Instagram hits: eight beauty brands that owe their start to social media site
The social media site serves as a powerful catalyst to boost brand awareness – Forbes estimates model and reality-TV star Kylie Jenner’s Kylie Cosmetics will be worth US$1 billion by next year
Every beauty brand knows the key to runaway success – the kind that involves waiting lists, and hype a marketer can only dream about – is for your product to hit the big time on Instagram.
The beauty business has its fair share of holy-grail items that predate social media, from Guerlain’s tried-and-true Meteorites powder to Shu Uemura’s cult-favourite Cleansing Oil, but today entire brands are predicated on Instagram followings.
Take Huda Beauty, the make-up line launched by make-up artist turned influencer Huda Kattan, who launched the brand three years after creating a blog for tutorials in 2010. The brand debuted last month on the Hong Kong website of beauty retailer Sephora, which reported that it came in second in the top 10 brands list within the first week of launching.
“Huda Beauty sold out of a couple of popular shades of the Obsessions Eyeshadow Palettes and Liquid Matte Lipsticks, which is not surprising thanks to its virality and high social engagement on Instagram,” says Wendy Koh, a Sephora Asia e-commerce executive.
In July, Kylie Jenner made headlines when Forbes estimated her three-year-old company Kylie Cosmetics, of which she is sole owner, could be valued at US$1 billion by next year; if so, she would oust Mark Zuckerberg as the youngest self-made billionaire. Her Instagram account may have substantially more followers than her company, at 114 million followers, but the cosmetics line still commands over 17 million followers.
As marketers in Hong Kong know, social-media influence may work better in some niches than in others. “One particularity that remains in Hong Kong is forums. After Instagram, they are the most active platform through which people ask for advice and find resellers, discounts and good deals,” says Koh.