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Looking for an easy date night makeup look? How to do an effortless full face of makeup for your first day of work? Don’t know what to buy first from Sephora’s online sale? The beauty content creators on YouTube quickly became the unofficial gurus of the industry, known as the influencers who will answer any and all your burning questions when it comes to all things beauty.
Beauty-related videos have been around on the platform since 2006, when Adrienne K. Nelson uploaded a video titled “Makeup Lessons - Look HOT in 5 Minutes or Less”. Since then, creators like Michelle Phan and NikkieTutorials have helped pave the way for other make-up-related content creators. These creators can film anything from make-up tutorials, chatty get-ready-with me, or videos discussing their favorite and least favorite products from a specific brand. Brand sponsorships can organically and seamlessly be integreated into any of these videos. In fact, the beauty industry was valued at $532 billion in 2019, and that number could largely be attributed to beauty YouTubers. Like in any niche, viewers trust the YouTubers for their honest opinions and are more likely to buy the products they recommend.
There are many beauty and make-up YouTubers that have thousands, if not millions, of followers that watch their every brush stroke. This means that there are millions of viewers that are a potential new client base for brands looking to market themselves online through sponsored videos.
Nikkie De Jager, known to her followers as NikkieTutorials, is considered the top creator in the Beauty category on YouTube. NikkieTutorials sits at a comfortable 13.9 million subscriber count over on YouTube, and has collaborated with a number of ‘big names’ over the years, including Lady Gaga, Ashley Graham, and most recently, Adele! Nikkie often collaborates with IT Cosmetics, a top brand in the beauty sphere (it was sold to L'Oréal in 2016 for 1.2 billion!), and CashApp, a mobile payment service that allows users to transfer money to one another using a mobile phone app.
Other influencers such as James Charles, Jaclyn Hill and Huda Kattan own their own beauty brands or have designed collaborations with them in the past. With millions of followers between them, this gives their products a wide audience to promote to and is a great way to launch their new business ventures. For example, Jaclyn Hill launched a Champagne Pop highlighter in collaboration with Becca Cosmetics in July 2015, which sold 25,000 units in its first 20 minutes online and set a single-day sales record for Sephora! Huda Kattan, the founder of Huda Beauty, is especially known for her ability to influence the beauty community. Huda has accumulated a following of 4.13 million subscribers on YouTube and was ranked in the number one spot of the Beauty Influencer Rich List published by Cosmetify.
There are a number of different brands that sponsor YouTubers within the beauty community. Some of the most prominent are listed below:
Native is a deodorant brand that started with a net worth of zero and grew its business in just over two years to being valued at $100 million. Part of their success story comes from their influencer marketing policy of their deodorant. The brand connected with influencers, sponsoring their content and sending them products to try, review and ultimately promote. Many YouTubers were also given discount codes to use on the brand’s website. Influencers who are sponsored by the brand are asked to promote some of its key ideas, including its scents, its affordable price, and of course, the fact that it is cruelty-free and free of toxic substances.
For example, KathleenLights recently partnered up with Native and reviewed her favorite products in the video - Go-To Look Using my Current Obsessions. Mentioning the product as a ‘current obsession’, the promotion is genuine - making it much more likely for viewers to not only pay attention to the sponsorship, but actually purchase the product.
Function Of Beauty is a haircare brand that strives to match the costumer with their perfect product. With the use of quizzes that you’re asked to fill out, the costumer receives custom hair care products that are carefully designed and curated for each individual hair type. The brand has used social media marketing to its advantage, advertising and sponsoring collaborators across multiple platforms. From big names such as Kim Kardashian, to beauty gurus with great reputations in the YouTube world, such as Shaaanxo and Manny Mua. These influencers often share discount codes with these content creators as an incentive to persuade their followers to sign up for the service and give it a try.
Scentbird is a popular subscription service for perfume, where a subscriber is sent samples of different perfumes to try each month, with the opportunity to purchase the full-sized product should they wish. The brand launched in 2014, with its focus turning to influencer marketing the following year. Scentbird has sponsored a number of beauty-based, including Bailey Sarian, a beauty influencer that has managed to combine her two favorite things - makeup and true crime.
Ritual is a brand created for women, offering carefully curated multivitamins designed with females in mind. Ritual likes to sponsor Youtubers within the wellness niche, which can sometimes cross over with beauty and make-up products. You’ve probably seen Ritual’s advertisments on Carli Bybel’s channel, specifically in her video - Making Life Changes.
Honey is a browser extension founded in Los Angeles in 2012. It is designed to find and test out the best coupon codes for a number of retailers' websites, offering users the best discount possible at the click of a button. When it comes to influencer marketing, the brand is big spender’s, ranking second top overall for paid advertisements on the platform and spending around $10 million on influencer marketing! One make-up influencer sponsored by Honey is Safiya Nygaard, who has a reach of over 9 million viewers.
BetterHelp is an online counseling service that regularly sponsors Youtubers in a number of different fields, including within the beauty community. Many run segments within their videos touching on the benefits of online counseling, destigmatizing talking about mental health and letting their viewers know how they can access support. Much of their influencer marketing campaigns occurred during the pandemic and the numerous lockdowns, at a time when many saw their mental health fluctuate. Thanks to influencers raising awareness about mental health and the role BetterHelp plays in making help much more accessible, the service saw a huge increase in people signing up for their service. Beauty YouTubers that have had videos sponsored by BetterHelp include skincare expert Hyram with over 500 videos and 4.5 million subscribers.
Beauty and makeup has, and will continue to be, a defining niche on the YouTube platform. If you are a brand searching for beauty influencers and what to know how much a channel is worth or a beauty creator interested in how to succeed with your sponsorship negotiations, check out our YouTube sponsorship calculator and make sure to reach out to us with any questions!
