Skin care is having a social media moment.
Due namely to an overall increase in activated influencers within the category, skin care content has grown 16 percent year-over-year in volume, while views and engagement have grown 82 percent and 26 percent, respectively, per Traackr.
“Right now, mega-influencers are the top performers across rising indie skin care brands,” said Therese Little, head of sales, Americas, at Traackr, noting this trend isn’t necessarily consistent across beauty. For high-performing indie hair care brands, for example, mid-tier influencers are driving the most impact.
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“A common theme among top-performing skin care brands is that they have built strong relationships with high-performing influencers,” said Little, noting Gen Z creator Katie Fang has been a sustained key voice for Glow Recipe, which tops the list by Brand Vitality Score (VIT), Traackr’s proprietary metric measuring a brand’s social media impact, reach and trust.
Meanwhile, Caudalie and Versed have benefited from viral PR unboxing videos by mega-influencers like Kristi Howard (@queenofgettingbanned on TikTok).
“For indie brands, budget and bandwidth are the top two pain points,” said Little, noting the potential upside of these constraints is they require brands to be intentional about targeted gifting campaigns and other forms of influencer outreach. “The indie space is diverse and constantly changing, so it’s hard to predict who will come out on top next year. That’s also what makes the space exciting to watch; even established brands watch the indie category to see what’s trending because it’s where experimentation and innovation happens first.”
This year’s 10 biggest indie skin care brands by Traackr’s Brand Vitality Score (VIT), plus their respective year-over-year change in the metric.
- Glow Recipe
- 119,000 VIT, +79 percent
- 4,170 influencers, +30 percent
- Caudalie
- 63,800 VIT, +144 percent
- 2,270 influencers, +52 percent
- Bubble Skincare
- 58,600 VIT, +110 percent
- 1,930 influencers, +25 percent
- Versed Skincare
- 40,300 VIT, +30 percent
- 2,340 influencers, -1 percent
- Pacifica Beauty
- 37,600 VIT, +126 percent
- 1,590 influencers, +21 percent
- Kosas
- 36,200 VIT, +78 percent
- 1,950 influencers, +47 percent
- Summer Fridays
- 35,200 VIT, +37 percent
- 2,030 influencers, -2 percent
- Kopari
- 30,800 VIT, +66 percent
- 1,160 influencers, -21 percent
- Good Molecules
- 30,200 VIT, +26 percent
- 2,620 influencers, +36 percent
- The Inkey List
- 29,900 VIT, -28 percent
- 1,380 influencers, -7 percent