Most beauty influencer marketing advice stops at "work with micro-influencers" and "be authentic". We wanted to see what the biggest beauty brands actually do, so we pulled the 50 most recent sponsored posts for each of the most-searched beauty brands in the US and looked at who posted, how each deal was disclosed, and which posts took off.

Here's why beauty brands work with creators, the commonalities in their strategy, and a step-by-step way to run your own campaign.

Why beauty brands use influencer marketing

Creators do a few things for beauty brands that ads and product pages can't:

• Creators show the product on real skin. Beauty shoppers want to see a shade or a finish on someone like them before they buy. Glossier's most-liked post shows one blush on three different skin tones, and it got 35k likes.
• Routines teach people how to use it. A product people don't know how to use sits in a drawer. Tutorials fix that, and Olaplex's creators mostly post wash days, styling hacks and how-tos rather than product shots.
• Unboxings make a launch feel like news. A creator opening a new collection on camera turns a product drop into something followers want to see. Charlotte Tilbury labeled 14 of its last 50 sponsored posts as gifted, several of them PR unboxings.
• Creators bring followers into the store. Scent and texture are hard to sell through a screen, so creators take followers with them. Several of Bath & Body Works' creators walk through a store smelling the new fall scents, so followers know what to grab before they go.

Top beauty brands using influencer marketing

These are the most-searched beauty brands in the US, according to Ahrefs. Deal types show how each post was disclosed (for example, with a paid partnership label or an ambassador hashtag). Creator tiers: micro 10k–50k followers, mid-tier 50k–500k, macro 500k+.

1. Bath & Body Works: a creator wave for every seasonal drop

Bath & Body Works' last 50 sponsored posts all went live in one month, timed to its fall launches: 16 captions are about fall scents, 10 about its Disney Nightmare Before Christmas collection and 10 about its Reserve home fragrance line. It works with smaller creators than the others, with 17 of its 41 creators under 50k followers. 28 of its creators are in the US, and only one post includes a code.

• Creators: @thekwendyhome (1.1M), @elisapurrr (290k) and @logyn.brown (18k) are among the creators who've posted for Bath & Body Works.
• How posts were disclosed: 24 paid partnership, 14 gifted, 8 unspecified, 4 ambassador

What to take from it: Line up a wave of creators for every seasonal launch, not one big name. Bath & Body Works booked dozens of creators for its fall drop, and a fall decorating post from a creator with 18k followers got 189k plays.

2. Glossier: its fragrance and its New York roots

35 of Glossier's last 50 sponsored posts were disclosed as paid partnerships, and #glossierpartner appears in 34 captions. 13 posts are about the Glossier You fragrance family, including the launch of You Soie at Sephora. 7 lean on New York, from "getting ready in a New York minute" to its Balmdega pop-up at the Soho store. 32 of its creators are in the US, and none of the posts use a discount code.

• Creators: @garbo.zhu (1.3M), @abakasante (275k) and @isabellacarrr (133k) are among the creators who've posted for Glossier.
• How posts were disclosed: 35 paid partnership, 9 gifted, 5 ambassador, 1 unspecified

What to take from it: Use creators to announce your sale, not just your launches. Glossier's most-viewed post was a one-line sale announcement from a creator with 133k followers, and it got 5.5M plays.

3. Charlotte Tilbury: the Magic Cream relaunch

26 of Charlotte Tilbury's last 50 sponsored posts are about the relaunch of its Magic Cream moisturizer, and five creators call it a "facelift in a jar". It's the most British brand of the five, with 25 of its 46 creators in the UK, and 20 of its creators have under 50k followers. 12 posts share a personal code for 15% off.

• Creators: @voguewilliams (1.3M), @drewomaukeleghe (380k) and @camisturdi (55k) are among the creators who've posted for Charlotte Tilbury.
• How posts were disclosed: 31 paid partnership, 14 gifted, 5 affiliate

What to take from it: When you relaunch a hero product, give creators one line they'll want to repeat. Five of Charlotte Tilbury's creators used "facelift in a jar", and @voguewilliams' post with it got 737k plays.

4. Olaplex: ambassadors launching its new hairspray

Olaplex labeled 14 of its last 50 sponsored posts as ambassador posts, more than any other brand of the five. 19 posts feature its new Shape Set Hairspray, often as a styling hack ("Big hair is back"). Its creators are bigger than most, with a median of 234k followers, and they're based in the US (26), the UK (10) and Canada (7). None of the posts use a discount code.

• Creators: @nicholeciotti (2.7M), @jamilla.strand (353k) and @kiyana.ebrahimi (241k) are among the creators who've posted for Olaplex.
• How posts were disclosed: 20 paid partnership, 14 ambassador, 13 gifted, 3 unspecified

What to take from it: Put your best creators on ambassador deals and give them launches first. Olaplex's four most-viewed posts all came from creators labeled as ambassadors, led by a No.3PLUS before-and-after that got 997k plays.

5. CeraVe: basketball players and local markets

11 of CeraVe's last 50 sponsored posts belong to a basketball campaign that compares stripped skin to a squeaky court ("Save the squeaking for the court, not your skin"). 28 posts tag a local CeraVe account rather than the US one, and its creators are spread across the US (13), South Africa (7), Australia (6) and India (5). 37 were disclosed as paid partnerships, and none use a discount code.

• Creators: @cbrickley603 (4.2M), @drmadalyn (297k) and @vj.edgecombe (724k) are among the creators who've posted for CeraVe.
• How posts were disclosed: 37 paid partnership, 8 gifted, 3 unspecified, 1 affiliate, 1 ambassador

What to take from it: Explain your product with something your buyers already know. CeraVe tied "squeaky clean" skin to a squeaky basketball court, and the post from basketball player VJ Edgecombe got 8.2M plays and 98k likes.

What the top beauty brands have in common

Looking across all 250 posts, four patterns stand out:

• They gift more than they sign. 58 of the 250 posts (23%) were labeled as gifted, more than the 24 labeled as ambassador posts.
• Smaller creators get more out of their audience. Across 187 posts with visible likes, creators under 50k followers got a median of 3.2% of their followers liking the post. For creators above 50k, it was 0.6%.
• One launch sets the calendar. Each brand's posts cluster around one product: Charlotte Tilbury's new Magic Cream (26 posts), Olaplex's Shape Set Hairspray (19) and Bath & Body Works' fall scents (16).
• Views don't follow follower count. Glossier's most-viewed post came from a creator with 133k followers (5.5M plays), and a Bath & Body Works post from a creator with 18k followers got 189k plays.

How to run a beauty influencer marketing campaign

Here's how to run a campaign step by step, using what the top beauty brands do at each stage.

1. Pick one goal and one metric

Decide what the campaign is for before you pick a single creator, because the goal changes who you book, how you pay them and what you ask them to post. The top beauty brands' posts show both goals at work. Charlotte Tilbury's affiliate codes are built to drive sales. Olaplex's hair tutorials and CeraVe's basketball campaign are built for reach.

• Sales: track revenue per creator with a unique link and code.
• Awareness: track views, saves and reach per post.
• New customers: beauty shoppers stick with a product once it works, so track how many first-time buyers each creator brings, not just total orders.

Pick one metric per campaign so you can compare creators fairly afterwards.

2. Find and vet creators who fit your brand

Follower count is the last thing to filter on. A curly-haired creator with 37k followers filming a 40-second wash day with Olaplex's curl shampoo got 12k likes, about a third of their following, from exactly the people a curl shampoo is for. Across all five brands, creators under 50k followers got over five times the likes relative to their audience.

Our survey found niche micro-creators are outperforming mega-influencers: nearly 60% of marketers said niche influencers performed better in 2025 than in 2024.

• Write down who buys your product (people with curly hair, dry or acne-prone skin, fragrance collectors) and look for creators living that life.
• Search Modash's database of 380M+ creators and filter by audience demographics (age, gender, location), bio keywords, engagement rate and fake-follower checks.
• Or describe that creator in plain language, like "creators who film curly hair wash day routines", and Modash's AI creator search surfaces matching creators on the platform you're searching.

• Check who else they've posted for. @blueusual posted for both Bath & Body Works and Olaplex, and for Fenty Skin too. Modash shows which brands a creator has already posted sponsored content for.

You can also find beauty influencers for free, for example by searching the hashtags your buyers follow.

3. Choose the deal type

The top beauty brands mix paid posts with plenty of gifting. Bath & Body Works labeled 14 of its last 50 posts as gifted and Olaplex 13. Glossier and CeraVe leaned hardest on paid partnerships, with 35 and 37.

• Gifting works for launches creators will want to unbox on camera, like Charlotte Tilbury's PR boxes.
• Paid posts suit launches and sales that have to land on a date, like a relaunch or a seasonal drop.
• Affiliate works for products people repurchase, like a cleanser or a moisturizer creators use every day.
• Ambassador deals suit creators who can show results over time, like Olaplex's ambassadors posting before-and-afters with the same products.

Commission-only is getting harder to sell, though. Over 23% of marketers in our survey said creators would take performance pay only if a flat fee came with it. If you run tiers, the average commission tiers in our affiliate research were 10%, 14% and 19%, and brands with more than one tier had more active affiliates.

4. Brief the content formats that work in beauty

The captions from the top beauty brands point to three formats that carry most of their creator content:

• Routines and tutorials. Olaplex's creators film wash days, blowouts and hairspray hacks with the product in hand. Ask creators to show each step, so the post is worth saving.
• Unboxings and hauls. Charlotte Tilbury's and Bath & Body Works' creators open PR boxes and walk through new scents. Ask creators to try one product on camera, not just show the box.
• Proof posts. CeraVe's dermatologist creators explain what "squeaky clean" does to the skin barrier, and Glossier's creators test one shade on different skin tones. Ask for a clear before and after.

Whatever the format, give creators one hashtag to use every time, like #olaplexpartner or #glossierpartner, and ask them to label gifted product clearly.

5. Launch with tracked links and time-limited codes

Codes are rare among the top beauty brands. Charlotte Tilbury was the only one to use them in more than one post, with 12 personal 15% codes. Bath & Body Works used one, and Glossier, Olaplex and CeraVe used none.

Codes also leak. In our affiliate marketing research, 47.6% of marketers said they struggle with code poaching, where a creator's code ends up on coupon sites.

• Give every creator a tracked link for everyday posts, and add a code only for launches and sales.
• Put an end date in the caption so followers know the offer won't last.
• If creators use "comment for the link", make sure the link they send by DM is their tracked link.

In Modash, each creator gets a tracked link and a code tied to your Shopify data, so sales from DMs, bios and stories all count toward the right person. Commission is calculated on net revenue after refunds and returns.

6. Rebook your best creators

The top beauty brands rarely rebook: only 21 of their 228 creators posted more than once. That's a missed chance in a category where results take weeks to show. A creator who posts once about a moisturizer can't show what it did a month later, so book the ones whose followers responded for a follow-up.

Most marketers want to do more of this. In our influencer marketing trends survey, over 60% said they plan to invest more in long-term partnerships, but only 54% actually ran more of them last year.

• Start new creators on a single post, then offer a longer deal to the ones who hit your metric from step 1.
• Use revenue per creator, not likes, to decide who gets rebooked. Modash's campaign dashboard shows revenue, orders and ROAS for each creator.
• Give rebooked creators something new each time, like a new scent, a limited collection or a relaunch, so their posts don't repeat.

Where beauty creator programs go wrong

The top brands avoid a few mistakes that trip up smaller programs:

• Gifting without a note. A PR box often lands next to a dozen others, and Olaplex's own gifted posts include hauls tagging six brands at once. Send a short note with the one product to try and what makes it different, so yours gets its own moment.
• Offering commission-only deals to established creators. In our survey, 63% of marketers said influencers were open to becoming affiliates in 2024. In 2025 that fell to 26%. When you reach out to established creators, offer a flat fee plus commission rather than commission alone.
• Running the affiliate program on autopilot. In our affiliate research, marketers who were "very involved" with their affiliates had 71.5% of them active. "Very hands-off" marketers had 10%. Affiliates post when you give them a reason to, so check in every month with something new to share. For beauty, that could be a new shade, a seasonal scent, or a routine to film.
• Sending affiliates old product. 93% of marketers gift products to affiliates, but almost 30% don't refresh them when something new launches. Send every new launch to your creators before it hits shelves.
• Booking creators the product can't work for. A curl cream on straight hair or a foundation in a shade the creator can't wear tells followers nothing. Match the creator's skin type, tone or hair type to the product before you book.

FAQ

How much does beauty influencer marketing cost?

It depends on platform, following and engagement. Micro-influencers often work for free product plus a fee in the low hundreds per post, or an affiliate commission. Larger creators charge more. Many brands start with gifting plus commission to test fit before committing to flat fees. To estimate what a specific creator is likely to charge, drop their handle into our free Instagram influencer pricing calculator.

Which platform is best for beauty influencer marketing?

Instagram carries most beauty creator work, and every sponsored post we analyzed for the five most-searched beauty brands ran there. TikTok is worth testing too: in our survey, marketers rated TikTok videos the highest-performing deliverable (53.2%).

Which beauty brands use influencer marketing?

Bath & Body Works, Glossier, Charlotte Tilbury, Olaplex and CeraVe are the most-searched beauty brands in the US, and all of them run active creator programs. See the breakdown above for who each one works with.

Should beauty brands work with micro or macro influencers?

It depends on your goal. A launch chasing awareness leans bigger, a conversion play leans smaller and more trusted. In the beauty posts we analyzed, creators under 50k followers got over five times the likes relative to their audience size, so most brands should build their base with micro-influencers (10k–50k followers) and add bigger names for launches.

How do I measure beauty influencer marketing?

Track sales per creator with unique links and codes, then compare revenue against what you paid (fees, product and commission). Our engagement rate calculator and fake follower checker help you vet creators before you spend, and our guide to influencer marketing ROI covers the full calculation.

Start your beauty creator program

Find creators, manage relationships, pay them in 180+ countries and 36 currencies, and track every sale through Shopify – all in one place, with no fees taken out of creators' pay. Try Modash free, no credit card required – or browse the top beauty influencers to see who's already out there.

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