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7 Examples of Top Beauty Brands Using TikTok

Ready to use TikTok to boost your beauty brand? Here are seven examples of beauty brands using TikTok successfully that you can use as inspiration.
Parker Dietz
November 13, 2020
October 9, 2024

If you're a beauty or makeup brand, connecting with your audience is paramount to success. TikTok, with its relatable user-generated content, is the perfect place to make authentic connections with your audience and ultimately drive positive business results.

To spark some ideas for your next TikTok marketing campaign, we compiled seven of our favorite beauty brands on TikTok that are using the app successfully.

Table of Contents

  1. Refy Beauty
  2. Function of Beauty
  3. e.l.f. Cosmetics
  4. NYX
  5. K18 Hair
  6. Isle of Paradise
  7. The Body Shop

1. Refy Beauty

Refy Beauty is a beauty brand that aims to redefine beauty through simplicity, inclusivity, and innovation. They turned to TikTok to launch their 2021 Black Friday marketing campaign to build excitement around the Refy Beauty brand and increase sales.

For their creative approach, Refy Beauty made their videos as native to the TikTok platform as possible, demonstrating products through tutorials with diverse creators involved. Refy connected the TikTok app to their Shopify (a TikTok Global Commerce Partner) account to easily link products and track actions and insights such as add-to-cart sessions, sales, and ROAS.

This allows them to connect the Shopping tab to their TikTok profile which lets users browse through their product catalog and make purchases all within the TikTok platform.

 

 

2. Function of Beauty

Through a new partnership with Target, Function of Beauty, a customizable shampoo and conditioner company, expanded its unique business to physical locations nationwide.

Function of Beauty brought its customized hair care products to TikTok to reach more people and drive awareness. Building on the concept of customization, Function of Beauty launched a "Shampoo Shakeup" campaign, leveraging Spark Ads and Reach & Frequency buying to introduce the product line's in-store availability.

The #ShampooShakeUpChallenge featured custom music for TikTok used by a mix of popular creators. They also brought in TikTok creator Savannah Labrant and actress Ashley Tisdale who started their videos by shaking up their formula to the catchy Shampoo Shakeup beat, then finished it off with a more glammed-up version of their hair.

Before and after frameworks like these are especially effective for beauty brands, as people want to see the results they can expect from the product before purchasing.

 

 

3. e.l.f. Cosmetics

 e.l.f. Cosmetics is a professional-quality makeup brand that's loved for its affordable and cruelty-free formulas. e.l.f.launched an always-engaged strategy designed to fill the funnel: from reaching TikTokers who would love their clean beauty to driving site traffic and sales.

Through a combination of standard In-Feed Ads and Dynamic Showcase Ads, the brand was able to drive conversions by personalizing ad targeting at scale and delivering a curated experience automatically to e.l.f.'s most relevant audiences.

By following TikTok's best practices and adopting an always-engaged strategy with multiple objectives, e.l.f. can increase their spending month-over-month to help drive TikTokers down the funnel. Thanks to this always-engaged, full-funnel strategy, acquisition costs for their add-to-cart strategy dropped by 56%.

 

 

4. NYX

NYX with its firmly-established, cult-favorite Butter Gloss product line was faced with the challenge of amplifying the product and successfully graduating it to a mainstream must-have.

NYX turned to TikTok’s plethora of creative beauty content and creators to reach a new audience and raise awareness with fresh and engaging content. NYX partnered with TikTok to develop the #ButterGlossPop Branded Hashtag Challenge.

The #ButterGlossPop challenge, which prompted the TikTok community to apply Butter Gloss with their own personal flare, was a masterclass in multiple creative best practices that have been proven to lead to success on TikTok.

An original, catchy song, clear instructions, and limitless creative potential all contributed to the campaign's massive success.

 

 

5. K18 Hair 

K18 is a haircare brand rooted in science and biotech. They utilize TikTok as a way to build rapid awareness and introduce K18 with content that shows how transformative the product is.

With an organic account of 2,000 followers and roughly 500,000 views, K18 decided it was the perfect time to launch its first paid campaign on TikTok. For creative, K18 partners with talented TikTok creators like Heidi D'Amelio and Mikayla Nogueira, who spotlighted their hair being repaired in a before and after tutorial video style.

With these creatives, K18 ran Spark Ads targeting users of all ages and genders who were interested in hair care. By the end of K18’s month-long campaign, they saw a 70% lift in daily average sales and grew their profile following from 2,000 to 20,000.

 

 

6. Isle of Paradise 

Isle of Paradise, the beauty brand that created the world's first 100% vegan and cruelty-free, color-correcting self-tan, found early success on TikTok in 2020.

They continue to capitalize on that success by leaning into TikTok’s storytelling and community to draw record-breaking sales. Isle of Paradise leverages a mix of branded and creator-led content to drive demand and increase sales for its best-selling Glow Drops product at Sephora.

Isle of Paradise Glow Drops are made to give a vibrant glow to all skin types and tones, so it’s vital for the brand to have a diverse set of creators to help bring its product story to life authentically. Isle of Paradise also reaches out directly to TikTokers who have already created organic testimonials about Glow Drops and works with them to repurpose their content for their campaigns.

 

 

7. The Body Shop

The Body Shop is a great role model for any brand that wants to get started on TikTok but is low on budget or resources. The Body Shop primarily relies on employee-generated content to fuel its TikTok strategy.

Employee-generated content is any content created by employees in the form of videos, photos, and social media posts. Employee-generated content is typically more cost-effective than working with third-party content creators or hiring a creative agency.

The Body Shop shares TikTok videos of employees working in The Body Shop stores who provide a behind-the-scenes look at the brand and products.

 

 

Give Your Own TikTok Strategy a Makeover With Cohley

As a TikTok partner, Cohley has the know-how and the can-do for all things TikTok marketing. Thanks to our massive network of skilled content creators, you can use Cohley to generate authentic, relatable TikTok content at scale.

You can then repurpose that content within your paid and native TikTok strategies. Talk with our team to find out how you can get started with a TikTok campaign today.

 

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Parker Dietz
Head of Content
With a wealth of knowledge about competitors and pricing, Parker is all about exploring the best way to communicate Cohley's benefits. Outside of work, Parker enjoys poorly playing guitar at parties, watching every Adam Sandler movie ever made, and eating Arabic food.