There has been a huge increase in the number of beauty brands owned by celebrities over the last five years and with this, conversations around their products have been a huge talking point in the beauty industry. Consumers want to know if the brands have good products that are worth their money, or if the celebrity is just a face to try and drive more sales with products that are really not worth it. So, we made it our mission to determine exactly that.
The top 10 celebrity beauty brands
Coming in at the number one top spot is Selena Gomez with her vegan and cruelty-free brand ‘Rare Beauty’. The brand is loved by millions of fans and has racked up a 95% ‘love’ article sentiment rating and 0% ‘angry’ reactions, really affirming how consumers feel about the brand. Lots of love in the air for Rare! The liquid blush and eyeliner are fan favourites and it's easy to see why, as both products have strong colour payoff and lasting power, as well as being completely vegan and cruelty-free. With an average of 9900 people searching for the brand every month and almost 3 million Instagram followers, there’s no wonder Rare is so popular!
Second is Florence by Mills, created by teen acting sensation Millie Bobby Brown. Known for the huge Netflix hit series Stranger Things amongst many others, Millie has taken the beauty world by storm, and her brand is the second-biggest celebrity-owned beauty brand in the world! Launched in 2019, Florence by Mills is also cruelty-free and vegan and all products are made from clean ingredients. Despite experiencing a -18% search trend, Florence by Mills is huge on social media with over 2.7 million Instagram followers and over 1.3 billion views on TikTok! Not only does the brand have its own website that customers can purchase from directly, but the celeb owned brand is also stocked in huge UK retailers such as Boots and Beauty Bay making purchasing products as simple as possible for fans.
In third place, we have Kylie Cosmetics by none other than Kylie Jenner herself. This list wouldn’t be complete without a Kardashian right? Well, there are actually three Kardashian brands in here, with Kim Kardashian’s KKW beauty at eighth place followed by another Kylie brand, Kylie Skin, at ninth. What can we say, the devil works hard but the Kardashians work harder! Kylie Cosmetics really is an Instagram sensation with the account having over 25 million followers and an average of 30,000 likes per post, so it's no surprise she’s made the top three biggest celebrity-owned beauty brands.
The most searched celebrity beauty brands
The data we discovered when looking into each brand is an indication of how popular each brand is based on location. A huge difference between the UK and US is the size and population, meaning search volumes will naturally be greater.
Based on average monthly searches, the most popular brand in the UK with 74,000 searches is Huda Beauty, created by makeup artist, blogger and entrepreneur Huda Kattan. In contrast to the US where Huda Beauty isn’t on the list, but instead, Fenty Beauty by Rihanna takes the top spot in America with 201,000 searches. Fenty Beauty is also on the UK’s list in second place with 49,300 searches, a vast difference in the UK to the US.
Interestingly, Harry Styles’ new brand Pleasing receives an average of 165,000 monthly searches in the US compared to 33,100 in the UK. We are seeing more and more gender-neutral brands coming through which is such a positive movement, so it’s no surprise to see Pleasing in the top five most searched for brands in each country.
The top celebrity beauty brands on social media
Social media is an extremely important factor when creating brand awareness and interacting with fans. It’s a chance for people to post product images, behind the scenes content and to give fans an insight into the brand. So for someone who already had a huge social media presence himself and extremely loyal fans, it’s no surprise to see Harry Styles' brand Pleasing at the top of this list. With a huge 33% engagement rate and an average of over 392,000 likes per post and over 1.1 million followers, despite only being launched in November 2021.
Social media is also a key driver when it comes to instigating the latest beauty trends, and Instagram is the perfect place to show these off. On Instagram, #euphoriamakeup has over 506,000 posts of people trying the viral looks out for themselves - news spreads extremely quickly, which is why these brands have such a presence on socials. Florence by Mills and Ariana Grande’s new beauty brand R.E.M Beauty make up the top three spots here, and it’s no surprise considering the worldwide fame both founders have. Celebrity owners = tons of followers.
The top celebrity beauty brands on TikTok
TikTok is fast becoming the biggest social media platform in the entire world with the sheer number of users and its popularity with both old and new generations. The platform has a huge beauty fan base and is a place where users are able to share their tips, tricks, hacks and product recommendations for the beauty community to learn and try them out for themselves.
Huda Beauty has amassed the largest number of views and comes in at the number one celeb beauty brand on TikTok with a staggering 3.5 billion views and counting. This is a lot more than Kylie Cosmetics which comes in at second place with 1.5 billion views and in third place Florence by Mills with 1.2 billion. Both Huda Beauty and Kylie Cosmetics are famous for their lipsticks, with the Kylie lip kits going viral. But what exactly is Huda doing differently that makes the account so successful?
Huda Beauty’s account posts a lot of videos with Huda Kattan in them herself, showcasing the products and participating in viral TikTok challenges. Having the face of the brand use the products and engage with her followings allows the audience to feel they are getting a backstage look into the brand. This type of sneak peek/backstage content works really well because fans love to be included as much as possible.
The top trending celebrity beauty brands
Whenever a huge celebrity name launches something such as a beauty brand, there is always a huge buzz given their high profile and huge social following. We looked into the insights surrounding this using Google search data and discovered the list of the top trending celeb beauty brands in both the UK and US.
Ariana Grande and her new brand ‘R.E.M Beauty’ came out on top, with a huge 366,567% trend increase in the US since the announcement of the business. The huge increases and trending numbers prove just how influential a big celebrity name is for a brand; would a brand without an influential name get this same traction?
Billie Eilish’s new fragrance brand ‘Eilish’ is the second trending brand in both countries, trending by 239,00% in the UK and 147,900% in the US. With Billie’s huge following of 101 million on Instagram, there’s no wonder Eilish fragrance is having a huge moment. Billie has talked about her fragrance and feels like it really represents her favourite scent, which has caused fans to go wild for the brand as they feel like they get a glimpse into her life. Have a look at our range of celebrity fragrances to see which one takes your fancy.
Average price point of celebrity brands
When it comes to beauty products, the price point is a huge talking point. Many consumers have their preferences from drug stores to luxury brands, but where exactly do celebrity brands sit on the price scale?
Consumers can expect drug store price points to be around £20 and under, making them more affordable whereas high-end brands can venture anywhere between £10-£100+ for makeup and skincare products. When it comes to celebrity brands, there can often be a price premium due to the celebrity endorsement, so we wanted to look into the price points and see just how affordable celebrity makeup brands are. The most affordable celebrity-owned beauty brand is Flower Beauty by Drew Barrymore, with the average product costing £9 ($12). Flower Beauty is advertised as cruelty-free makeup, and they believe that ‘people everywhere deserve the best quality, most efficacious product at an affordable price’ which rings true as they are ranked the most affordable brand on the celeb beauty list! Looking for more affordable beauty? Check out our range of skincare and makeup for the top-performing affordable brands.
At the opposite end of the scale is Kylie Cosmetics and Jeffree Star, both with an average product price point of £21 ($28). With the fact that some products are priced more or less than this, both of these brands sit slightly more expensive than drug stores and are creeping more into the luxury price bracket.
In summary
This new study has revealed the truth about celebrity beauty brands, from determining the top celebrity-owned brands in the world to the most searched for and top trending brands. We discovered each brand's presence on social media and popularity on TikTok as well as finding out which celebrity beauty brand is the most affordable, showing that celebrity names do draw traction and have products that consumers love.
Feeling inspired by all these makeup brands and wanting to up your makeup game? The warmer weather is fast approaching and glowing skin is a top trend this year. Highlighters and bronzers are at the top of everyone’s wish list, and what better way to achieve this than affordable reliable products? Good skin is always in.
Methodology
Article sentiment analysis was conducted using buzzsumo data to determine the most loved and the angriest reactions to a brand across the past year timeframe. By pulling Instagram followers and using influencer marketing hubs to understand engagement rate and avg. number of likes per post for the brand we were able to determine brand followers. Using keyword tools we were able to measure search and search trends by taking the average monthly searches and the trend % increase/decrease over the last 12 months. To measure earnings we used owler, by searching the brand name and pulling data for the ones available, whilst also pulling data on the number of employees and funding. Data was between two numbers and then finding the average.
