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Here’s a hot tip that only creator marketing experts will tell you: if you’re going to start a successful beauty brand, it’s helpful to have already founded an extremely successful non-luxury fashion brand. I’m honestly not sure why more brands aren’t trying this strategy—I mean, the proof is right there.
Launched in 2019, SHEGLAM is the cosmetics-focused spinoff/sister brand of SHEIN, a fast-fashion giant last valued at, oh, a modest $66 billion.
Clarifying remark: I am not an economist or a political commentator (oh, you didn’t know?). I am somebody who writes a weekly newsletter that recycles the same five or six jokes, and my graphs are mostly the ones that Google Sheets makes for me. I am in no way qualified to discuss SHEIN’s status as a Chinese-owned company, or its quest for an IPO in a market that’s friendlier to Chinese-owned companies than the United States. I am just here to point out that $66 billion is a considerable amount of money, and that like any good nepobaby, SHEGLAM got a head start in life.
However, like only the finest nepobabies, SHEGLAM has taken that head start and run with it, enjoying a success that’s wholly its own and wholly deserved.
Let’s see what Google Sheets has to say about our little brand that could:
SHEGLAM EMV, 2018 - 2023
Looks like from 2018 onwards, SHEGLAM has gone from zero to…a number way bigger than zero. $126.1M EMV, in fact.
Over the same period, sister-brand SHEIN has also enjoyed tremendous growth, though that momentum has been flagging a bit lately:
SHEIN EMV, 2018 - 2023
Keep the scale of this graph in mind: SHEGLAM is approximately where SHEIN was in 2018. But with the strides that SHEGLAM is taking, there’s a good chance that the makeup brand will follow in its big sister’s footsteps.
What’s got SHEGLAM surging lately? Let’s take a look:
1. Consistent Creators Carry The Day
It stands to reason that when a new-ish brand grows, it’s likely due to an influx of additional creators. Time and again, in beauty and elsewhere, I’ve seen hot brands take the leap when they catch on thanks to a viral campaign or product that procures notable additions to its community. But that wasn’t the case for SHEGLAM, which instead appears to have already built a solid foundation amongst consistent fans. Check out the brand’s community breakdown from June 2023 to May 2024, paying special attention to consistent and new creators:
SHEGLAM Creator Status, June 2023 - May 2024
While $41.9M EMV from new creators is nothing to sniff at (but why would you be sniffing it?), it’s more impressive, at least to me, to see the numbers that SHEGLAM is already pulling from faithful contributors. In all, this $94.3M EMV accounted for roughly 70% of the brand’s $136.3M EMV, a total which in turn proved a 42% year-over-year growth.
In other words, as SHEGLAM continues to climb the charts, it has increased activity from faithful creators to thank for its momentum.
2. The Sound a Clock Makes
You’ve heard me say it countless times before. As soon as I come in with, “hey, here’s a growing brand—wonder why it’s growing,” you expect it. You tense up. And I don’t blame you—I’m tense, too. So you know what? I’m not even going to say it this time. I’m just going to direct your attention toward this chart, and any conclusions you draw from it are entirely your own:
SHEGLAM EMV and YoY growth on Instagram & TikTok
It’s That App again, doing what it does.
As I’ve said before, you typically expect a 70-30 or maybe 65-35 EMV split for beauty brands between Instagram and TikTok, so to see those platforms’ totals be roughly even definitely stands out. What’s more, TikTok is clearly the growth engine for the brand as a whole, as evidenced by the platform’s 71% surge.
(And yes, I’m aware that the Instagram and TikTok totals don’t add up to the total total. There’s a little extra in there spread across other channels, but these are the platforms that count the most.)
3. Products Built for the Moment
If you were to boil down the biggest product trends in beauty over the last several years, at least in terms of what’s driven the most EMV, it would probably look something like:- BOLD color cosmetics
- Lips galore
- Some truly out-there product collabs with pop culture staples
- The Color Bloom Liquid Blush (it’s got color right in the name!)
- The Mirror Kiss High-Shine Lipstick (people love shiny things! Even lips!)
- Both the Harry Potter x SHEGLAM collection and the Care Bears x SHEGLAM collection (no word on any potential Harry Potter x Care Bears merch)
If you can’t get millennials to buy makeup when you’re working with both Harry Potter and the Care Bears, then you’re doing something wrong. Fortunately for SHEGLAM, it looks like they’re doing everything right.
Which brings me to an important point: for all that creator marketing and the beauty industry have changed, the path to success has largely remained the same:- Building a consistent fanbase, and encouraging repeated content creation, will never go out of style.
- While the social platform of the moment might change, whatever it is, brands need to invest heavily and adapt quickly—just as SHEGLAM did with TikTok.
- For all the splashy brand events, for all the creator drama, in the end, people buy the products they love. Sounds simple, sure—but then why do so many brands get it wrong?
Like SHEIN before it, SHEGLAM is excelling on all these fronts. An as exciting as the Creator Economy can be, after eight years it’s a comfort, as both a writer and space-observer, to know that some things don’t change. I can’t wait to see where SHEGLAM, and creator marketing as a whole, end up eight years from now.
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