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As CreatorIQ consolidates our standing as the world’s leading creator marketing solution for enterprise brands, this newsletter is branching out into new territories—whether that’s a roundup of the year’s standout enterprise campaigns or an in-flight guide to airlines and creator marketing.
But it’s also true that CreatorIQ has a deep roster of clients from the world of beauty, and that my own roots lie in writing about that industry. And so, as is the case with so much in life, this blog series is a balancing act: making sure that we stay on-target and on-brand with our enterprise friends, while also giving steady shoutouts to our pals who are doing great things in the world of beauty.
Just like life, sometimes this balance is deftly handled, and sometimes it’s a bit abrupt. This is one of those latter times. Here comes clean beauty!
Two great brands, and two great CreatorIQ clients, Tower 28 Beauty and Skylar represent both where clean beauty has been and where it’s going next. Apart from their partnership with CreatorIQ, Tower 28 Beauty and Skylar share many similarities:
Let’s dive into the factors fueling momentum for each brand, along with key moments and campaigns from the past year (July 2023 to June 2024).
We’ve not only talked about this brand before—we’ve talked to them. In Episode 96 of Earned, Conor sat down with Amy Liu, Tower 28 Beauty’s founder and CEO. So yes, they’re getting a little extra coverage, but looking at the numbers, can you really blame us?
That’s what we write and read this newsletter for, folks—charts like this one. Sensational.
So how’d they do it?
As anyone following beauty could tell you, lip products are having a moment. Some of the most impactful new launches we’ve seen in 2024 have catered to lips. Somebody at Tower 28 Beauty must have gotten the memo, because the brand’s highest EMV-generating pieces of content are littered with lip references: from shout-outs for the brand’s gloss to traction for the ShineOn Lip Jelly and LipSoftie Lip Treatment, lips were all the rage for Tower 28 Beauty over the last year.
What’s more, because Tower 28 Beauty is often featured in tutorial content alongside other brands (more on that in a second), posts about the brand can be taken as a microcosm of posts about beauty at large—especially trends in clean beauty. And on that front, it’s clear how popular lip products remain: of Tower 28 Beauty’s $159.5M EMV from July 2023 to June 2024 (which, by the way, was a 99% YoY growth), $75.3M EMV stemmed from posts mentioning ‘lips.’ Check out how this compares to other common beauty terms, and you’ll see just how thoroughly lips dominate the conversation:
One reason why lips are such a common theme—and why Tower 28 Beauty has blown up in general—is because of the prevalence of tutorial content in the brand’s overall content profile. In what might be a first (but don’t hold me to it), Tower 28 Beauty’s top hashtag is neither something branded (#Tower28Beauty, #Tower28Partner), something advertorial (#ad), nor something generic (#beauty, #makeup).
Instead, it’s #GRWM (Get Ready With Me), a common tutorial genre. In all, #GRWM accounted for $25.0M EMV, or over 15% of Tower 28 Beauty’s total.
Thanks to the conversational quality of #GRWM posts, which often offer a dose of inspiration or thought-provoking questions alongside a makeup routine, Tower 28 Beauty has spread more readily throughout the beauty discourse, often popping up next to creators’ other favorite brands.
The biggest contributor to this tutorial trend was the aptly named Lindsey’s Makeup Looks account. Lindsey proved Tower 28 Beauty’s top EMV-driver by a wide margin—like, a really wide margin:
Somebody send her some free lip gloss!
The only surprise is that I didn’t mention TikTok sooner. But it’s true: as with many other high-growth brands, both within beauty and in other verticals, TikTok is a primary growth driver, with the platform’s viral potential remaining unmatched. Tower 28 Beauty ought to send the folks behind the algorithm some free lip gloss, too. (And while you’re at it, please save some for me.)
Check out how Tower 28 Beauty’s TikTok totals compare to its Instagram hauls from July 2023 to June 2024:
While Instagram has the edge in EMV total, TikTok is growing at a far faster rate across all these metrics. What’s more, despite claiming fewer posts and creators on TikTok, the platform outperforms the Impressions and Engagements marks set by Instagram. Translation: content about Tower 28 Beauty reaches more eyes and resonates more deeply on TikTok. As a result, the platform has played an outsized role in catapulting the brand to such lofty heights in the world of clean beauty.
Anyone who peruses Skylar’s website—say, in advance of writing a newsletter about them—could tell you that family is central to the brand’s origin story. Brand founder Cat Chen was motivated to found the brand not only by her parents’ entrepreneurial example, but by her infant daughter’s allergic reaction to perfume. Chen set out to build a brand that offers consumers hypoallergenic, non-irritating scents. According to the data, consumers are responding positively:
We should really get Chen on Earned so she can walk us through this journey herself, but until then, I can step in and explain the brand’s success as best I can.
While Tower 28 Beauty prospered thanks to GRWM content, Skylar soared thanks to a potent combination of two hot trends in the beauty industry: clean beauty, which I’ve mentioned a thing or two about, and Sephora, which is in the midst of a crazy rise of its own.
Know how I know? The hashtags don’t lie. While #Perfume and #Fragrance ranked as Skylar’s top two hashtags with $1.4M EMV and $1.3M EMV, respectively, #CleanAtSephora followed close behind at No. 3 with $950.6k EMV. Creators used the hashtag to share their favorite Skylar fragrances, often in the context of the brand’s gifting campaigns (more on that in a second). Additionally, #CleanGirlAesthetic ranked as another of Skylar’s top five hashtags, inspiring $796.8k EMV.
By identifying closely with the clean beauty trend, and by emerging as a Sephora favorite, Skylar has wisely linked itself to two of the biggest movements in beauty at large.
Remember a second ago, when I said I’d get to that gifting thing in a second? Well, that second has passed.
One thing that stood out to me when looking at content about Skylar was the frequency, and enthusiasm, of creators who shared posts about free products they’d received from Skylar. Fragrance fans like Perfume Disco and Lizzy Grace shared sponsored and paid partnership content touting Skylar’s generosity, often hyping new products like the Hair & Body Mist Spray. In all, posts from this gifting program generated $1.4M EMV—over 10% of Skylar’s $13.8M EMV total from July 2023 to June 2024.
Since Skylar has found such success via product gifting, I am once again appealing to a brand to send me some swag—it’s worked out well for you before, Skylar! After all, it helped you build…
As Skylar has grown its EMV and engagements over the past year, it’s done so mainly on the back of creators who hadn’t posted about the brand during the previous year. These newcomers are often drawn to Skylar via its gifting program, or by the brand’s heightened presence in clean beauty or Sephora content.
The results were fairly dramatic:
Newcomers were responsible for $8.3M EMV, or 60% of Skylar’s total. This progress cemented the cohort as Skylar’s primary growth driver, especially given that retained creators increased their total by just ~$500k EMV YoY.
Five of Skylar’s top 10 earners during the time period monitored were newcomers—a relatively high figure for a brand over the course of a year.
As shown by the examples set by Tower 28 Beauty and Skylar, there’s no single path to the top for clean beauty brands. Beyond boasting compelling narratives and winning products, standout brands should be sure to tap into force multipliers like TikTok, Sephora, and gifting campaigns. With the space still growing, and these brands still surging, expect to hear a lot more about Tower 28 Beauty, Skylar, and clean beauty at large.
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