(Q1 Report)
Last year we launched the first-ever ‘Cosmetify Index’, ranking and rating 200 of the hottest beauty brands on the planet based on factors such as social following, engagement, Google searches and more.
Last time out, Huda Kattan’s all-conquering Huda Beauty reigned supreme, but will she hold onto her crown in our first quarterly refresh of the Cosmetify Index?
For the main ranking, we’ve once again taken five factors into account for each brand: number of Instagram followers, Instagram hashtags, Instagram engagement, global search volume and increase in searches compared to last quarter.
And once again, it was Huda Beauty which came out as the top beauty brand in the world, beating out competition from industry heavyweights such as Anastasia Beverly Hills and MAC Cosmetics.
It’s not just the brands themselves that are making waves in the beauty world, with many influencers just as prominent as our favourite brands.
After all, our number one ranked brand started when Huda Kattan quit her job to follow her dream of becoming an influencer and look how that turned out!
Here, we’ve studied the social following of 50 of the world’s biggest beauty influencers on both Instagram and YouTube, as well as estimating just how much money those lucrative brand partnerships could be bringing in.
At this point, it probably doesn’t surprise you to know that Huda Kattan was the most followed person in beauty, but when we estimated the earnings per post, it was actually James Charles who came out on top, with estimated earnings of £61,080 per YouTube video and £29,541 per Instagram post, for a combined total of £90,621. At just 21 years of age, Charles is one of the hottest names in beauty, with the world truly at his feet.
Interestingly, in such a female-dominated industry, both of the two top spots in our hottest influencers were both male, with another up and comer, Bretman Rock taking second spot, with estimated total earnings per post of £56,800 on YouTube and £25,500 on Instagram.
Finally, it wouldn’t be a list of the hottest names in beauty without Huda, who despite having the most followers, is slightly behind when it comes to estimated earnings (that’s because they’re calculated based on engagement and views, as well as total number of followers).
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Rank |
Name |
YouTube |
Estimated |
Instagram |
Estimated |
Combined |
Combined Earnings |
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Next up, we looked at how the searches for our 200 brands looked in the last three months when compared to the previous quarter.
The first thing to note here is that the majority of brands either saw a decrease in searches or largely stayed the same. Why? Well, we’re comparing them to the period between October and December, which is the busiest time of year for all brands, in the run-up to the holidays (including Black Friday, when searches reach their year-round peak). This means that for most brands, searches will always take a dip in the new year, something which, of course, has also been affected by the global coronavirus pandemic, which was just starting to take hold at the very end of the quarter. However, there were still a few brands which saw an increase in popularity over the last three months.
Up until March, searches for this everyday cosmetics brand were ticking along nicely, but the outbreak of coronavirus saw the world scrambling to get their hands on hand sanitizer. And for those who wanted to stay safe but didn’t really fancy smelling like a hospital, Merci Handy were the go-to guys. They saw searches increase by almost double in the last three months, as people turned to Google in search of ethically produced sanitizer that leaves your hands feeling nice and soft while stopping the spread of germs too.
BUXOM was one of the few brands to record an upswing in searches in the New Year, with an increase of 60% compared to last quarter. Looking into the data, the majority of those searches came following the Grammy awards, where singer Bebe Rexha was spotted wearing their Full-On Plumping Lip Polish, with thousands turning to Google the next day to find out just where they could get their hands on it.
Often, when we see a sharp increase in searches for a brand, it’s not always for the right reasons and that seems to be the case with Goop. January saw the release of a Netflix docuseries about Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle brand, but it also saw a wave of backlash from the scientific community, which is likely a large reason why searches jumped by 29%.
Not only is it perfect for sharing tips and tutorials with millions of people, but there’s also a huge network of influencers out there who can be a vital marketing tool for brands. So, which are the current beauty brands who are killing the social media game?
For millions, Instagram is the place to share their latest beauty purchases and routines, tagging their favourite brands as they do so, making hashtags a great way for us to track a brand’s popularity. In fact, the top three most tagged brands lines up perfectly with our top three ranking brands overall, Huda Beauty, Anastasia Beverly Hills and M·A·C Cosmetics.
Some other brands which have proved popular on the Gram include Urban Decay, with over 10 million tags and Makeup For Ever and Olaplex, each with over 9 million.
She may have slipped to twelfth in our overall ranking, but Kylie Jenner’s huge social following has clearly followed to her cosmetics brand, with over 24 million followers, second only to Huda Beauty.
Kylie Cosmetics has turned the youngest member of the Kardashian-Jenner clan into the world’s youngest billionaire, with a huge army of loyal fans.
Social engagement shows how many likes and comments a brand gets for every post they make, and it’s an interesting metric, as it becomes tough to maintain a good level as you gain more followers.
As with last year, it’s incredible to see the level of engagement that Millie Bobby Brown’s Florence by Mills has with its fans, with 7.97% either liking or commenting on each post.
Another brand which stands out is Glossier, with an engagement of 1.98%. That’s obviously a lot less than Florence by Mills, but considering they have almost 3 million followers, that means that’s still over 55,000 people liking or commenting on every post.
We also took another look at how our beauty preferences change around the world, measuring each country’s favourite brand based on search volume.
Looking at the map, you start to realise just why Yves Rocher placed so highly in our ranking, being the favoured brand in 37 countries around the world, particularly in mainland Europe.
Dove, ColourPop and Huda Beauty also proved popular, with many countries preferring a brand that hails from their own nation, including Rituals in Germany, Ole Henriksen in Denmark and Fenty Beauty in the Caribbean.
France, Italy, Turkey, Poland, Spain, Belgium, Mexico, Romania, Portugal, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Switzerland, Austria, Morocco, Vietnam, Ukraine, Finland, Algeria, Tunisia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Mauritius, Luxembourg, Jamaica, Guadeloupe, Moldova, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Mongolia, Madagascar, Gabon, Angola, Andorra, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Republic of the Congo
It’s no secret that the beauty industry has a notable carbon footprint, but lots of brands are doing their bit to lessen the environmental impact of their products, whether that’s by using vegan and organic ingredients in their products, or reducing the amount of plastic waste created by their products.
More and more eco-friendly beauty brands are popping up each year, but here are the ones that Cosmetify users have been searching for more than any others.
We also took a look at which were the most popular beauty products that Cosmetify users have been searching for in 2020.
The most searched product was L’Oreal Paris’s Magic Retouch Instant Root Concealer Spray, followed by Cuticura’s Antibacterial Hand Gel, which has obviously seen a huge increase in searches due to the current situation.
