immediately increase as soon as the volunteers went back to their normal routines (T7–T9) (WR test, p  = 0.006 for the arms and face)(Fig.  3 a, b). A higher molecular (Additional file  1 : Figure S2A) and community (Additional file  1 : Figure S2B) diversity was observed for armpits and feet of all individuals during the use of antiperspirant and foot powder (T4–T6) (WR test, molecular diversity: armpit p  = 8.9e−33, foot p  = 1.03e−11; bacterial diversity: armpit p  = 2.14e−28, foot p  = 1.26e−11), followed by a molecular and bacterial diversity decrease in the armpits when their regular personal beauty product use was resumed (T7–T9) (bacterial diversity: WR test, p  = 4.780e−21, molecular diversity: WR test, p  = 2.159e−21). Overall, our data show that refraining from using beauty products leads to lower molecular and bacterial diversity, while resuming the use increases their diversity. Distinct variations between male and female molecular and community richness were perceived at distinct body parts (Fig.  3 a–d). Although the chemical diversity of personal beauty products does not explain these variations (Additional file  1 : Figure S2C), differences observed between males and females may be attributed to many environmental and lifestyle factors including different original skin care and different frequency of use of beauty products (Additional file  2 : Table S1), washing routines, and diet.

Molecular and bacterial diversity over a 9-week period, comparing samples based on their molecular (UPLC-Q-TOF-MS) or bacterial (16S rRNA amplicon) profiles. Molecular and bacterial diversity using the Shannon index was calculated from samples collected from each body part at each timepoint, separately for female ( n  = 5) and male ( n  = 6) individuals. Error bars represent standard error of the mean calculated at each timepoint, from up to four samples collected from the right and left side of each body part, of females ( n  = 5) and males ( n  = 6) separately. a , b Molecular alpha diversity measured using the Shannon index from five females (left panel) and six males (right panel), over 9 weeks, from four distinct body parts (armpits, face, arms, feet). c , d Bacterial alpha diversity measured using the Shannon index, from skin samples collected from five female (left panel) and six male individuals (right panel), over 9 weeks, from four distinct body parts (armpits, face, arms, feet). See also Additional file  1 : Figure S2

Longitudinal variation of skin metabolomics signatures

To gain insights into temporal metabolomics variation associated with beauty product use, chemical inventories collected over 9 weeks were subjected to multivariate analysis using the widely used Bray–Curtis dissimilarity metric (Fig.  4 a–c, S3A). Throughout the 9-week period, distinct molecular signatures were associated to each specific body site: arm, armpit, face, and foot (Additional file  1 : Figure S3A, Adonis test, p  < 0.001, R 2 0.12391). Mass spectrometric signatures displayed distinct individual trends at each specific body site (arm, armpit, face, and foot) over time, supported by their distinct locations in PCoA (principal coordinate analysis) space (Fig.  4 a, b) and based on the Bray–Curtis distances between molecular profiles (Additional file  1 : Figure S3B, WR test, all p values < 0.0001 from T0 through T9). This suggests a high molecular inter-individual variability over time despite similar changes in personal care routines. Significant differences in molecular patterns associated to ceasing (T1–T3) (Fig.  4 b, Additional file 1 : Figure S3C, WR test, T0 vs T1–T3 p  < 0.001) and resuming the use of common beauty products (T4–T6) (Additional file  1 : Figure S3C) were observed in the arm, face, and foot (Fig.  4 b), although the armpit exhibited the most pronounced changes (Fig.  4 b, Additional file 1 : Figure S3D, E, random forest highlighting that 100% of samples from each phase were correctly predicted). Therefore, we focused our analysis on this region. Molecular changes were noticeable starting the first week (T1) of discontinuing beauty product use. As shown for armpits in Fig.  4 c, these changes at the chemical level are specific to each individual, possibly due to the extremely personalized lifestyles before the study and match their original use of deodorant. Based on the initial use of underarm products (T0) (Additional file  2 : Table S1), two groups of participants can be distinguished: a group of five volunteers who used stick deodorant as evidenced by the mass spectrometry data and another group of volunteers where we found few or no traces suggesting they never or infrequently used stick deodorants (Additional file  2 : Table S1). Based on this criterion, the chemical trends shown in Fig.  4 c highlight that individuals who used stick deodorant before the beginning of the study (volunteers 1, 2, 3, 9, and 12) displayed a more pronounced shift in their armpits’ chemistries as soon as they stopped using deodorant (T1–T3), compared to individuals who had low detectable levels of stick deodorant use (volunteers 4, 6, 7, and 10), or “rarely-to-never” (volunteers 5 and 11) use stick deodorants as confirmed by the volunteers (Additional file  1 : Figure S3F, WR test, T0 vs T1–T3 all p values < 0.0001, with greater distance for the group of volunteers 1, 2, 3, 9, and 12, compared to volunteers 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, and 11). The most drastic shift in chemical profiles was observed during the transition period, when all participants applied the common antiperspirant on a daily basis (T4–T6) (Additional file  1 : Figure S3D, E). Finally, the molecular profiles became gradually more similar to those collected before the experiment (T0) as soon as the participants resumed using their personal beauty products (T7–T9) (Additional file  1 : Figure S3C), although traces of skin care products did last through the entire T7–T9 period in people who do not routinely apply these products (Fig.  4 c).

Individualized influence of beauty product application on skin metabolomics profiles over time. a Multivariate statistical analysis (principal coordinate analysis (PCoA)) comparing mass spectrometry data collected over 9 weeks from the skin of 11 individuals, all body parts, combined (first plot from the left) and then displayed separately (arm, armpits, face, feet). Color scale represents volunteer ID. The PCoA was calculated on all samples together, and subsets of the data are shown in this shared space and the other panels. b The molecular profiles collected over 9 weeks from all body parts, combined then separately (arm, armpits, face, feet). c Representative molecular profiles collected over 9 weeks from armpits of 11 individuals (volunteers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12). Color gradient in b and c represents timepoints (time 0 to time 9), ranging from the lightest orange color to the darkest one that represent the earliest (time 0) to the latest (time 9) timepoint, respectively. 0.5 timepoints represent additional timepoints where three selected volunteers were samples (volunteers 4, 9, and 10). PCoA plots were generated using the Bray–Curtis dissimilarity matrix and visualized in Emperor [ 28 ]. See also Additional file  1 : Figure S3

Comparing chemistries detected in armpits at the end timepoints—when no products were used (T3) and during product use (T6)—revealed distinct molecular signatures characteristic of each phase (random forest highlighting that 100% of samples from each group were correctly predicted, see Additional file  1 : Figure S3D, E). Because volunteers used the same antiperspirant during T4–T6, molecular profiles converged during that time despite individual patterns at T3 (Fig.  4 b, c, Additional file  1 : Figure S3D). These distinct chemical patterns reflect the significant impact of beauty products on skin molecular composition. Although these differences may in part be driven by beauty product ingredients detected on the skin (Additional file  1 : Figure S1), we anticipated that additional host- and microbe-derived molecules may also be involved in these molecular changes.

To characterize the chemistries that vary over time, we used molecular networking, a MS visualization approach that evaluates the relationship between MS/MS spectra and compares them to reference MS/MS spectral libraries of known compounds [ 29 , 30 ]. We recently showed that molecular networking can successfully organize large-scale mass spectrometry data collected from the human skin surface [ 18 , 19 ]. Briefly, molecular networking uses the MScluster algorithm [ 31 ] to merge all identical spectra and then compares and aligns all unique pairs of MS/MS spectra based on their similarities where 1.0 indicates a perfect match. Similarities between MS/MS spectra are calculated using a similarity score, and are interpreted as molecular families [ 19 , 24 , 32 , 33 , 34 ]. Here, we used this method to compare and characterize chemistries found in armpits, arms, face, and foot of 11 participants. Based on MS/MS spectral similarities, chemistries highlighted through molecular networking (Additional file  1 : Figure S4A) were associated with each body region with 8% of spectra found exclusively in the arms, 12% in the face, 14% in the armpits, and 2% in the foot, while 18% of the nodes were shared between all four body parts and the rest of spectra were shared between two body sites or more (Additional file  1 : Figure S4B). Greater spectral similarities were highlighted between armpits, face, and arm (12%) followed by the arm and face (9%) (Additional file  1 : Figure S4B).

Molecules were annotated with Global Natural Products Social Molecular Networking (GNPS) libraries [ 29 ], using accurate parent mass and MS/MS fragmentation patterns, according to level 2 or 3 of annotation defined by the 2007 metabolomics standards initiative [ 35 ]. Through annotations, molecular networking revealed that many compounds derived from steroids (Fig.  5 a–d), bile acids (Additional file  1 : Figure S5A-D), and acylcarnitines (Additional file  1 : Figure S5E-F) were exclusively detected in the armpits. Using authentic standards, the identity of some pheromones and bile acids were validated to a level 1 identification with matched retention times (Additional file  1 : Figure S6B, S7A, C, D). Other steroids and bile acids were either annotated using standards with identical MS/MS spectra but slightly different retention times (Additional file  1 : Figure S6A) or annotated with MS/MS spectra match with reference MS/MS library spectra (Additional file  1 : Figure S6C, D, S7B, S6E-G). These compounds were therefore classified as level 3 [ 35 ]. Acylcarnitines were annotated to a family of possible acylcarnitines (we therefore classify as level 3), as the positions of double bonds or cis vs trans configurations are unknown (Additional file  1 : Figure S8A, B).

Underarm steroids and their longitudinal abundance. a – d Steroid molecular families in the armpits and their relative abundance over a 9-week period. Molecular networking was applied to characterize chemistries from the skin of 11 healthy individuals. The full network is shown in Additional file  1 : Figure S4A, and networking parameters can be found here http://gnps.ucsd.edu/ProteoSAFe/status.jsp?task=284fc383e4c44c4db48912f01905f9c5 for MS/MS datasets MSV000081582. Each node represents a consensus of a minimum of 3 identical MS/MS spectra. Yellow nodes represent MS/MS spectra detected in armpits samples. Hexagonal shape represents MS/MS spectra match between skin samples and chemical standards. Plots are representative of the relative abundance of each compound over time, calculated separately from LC-MS1 data collected from the armpits of each individual. Steroids detected in armpits are a , dehydroisoandrosterone sulfate ( m/z 369.190, rt 247 s), b androsterone sulfate ( m/z 371.189, rt 261 s), c 1-dehydroandrostenedione ( m/z 285.185, rt 273 s), and d dehydroandrosterone ( m/z 289.216, rt 303 s). Relative abundance over time of each steroid compound is represented. Error bars represent the standard error of the mean calculated at each timepoint from four armpit samples from the right and left side of each individual separately. See also Additional file  1 : Figures S4-S8

Among the steroid compounds, several molecular families were characterized: androsterone (Fig.  5 a, b, d), androstadienedione (Fig.  5 c), androstanedione (Additional file  1 : Figure S6E), androstanolone (Additional file  1 : Figure S6F), and androstenedione (Additional file  1 : Figure S6G). While some steroids were detected in the armpits of several individuals, such as dehydroisoandrosterone sulfate ( m/z 369.19, rt 247 s) (9 individuals) (Fig.  5 a, Additional file  1 : Figure S6A), androsterone sulfate ( m/z 371.189, rt 261 s) (9 individuals) (Fig.  5 b, Additional file  1 : Figure S6C), and 5-alpha-androstane-3,17-dione ( m/z 271.205, rt 249 s) (9 individuals) (Additional file  1 : Figure S6E), other steroids including 1-dehydroandrostenedione ( m/z 285.185, rt 273 s) (Fig.  5 c, Additional file  1 : Figure S6B), dehydroandrosterone ( m/z 289.216, rt 303 s) (Fig.  5 d, Additional file 1 : Figure S6D), and 5-alpha-androstan-17.beta-ol-3-one ( m/z 291.231, rt 318 s) (Additional file  1 : Figure S6F) were only found in the armpits of volunteer 11 and 4-androstene-3,17-dione ( m/z 287.200, rt 293 s) in the armpits of volunteer 11 and volunteer 5, both are male that never applied stick deodorants (Additional file  1 : Figure S6G). Each molecular species exhibited a unique pattern over the 9-week period. The abundance of dehydroisoandrosterone sulfate (Fig.  5 a, WR test, p  < 0.01 for 7 individuals) and dehydroandrosterone (Fig.  5 a, WR test, p  = 0.00025) significantly increased during the use of antiperspirant (T4–T6), while androsterone sulfate (Fig.  5 b) and 5-alpha-androstane-3,17-dione (Additional file  1 : Figure S6E) display little variation over time. Unlike dehydroisoandrosterone sulfate (Fig.  5 a) and dehydroandrosterone (Fig.  5 d), steroids including 1-dehydroandrostenedione (Fig.  5 c, WR test, p  = 0.00024) and 4-androstene-3,17-dione (Additional file  1 : Figure S6G, WR test, p  = 0.00012) decreased in abundance during the 3 weeks of antiperspirant application (T4–T6) in armpits of male 11, and their abundance increased again when resuming the use of his normal skin care routines (T7–T9). Interestingly, even within the same individual 11, steroids were differently impacted by antiperspirant use as seen for 1-dehydroandrostenedione that decreased in abundance during T4–T6 (Fig.  5 c, WR test, p  = 0.00024), while dehydroandrosterone increased in abundance (Fig.  5 d, WR test, p  = 0.00025), and this increase was maintained during the last 3 weeks of the study (T7–T9).

In addition to steroids, many bile acids (Additional file  1 : Figure S5A-D) and acylcarnitines (Additional file  1 : Figure S5E-F) were detected on the skin of several individuals through the 9-week period. Unlike taurocholic acid found only on the face (Additional file  1 : Figures S5A, S7A) and tauroursodeoxycholic acid detected in both armpits and arm samples (Additional file  1 : Figures S5B, S7B), other primary bile acids such as glycocholic (Additional file  1 : Figures S5C, S7C) and chenodeoxyglycocholic acid (Additional file  1 : Figures S5D, S7D) were exclusively detected in the armpits. Similarly, acylcarnitines were also found either exclusively in the armpits (hexadecanoyl carnitines) (Additional file  1 : Figures S5E, S8A) or in the armpits and face (tetradecenoyl carnitine) (Additional file  1 : Figures S5F, S8B) and, just like the bile acids, they were also stably detected during the whole 9-week period.

Bacterial communities and their variation over time

Having demonstrated the impact of beauty products on the chemical makeup of the skin, we next tested the extent to which skin microbes are affected by personal care products. We assessed temporal variation of bacterial communities detected on the skin of healthy individuals by evaluating dissimilarities of bacterial collections over time using unweighted UniFrac distance [ 36 ] and community variation at each body site in association to beauty product use [ 3 , 15 , 37 ]. Unweighted metrics are used for beta diversity calculations because we are primarily concerned with changes in community membership rather than relative abundance. The reason for this is that skin microbiomes can fluctuate dramatically in relative abundance on shorter timescales than that assessed here. Longitudinal variations were revealed for the armpits (Fig.  6 a) and feet microbiome by their overall trend in the PCoA plots (Fig.  6 b), while the arm (Fig.  6 c) and face (Fig.  6 d) displayed relatively stable bacterial profiles over time. As shown in Fig.  6 a–d, although the microbiome was site-specific, it varied more between individuals and this inter-individual variability was maintained over time despite same changes in personal care routine (WR test, all p values at all timepoints < 0.05, T5 p  = 0.07), in agreement with previous findings that individual differences in the microbiome are large and stable over time [ 3 , 4 , 10 , 37 ]. However, we show that shifts in the microbiome can be induced by changing hygiene routine and therefore skin chemistry. Changes associated with using beauty products (T4–T6) were more pronounced for the armpits (Fig.  6 a, WR test, p  = 1.61e−52) and feet (Fig.  6 b, WR test, p  = 6.15e−09), while little variations were observed for the face (Fig.  6 d, WR test, p  = 1.402.e−83) and none for the arms (Fig.  6 c, WR test, p  = 0.296).

Longitudinal variation of skin bacterial communities in association with beauty product use. a - d Bacterial profiles collected from skin samples of 11 individuals, over 9 weeks, from four distinct body parts a) armpits, b) feet, c) arms and d) face, using multivariate statistical analysis (Principal Coordinates Analysis PCoA) and unweighted Unifrac metric. Each color represents bacterial samples collected from an individual. PCoA were calculated separately for each body part. e , f Representative Gram-negative (Gram -) bacteria collected from arms, armpits, face and feet of e) female and f) male participants. See also Additional file  1 : Figure S9A, B showing Gram-negative bacterial communities represented at the genus level

A significant increase in abundance of Gram-negative bacteria including the phyla Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes was noticeable for the armpits and feet of both females (Fig.  6 e; Mann–Whitney U , p  = 8.458e−07) and males (Fig.  6 f; Mann–Whitney U , p  = 0.0004) during the use of antiperspirant (T4–T6), while their abundance remained stable for the arms and face during that time (Fig.  6 e, f; female arm p  = 0.231; female face p value = 0.475; male arm p = 0.523;male face p  = 6.848751e−07). These Gram-negative bacteria include Acinetobacter and Paracoccus genera that increased in abundance in both armpits and feet of females (Additional file  1 : Figure S9A), while a decrease in abundance of Enhydrobacter was observed in the armpits of males (Additional file  1 : Figure S9B). Cyanobacteria, potentially originating from plant material (Additional file  1 : Figure S9C) also increased during beauty product use (T4–T6) especially in males, in the armpits and face of females (Fig.  6 e) and males (Fig.  6 f). Interestingly, although chloroplast sequences (which group phylogenetically within the cyanobacteria [ 38 ]) were only found in the facial cream (Additional file  1 : Figure S9D), they were detected in other locations as well (Fig.  6 e, f. S9E, F), highlighting that the application of a product in one region will likely affect other regions of the body. For example, when showering, a face lotion will drip down along the body and may be detected on the feet. Indeed, not only did the plant material from the cream reveal this but also the shampoo used for the study for which molecular signatures were readily detected on the feet as well (Additional file  1 : Figure S10A). Minimal average changes were observed for Gram-positive organisms (Additional file  1 : Figure S10B, C), although in some individuals the variation was greater than others (Additional file  1 : Figure S10D, E) as discussed for specific Gram-positive taxa below.

At T0, the armpit’s microflora was dominated by Staphylococcus (26.24%, 25.11% of sequencing reads for females and 27.36% for males) and Corynebacterium genera (26.06%, 17.89% for females and 34.22% for males) (Fig.  7 a—first plot from left and Additional file  1 : Figure S10D, E). They are generally known as the dominant armpit microbiota and make up to 80% of the armpit microbiome [ 39 , 40 ]. When no deodorants were used (T1–T3), an overall increase in relative abundance of Staphylococcus (37.71%, 46.78% for females and 30.47% for males) and Corynebacterium (31.88%, 16.50% for females and 44.15% for males) genera was noticeable (WR test, p  < 3.071e−05) (Fig.  7 a—first plot from left), while the genera Anaerococcus and Peptoniphilus decreased in relative abundance (WR test, p  < 0.03644) (Fig.  7 a—first plot from left and Additional file  1 : Figure S10D, E). When volunteers started using antiperspirants (T4–T6), the relative abundance of Staphylococcus (37.71%, 46.78% females and 30.47% males, to 21.71%, 25.02% females and 19.25% males) and Corynebacterium (31.88%, 16.50% females and 44.15% males, to 15.83%, 10.76% females and 19.60% males) decreased (WR test, p  < 3.071e−05) (Fig.  7 a, Additional file  1 : Figure S10D, E) and at the same time, the overall alpha diversity increased significantly (WR test, p  = 3.47e−11) (Fig.  3 c, d). The microbiota Anaerococcus (WR test, p  = 0.0006018) , Peptoniphilus (WR test, p  = 0.008639), and Micrococcus (WR test, p  = 0.0377) increased significantly in relative abundance, together with a lot of additional low-abundant species that lead to an increase in Shannon alpha diversity (Fig.  3 c, d). When participants went back to normal personal care products (T7–T9), the underarm microbiome resembled the original underarm community of T0 (WR test, p  = 0.7274) (Fig.  7 a). Because armpit bacterial communities are person-specific (inter-individual variability: WR test, all p values at all timepoints < 0.05, besides T5 p n.s), variation in bacterial abundance upon antiperspirant use (T4–T6) differ between individuals and during the whole 9-week period (Fig.  7a —taxonomic plots per individual). For example, the underarm microbiome of male 5 exhibited a unique pattern, where Corynebacterium abundance decreased drastically during the use of antiperspirant (82.74 to 11.71%, WR test, p  = 3.518e−05) while in the armpits of female 9 a huge decrease in Staphylococcus abundance was observed (Fig.  7 a) (65.19 to 14.85%, WR test, p  = 0.000113). Unlike other participants, during T0–T3, the armpits of individual 11 were uniquely characterized by the dominance of a sequence that matched most closely to the Enhydrobacter genera . The transition to antiperspirant use (T4–T6) induces the absence of Enhydrobacter (30.77 to 0.48%, WR test, p  = 0.01528) along with an increase of Corynebacterium abundance (26.87 to 49.74%, WR test, p  = 0.1123) (Fig.  7 a—male 11).

Person-to-person bacterial variabilities over time in the armpits and feet. a Armpit microbiome changes when stopping personal care product use, then resuming. Armpit bacterial composition of the 11 volunteers combined, then separately, (female 1, female 2, female 3, male 4, male 5, male 6, male 7, female 9, male 10, male 11, female 12) according to the four periods within the experiment. b Feet bacterial variation over time of the 12 volunteers combined, then separately (female 1, female 2, female 3, male 4, male 5, male 6, male 7, female 9, male 10, male 11, female 12) according to the four periods within the experiment. See also Additional file  1 : Figure S9-S13

In addition to the armpits, a decline in abundance of Staphylococcus and Corynebacterium was perceived during the use of the foot powder (46.93% and 17.36%, respectively) compared to when no beauty product was used (58.35% and 22.99%, respectively) (WR test, p  = 9.653e−06 and p  = 0.02032, respectively), while the abundance of low-abundant foot bacteria significantly increased such as Micrococcus (WR test, p  = 1.552e−08), Anaerococcus (WR test, p  = 3.522e−13), Streptococcus (WR test, p  = 1.463e−06), Brevibacterium (WR test, p  = 6.561e−05), Moraxellaceae (WR test, p  = 0.0006719), and Acinetobacter (WR test, p  = 0.001487), leading to a greater bacterial diversity compared to other phases of the study (Fig.  7 b first plot from left, Additional file  1 : Figure S10D, E, Fig.  3 c, d).

We further evaluated the relationship between the two omics datasets by superimposing the principal coordinates calculated from metabolome and microbiome data (Procrustes analysis) (Additional file  1 : Figure S11) [ 34 , 41 , 42 ]. Metabolomics data were more correlated with patterns observed in microbiome data in individual 3 (Additional file  1 : Figure S11C, Mantel test, r  = 0.23, p  < 0.001), individual 5 (Additional file  1 : Figure S11E, r  = 0.42, p  < 0.001), individual 9 (Additional file  1 : Figure S11H, r  = 0.24, p  < 0.001), individual 10 (Additional file  1 : Figure S11I, r  = 0.38, p  < 0.001), and individual 11 (Additional file  1 : Figure S11J, r  = 0.35, p  < 0.001) when compared to other individuals 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, and 12 (Additional file  1 : Figure S11A, B, D, F, G, K, respectively) (Mantel test, all r  < 0.2, all p values < 0.002, for volunteer 2 p n.s). Furthermore, these correlations were individually affected by ceasing (T1–T3) or resuming the use of beauty products (T4–T6 and T7–T9) (Additional file  1 : Figure S11A-K).

Overall, metabolomics–microbiome correlations were consistent over time for the arms, face, and feet although alterations were observed in the arms of volunteers 7 (Additional file  1 : Figure S11G) and 10 (Additional file  1 : Figure S11I) and the face of volunteer 7 (Additional file  1 : Figure S11G) during product use (T4–T6). Molecular–bacterial correlations were mostly affected in the armpits during antiperspirant use (T4–T6), as seen for volunteers male 7 (Additional file  1 : Figure S11G) and 11 (Additional file  1 : Figure S11J) and females 2 (Additional file  1 : Figure S11B), 9 (Additional file  1 : Figure S11H), and 12 (Additional file  1 : Figure S11K). This perturbation either persisted during the last 3 weeks (Additional file  1 : Figure S11D, E, H, I, K) when individuals went back to their normal routine (T7–T9) or resembled the initial molecular–microbial correlation observed in T0 (Additional file  1 : Figure S11C, G, J). These alterations in molecular–bacterial correlation are driven by metabolomics changes during antiperspirant use as revealed by metabolomics shifts on the PCoA space (Additional file  1 : Figure S11), partially due to the deodorant’s chemicals (Additional file  1 : Figure S1J, K) but also to changes observed in steroid levels in the armpits (Fig.  5A, C, D , Additional file 1 : Figure S6G), suggesting metabolome-dependant changes of the skin microbiome. In agreement with previous findings that showed efficient biotransformation of steroids by Corynebacterium [ 43 , 44 ], our correlation analysis associates specific steroids that were affected by antiperspirant use in the armpits of volunteer 11 (Fig.  5 c, d, Additional file 1 : Figure S6G) with microbes that may produce or process them: 1-dehydroandrostenedione, androstenedione, and dehydrosterone with Corynebacterium ( r  = − 0.674, p  = 6e−05; r  = 0.671, p  = 7e−05; r  = 0.834, p  < 1e−05, respectively) (Additional file  1 : Figure S12A, B, C, respectively) and Enhydrobacter ( r  = 0.683, p  = 4e−05; r  = 0.581, p  = 0.00095; r  = 0.755, p  < 1e−05 respectively) (Additional file  1 : Figure S12D, E, F, respectively).

Despite the widespread use of skin care and hygiene products, their impact on the molecular and microbial composition of the skin is poorly studied. We established a workflow that examines individuals to systematically study the impact of such lifestyle characteristics on the skin by taking a broad look at temporal molecular and bacterial inventories and linking them to personal skin care product use. Our study reveals that when the hygiene routine is modified, the skin metabolome and microbiome can be altered, but that this alteration depends on product use and location on the body. We also show that like gut microbiome responses to dietary changes [ 20 , 21 ], the responses are individual-specific.

We recently reported that traces of our lifestyle molecules can be detected on the skin days and months after the original application [ 18 , 19 ]. Here, we show that many of the molecules associated with our personal skin and hygiene products had a half-life of 0.5 to 1.9 weeks even though the volunteers regularly showered, swam, or spent time in the ocean. Thus, a single application of some of these products has the potential to alter the microbiome and skin chemistry for extensive periods of time. Our data suggests that although host genetics and diet may play a role, a significant part of the resilience of the microbiome that has been reported [ 10 , 45 ] is due to the resilience of the skin chemistry associated with personal skin and hygiene routines, or perhaps even continuous re-exposure to chemicals from our personal care routines that are found on mattresses, furniture, and other personal objects [ 19 , 27 , 46 ] that are in constant contact. Consistent with this observation is that individuals in tribal regions and remote villages that are infrequently exposed to the types of products used in this study have very different skin microbial communities [ 47 , 48 ] and that the individuals in this study who rarely apply personal care products had a different starting metabolome. We observed that both the microbiome and skin chemistry of these individuals were most significantly affected by these products. This effect by the use of products at T4–T6 on the volunteers that infrequently used them lasted to the end phase of the study even though they went back to infrequent use of personal care products. What was notable and opposite to what the authors originally hypothesized is that the use of the foot powder and antiperspirant increased the diversity of microbes and that some of this diversity continued in the T7–T9 phase when people went back to their normal skin and hygiene routines. It is likely that this is due to the alteration in the nutrient availability such as fatty acids and moisture requirements, or alteration of microbes that control the colonization via secreted small molecules, including antibiotics made by microbes commonly found on the skin [ 49 , 50 ].

We detected specific molecules on the skin that originated from personal care products or from the host. One ingredient that lasts on the skin is propylene glycol, which is commonly used in deodorants and antiperspirants and added in relatively large amounts as a humectant to create a soft and sleek consistency [ 51 ]. As shown, daily use of personal care products is leading to high levels of exposure to these polymers. Such polymers cause contact dermatitis in a subset of the population [ 51 , 52 ]. Our data reveal a lasting accumulation of these compounds on the skin, suggesting that it may be possible to reduce their dose in deodorants or frequency of application and consequently decrease the degree of exposure to such compounds. Formulation design of personal care products may be influenced by performing detailed outcome studies. In addition, longer term impact studies are needed, perhaps in multiple year follow-up studies, to assess if the changes we observed are permanent or if they will recover to the original state.

Some of the host- and microbiome-modified molecules were also detected consistently, such as acylcarnitines, bile acids, and certain steroids. This means that a portion of the molecular composition of a person’s skin is not influenced by the beauty products applied to the skin, perhaps reflecting the level of exercise for acylcarnitines [ 53 , 54 ] or the liver (dominant location where they are made) or gallbladder (where they are stored) function for bile acids. The bile acid levels are not related to sex and do not change in amount during the course of this study. While bile acids are typically associated with the human gut microbiome [ 34 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 ], it is unclear what their role is on the skin and how they get there. One hypothesis is that they are present in the sweat that is excreted through the skin, as this is the case for several food-derived molecules such as caffeine or drugs and medications that have been previously reported on the human skin [ 19 ] or that microbes synthesize them de novo [ 55 ]. The only reports we could find on bile acids being associated with the skin describe cholestasis and pruritus diseases. Cholestasis and pruritus in hepatobiliary disease have symptoms of skin bile acid accumulation that are thought to be responsible for severe skin itching [ 59 , 60 ]. However, since bile acids were found in over 50% of the healthy volunteers, their detection on the skin is likely a common phenotype among the general population and not only reflective of disease, consistent with recent reports challenging these molecules as biomarkers of disease [ 59 ]. Other molecules that were detected consistently came from personal care products.

Aside from molecules that are person-specific and those that do not vary, there are others that can be modified via personal care routines. Most striking is how the personal care routines influenced changes in hormones and pheromones in a personalized manner. This suggests that there may be personalized recipes that make it possible to make someone more or less attractive to others via adjustments of hormonal and pheromonal levels through alterations in skin care.

Here, we describe the utilization of an approach that combines metabolomics and microbiome analysis to assess the effect of modifying personal care regime on skin chemistry and microbes. The key findings are as follows: (1) Compounds from beauty products last on the skin for weeks after their first use despite daily showering. (2) Beauty products alter molecular and bacterial diversity as well as the dynamic and structure of molecules and bacteria on the skin. (3) Molecular and bacterial temporal variability is product-, site-, and person-specific, and changes are observed starting the first week of beauty product use. This study provides a framework for future investigations to understand how lifestyle characteristics such as diet, outdoor activities, exercise, and medications shape the molecular and microbial composition of the skin. These factors have been studied far more in their impact on the gut microbiome and chemistry than in the skin. Revealing how such factors can affect skin microbes and their associated metabolites may be essential to define long-term skin health by restoring the appropriate microbes particularly in the context of skin aging [ 61 ] and skin diseases [ 49 ] as has shown to be necessary for amphibian health [ 62 , 63 ], or perhaps even create a precision skin care approach that utilizes the proper care ingredients based on the microbial and chemical signatures that could act as key players in host defense [ 49 , 64 , 65 ].

Subject recruitment and sample collection

Twelve individuals between 25 and 40 years old were recruited to participate in this study, six females and six males. Female volunteer 8 dropped out of the study as she developed a skin irritation during the T1–T3 phase. All volunteers signed a written informed consent in accordance with the sampling procedure approved by the UCSD Institutional Review Board (Approval Number 161730). Volunteers were required to follow specific instructions during 9 weeks. They were asked to bring in samples of their personal care products they used prior to T0 so they could be sampled as well. Following the initial timepoint time 0 and during the first 3 weeks (week 1–week 3), volunteers were asked not to use any beauty products (Fig.  1 b). During the next 3 weeks (week 4–week 6), four selected commercial beauty products provided to all volunteers were applied once a day at specific body part (deodorant for the armpits, soothing foot powder between the toes, sunscreen for the face, and moisturizer for front forearms) (Fig.  1 b, Additional file  3 : Table S2 Ingredient list of beauty products). During the first 6 weeks, volunteers were asked to shower with a head to toe shampoo. During the last 3 weeks (week 7–week 9), all volunteers went back to their normal routine and used the personal care products used before the beginning of the study (Fig.  1 b). Volunteers were asked not to shower the day before sampling. Samples were collected by the same three researchers to ensure consistency in sampling and the area sampled. Researchers examined every subject together and collected metabolomics and microbiome samples from each location together. Samples were collected once a week (from day 0 to day 68—10 timepoints total) for volunteers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, and 12, and on day 0 and day 6 for volunteer 8. For individuals 4, 9, and 10, samples were collected twice a week. Samples collected for 11 volunteers during 10 timepoints: 11 volunteers × 10 timepoints × 4 samples × 4 body sites = 1760. Samples collected from 3 selected volunteers during 9 additional timepoints: 3 volunteers × 9 timepoints × 4 samples × 4 body sites = 432. All samples were collected following the same protocol described in [ 18 ]. Briefly, samples were collected over an area of 2 × 2 cm, using pre-moistened swabs in 50:50 ethanol/water solution for metabolomics analysis or in Tris-EDTA buffer for 16S rRNA sequencing. Four samples were collected from each body part right and left side. The locations sampled were the face—upper cheek bone and lower jaw, armpit—upper and lower area, arm—front of the elbow (antecubitis) and forearm (antebrachium), and feet—in between the first and second toe and third and fourth toe. Including personal care product references, a total of 2275 samples were collected over 9 weeks and were submitted to both metabolomics and microbial inventories.

Metabolite extraction and UPLC-Q-TOF mass spectrometry analysis

Skin swabs were extracted and analyzed using a previously validated workflow described in [ 18 , 19 ]. All samples were extracted in 200 μl of 50:50 ethanol/water solution for 2 h on ice then overnight at − 20 °C. Swab sample extractions were dried down in a centrifugal evaporator then resuspended by vortexing and sonication in a 100 μl 50:50 ethanol/water solution containing two internal standards (fluconazole 1 μM and amitriptyline 1 μM). The ethanol/water extracts were then analyzed using a previously validated UPLC-MS/MS method [ 18 , 19 ]. We used a ThermoScientific UltiMate 3000 UPLC system for liquid chromatography and a Maxis Q-TOF (Quadrupole-Time-of-Flight) mass spectrometer (Bruker Daltonics), controlled by the Otof Control and Hystar software packages (Bruker Daltonics) and equipped with ESI source. UPLC conditions of analysis are 1.7 μm C18 (50 × 2.1 mm) UHPLC Column (Phenomenex), column temperature 40 °C, flow rate 0.5 ml/min, mobile phase A 98% water/2% acetonitrile/0.1% formic acid ( v / v ), mobile phase B 98% acetonitrile/2% water/0.1% formic acid ( v / v ). A linear gradient was used for the chromatographic separation: 0–2 min 0–20% B, 2–8 min 20–99% B, 8–9 min 99–99% B, 9–10 min 0% B. Full-scan MS spectra ( m/z 80–2000) were acquired in a data-dependant positive ion mode. Instrument parameters were set as follows: nebulizer gas (nitrogen) pressure 2 Bar, capillary voltage 4500 V, ion source temperature 180 °C, dry gas flow 9 l/min, and spectra rate acquisition 10 spectra/s. MS/MS fragmentation of 10 most intense selected ions per spectrum was performed using ramped collision induced dissociation energy, ranged from 10 to 50 eV to get diverse fragmentation patterns. MS/MS active exclusion was set after 4 spectra and released after 30 s.

Mass spectrometry data collected from the skin of 12 individuals can be found here MSV000081582.

LC-MS data processing

LC-MS raw data files were converted to mzXML format using Compass Data analysis software (Bruker Daltonics). MS1 features were selected for all LC-MS datasets collected from the skin of 12 individuals and blank samples (total 2275) using the open-source software MZmine [ 66 ]—see Additional file  4 : Table S3 for parameters. Subsequent blank filtering, total ion current, and internal standard normalization were performed (Additional file  5 : Table S4) for representation of relative abundance of molecular features (Fig.  2 , Additional file  1 : Figure S1), principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) (Fig.  4 ). For steroid compounds in Fig.  5 a–d, bile acids (Additional file  1 : Figure S5A-D), and acylcarnitines (Additional file  1 : Figure S5E, F) compounds, crop filtering feature available in MZmine [ 66 ] was used to identify each feature separately in all LC-MS data collected from the skin of 12 individuals (see Additional file  4 : Table S3 for crop filtering parameters and feature finding in Additional file  6 : Table S5).

Heatmap in Fig.  2 was constructed from the bucket table generated from LC-MS1 features (Additional file  7 : Table S6) and associated metadata (Additional file  8 : Table S7) using the Calour command line available here: https://github.com/biocore/calour . Calour parameters were as follows: normalized read per sample 5000 and cluster feature minimum reads 50. Procrustes and Pearson correlation analyses in Additional file  1 : Figures S10 and S11 were performed using the feature table in Additional file  9 : Table S8, normalized using the probabilistic quotient normalization method [ 67 ].

16S rRNA amplicon sequencing

16S rRNA sequencing was performed following the Earth Microbiome Project protocols [ 68 , 69 ], as described before [ 18 ]. Briefly, DNA was extracted using MoBio PowerMag Soil DNA Isolation Kit and the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene was amplified using barcoded primers [ 70 ]. PCR was performed in triplicate for each sample, and V4 paired-end sequencing [ 70 ] was performed using Illumina HiSeq (La Jolla, CA). Raw sequence reads were demultiplexed and quality controlled using the defaults, as provided by QIIME 1.9.1 [ 71 ]. The primary OTU table was generated using Qiita ( https://qiita.ucsd.edu/ ), using UCLUST ( https://academic.oup.com/bioinformatics/article/26/19/2460/230188 ) closed-reference OTU picking method against GreenGenes 13.5 database [ 72 ]. Sequences can be found in EBI under accession number EBI: ERP104625 or in Qiita ( qiita.ucsd.edu ) under Study ID 10370. Resulting OTU tables were then rarefied to 10,000 sequences/sample for downstream analyses (Additional file  10 Table S9). See Additional file  11 : Table S10 for read count per sample and Additional file  1 : Figure S13 representing the samples that fall out with rarefaction at 10,000 threshold. The dataset includes 35 blank swab controls and 699 empty controls. The blank samples can be accessed through Qiita ( qiita.ucsd.edu ) as study ID 10370 and in EBI with accession number EBI: ERP104625. Blank samples can be found under the metadata category “sample_type” with the name “empty control” and “Swabblank.” These samples fell below the rarefaction threshold at 10,000 (Additional file  11 : Table S10).

To rule out the possibility that personal care products themselves contained the microbes that induced the changes in the armpit and foot microbiomes that were observed in this study (Fig.  7 ), we subjected the common personal care products that were used in this study during T4–T6 also to 16S rRNA sequencing. The data revealed that within the limit of detectability of the current experiment, few 16S signatures were detected. One notable exception was the most dominant plant-originated bacteria chloroplast detected in the sunscreen lotion applied on the face (Additional file  1 : Figure S9D), that was also detected on the face of individuals and at a lower level on their arms, sites where stable microbial communities were observed over time (Additional file  1 : Figure S9E, F). This finding is in agreement with our previous data from the 3D cartographical skin maps that revealed the presence of co-localized chloroplast and lotion molecules [ 18 ]. Other low-abundant microbial signatures found in the sunscreen lotion include additional plant-associated bacteria: mitochondria [ 73 ], Bacillaceae [ 74 , 75 ], Planococcaceae [ 76 ], and Ruminococcaceae family [ 77 ], but all these bacteria are not responsible for microbial changes associated to beauty product use, as they were poorly detected in the armpits and feet (Fig.  7 ).

To assess the origin of Cyanobacteria detected in skin samples, each Greengenes [ 72 ] 13_8 97% OTU table (per lane; obtained from Qiita [ 78 ] study 10,370) was filtered to only features with a p__Cyanobacteria phylum. The OTU maps for these tables—which relate each raw sequence to an OTU ID—were then filtered to only those observed p__Cyanobacteria OTU IDs. The filtered OTU map was used to extract the raw sequences into a single file. Separately, the unaligned Greengenes 13_8 99% representative sequences were filtered into two sets, first the set of representatives associated with c__Chloroplast (our interest database), and second the set of sequences associated with p__Cyanobacteria without the c__Chloroplast sequences (our background database). Platypus Conquistador [ 79 ] was then used to determine what reads were observed exclusively in the interest database and not in the background database. Of the 4,926,465 raw sequences associated with a p__Cyanobacteria classification (out of 318,686,615 total sequences), at the 95% sequence identity level with 100% alignment, 4,860,258 sequences exclusively recruit to full-length chloroplast 16S by BLAST [ 80 ] with the bulk recruiting to streptophytes (with Chlorophyta and Stramenopiles to a lesser extent). These sequences do not recruit non-chloroplast Cyanobacteria full length 16S.

Half-life calculation for metabolomics data

In order to estimate the biological half-life of molecules detected in the skin, the first four timepoints of the study (T0, T1, T2, T3) were considered for the calculation to allow the monitoring of personal beauty products used at T0. The IUPAC’s definition of biological half-life as the time required to a substance in a biological system to be reduced to half of its value, assuming an approximately exponential removal [ 81 ] was used. The exponential removal can be described as C ( t )  =  C 0 e − tλ where t represents the time in weeks, C 0 represents the initial concentration of the molecule, C ( t ) represents the concentration of the molecule at time t , and λ is the rate of removal [ http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9780470140451.ch2/summary ]. The parameter λ was estimated by a mixed linear effects model in order to account for the paired sample structure. The regression model tests the null hypothesis that λ is equal to zero and only the significant ( p value < 0.05) parameters were considered.

Principal coordinate analysis

We performed principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) on both metabolomics and microbiome data. For metabolomics, we used MS1 features (Additional file  5 : Table S4) and calculated Bray–Curtis dissimilarity metric using ClusterApp ( https://github.com/mwang87/q2_metabolomics ).

For microbiome data, we used rarefied OTU table (Additional file 10 : Table S9) and used unweighted UniFrac metric [ 36 ] to calculate beta diversity distance matrix using QIIME2 (https://qiime2.org). Results from both data sources were visualized using Emperor ( https://biocore.github.io/emperor/ ) [ 28 ].

Molecular networking

Molecular networking was generated from LC-MS/MS data collected from skin samples of 11 individuals MSV000081582, using the Global Natural Products Social Molecular Networking platform (GNPS) [ 29 ]. Molecular network parameters for MS/MS data collected from all body parts of 11 individuals during T0–T9 MSV000081582 are accessible here http://gnps.ucsd.edu/ProteoSAFe/status.jsp?task=284fc383e4c44c4db48912f01905f9c5 . Molecular network parameters for MS/MS data collected from armpits T0–T3 MSV000081582 and deodorant used by individual 1 and 3 MSV000081580 can be found here http://gnps.ucsd.edu/ProteoSAFe/status.jsp?task=f5325c3b278a46b29e8860ec57915ad and here http://gnps.ucsd.edu/ProteoSAFe/status.jsp?task=aaa1af68099d4c1a87e9a09f398fe253 , respectively. Molecular networks were exported and visualized in Cytoscape 3.4.0. [ 82 ]. Molecular networking parameters were set as follows: parent mass tolerance 1 Da, MS/MS fragment ion tolerance 0.5 Da, and cosine threshold 0.65 or greater, and only MS/MS spectral pairs with at least 4 matched fragment ions were included. Each MS/MS spectrum was only allowed to connect to its top 10 scoring matches, resulting in a maximum of 10 connections per node. The maximum size of connected components allowed in the network was 600, and the minimum number of spectra required in a cluster was 3. Venn diagrams were generated from Cytoscape data http://gnps.ucsd.edu/ProteoSAFe/status.jsp?task=284fc383e4c44c4db48912f01905f9c5 using Cytoscape [ 82 ] Venn diagram app available here http://apps.cytoscape.org/apps/all .

Shannon molecular and bacterial diversity

The diversity analysis was performed separately for 16S rRNA data and LC-MS data. For each sample in each feature table (LC-MS data and microbiome data), we calculated the value of the Shannon diversity index. For LC-MS data, we used the full MZmine feature table (Additional file  5 : Table S4). For microbiome data, we used the closed-reference BIOM table rarefied to 10,000 sequences/sample. For diversity changes between timepoints, we aggregated Shannon diversity values across groups of individuals (all, females, males) and calculated mean values and standard errors. All successfully processed samples (detected features in LC-MS or successful sequencing with 10,000 or more sequences/sample) were considered.

Beauty products and chemical standards

Samples (10 mg) from personal care products used during T0 and T7–T9 MSV000081580 (Additional file  2 : Table S1) and common beauty products used during T4–T6 MSV000081581 (Additional file  3 : Table S2) were extracted in 1 ml 50:50 ethanol/water. Sample extractions were subjected to the same UPLC-Q-TOF MS method used to analyze skin samples and described above in the section “ Metabolite extraction and UPLC-Q-TOF mass spectrometry analysis .” Authentic chemical standards MSV000081583 including 1-dehydroandrostenedion (5 μM), chenodeoxyglycocholic acid (5 μM), dehydroisoandrosterone sulfate (100 μM), glycocholic acid (5 μM), and taurocholic acid (5 μM) were analyzed using the same mass spectrometry workflow used to run skin and beauty product samples.

Monitoring beauty product ingredients in skin samples

In order to monitor beauty product ingredients used during T4–T6, we selected only molecular features present in each beauty product sample (antiperspirant, facial lotion, body moisturizer, soothing powder) and then filtered the aligned MZmine feature table (Additional file  5 : Table S4) for the specific feature in specific body part samples. After feature filtering, we selected all features that had a higher average intensity on beauty product phase (T4–T6) compared to non-beauty product phase (T1–T3). The selected features were annotated using GNPS dereplication output http://gnps.ucsd.edu/ProteoSAFe/status.jsp?task=69319caf219642a5a6748a3aba8914df , plotted using R package ggplot2 ( https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/ggplot2/index.html ) and visually inspected for meaningful patterns.

Random forest analysis

Random forest analysis was performed in MetaboAnalyst 3.0 online platform http://www.metaboanalyst.ca/faces/home.xhtml . Using LC-MS1 features found in armpit samples collected on T3 and T6. Random forest parameters were set as follows: top 1000 most abundant features, number of predictors to try for each node 7, estimate of error rate (0.0%).

BugBase analysis

To determine the functional potential of microbial communities within our samples, we used BugBase [ 83 ]. Because we do not have direct access to all of the gene information due to the use of 16S rRNA marker gene sequencing, we can only rely on phylogenetic information inferred from OTUs. BugBase takes advantage of this information to predict microbial phenotypes by associating OTUs with gene content using PICRUSt [ 84 ]. Thus, using BugBase, we can predict such phenotypes as Gram staining, or oxidative stress tolerance at each timepoint or each phase. All statistical analyses in BugBase are performed using non-parametric differentiation tests (Mann–Whitney U ).

Taxonomic plots

Rarefied OTU counts were collapsed according to the OTU’s assigned family and genus name per sample, with a single exception for the class of chloroplasts. Relative abundances of each family-genus group are obtained by dividing by overall reads per sample, i.e., 10,000. Samples are grouped by volunteer, body site, and time/phase. Abundances are aggregated by taking the mean overall samples, and resulting abundances are again normalized to add up to 1. Low-abundant taxa are not listed in the legend and plotted in grayscale. Open-source code is available at https://github.com/sjanssen2/ggmap/blob/master/ggmap/snippets.py

Dissimilarity-based analysis

Pairwise dissimilarity matrices were generated for metabolomics and 16S metagenomics quantification tables, described above, using Bray–Curtis dissimilarity through QIIME 1.9.1 [ 71 ]. Those distance matrices were used to perform Procrustes analysis (QIIME 1.9.1), and Mantel test (scikit-bio version 0.5.1) to measure the correlation between the metabolome and microbiome over time. The metabolomics dissimilarities were used to perform the PERMANOVA test to assess the significance of body part grouping. The PCoA and Procrustes plots were visualized in EMPeror. The dissimilarity matrices were also used to perform distance tests, comparing the distances within and between individuals and distances from time 0 to times 1, 2, and 3 using Wilcoxon rank-sum tests (SciPy version 0.19.1) [ 19 ].

Statistical analysis for molecular and microbial data

Statistical analyses were performed in R and Python (R Core Team 2018). Monotonic relationships between two variables were tested using non-parametric Spearman correlation tests. The p values for correlation significance were subsequently corrected using Benjamini and Hochberg false discovery rate control method. The relationship between two groups was tested using non-parametric Wilcoxon rank-sum tests. The relationship between multiple groups was tested using non-parametric Kruskal–Wallis test. The significance level was set to 5%, unless otherwise mentioned, and all tests were performed as two-sided tests.

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Acknowledgements

We thank all volunteers who were recruited in this study for their participation and Carla Porto for discussions regarding beauty products selected in this study. We further acknowledge Bruker for the support of the shared instrumentation infrastructure that enabled this work.

This work was partially supported by US National Institutes of Health (NIH) Grant. P.C.D. acknowledges funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme (Grant 634402). A.B was supported by the National Institute of Justice Award 2015-DN-BX-K047. C.C. was supported by a fellowship of the Belgian American Educational Foundation and the Research Foundation Flanders. L.Z., J.K, and K.Z. acknowledge funding from the US National Institutes of Health under Grant No. AR071731. TLK was supported by Vaadia-BARD Postdoctoral Fellowship Award No. FI-494-13.

Availability of data and materials

The mass spectrometry data have been deposited in the MassIVE database (MSV000081582, MSV000081580 and MSV000081581). Molecular network parameters for MS/MS data collected from all body parts of 11 individuals during T0-T9 MSV000081582 are accessible here http://gnps.ucsd.edu/ProteoSAFe/status.jsp?task=284fc383e4c44c4db48912f01905f9c5 . Molecular network parameters for MS/MS data collected from armpits T0–T3 MSV000081582 and deodorant used by individual 1 and 3 MSV000081580 can be found here http://gnps.ucsd.edu/ProteoSAFe/status.jsp?task=f5325c3b278a46b29e8860ec5791d5ad and here http://gnps.ucsd.edu/ProteoSAFe/status.jsp?task=aaa1af68099d4c1a87e9a09f398fe253 , respectively. OTU tables can be found in Qiita ( qiita.ucsd.edu ) as study ID 10370, and sequences can be found in EBI under accession number EBI: ERP104625.

Author information

Amina Bouslimani and Ricardo da Silva contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

Collaborative Mass Spectrometry Innovation Center, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, San Diego, USA

Amina Bouslimani, Ricardo da Silva, Kathleen Dorrestein, Alexey V. Melnik, Tal Luzzatto-Knaan & Pieter C. Dorrestein

Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92037, USA

Tomasz Kosciolek, Stefan Janssen, Chris Callewaert, Amnon Amir, Livia S. Zaramela, Ji-Nu Kim, Gregory Humphrey, Tara Schwartz, Karenina Sanders, Caitriona Brennan, Gail Ackermann, Daniel McDonald, Karsten Zengler, Rob Knight & Pieter C. Dorrestein

Department for Pediatric Oncology, Hematology and Clinical Immunology, University Children’s Hospital, Medical Faculty, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

Stefan Janssen

Center for Microbial Ecology and Technology, Ghent University, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

Chris Callewaert

Center for Microbiome Innovation, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92307, USA

Karsten Zengler, Rob Knight & Pieter C. Dorrestein

Department of Bioengineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA

Karsten Zengler & Rob Knight

Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA

Department of Pharmacology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92037, USA

Pieter C. Dorrestein

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Contributions

AB and PCD contributed to the study and experimental design. AB, KD, and TLK contributed to the metabolite and microbial sample collection. AB contributed to the mass spectrometry data collection. AB, RS, and AVM contributed to the mass spectrometry data analysis. RS contributed to the metabolomics statistical analysis and microbial–molecular correlations. GH, TS, KS, and CB contributed to the 16S rRNA sequencing. AB and GA contributed to the metadata organization. TK, SJ, CC, AA, and DMD contributed to the microbial data analysis and statistics. LZ, JK, and KZ contributed to the additional data analysis. AB, PCD, and RK wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Rob Knight or Pieter C. Dorrestein .

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate.

All participants signed a written informed consent in accordance with the sampling procedure approved by the UCSD Institutional Review Board (Approval Number 161730).

Competing interests

Dorrestein is on the advisory board for SIRENAS, a company that aims to find therapeutics from ocean environments. There is no overlap between this research and the company. The other authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Additional files

Additional file 1:.

Figure S1. Beauty products ingredients persist on skin of participants. Figure S2. Beauty product application impacts the molecular and bacterial diversity on skin of 11 individuals while the chemical diversity from personal beauty products used by males and females on T0 is similar. Figure S3. Longitudinal impact of ceasing and resuming the use of beauty products on the molecular composition of the skin over time. Figure S4. Molecular networking to highlight MS/MS spectra found in each body part. Figure S5. Longitudinal abundance of bile acids and acylcarnitines in skin samples. Figure S6. Characterization of steroids in armpits samples. Figure S7. Characterization of bile acids in armpit samples. Figure S8. Characterization of Acylcarnitine family members in skin samples. Figure S9. Beauty products applied at one body part might affect other areas of the body, while specific products determine stability versus variability of microflora at each body site. Figure S10. Representation of Gram-positive bacteria over time and the molecular features from the shampoo detected on feet. Figure S11. Procrustes analysis to correlate the skin microbiome and metabolome over time. Figure S12. Correlation between specific molecules and bacteria that change over time in armpits of individual 11. Figure S13. Representation of the number of samples that were removed (gray) and those retained (blue) after rarefaction at 10,000 threshold. (DOCX 1140 kb)

Additional file 2:

Table S1. List of personal (T0 and T7–9) beauty products and their frequency of use. (XLSX 30 kb)

Additional file 3:

Table S2. List of ingredients of common beauty products used during T4–T6. (PDF 207 kb)

Additional file 4:

Table S3. Mzmine feature finding and crop filtering parameters. (XLSX 4 kb)

Additional file 5:

Table S4. Feature table for statistical analysis with blank filtering and total ion current normalization. (CSV 150242 kb)

Additional file 6:

Table S5. Feature table for individual feature abundance in armpits. (XLSX 379 kb)

Additional file 7:

Table S6. Feature table for Calour analysis. (CSV 91651 kb)

Additional file 8:

Table S7. Metadata for Calour analysis. (TXT 129 kb)

Additional file 9:

Table S8. feature table with Probabilistic quotient normalization for molecular–microbial analysis. (ZIP 29557 kb)

Additional file 10:

Table S9. OTU table rarefied to 10,000 sequences per sample. (BIOM 9493 kb)

Additional file 11:

Table S10. 16S rRNA sequencing read counts per sample. (TSV 2949 kb)

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Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

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Bouslimani, A., da Silva, R., Kosciolek, T. et al. The impact of skin care products on skin chemistry and microbiome dynamics. BMC Biol 17 , 47 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-019-0660-6

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Home Blog for TikTok Industry Insights Influencer marketing success stories Elf Case Study: TikTok Marketing Lessons For Beauty Brands

Elf Case Study: TikTok Marketing Lessons For Beauty Brands

Dances, songs and memes are a few types of videos that go viral on TikTok. But have you ever wondered how a beauty brand becomes a viral sensation on TikTok? The answer lies in finding the perfect marketing mix of organic virality plus a paid marketing strategy that keeps your brand in front of your audience’s eyes, leading to more engagements, more sales, and more success! Our team at House of Marketers , has put together an article to present Elf Cosmetic’s case study, as it’s a pretty interesting one.

Elf Cosmetics has found its share of viral success on TikTok. Not just once, but many times. Over the years, Elf has successfully leveraged TikTok to create buzzworthy campaigns that not only increased their brand visibility but also engaged a new generation of beauty enthusiasts. 

We are going to be discussing how Elf utilised TikTok’s Viral potential by being creative and genuine.. We will also discuss the strategy and the execution behind Elf Cosmetics’ TikTok triumph, offering insights and takeaways for beauty brands looking to harness the power of social media marketing.

Elf Cosmetics – Beauty Brand TikTok Case Study

Elf Cosmetics, which stands for “Eyes Lips Face,” is celebrated for its commitment to inclusivity, innovation, and cruelty-free practices. Since its inception, Elf has focused on making luxurious beauty accessible to all, earning a loyal customer base. Their dedication to high-quality, vegan, and cruelty-free products has made them a favourite among ethically-conscious consumers.

The Strategy Behind Elf’s TikTok Success

Elf Cosmetics’ TikTok success is rooted in several key strategies:

• Understanding the Platform – TikTok is known for its authentic, creative, and interactive content. Elf recognized this and tailored their approach to fit the platform’s unique style.
• Creating Engaging Content – Elf’s campaigns focused on creating engaging and shareable content that resonated with TikTok’s audience.
• Influencer Partnerships – Collaborating with influencers who genuinely connected with their audience helped Elf amplify their reach and credibility.
• Always-Engaged Strategy –  Maintaining continuous engagement through a mix of organic and paid strategies ensured sustained interest and interaction.

Let’s break down their strategy in detail using their two most famous campaigns as an example. 

Organic Marketing – Creating the Viral Song #EyesLipsFace 

One of the standout moments in Elf’s TikTok journey was the launch of the #EyesLipsFace challenge in October 2019. This campaign was groundbreaking as it was the first time a brand commissioned an original song specifically for a TikTok campaign.

Elf collaborated with Grammy-winning producer iLL Wayno and rising artist Holla FyeSixWun to create a catchy 15-second clip. The song, inspired by the catchy beats popular on TikTok, was designed to be instantly engaging and easy to remember. According to the creators, the goal was to make a song that felt native to TikTok, blending seamlessly with the platform’s organic content.

The campaign strategically tapped popular TikTok influencers, including Brittany Tomlinson (the “kombucha girl”), to promote the challenge. These influencers created and shared videos lip-syncing to the song, encouraging their followers to participate. This strategy effectively leveraged the influencers’ reach and credibility, making the challenge seem organic and relatable.

@avani eyes, lips, face, SAFE &lt3 # eyeslipsface # elfpartner # ad @elfyeah ♬ Eyes. Lips. Face. Safe. e.l.f. Cosmetics – e.l.f. Cosmetics

To further drive engagement, Elf encouraged users to create their own videos using the song and tag them with #EyesLipsFace. The challenge quickly gained traction, with thousands of users participating and creating a cascade of user-generated content.

The #EyesLipsFace challenge was a massive success:

• Engagement: Generated millions of views, likes, and shares.
• Reach: Videos tagged with #EyesLipsFace amassed nearly 1.2 billion views.
• Sales and Conversions: The campaign led to a substantial boost in website traffic and sales.

Elf Cosmetics TikTok Ad Campaign: Always-On Strategy

Following the success of the #EyesLipsFace challenge, Elf Cosmetics continued to produce engaging content on TikTok. In 2022, another campaign was launched on TikTok to build on their previous success.

Elf implemented an always-on strategy that involved continuous engagement through a combination of standard In-Feed Ads and Dynamic Showcase Ads, powered by TikTok’s recommendation engine. This approach allowed for personalised ad targeting at scale, delivering curated experiences to the most relevant audiences.

“We have been able to test and learn on the platform and create a winning formula. Helping us consistently reach out to the TikTok community has allowed us to reach new customers and enabled us to efficiently test our messaging to ultimately drive down acquisition costs.” 

– Patrick O’Keefe, VP Integrated Marketing Communications, e.l.f. Cosmetics.

The centrepiece of the campaign was the #eyeslipsface challenge, which invited users to showcase their creativity by creating makeup looks using Elf products. Elf produced a variety of engaging videos featuring influencers and everyday users. These videos highlighted the versatility of Elf products and encouraged participation in the challenge.

They partnered with popular TikTok influencers who had a strong connection with their audience. These influencers created and shared content that was both authentic and aligned with Elf’s brand image. 

The campaign was executed in phases to maintain momentum and maximise reach. It began with teaser content to build anticipation, followed by the official launch of the challenge. Continuous updates and new content kept the audience engaged throughout the campaign. By adopting a full-funnel strategy, Elf was able to drive efficient acquisition costs and test their messaging effectively. This comprehensive approach allowed them to extend their reach, engage users, and convert them into customers.

The #eyeslipsface campaign was a resounding success, achieving impressive results across various metrics:

• The challenge generated millions of views, likes, and shares.
• The campaign reached millions of users, significantly increasing brand awareness.
• Elf Cosmetics saw a substantial boost in website traffic and sales, as users were inspired to purchase the products featured in the videos.
• Achieved a 56% reduction in Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA).
• Achieved a 1.9x conversion click-through rate over benchmark.
• Conversion CPC was 49% lower than benchmark.

The campaign exceeded its initial objectives, demonstrating the effectiveness of their strategic approach. The campaign fostered a strong sense of community among beauty enthusiasts. Users appreciated the inclusive and creative nature of the challenge, leading to positive feedback and increased brand loyalty.

Source: e.l.f. Cosmetics  

What Makes Elf’s Marketing Strategy Brilliant: Marketing Mix Analysis

Elf’s commitment to high-quality, affordable beauty products is a cornerstone of their brand. Their range of vegan and cruelty-free products appeals to a wide demographic, particularly ethically-conscious consumers.

Elf’s pricing strategy focuses on making luxury beauty accessible to all. By offering professional-quality products at affordable prices, Elf has managed to attract a broad customer base.

Elf’s products are widely available through various channels, including online stores, major retail chains, and their own branded stores. This extensive distribution network ensures that their products are easily accessible to consumers.

Elf’s promotional strategies have evolved significantly over the years. From traditional advertising to leveraging social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, Elf has continuously adapted to changing market trends. Their innovative use of TikTok for the #EyesLipsFace challenge is a testament to their ability to stay ahead of the curve.

TikTok Marketing Lessons for Beauty Brands: House of Marketers’ Insights

Highlight your unique selling proposition (usp).

If your brand has a unique feature or standout quality, make it the focal point of your marketing strategy. For example, Elf’s commitment to cruelty-free and vegan products was prominently featured in their campaigns. Use your USP to differentiate your brand from competitors and create a strong identity.

A well-defined USP helps in creating a distinct brand image that resonates with your target audience. Highlighting your unique qualities can attract like-minded consumers and build brand loyalty.

Authentic Content

Prioritise creating content that resonates deeply with your audience. Authenticity is key. Elf’s success with the #EyesLipsFace challenge was due to its genuine and relatable content. Incorporate user-generated content that feels natural and aligns with your brand’s values. Showcase real people using your products in everyday settings to build trust and relatability.

Think about it, users on TikTok favour content that feels genuine over highly polished ads. Creating content that reflects the spontaneous and authentic nature of TikTok can significantly enhance engagement.

Influencer Partnerships

Partner with influencers who have a strong, genuine connection with their followers. Look for influencers whose values align with your brand. This can amplify your campaign’s reach and credibility. When selecting influencers, consider those who have a history of authentic engagement rather than just a high follower count.

Influencers can drive higher engagement and authenticity. The right influencer partnerships can make your campaign feel more organic and relatable, as seen in Elf’s campaign with Brittany Tomlinson.

Engaging Challenges

Develop interactive challenges that encourage user participation. Challenges like #EyesLipsFace can generate organic content and significantly boost visibility. Ensure the challenge is fun, easy to participate in, and closely tied to your brand.

Interactive challenges can lead to a viral spread of content, as users enjoy participating and sharing their creations. This user-generated content can exponentially increase your campaign’s reach.

Full – Funnel Approach

Adopt a full-funnel strategy to drive efficient acquisition costs and test your messaging effectively. Utilise a mix of top-of-funnel awareness campaigns and bottom-of-funnel conversion tactics to nurture and convert leads.

Insight: A comprehensive approach allows you to extend your reach, engage users at different stages of the buying journey, and convert them into customers. Elf’s use of Dynamic Showcase Ads and In-Feed Ads exemplifies this strategy.

Always – Engaged Strategy

Maintain continuous engagement with your audience through a mix of organic and paid strategies. Consistently update your content and introduce new elements to keep the audience engaged over time.

Continuous engagement helps sustain interest and interaction, preventing audience fatigue. This strategy was crucial in Elf’s ongoing success on TikTok.

Creating a Community

Focus on building a community around your brand. Encourage user-generated content and actively engage with your audience. Host live Q&A sessions and interactive polls to involve your audience in product development decisions.

A community-driven approach can significantly enhance customer loyalty and create a sense of belonging among your customers. Elf’s interactive approach fostered a strong sense of community among beauty enthusiasts.

Leveraging User Feedback

Actively listen to and act on user feedback to improve your product offerings. Monitor comments and direct messages to gather insights on customer preferences and experiences. Use this feedback to make data-driven decisions and introduce new products that align with customer needs.

Leveraging user feedback helps in making informed decisions and keeps your product offerings relevant and appealing. Elf’s responsiveness to user feedback helped them stay aligned with customer expectations.

The Elf Cosmetics TikTok campaign is a prime example of how to leverage social media to boost brand visibility and engagement. By creating authentic, engaging content and collaborating with influencers, Elf successfully increased brand awareness and drove sales. 

For beauty brands seeking similar success, the strategies and insights highlighted in this case study provide a valuable roadmap. If you’re inspired by the success of Elf Cosmetics and looking to elevate your social media marketing efforts, House of Marketers is here to help. 

Inspired by Elf Cosmetics’ success? Partner with House of Marketers to create impactful influencer campaigns and harness the power of TikTok for your brand. 

Our expertise in crafting authentic, engaging content and leveraging influencer partnerships can help your brand achieve outstanding results. Contact us today to learn more about our services and how we can help your brand shine on social media. Let’s make your brand the next viral sensation!

House of Marketers (HOM) is a leading TikTok Marketing Agency. Our global agency was built by early TikTok Employees & TikTok Partners, which gives us the insider knowledge to help leading brands, like Redbull, Playtika, Badoo, and HelloFresh win on TikTok. Want us to convert more of Gen Z and Millennials with TikTok? Get in touch with our friendly team, here .

Here’s How Little Moons Mochi Conquered TikTok and the Freezer Aisle

How cerave transformed into gen z’s go-to skincare brand [tiktok case study].

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Customer Case Studies

Beauty & skincare brand.

How a beauty and skincare brand partnered with Later to gain audience insights from Black and Latinx creators.

Later Influence™

Turn influencer marketing into your #1 revenue generator.

The Objective

A new, diverse strategy

A sustainability-focused beauty and wellness brand wanted to revamp its brand strategy with messaging, brand positioning, and tactics that would appeal to culturally diverse Gen Zers and young Millennials.

To better understand this audience and earn their trust, it needed to collect insights from creator partners who connected with this audience and understood their followers, values, needs, and aspirations on a community level.

Because this brand had worked with Later’s influencer marketing platform before, they trusted us to help foster relationships with an inclusive group of creators who know how social media creates and reflects culture, particularly for younger demographics.

The Solution

Sourcing Actionable Creator Feedback

Because of its longstanding presence within the beauty, sustainability, and lifestyle spaces, the brand knew that creators active in these areas would provide valuable feedback. The brand pursued a mix of nano-, micro-, and mid-tier influencers with an established interest in an array of environmentally-conscious beauty products, wellness and lifestyle, environmental activism, and social justice.

Choosing the right influencers

The brand and Later also understood that young, underrepresented creators would have a strong influence on the purchasing choices, trends, and cultural nuances experienced by the demographic the brand hoped to reach. To help it gain the insights it needed to better reorganize its brand strategy, it decided to hone in on Gen Z creators who are Black or Latinx, and who identify as women.

Later and the brand were confident that this group of creators would be best to activate and achieve their goals because, in addition to their value as industry experts, they emulate the brand’s messaging for this campaign: “How culture extends beyond beauty”. So, the brand and Later proceeded with multiple touchpoints in their outreach plan to collect a mix of qualitative and quantitative research.

Conducting a focus group

Both creator discovery — sourcing and identifying creators based on the brand’s outlined persona — touchpoints were hosted and moderated by the brand’s consumer research agency partner. Later coordinated all screening, outreach, communications, troubleshooting, compensation negotiations, and payment directly with creators.

The first touchpoint was a 90-minute online focus group interview in an unbranded environment that did not disclose the brand’s involvement, to avoid biased responses. The agency asked questions centered around the beauty industry and its cultural impact.

Creator survey & interviews

The second touchpoint reactivated a segment of those creators to complete a survey, to decipher which beauty brands (especially within the clean beauty space), skincare brands, and retailers it felt would do well when it comes to inclusion and representation in its advertising and business practices.

Then, creators were asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) to participate in one-on-one interviews, during which the brand was revealed as the sponsoring brand. During these more personal interviews, the moderator discussed the creators’ survey answers with each respondent while representatives from the brand listened in. In addition, Later and the brand asked for feedback on creative concepts that the brand team had developed based on the focus group results.

The Results

Actionable, culturally-informed insights

The brand incorporated more inclusive practices by integrating its market research findings into its campaign plans. The information collected from authentic, raw conversations with influencers helped the brand revitalize its strategy for a renewed commitment to more representative future content.

Grow with Later’s platform for creators

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Beauty & Wellness Briefing: The trends that drove prestige beauty’s 8% sales growth in H1 2024

This week, I break down an influx of new industry data from Circana, Launchmetrics and Dash Hudson, which includes the categories and social media trends that led to 8% sales growth for prestige beauty in the first half of the year. Additionally, a new executive appointment to know at the Estée Lauder Companies and a case study in entering the pet category with a new dog fragrance from D&G and a mass pet launch from Raw Sugar Living. 

The trends driving the beauty industry’s growth in 2024

It’s been a busy week for new industry data with reports from Circana, Launchmetrics and Dash Hudson charting category growth and the top industry trends. 

On Tuesday, Circana market research company released its findings from the first half of 2024. The group found that the U.S. prestige beauty market grew to $15.3 billion, up 8% compared to the same time last year, while sales at mass merchants held flat.

The group found that fragrance was the fastest-growing prestige beauty category, with dollar sales up 12% in the first half versus the same period in 2023. According to the report, higher-priced eau de parfums and parfums topped sales growth, while units sold of mini- and travel-sized products grew at double the rate of the overall category’s growth. It also found that younger shoppers, as expected, favored under-$25 body mists and dupe fragrances. 

But the growing bifurcation across consumer preference within fragrance is also expanding out to the rest of the industry, said Larissa Jensen, global beauty industry advisor at Circana, in the report. “An accelerated bifurcation is emerging in the beauty industry highlighted by the continued strong growth in prestige in relation to the mass market,” she said. “Within prestige, drivers of growth point to a similar pattern, indicative of a consumer who is seeking elevated value. Optimizing these opportunities will vary as consumers’ approach to beauty spending differs by demographic — from attitudes and usage, to purchase influencers and shopping preferences.”

Meanwhile, the makeup category grew by 5%, with lip products overperforming thanks to double-digit growth led by lip balms and oils. Other standout categories included liquid blush; stick, balm and liquid bronzer; stick foundation; and stick eye shadow. In the mass sector, lip gloss and liner were top growth categories. 

Skin care remains the fastest-growing category based on units sold and, overall, had a 7% increase year-over-year. Body care, which sits under skin care, was the top growth category. Body spray sales grew triple-digits, and creams, lotions and cleansers won double-digit growth. But perhaps the most interesting piece of data was consumer interest in prestige body products, which saw 17% more buyers in this market compared to last year and a 25% increase in spending on prestige body-care products. 

Meanwhile, Launchmetrics released its 2024 data and insights report for the first half of the year, which included a ranking of the top 20 beauty brands based on media impact value, or MIV. Similar to earned media value (EMV), it measures the impact of all media placements and mentions across beauty, fashion and lifestyle media. 

The ranking has Dior, L’Oréal Paris, Charlotte Tilbury, MAC, Maybelline, Lancôme, Chanel, Fenty Beauty, YSL Beauté and Huda Beauty in the top 10. Rounding out the second half are Nars, Nyx, Rare Beauty, Armani Beauty, Estée Lauder, Benefit, Shiseido, E.l.f, Make Up For Ever and Pat McGrath Labs. 

When assessing these scores, Launchmetrics found that more than half of this value, or 62% of all meaningful mentions, was driven by posts made by influencers, followed by the media with 18%. Eleven percent was driven by the brand’s own media platforms. 

In its platform breakdown, Launchmetrics ranked Instagram as the leading social platform for driving beauty content, accounting for 38% of its monitored MIV content. TikTok came in second with 20%, followed by YouTube with 12%, RED (China’s Xiaohongshu) with 8% and Facebook with 3%.

Finally, Dash Hudson, an all-in-one social media management platform for brands, partnered with market research company NielsenIQ (NIQ) to assess the correlation between a beauty brand’s entertainment-focused social content and sales growth, among other assessments.

The study looked at 150 beauty brands over the course of one year. To start, Dash Hudson gave each brand an entertainment score — a proprietary score that measures engagement and retention — of 1-10. The results show that brands with a score of five or better had a 67% increase in sales over that year, further showing the importance of entertaining social content. The company’s case studies of top performers include Sol de Janeiro, Rare Beauty and Starface. 

Dash Hudson also published data on the value of creators to digital brand marketing. It found that creators get 12 times more engagement than a brand’s content. Within the same data matrix, it found more surprising numbers: “Nano creators are really great with [increasing] engagement rates [while] larger creators will get you more engagements [by volume],” Kate Kenner Archibald, CMO at Dash Hudson told Glossy. “The effectiveness rate also includes shares and saves, which is really interesting [because] we are seeing that mid-level [creators] is where you’re getting a peak, and then, of course, larger, macro-creators are getting [brands] more followers [by volume].”  Broken down, it found that creators beat brands in nearly every metric on Instagram, including engagement rate (3.5% versus 0.3%), total engagements (6,700 vs. 3,000) and effectiveness (65.4% versus 4.8%), further cementing the value of creators in every beauty brand’s digital marketing strategy. 

In terms of platform growth, “What’s interesting is followers are still growing quite rapidly on TikTok — not a shock — [but] brands are actually posting the most on X and Pinterest,” said Archibald. “But when you compare the three, you’ll see that Instagram is definitely the highest [in size of average community] but engagement rate is the strongest when it comes to TikTok.”

Executive moves: 

• Rashida La Lande is the new evp and general counsel of the Estée Lauder Companies. She previously held the role of general council at The Kraft Heinz Company and is succeeding Deirdre Stanley, who stepped down from the role at ELC in April. 

News to know:

• L’Oréal has taken on a 10% stake in Galderma, the parent company of Cetaphil skin- and body-care. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed, but the partnership marks a further investment from L’Oréal into dermatological beauty and includes a strategic partnership to share knowledge about the category between the two companies.
• Olaplex’s revenue dropped 4.8% in its fiscal Q2, compared to the same time last year, which it shared in its latest earnings statement on Tuesday. Despite the brand’s net sales having dropped nearly 5% to $103.9 million, it saw a 22.4% increase in specialty retail sales and an 18.4% decrease in professional sales, which could be a predictor of the direction of the business. 
• Body-care brand Salt & Stone has taken on an undisclosed minority investment from VC fund Humble Growth. It is Salt & Stone’s first investment, and the company will use the money to expand its Sephora partnership and its reach on Amazon. Salt & Stone sells deodorant, body wash, fragrance and various body-care products that retail for $20-$56. 
• Expansion into the pet-care category is seeing unexpected growth. Last week, Dolce & Gabbana introduced a dog fragrance named Fefé, named after and inspired by Domenico Dolce’s dog. The fragrance retails for $99 and is anchored around ylang-ylang, musk and sandalwood notes. 
• Meanwhile, for pet parents on a mass budget, Raw Sugar Living, a line of hair- and body-care products for adults and children sold at Target, Walmart, CVS Pharmacy and Costco, has expanded its offerings to pet care. The new line, called Fur Kids, launched DTC with three new products for $14.99 each: Freshen Up Pup Wipes, Sensitive Skin Shampoo + Conditioner, and Shiny Coat Shampoo + Conditioner. A representative from the company told WWD that the brand’s retail partners passed on carrying the line. 

Stat of the week:

In a report covered by Glossy, Hailey Bieber’s Rhode has usurped Benefit as the most talked-about blush , according to new data from Launchmetrics. For context, there are around 677,000 posts on TikTok tagged #blush and the interest is the category continues to have stunning growth. On Amazon alone, blush drove at least $58.9 million in sales in a 12-month period ending in July. Globally, the market value is predicted to reach $3.5 billion by 2030, according to market research firm Verified Market Reports. 

In the headlines:

E.l.f. Beauty sales jump 50% on gains in color cosmetics and skin care and the launch of Bronzing Drops serum. Equinox-owned Blink Fitness files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Auntie Anne ’s is launching a pretzel-inspired perfume. MAC Cosmetics partners with home interiors brand Lick on a limited-edition lipstick Shade. Remedy Place will open a new SoHo location. Lily Collins joins Silas Capital and G9 Ventures in celebrity hairstylist-founded Roz’s oversubscribed seed round. Tati Westbrook settles lawsuit, leaves Halo Beauty, plans to relaunch beauty brand. Fragrance pop-up at Caruso’s The Grove transports L.A. shoppers to Omani luxury .

Listen in: 

Nathalie Gerschtein, president of the consumer products division at L’Oréal North America, joins the Glossy Beauty Podcast to discuss her career growth and lessons learned, predictions for the future of the mass shopper, and recent challenges. 

Need a Glossy recap? 

The rise of the Gen-Z-loved Yuka app — and its growing cohort of critics. In Canada, the beauty retail market is up for grabs . Should health and wellness brands require influencer education? Schwarzkopf Professional partners with Olympic gold medalists on new campaign. What the creative director musical chairs means for designer beauty brands. 

• The Glossy Beauty Podcast BeautyCounter alum and Ritual chief impact officer Lindsay Dahl on how to lead a mission-driven brand
• New Business Models Why companies from Cirque du Soleil to Esquire are launching perfume
• Member Exclusive CMO Strategies: Inside Reddit, Pinterest and Snapchat’s efforts to court marketers

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The IndianPreneur

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Nykaa Case Study: History, Valuation, Product, Services & Growth

Nykaa is a premier online beauty and wellness destination. Nykaa.Com offers a comprehensive selection of makeup, skincare, haircare, fragrances, bath and body, and luxury products for women and men at the best prices. All products are 100% authentic, sourced directly from the brands, or authorized distributors. With more than 350 brands and over 30,000 products to choose from, Nykaa.Com is the one-stop online destination for you to sit back, relax and shop at your convenience with free beauty advice and assistance over the phone, advice from beauty experts, latest beauty trends, product reviews, tutorials, and celebrity looks on the Beauty Book Blog, and fun Virtual Makeover tool.

HISTORY Falguni Nayar, a former managing director at Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, founded Nykaa in 2012. It was launched as an eCommerce portal curating a range of beauty and wellness products. The brand name Nykaa is derived from the Sanskrit word nayaka, meaning ‘one in the spotlight’. In 2015, the company expanded from online-only to an omnichannel model and began selling fashion products.

VALUATION The valuation of the beauty and lifestyle retailer now pegged at $1.2 billion Omnichannel beauty and lifestyle retailer, Nykaa, has raised ₹100 crores from existing investor Steadview Capital, as a primary investment. With this fundraise, Nykaa’s valuation is pegged at around $1.2 billion.

The Mumbai-based start-up has raised Rs 100 crore from private equity firm TPG Growth at a valuation of $724 million, company filings sourced from business intelligence platform Paper showed.

PRODUCT & SERVICES

Nykaa follows an inventory-based model with warehouses in Mumbai, New Delhi and Bangalore. In addition to its primary e-commerce business, it has an offline presence via 68 brick-and-mortar stores across the country. It claims to have over 3 lakh products across 1,500 brands.

It has two offline store formats called Nykaa Luxe and Nykaa On Trend. The Luxe format features Indian and international luxury beauty brands along with Nykaa Beauty, the in-house collection of beauty products. The latter format has products curated by category basis their popularity. In 2015, Nykaa launched its collection of in-house beauty products. In March 2016, it introduced private labeled products in the bath and body care category.

GROWTH Nykaa has quickly become the first and foremost choice when people tend to buy something cosmetic online.

This is because it is a one-stop solution to everything basic e=required by a woman. From feminine hygiene to luxury makeup it has everything.

The key to the right business is the ability of a brand to actually build up trust among its customers. With the introduction of new customers every day it is also important for a business to flourish when its customers come back. This trust by Nykaa has been developed by delivering 100 percent authentic products delivered to the customer on time. In order to achieve this kind of speed and authenticity, Nykaa has adopted an inventory model where they collect all the items at one place in an inventory and process the order according to the products available in the stock. This ensures that all the bulk orders are received at once instead of one item at a time, which is the case with Flipkart or Amazon. This is a fresh approach that served many benefits with it came to earning the trust of its reiterating customers.

As mentioned by me earlier, Nykaa is the Pandora of products ranging from budget-friendly category to high luxury brands. Nykaa has recently started collaborating and introducing Non-Indian brands like HUDA Beauty, Kiko Milano, Wet and Wild, etc which is an achievement in itself. This has made Nykaa the hoarding spot for all the makeup enthusiasts who can now get their hands on the products which were not available in India earlier.

With the amalgamation of all these techniques and business strategies, Nykaa created a huge customer base for itself. This served as an advantage when it introduced its own makeup and skincare line in the market. With the A-Class quality products, it won the hearts of many makeup users who now had the option of a budget-friendly makeup line with the exact quality of some of the renowned luxury brands in the world.

With all these achievements in its cap, Nykaa also promoted the careers of many YouTube beauty gurus thereby portraying their talent and promoting the career path to the fullest.

The discounts available on Nykaa have saved a lot of pence many times. If we compare the retail price to the price at which it is available on the website, It usually has a significant difference, hence increasing its customer base again.

In other words, Nykaa has proven to be one of the best startups. With its poised and slow and steady approach, it is about to become one of the best beauty and wellness giants in the market, in the coming years. It is the epitome of trust, wellness, and care for all its customers.

INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS Nykaa’s fashion e-commerce store has launched international shipping to 13 countries as the multi-brand business works to expand its distribution network. Nykaa now ships to 13 countries with three shipping-cost tiers, the business announced on January 11 on Facebook. The retailer’s entire multi-brand selection of Indian fashion brands and its own private labels are now available to international customers. This also serves to greatly widen the distribution network of the brands Nykaa carries including Zariin, The Jodi Life, The Pink Elephant, Global Desi, and FKSN By Narendra Kumar among many others.

Nykaa Fashion has also greatly expanded its private-label offerings recently. New private label brands including accessories label Mondano, occasion wear label Rsvp, and silver jewelry label Likha launched their first collections online at the end of 2019. The business also held a number of pop-up shopping events at the end of 2019 to engage customers offline.

Click here to read more at The IndianPreneur.

• Lenskart Case Study: History, Valuation, Product, Services & Growth
• Khoj.city | Gurgaon Based Startup Empowering Artisans & Craftsmen

Aparna Rawat

Aparna Rawat is a business content writer for The IndianPreneur.

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Case Study: Ulta Beauty and VARGO

Are you curious about how Ulta Beauty, the largest beauty retailer in the U.S., revolutionized their distribution centers?

Read this case study to uncover how Ulta Beauty partnered with VARGO® to implement Locus Robotics’ LocusBots and improve their supply chain operations. By listening to their associates and addressing key challenges, Ulta Beauty enhanced efficiency and productivity across their facilities.

In this case study, you'll learn:

• How Ulta Beauty's new Greenfield facility in Greer, SC, became a model of efficiency
• The significant improvements in productivity and accuracy achieved through automation
• The impact of seasonal peak scalability with doubled bots and reduced training time

Explore the innovative steps Ulta Beauty took to stay ahead in the competitive beauty retail industry.

Read the full case study now and get inspired!

Please CLICK HERE to download the Case Study.

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How gen z’s obsession with beauty products is draining their wallets.

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dpatop - 23 July 2024, Hamburg: Nele (l) and Marissa from Dortmund, fans of singer Taylor Swift, ... [+] wait to enter the Volksparkstadion before the concert, wearing clothes to protect them from the rain and putting on make-up. Megastar Taylor Swift performs the first of two Hamburg concerts as part of her "Eras" tour on Tuesday. Photo: Daniel Bockwoldt/dpa (Photo by Daniel Bockwoldt/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Lately, the beauty industry has seen a major spike in interest, especially among Generation Z. According to Nano , demand for beauty products has shot up by 20% year over year, comparing Q1 2023 to 2022. And Statista reports that, on average, Gen-Zers are dropping over $2,000 annually on beauty products.

But with all this enthusiasm comes a downside—it's hitting their wallets hard and even pushing some into debt.

One of the big reasons behind Gen-Z's beauty spending is the huge influence of social media. Platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube are goldmines for beauty brands and influencers to reach young consumers. A 2023 Statista survey found that 83% of Gen-Z women bought beauty products online because content creators recommended them on TikTok. In fact, 53% of Gen-Z turns to TikTok for beauty inspiration.

These platforms are packed with tutorials, product reviews, and beauty challenges, all designed to grab Gen-Z's attention, at a very high cost. For example, Kim Kardashian’s skin care line, SKKN, can cost upwards of $673. The constant exposure to perfectly curated images and videos creates an idealized version of beauty, making it seem like you need to splurge on beauty products to reach those standards.

Then there's the rise of beauty influencers who constantly promote a range of products to their followers. These influencers, who often get paid or receive free products from brands, normalize the idea that you need an extensive collection of beauty products to have flawless skin or the perfect look. This can make Gen-Zers feel like they need to buy these products to keep up with trends and imitate the influencers they look up to.

Societal pressure also plays a huge role in Gen-Z's beauty spending. This generation is growing up in a world where appearance is closely tied to success and social acceptance. The pressure to look a certain way isn’t new, but it’s intensified with social media. Gen-Z is very aware of the importance of looking polished and attractive, both online and offline, which pushes them to invest in a variety of beauty products—from makeup and skincare to haircare and grooming.

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While it's easy to see why Gen-Z spends so much on beauty products, there are real concerns about the financial impact. According to LendingTree , 27% of Gen-Zers have gone into debt to buy beauty products.

Many in Gen-Z are still in school or just starting their careers, so their income is often limited. Overspending on beauty products can strain their budgets and cause financial stress. Plus, the beauty industry is always releasing new products and trends, creating a never-ending cycle of consumption that’s hard to break.

Looking ahead, these spending habits could have long-term consequences. As Gen-Z starts to take on more significant financial responsibilities like rent, student loans, and saving for the future, the money spent on beauty products could hold them back from achieving financial stability.

It’s crucial for young consumers to understand the importance of budgeting and prioritizing their financial well-being over the latest beauty trends. A good rule of thumb is to spend no more than 2% of your annual take-home pay on beauty products.

For instance, if you make $50,000 per year, your take-home pay after taxes is about $42,000, which means you should cap your beauty spending at $840 annually.

Spending more than 2% on beauty products isn’t the smartest financial move and can keep you from reaching your financial goals.

Thus, it's important for this generation to find a balance between self-care and financial responsibility. By doing so, they can enjoy beauty products without sacrificing their long-term financial health.

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Avon urged to slow bankruptcy while cancer victims get organized.

(Bloomberg) -- Beauty brand Avon Products Inc. should slow down its bankruptcy case so that people who allegedly got cancer from the company’s products have time to study any potential payout plan, a lawyer said in court Wednesday.

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Victims deserve a special committee to represent them in the Chapter 11 case, said Todd Phillips, a lawyer for people who claim Avon’s talc products are responsible for their health problems. The company faces nearly 400 lawsuits alleging that some Avon cosmetics contained asbestos, a toxic substance that was once used in everything from automobile brake pads to ceiling tiles.

“It all seems to be moving very quickly,” Phillips told US Bankruptcy Judge Craig Goldblatt during Avon Products’s first hearing in the case. “There needs to be time” for victims to form a committee and study the company’s reorganization proposal.

Goldblatt declined to take any action on the request for a panel. Under US bankruptcy law, if the Office of the US Trustee, which oversees corporate insolvency cases, refuses to appoint a committee, victims can ask Goldblatt to intervene.

Avon Products operates outside the US and is no longer related to the company that does business in America. The lawsuits are based on sales that occurred until 2016, when Avon Products sold its US operations. Avon Products is owned by Brazil-based Natura & Co, according to court documents. The US version of Avon is not in bankruptcy and is owned by a different company.

Goldblatt approved Avon Products’s request to borrow at least $12 million from its parent to help it pay for the restructuring case. The company will return to court in the coming months for permission to borrow more cash, Avon Products lawyers said.

The US Trustee will need a week or two to decide whether the case should have one creditor committee that includes people suing Avon Products, or two panels, said Linda Richenderfer, a lawyer with the Office of the US Trustee. One committee would represent alleged cancer victims and one would be for traditional creditors like suppliers and landlords.

The Avon brand became famous in the 20th century for its door-to-door saleswomen with their catch phrase “Avon Calling.” Today, the international brand said it was forced to file bankruptcy, in part because of the pandemic and to confront a wave of lawsuits alleging talc in its products caused cancer.

The company spent $225 million defending personal injury lawsuits and settlement payments and doesn’t have “sufficient liquidity to litigate and/or settle” the cases, its Chief Restructuring Officer Philip Gund said in court filings. The company expects the number of lawsuits “will only continue to increase absent a permanent solution.”

Avon Products is the latest company to seek bankruptcy in order to deal with lawsuits stemming from the sale of talc products. Most notably, Johnson & Johnson has tried to settle with plaintiffs using bankruptcy multiple times and is yet to succeed.

The company has $1.3 billion of debt mostly owed to its parent, Natura, which bought Avon Products in 2020.

While in bankruptcy, Avon Products will try to sell its assets, with Natura offering to buy it for $125 million in the absence of higher offers. As part of its bid, the Brazilian company will write off $530 million of debt it’s owed and provide an additional $43 million to fund the bankruptcy, according to the filings.

The Avon brand in the US is owned currently by LG Household & Health Care Ltd.

The bankruptcy is AIO US Inc., 24-11836, US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

--With assistance from Jeremy Hill.

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Top Trends in Digital Marketing and Ad Tracking

Best Lifestyle Affiliate Programs in 2024 with Expert Case Study

Showing the world your unique lifestyle is more popular than ever — Gen Z and Millennial consumers invest in wellness and appearance-related products, unlike older generations.

In short, lifestyle is a way of living, and it’s different for everyone. Some prioritize fitness, others focus on body nourishment, while many express themselves through fashion.

Curious about lifestyle niches? That’s great! In this article, we’ll discuss the top lifestyle affiliate programs and share how our expert partners launch ads for this niche .

Are Lifestyle Offers Profitable?

Promoting lifestyle offers can be profitable when approached strategically. Not sure how to do that? Well, our expert partner shared their lifestyle campaign launch story. Let’s analyze it and see their results:

Case creatives and texts Details: Expenses: $3,372 Income: $6,966 Profit: $3,593 Duration: Month  Target Audience: GEO: Poland   Age: F 35+ Placement : Facebook, mobile devices Our partner launched a campaign, driving traffic to shape underwear. For that, they crafted a mix of fresh and eye-catching creatives, all tracked through Keitaro Tracker . The campaign’s early days were overwhelming, resulting in a low CR. But, through A/B testing and detailed ad reports, they found three standout creatives with a 9% CTR. From that point, the team carefully analyzed campaign performance, quickly replacing underperforming ads and scaling up budgets.  Thanks to the real-time insights and campaign analysis from Keitaro Tracker, what began as a tough challenge turned into a $3,593 profit. Check Keitaro Tracker

So, you too can generate good profits with lifestyle offers if you have the right strategy and tools.

Top Lifestyle Affiliate Programs of 2024

Since lifestyle consists of many subcategories, we’ll look at them separately. This way, you can choose the sub-niche that you find most fitting.

Fashion Affiliate Programs

Since the pandemic, online shopping has grown a lot, making it the new norm for purchasing clothing and accessories. Clothes, footwear, accessories — everything is available online and often with a wider selection than in physical stores.

As a result, in 2023, this niche has hit $134.5 billion in the US alone. So, if you’re interested in fashion, here are the top affiliate programs to consider:

Lululemon, originally founded as a yoga store in Canada in the late ‘90s, has evolved into a leading brand in activewear, everyday clothing, and lifestyle products.

Lululemon’s quality and diversity make it a valuable affiliate opportunity for those who create content for the fitness and lifestyle niche. So, by joining their affiliate program, you can earn commissions for each sale you drive.

Lululemon Benefits

Urban Outfitters

Urban Outfitters is a leading retailer known for its unique mix of apparel and lifestyle products, catering specifically to Millennials and Gen Z-ers.

The brand has trendy offerings and a strong presence in the niche, making its affiliate program a great option for fashion and lifestyle affiliates.

Urban Outfit Benefits

Sport Affiliate Programs

Gear, sportswear, protein powders, bars… The sports niche includes everything you can imagine a gym lover would have. According to an analysis by the Global Health and Fitness Organization, 66.5 million , or 21.8% of Americans were members of a fitness or health club.

Sports are in, and both beginner and expert affiliates can use this demand to their advantage. Here’s what you can start with:

Mountain Hardware

With Mountain Hardwear, affiliates can earn commissions by promoting high-quality outdoor gear, including clothing, tents, sleeping bags, and backpacks. Since 1993, the brand has been known as one of the leading outdoor brands and is a favorite among climbers, hikers, trail runners, and others.

Affiliates benefit from promoting products with an AOV of over $140 , which translates into good profits.

Mountain Hardware Benefits

GoPro is a name synonymous with adventure and innovation, capturing the essence of sports and outdoor activities with cameras and accessories. In 2023, the brand’s revenue reached over $469 million .

GoPro’s affiliate program allows affiliates to earn commissions from sales each attracted sale.

GoPro Benefits

Health Affiliate Programs

By 2027 the health and wellness niche is believed to reach an estimated $8.47 trillion . Supplements, medicine, vitamins — all of that is sold every day to people.

This niche is good for beginners because it has a clear targeted audience — older people who become conscious of their health. So, if that interests you, look at the following affiliate programs:

Market Health

The Market Health Affiliate Program allows you to partner with leading names in the health, beauty, and wellness niches. With a wide selection of products and competitive commission rates, this program is designed for affiliates looking for Nutra offers.

Market Health Benefits

Life Extension

Life Extension is a well-regarded health and wellness brand known for its high-quality supplements and commitment to improving longevity. Their affiliate program offers an opportunity for affiliates to monetize their health-focused content.

Life Extension Benefits

Beauty Affiliate Programs

Beauty isn’t just about makeup. It also offers products like skincare, haircare, bath and body, accessories — which are more popular than makeup today.

This niche is major with many profitable opportunities, making it quite competitive. But if you have a good strategy in mind and are ready to get into beauty, here are programs to try:

Cult Beauty

Cult Beauty is a UK-based skincare and makeup store, available for both European and North American audiences. The company focuses on transparency and lists exclusive brands and products on its website — a great USP for ad campaigns.

The Cult Beauty affiliate program allows affiliates to earn commissions by promoting a wide range of high-quality, sustainable beauty products. Unlike some programs, this one is available for affiliates worldwide.

Cult Beauty Benefits

Beauty Bay was founded in 1999 as a fragrance retailer, which later expanded to selling skincare and makeup. Today, the company has over 10,000 products on its website and new launches every week.

The Beauty Bay affiliate program allows affiliates to get commissions for makeup, skincare, haircare, bath and body items, and accessories sales. The program is available worldwide, making it an excellent choice for those looking to monetize their beauty-related content.

Beauty Bay Benefits

Versatile Lifestyle Products Programs

If you don’t want to work with an individual brand and what a one-size-fits-all solution, look no further than eCommerce. Their platforms offer thousands and millions of different products of any niche — and here are some top ones to try:

Amazon Associates

Amazon Associates is one of the most well-known and versatile affiliate programs available, making it an appealing choice for affiliates across various niches. Given Amazon’s vast selection of products and high consumer trust, it’s a powerful tool for monetizing lifestyle content.

Learn how to work with Amazon Associates in our dedicated article — How to Succeed in Amazon Affiliate Program 2024 .

Amazon Benefits

Etsy is a marketplace for unique, creative, and handcrafted items, which people use to find unique items and gifts. It’s not as profitable as Amazon, but its focus on originality and sustainability makes it an attractive option for affiliates targeting specific lifestyle niches.

Etsy Benefits

Ready to Launch?

Now that you’re equipped with the best lifestyle affiliate programs, it’s time to work on creatives and start launching.

And don’t forget to follow our experts’ footsteps and optimize your campaigns by tracking their performance through Keitaro Tracker. Try our gold-standard affiliate tracker today with a 14-day free trial :

Stay tuned for more marketing insights from the Keitaro team.

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All the World's a Stage for Katie Holmes

That’s been the case for Katie Holmes for more than 25 years, and now the actress is coming back to Broadway to breathe new life into an American classic.

‘‘I have no idea where we are,” says Katie Holmes. We’re on a stroll through Central Park on an overcast afternoon this summer, her favorite time of year, and have been walking with no destination in mind when Holmes notices an older gentleman headed our way, wearing a sheepish expression and holding a rather large turtle.

“It was wandering across the lawn all by itself, so I thought I’d bring it up by the water,” the man says.

“Is it a snapping turtle?” Holmes asks.

“No, it seems lost. I’m probably doing the wrong thing.”

“Let’s just hope it didn’t take him four weeks to get there from here,” Holmes says, patting the turtle’s shell as she turns away and says, sotto voce, “I’m kind of afraid of turtles.”

We’ve stumbled into one of the wilder sections of the park, a rocky swamp left in its natural state as a contrast to the manicured lawns and leafy boulevards of New York’s crown jewel of greenery. Holmes has been coming here for years, often to let her mind wander, but this is a different experience. “This is so gorgeous,” she says. “I didn’t even know about this.”

Holmes has suggested a surprisingly exposed venue for an interview, though few actors walk the tightrope between public and private more deftly than she. Being in the limelight for more than 25 years—first as the sweetheart star of the teenage TV drama Dawson’s Creek , then as a tabloid chew toy for her relationships, and lately as a reluctant street style icon—has made her determined to go about her life as if no one would ever notice Katie Holmes walking through Central Park, which on this day appears to be the case. Walking in nature invites a more contemplative conversation, and we fall into an easy discussion about her latest work: Holmes returns to Broadway this month in director Kenny Leon’s revival of Our Town . Besides the man with the turtle, the only person who approaches us is touting a horse-drawn carriage ride.

“We forget we can just come here and do this on a lovely afternoon,” Holmes says. “There’s so much beauty in the simplicity.”

These days Holmes might want to savor every moment, which is the message of Thornton Wil­der’s beloved slice-of-Americana play, written in 1938, as she is experiencing big moments of her own. Now 45 years old, facing a future for the first time as an empty nester (her daughter Suri is heading off to college as you read this), Holmes has thrown herself into creative pursuits including dance classes (“I love a dance studio because every time you enter, you’re starting from the beginning, and that’s a good, meditative way to approach the day”), painting (“I like abstract and took a class right here”), and even a book club (“You learn so much about each other—it’s a chance for everybody to share what moves them”). She’s a great reader; her group, which meets about five times a year, recently discussed Abraham Verghese’s The Covenant of Water .

.css-4rnr1w:before{margin:0 auto 1.875rem;width:60%;height:0.125rem;content:'';display:block;background-color:#9a0500;color:#fff;} .css-1x12re0{margin:0rem;font-size:1.625rem;line-height:1.2;font-family:NewParis,NewParis-fallback,NewParis-roboto,NewParis-local,Georgia,Times,serif;color:#030929;}@media(max-width: 64rem){.css-1x12re0{font-size:2.25rem;line-height:1.1;}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.css-1x12re0{font-size:2.625rem;line-height:1.1;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-1x12re0{font-size:2.8125rem;line-height:1.1;}}.css-1x12re0 em,.css-1x12re0 i{font-style:italic;font-family:inherit;}.css-1x12re0 b,.css-1x12re0 strong{font-family:inherit;font-weight:bold;} “She can play danger. She can play love, envy. I want the presence that is Katie onstage.” —Kenny Leon

This is an important thing to know about Holmes, because she considers herself a quiet person who likes simplicity. She speaks with nostalgia about her upbringing in Toledo, Ohio, which is not exactly Grover’s Corners from Our Town but is closer than New York City, and reading is usually how she prepares for a role. “I read a lot to calm my mind down, and then I play,” she says. “We all live at this fast pace, and I know sometimes I need to calm down.”

Lately her professional choices have seemed more considered and personal than earlier in her career, when she starred in Dawson’s Creek , Batman Begins , and a pair of Jackie Kennedy bio-series. Now she can take to the stage or call the shots from behind the camera. Holmes has demonstrated the sort of staying power that is rare in her business, partly because she has pushed back when others have tried to define her, both in film and in fashion, which hasn’t always been easy.

“Do I have 20 scripts at my door, all with the green light? No. Would that make life easier? Yes. Is that unrealistic? Yes,” Holmes says. “Everybody has to find their interesting story, try to put it together, and make poetry out of things. There’s a lot of thought that goes into the projects I work on, but at the end of the day you still want to create something that people will respond to. You’re always at the whim of someone.”

As it happens, earlier this year she was reading Tom Lake , a novel by Ann Patchett that includes a character who has played the role of Emily Webb in Our Town multiple times, when she ran into Leon, whom she had met about 15 years ago while workshopping a production that never got off the ground. Leon broached the subject of casting Holmes, who last appeared Off-­Broadway a year ago in The Wanderers (playing, of all things, a famous actress), as Mrs. Webb—­Emily’s mother—in his production, which includes Zoey Deutch as Emily, Jim Parsons in the role of the stage manager, and Ephraim Sykes as Emily’s love interest, George Gibbs. Growing up in Florida, Leon says, he used to hate the play because Grover’s Corners had no Black people (“It seems like the most racist place in the world”), but he has since staged contemporary renditions in Atlanta with his True Colors Theatre Company that showed that its themes are universal when the casting is more diverse. “I wanted one family to be Black and one family to be white, because I wanted the older generation to learn from the younger generation,” Leon says. “This is the best play of all time. It is the play to remind us how to spend our moments on the planet and that we have to help our friends and neighbors. It reminds us what we owe each other.”

Likewise, Leon sees in Holmes something he thinks others have missed. “People don’t realize her breadth and wealth of talent. This is basically an ensemble piece, so I really need actors who can understand subtext—what’s really going on beneath these words. She can play danger. She can play love, envy. I just want the presence that is Katie Holmes on stage.” Surely, Holmes can relate.

“This play is important after what we’ve all been going through,” says Holmes, who spent much of the pandemic holed up in upstate New York with her daughter, trying to make something meaningful out of the collective misery.

It would be easy, and foolish, to think she’s just this smiley girl. She’s a powerhouse.” —Alan Cumming

In 2022 she wrote, directed, and starred in the film Alone Together , the story of two strangers who find love after they book the same Airbnb while escaping New York in March 2020. The New York Times called it a “quiet achievement: a movie that isn’t running away from reality.” She co-wrote last year’s Rare Objects (her third feature directorial effort), adapted from the novel by Kathleen Tessaro about a young woman, the victim of a sexual assault, rebuilding her life while working in an antique shop; one of the shop’s owners is played by Alan Cumming, who has become a close friend. They’ve even taken a stab at writing a script together. “It would be easy, and foolish, to think she’s just this smiley girl, but she’s a powerhouse,” Cumming says. “You don’t get to do the things she’s done by being passive.”

Now Holmes is writing three scripts at once, a love story trilogy in the vein of Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise series that follows a young couple from high school through their thirties. “I was drawn to create a love story, because I think that that never goes out of style,” she says. “We all want to escape into that.”

Not that she would remember, but I first met Holmes in 2006 in Paris, at a Giambattista Valli show, and then again in 2013, when she and stylist Jeanne Yang were showing their own fashion collection in New York. Even during those brief encounters, it was evident that the public had a fixation with Holmes for reasons other than her professional achievements. Holmes, who now works with the stylist Brie Welch, is held up for scrutiny not so much for her acting or directing as for what she wears while hailing a taxi or running errands. Her outfits have become a beat for many fashion magazines; upon the release of a design collaboration between Holmes and the French fashion label APC in June, the Washington Post headlined an article by Rachel Tashjian “ Why does everyone want to dress like Katie Holmes? ”

Her style has been described as relatable, approachable, practical, and seemingly effortless, although the New York Times used the word “ generic .” She is “accessible and elevated,” says Judith Touitou, the artistic director of APC. “Katie’s style inspires people because it is composed of pieces that everyone has in their closet but assembled in an inventive, personal manner that you can then translate into your own world.” The most personal item in the collection, a quilt inspired by one Holmes’s mother made for her, was the first to sell out, and items that comprise her signature look—jeans and a white T-shirt—are best-sellers.

Tashjian says she suspects that what’s driving the interest in Holmes’s clothes is the gulf viewers see between the actress and celebrities who wear don’t-try-this-at-home fashion during their daily routines. “Our eyes are so trained to see overly styled images as natural, this looks fresh,” Tashjian says. “It’s clear that even though Katie Holmes works with a stylist, she doesn’t call every day asking how to tuck her shirt into her jeans.”

“I’m adamant about having a life and not letting this industry dictate decisions as simple as what I wear.”

Holmes dresses in a way that makes it look easy, as if she doesn’t care what people think, and she still looks undeniably great. For the record, during our afternoon together, she wore a light, ribbed ­terra-cotta-colored cotton V-neck sweater from the APC collaboration ($350) over a brown acetate slip dress by Tibi that can be found online for $425 , and strappy sandals. At one point she removed her sweater and let down her hair, which had been tucked under a baseball cap, and frankly she could have walked a red carpet in that slip dress. If that isn’t the definition of je ne sais quoi, I don’t know what is.

“This is where we are right now,” Holmes says. “Fashion is really big, and it didn’t used to be. As an actor, you weren’t necessarily photographed all the time on the street. It’s different now, and it’s flattering, but it doesn’t change how I live or dress. I’m adamant about having a life and not letting this industry dictate decisions as simple as what I wear or as complicated as what I do. You don’t want to be afraid of anything, right?”

As we exit the woods near Wollman Rink, I confess that I am wearing ankle socks, which are now the mark of “old people,” according to a viral TikTok post. “I had no idea,” she says. “I thought that was the thing to have.”

“I thought so too, but apparently now it’s, like, mid-calf.”

“I think it’s pants-dependent. You made the right choice.”

I thank her for the compliment, but later I wonder, was that a dig? But of course not. There is no hint of cynicism in Holmes. She says she loves the shared experience of living in New York, and the rituals of the theater, especially the way a cast creates its own community. Both offer a sense of intimacy with strangers that can be elusive for a celebrity who has sought to shield her family from prying eyes. That’s something Holmes is discovering becomes harder as her daughter makes her own way in the world. A few days before we met, Suri’s supposed college choice was inadvertently revealed to the world when one of her high school classmates posted a TikTok video on the school’s “commitment day,” showing her wearing a college’s sweatshirt. According to the gossip that followed, Suri, who has contributed vocals to songs in two of Holmes’s films, is said to be interested in pursuing a career in fashion or acting, which seems like following in her mother’s footsteps.

This is all that Holmes will say on the subject: “I’m proud of my daughter. Of course, I will miss the close proximity, but I’m really proud of her and I’m happy. I remember being this age, this time of beginnings. It’s exciting to learn about yourself, and I loved that time, so it makes me happy to think about it like that.”

Luckily, it’s something Holmes won’t have to weather alone. Like every other resident of Grover’s Corners, she’s got a community to support her. “The members of my book club are going to get annoyed hearing from me,” she says with a laugh. “I’ll be like, ‘Let’s meet once a week.’ ”

Photographs by Ruven Afanador . Styled by Bernat Buscato .

Hair by DJ Quintero for Living Proof at the Wall Group. Makeup by Genevieve Herr for Lancôme at Sally Harlor. Manicure by Ada Yeung for Dior at Bridge. Tailoring by Christine Gabriele at Lars Nord. Set design by Anthony Asaro . Prop styling by Lauren Alexander . Production: Viewfindersnyla .

In the top image: Thom Browne trench coat and pleated skirt; Fleur Du Mal slip dress ($465); Wolford tights ($75); Max Mara ankle boots ($1,090).

Eric Wilson is a veteran fashion and style journalist based in New York and Hong Kong, where he most recently was editorial director of Tatler Asia Group overseeing its eight editions published in the region. He was previously a staff reporter for The New York Times and WWD , and fashion news director for InStyle . 

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