This has been a banner 12 months for beauty. Sales are soaring and consumers are more engaged within the category than ever. The 45 brands here aren’t just benefiting from the excitement, though: They’re creating it. To compile this list, which is split into The Establishment, The Recent Guard and The Originals, Beauty Inc checked out a big selection of quantitative and qualitative data to evaluate who’s winning and why. Here, the brand new guard.

These visionaries forged latest paths in beauty, studying what got here before, then injecting their very own standpoint into the topic. They get top marks for bringing innovation, inspiration and a competitive spirit to the industry. No surprise consumers cheer them on — they’re the preferred brands around.

Amika

One 12 months post-acquisition and still on the upswing. Circana data shows Amika was the eighth largest hair care business — and top share gainer — within the U.S. prestige market in 2022. Its Soulfood Nourishing Hair Mask and Dream Routine Overnight Hydrating Hair Mask each make appearances on Sephora’s bestselling hair care products page, and consumer interest shows no signs of waning: Google searches climbed 17.9 percent, per Spate, and Amika’s earned media value grew 17 percent, in accordance with Tribe Dynamics.

Caudalie

Long before science-backed skincare became table stakes, Caudalie, which mixes its patented vine sap viniferine with tried-and-true skincare ingredients, had tapped Harvard Medical School to launch its Premier Cru range with scientific street cred. The brand’s value proposition is resonating as strongly as ever, with sales growing 13.7 percent to $341.4 million. Now, Caudalie is appealing to a latest swath of consumers, with its pimples kit nabbing a top rating on sephora.com. That success has also translated to social media, notably TikTok, where #Caudalie has greater than 500 million views.

Charlotte Tilbury

The celebs are aligned at Charlotte Tilbury — and never simply because of brand name ambassadors like Bella Hadid and Kate Moss. The number-one makeup brand within the U.K., Charlotte Tilbury is a force within the U.S., too, the third largest share gainer in prestige makeup, in accordance with Circana. Its social media stats are equally as impressive: Charlotte Tilbury has the second highest EMV of any beauty brand at greater than $440 million, a double-digit increase year-over-year. That growth propelled makeup to fast-growing category status at powerhouse parent company Puig.

ColorWow

Lightning is striking twice for Gail Federici, who first conquered the frizz category with John Frieda and is now doing the identical for hair color maintenance with ColorWow. The business, which was the second largest share gainer in prestige hair, per Circana, has garnered fans like superstar stylist Chris Appleton, who signed on as a brand ambassador. It’s also expanding its purview, notably with a Curl range that accommodates a proprietary ingredient called Profaxil-18. First-year sales were estimated to hit $8 million. Meanwhile, ColorWow’s original products are still gaining steam: various iterations of ColorWow’s Dream Coat treatment recurrently land on Sephora’s bestselling hair products page.

Dyson

Discuss being bullish on beauty. In 2012, when Dyson invested 50 million kilos to create its now-iconic hair dryer, it catapulted the worldwide tech giant into the category. Fast-forward 10 years, and Dyson continues to be firmly focused on beauty, announcing a 500 million pound investment in 20 ensuing products in the approaching years. That features its latest innovation, the Airstraight Straightener, which launched this 12 months and purports to dry hair because it straightens to mitigate heat damage. Consumers swooned, regardless of the $499 price tag, with the majority of its a whole bunch of reviews on sephora.com boasting five stars. Dyson can be among the many top-searched beauty brands on Google, in accordance with Spate, at 3.9 million searches.

Fenty Beauty

Though she’s no stranger to the stage, Rihanna forged latest ground through the Super Bowl Halftime 2023 show when she pulled out a Fenty Beauty compact for a touch-up. That product placement generated $5 million in media impact value in only 12 hours, in accordance with Launchmetrics, and that’s just a part of the $161 million that puts the brand because the seventh largest by that metric. Fenty is the fifth largest brand by EMV, per Tribe, at $361 million. The products also stand alone from their famed founder: Fenty’s Poutsicle Lip Stain won an Allure Better of Beauty Award. No wonder the brand is a star player at Sephora and Ulta.

Glow Recipe

Glow Recipe has parlayed its power-packed, fruit-forward formulations into an arsenal of heavy-lifting franchises. That features Watermelon Glow, whose toner and serum top Sephora’s bestselling skincare page. The brand, which is claimed to have passed $150 million in retail sales in 2022, has grown 76 percent in the primary half, in accordance with industry sources. It’s a standout on social as well: EMV is up 33 percent to $100 million; Spate reports Google search is up 37 percent. Results almost adequate to eat.

K18

Just three years after launching, K18 has turned one hero product based on proprietary biotechnology right into a full-fledged hair care routine, spanning treatments and cleansing — in addition to a reported $100 million in net sales. Even after the viral #K18HairFlip campaign hit a whole bunch of tens of millions of views shortly after launch, its digital prowess shows no signs of slowing. In response to Tribe Dynamics, EMV swelled 47 percent to $103 million. Sales remain on fire: The Molecular Repair Hair Mask continues to be a bestselling hair treatment at Sephora.

Mielle Organics

Certainly one of P&G Beauty’s latest acquisitions, Mielle Organics was hardly an overnight success. The brand, cofounded in 2014 by Monique and Melvin Rodriguez, sold to the sweetness powerhouse for an undisclosed sum on the heels of a virality-induced run on its bestselling Rosemary Mint Scalp & Hair Strengthening Oil, which boasts a whole bunch of tens of millions of TikTok views. That was only one driver that made Mielle the second largest share gainer in mass hair care, in accordance with Circana. It’s not the one product capturing buzz, either — the Twisting Soufflé won an Allure Better of Beauty award as well.

Native

Though the leap from deodorants to hair care looks like a stretch, it’s one Native did with ease. After launching the category, it quickly became the highest share gainer in mass hair care, in accordance with Circana. The identical data shows its equity in other categories, too, with Native becoming the third largest share gainer in mass market beauty aisles after doubling down on its key categories. It’s performing well digitally, too; EMV rose 41 percent.

The Peculiar

Don’t let the name idiot you. The Peculiar, acquired by the Estée Lauder Cos. Inc. in 2021, is a superpowered beauty brand. It’s the fourth largest prestige skincare brand within the U.S., in accordance with Circana, and continues to be reinventing the wheel. The brand introduced the O. Lab, a program that grants members early access to latest products. Meanwhile, The Peculiar’s existing lineup continues to be capturing share of mind and wallet, with its Glycolic Acid Toning Solution, Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5 Hydrating Serum and Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1% Oil Control Serums all landing on Ulta Beauty’s bestselling skincare lists.

Parfums de Marly

Ahhhh, the sweet smell of success. A key player within the white-hot luxury collection fragrances segment, Parfums de Marly offers a sturdy retail footprint and collection of dozens of stock keeping units, inspired by the French court. Parfums de Marly has garnered attention from fragrance enthusiasts and investors alike. Earlier this 12 months, Advent International took a majority stake within the brand in addition to sister brand Initio Parfums Privés at an estimated valuation of greater than $700 million. Sales for each brands were said to hit $366 million at retail.

Rare Beauty

On the nexus of purpose, star power and product sits Rare Beauty, which has catapulted to explosive sales and digital dominance just just a few years after launching. The brand, which Selena Gomez launched in 2020, is the top-ranked brand by Tribe Dynamics in EMV at greater than $474 million. Every launch causes a sales spike: Soft Pinch Tinted Lip Oil, Rare’s most up-to-date launch, was estimated to hit $30 million in retail sales for its first 12 months available on the market. Of those sales, the brand donates 1 percent of sales to the Rare Impact Fund, which goals at increasing access to mental health services and education. Look good, feel higher.

Sol de Janeiro

No brand higher epitomizes the body care boom than Sol de Janeiro, which is expecting $650 million of world retail sales this 12 months. The brand, which got here to the scene with its intoxicatingly scented Bum Bum Cream, has expanded each product categories and footprint with roughly 30 retailers globally and 30 products. Amongst those sits a collection of popular fragrance mists based on its bestselling body creams. Google searches are up 33.8 percent to greater than 450,000 weekly, in accordance with Spate. Chief executive officer Heela Yang attributes the obsession, partially, to Sol’s body-positive ethos, epitomized by the tag line, “Adore it. Flaunt it. You’ve got it.” She knows whereof she speaks.

Tom Ford Beauty

Call this business one in a billion. As Tom Ford Beauty’s sales neared $1 billion, the Estée Lauder Cos. snapped up the whole business in a landmark deal valued at $2.8 billion. Given the brand’s immense success — and endurance across categories — it’s no wonder why. It’s the fifth largest fragrance business globally, in accordance with Euromonitor, due to a combination of its luxury collection fragrance launches just like the Enigmatic Woods collection. Tom Ford Beauty plays just as well in media, with its $25.5 million in MIV making it the tenth fragrance brand ranked by the metric, in accordance with Launchmetrics.

Our methodology:

WWD Beauty Inc consulted a wide range of sources to compile our list of beauty’s strongest brands, including our own reporting all year long.

Domestic and International Sales:
For the prestige and mass markets within the U.S., we considered rankings of the highest performers and highest-growth brands, provided by Circana. Globally, we consulted Euromonitor International on sales rankings for 2022, along with the WWD Beauty Inc Top 100, an annual rating of the world’s largest beauty firms.

Digital Success:
To see the brands with the best digital traction, we consulted data from Tribe Dynamics, Launchmetrics and Spate, along with bestseller pages on sephora.com and ulta.com.

Agility and Innovation:
We considered our own reporting when taking a look at product innovation, trend leadership and agile responses to the aspects which have most impacted 2023 up to now. So far as figures for donations and philanthropic endeavors, we relied on firms’ own reporting.

Industry Awards: 
We checked out 2022 winners of the Allure Better of Beauty awards, the 2022 Beauty Inc awards, the 2022 CEW Beauty Creator Awards, the 2023 Fragrance Foundation awards and the 2023 Marie Claire Prix d’Excellence.