Beauty’s only constant is change, and the businesses on the 2022 Beauty Inc Power Brands list aren’t only keeping pace with the times — they’re spearheading the industry’s evolution. To compile this list of 45 players — that are divided into Established, Originals and Emergents, Beauty Inc checked out a wide selection of qualitative and quantitative data to find out the brands which might be winning today. What’s most clear is that this yr’s crop sees likelihood where others see challenges. They’ve embraced TikTok, entered the metaverse and mastered an omnichannel environment. Here, the brands that thrive because — not in spite — of beauty’s shapeshifting landscape.

 

The Established

CeraVe: DermTok’s darling shows no signs of slowing down. The mass market skincare brand beloved by derms and consumers alike holds the highest slot in each the facial cleansing and facial moisturizer category in keeping with data from IRI. Its cleansers reached near $260 million in sales, while moisturizers grew 40 percent in a category that overall posted growth of 25 percent. CeraVe can also be the runner-up within the body care category. The brand’s digital dominance stays regular: CeraVe sees greater than 2.2 million Google searches in the common month, in keeping with Spate, and on social media, its earned media value topped $43 million, in keeping with Tribe Dynamics. As reported in 2020, that yr’s revenues were expected to be around $600 million. Cleansing up, indeed.

Chanel: 100 years on and still going strong: This yr, Chanel No.5, the unique celebrity fragrance, marked its centenary in an enormous way. Its enduring popularity — the scent was voted the best fragrance of all time in Beauty Inc’s poll of industry insiders earlier this yr — shows it has hit the sweet spot between history and currency higher than some other brand on the market. Consumer spending stays strong: Euromonitor reports that Chanel is the most important fragrance brand in beauty, while NPD said it’s the highest total beauty business within the U.S. prestige market. At the identical time, Chanel stays firmly focused on the longer term, too. The launch of the No.1 range, a clean and sustainably minded offering spanning key categories like skincare, makeup and fragrance, resonated with shoppers as well, with two products in the highest 10 wish-listed items on the Klarna app.

Clinique: Clinique has cemented its powerhouse status. In a yr through which skincare dominated, the brand was the highest skincare player within the prestige market within the U.S., in keeping with NPD, and number two in makeup. That cross-category domination is resulting in outstanding results: On a recent earnings call, execs from parent company The Estée Lauder Cos., said the brand was hitting double-digit growth, helping to drive gains overall for Lauder. Searches are high — about 1.5 million monthly, in keeping with Spate — driven by a brand that though big isn’t content to rest on its laurels. The brand continues to be breaking barriers, launching its first NFTs, a beauty industry first on the time, tying loyalty to the metaverse.

Cover Girl: Because the tide turns at Coty Inc., so does Cover Girl’s next chapter. The brand, once beleaguered, has change into a real vibrant spot for the corporate, with chief executive officer Sue Nabi calling it “essentially the most beloved makeup brand in America” on the corporate’s most up-to-date earnings call. No wonder: Consumers are responding well to the brand’s next-generation identity, which has encompassed all the things from rekindling partnerships with past Cover Girls like Niki Taylor and Queen Latifah, to reformulating products to be a frontrunner in mass market clean beauty. The strategy is working: Cover Girl owns the highest spots in powder and blush and is third in mascara, in keeping with data from IRI. It’s parlaying that popularity into recent territory, too, introducing a spread of 5 products in skincare late last yr.

Dior: With classic fragrances like J’Adore and Sauvage (the top-selling fragrance within the U.S.), it’s a on condition that Dior is one among the most important beauty players. It’s also one among the fastest growing. Based on data from NPD, the brand is the second biggest share gainer each in makeup and overall beauty, a results of a method that has fueled its hero products, while amping up its relevance with Generation Social Media, too. Its marketing strategy — including recent spokespeople Anya-Taylor Joy and Yara Shahidi — earned it a Genius rating on the L2 Genius List for beauty in France while younger consumers are clamoring for its TikTok-viral Dior Glow Lip Oil, which is the brand’s bestseller on Sephora’s website, and its Kylie Jenner-endorsed Dior Backstage Rosy Glow Blush. The success is global: Euromonitor ranks Dior because the fifth biggest makeup brand and the third biggest in fragrance, and the Dior Prestige skincare franchise took home two Marie Claire Prix awards this yr.

Dove: Beauty’s pioneer of purpose is doubling down on what it does best: Using its considerable platform to effect meaningful change on the earth. Riding high on the pandemic-induced cleansing craze (cleansing comprises the most important piece of Unilever’s personal care business), the brand has been concentrating its efforts on all the things from sustainability to social justice. In the case of the previous, it launched refillable aluminum packaging for body washes following the launch of its refillable deodorants last yr, which won an Allure Better of Beauty award. By way of the latter, Dove’s deal with body positivity continues (a positioning reinforced by its latest launch of body care products containing energetic levels of skincare based ingredients), while the CROWN Act, an acronym for Making a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair, which protects employees from discrimination on the premise of race-based hairstyles, passed the House of Representatives. Next stop: the Senate.

E.l.f.: What a difference 4 years makes. Sales dips at E.l.f. are a thing of the past: the brand, an early arriver to the TikTok craze with a 4.4 billion-view campaign, supercharged its growth with a slew of collaborations equally buzzy and unexpected. Its TikTok debuting an E.l.f. x Chipotle eye shadow, themed across the food chain’s ingredients, garnered hundreds of comments and nearly 100,000 likes. Meanwhile, content creator Mikayla Nogueira’s video for E.l.f.’s partnership with Dunkin’ Donuts gained greater than 1.5 million views, and 231,000 likes. But it surely’s not all hype and no substance. E.l.f.’s mainstay hero products are also outperforming the market. Company CEO Tarang Amin called out its Camo CC Cream during an earnings call as a top seller. Based on data from IRI, it’s the second-largest brand in concealers, growing 45 percent — greater than double the category’s overall growth. Brow skus tell an analogous story. E.l.f.’s Clear Brow and Lash Mascara is a perennial favorite, with greater than 2,000 Walmart reviews averaging at about 4.5 out of 5 stars. Per IRI, the brand’s sales within the segment soared 33.3 percent, in comparison with the category’s overall 18.5 percent.

L’Oréal Paris: Just as its parent company quickly returned to pre-pandemic growth last yr, L’Oréal Paris itself can also be back with a bang. The world’s largest beauty brand continues its cross-category domination. L’Oréal Paris hit the 6 billion euro mark in sales last yr, in keeping with its parent company’s financial results, and is a top seller across categories. Euromonitor reports it to be the world’s second-largest brand in each makeup and skincare, while it takes the highest slot in hair. IRI data shows it to have the top-selling lip glosses, which spiked triple digits, while its leading foundations outpaced the category’s growth, hitting 37 percent. In skin — where its Derm Intensives line has taken an ingredient-forward approach — it ranked second in facial antiaging. L’Oréal Paris continues to up the excitement factor, too: It announced singer H.E.R. as a recent global ambassador, while also staging a fashion show during Paris Fashion Week last yr.

La Mer: Speak about endurance. The ultra-luxe skincare O.G. has maintained its cult-favorite status, even within the face of ever-increasing competition. On a recent earnings call, Estée Lauder Cos. CEO Fabrizio Freda credited the brand’s “standout results” — double-digit growth versus the corporate’s overall skincare category which grew 7 percent. A billion-dollar brand since 2018, La Mer is the fifth largest skincare player within the prestige market, in keeping with the NPD group — and it keeps growing its purview, too. It was one among the inaugural brands to launch on Farfetch’s recent beauty vertical. While its hero products proceed to fuel the business, newer launches are popular, too: Its eye cream was an Allure Better of Beauty winner.

Maybelline Recent York: As the highest player in liner, brow and mascara, it’s all eyes on Maybelline Recent York. The brand’s multipronged strategy has kept it as makeup’s largest brand, in keeping with Euromonitor. It expanded its assortment in key categories like mascara — it’s the highest player at $358 million in sales, up 23 percent from last yr, in keeping with IRI — and it’s also maintaining with the times, debuting its first “clean” product range, dubbed “Green Edition.” That sense of purpose translated to recent initiatives as well. Maybelline has been a frontrunner in conversations around mental health, and this yr it rebooted its Brave Together campaign with Wattpad during Mental Health Awareness Month to drive awareness even further.

Nars Cosmetics: Call it the feel-good factor. Artistry brands were makeup’s biggest gainer in 2021, in keeping with the NPD Group, and Nars, one among the category’s original players was a key contributor, helped by enduring popularity of its Orgasm blush, which has spawned a whole category of products for the brand. The Shiseido-owned Nars is a top 10 player within the U.S. — and due to a savvy cross-platform social media strategy (it earned just shy of $280 million in EMV, in keeping with Tribe Dynamics), it stays one among the highest share gainers within the category, too. Still founder-led at a time when most of the makeup artists who launched brands at the identical time haven’t only left their original businesses, but began recent ones, Francois Nars continues to propel his namesake proposition forward.

Olay: P&G-owned Olay has been quick to adapt to trends — it began putting skincare ingredients into body care just before the pandemic — and its sense of innovation kept momentum high. Its ingredient-focused lines launched in 2021 were bestsellers, favorites with consumers and industry insiders alike. It won two different Allure Better of Beauty Awards last yr for 2 of its body products. Based on IRI, Olay is maintaining its position as the highest player in facial antiaging, bringing in greater than $330 million in that market segment alone, and third in facial moisturizers. With Stephanie Headley taking the helm, the brand can also be betting more on purpose, inaugurating partnerships with Free The Bid and Dr. Joy Buolamwini to extend the representation of girls in film and STEM careers, respectively.

Pantene: In the case of hair care, Pantene is basically cleansing up. Pantene Gold Series grew double-digits last yr, while in keeping with IRI, the brand is the highest seller in each shampoo and conditioner, having reached volumes of $255 million and $210 million, respectively. Two of its products, including the Pure Clean & Make clear Shampoo and the Miracle Rescue 10-in-1 Spray, also nabbed Allure Better of Beauty Awards.

Paula’s Alternative: At a time when transparency and efficacy are top of mind for consumers, Paula’s Alternative is more relevant than ever. That fact was solidified when its acquisition by Unilever Prestige, became one among the yr’s biggest deals in beauty, with the transaction reportedly valued at $2 billion. Since then, Paula’s Alternative continues to resonate with Millennial and Gen Z consumers — it reached a mean search volume of 1.28 million on Google Search, in keeping with Spate. It also has expanded distribution aggressively. Last yr, it launched into Sephora stateside, and entered the German market with a partnership with Douglas. Its Skin Perfecting 25% AHA + 2% BHA Exfoliant Peel also took home an Allure Better of Beauty Award, and has change into a cult favorite.

Tom Ford Beauty: F*cking Fabulous is just not just the name of the bestselling fragrance within the Tom Ford Beauty stable. It’s also an apt description of the brand’s overall performance. As consumers gravitate toward luxury prices and collections of scents, Tom Ford is reaping the advantages: The brand had more winners than some other company in Beauty Inc’s rating of the 100 biggest fragrances of all time, and has seen 30 percent increases in monthly average searches on Google to greater than 500,000, in keeping with Spate. Distribution-wise, Tom Ford opened a recent digital channel by launching on Farfetch’s beauty vertical. It’s also amplifying gains by expanding key franchises, corresponding to line extensions with its recent Soleil Summer makeup collection. Estée Lauder Cos. Freda lauded Ford’s double-digit growth during a recent earnings call, noting “Tom Ford Beauty exemplifies the advantages of a strategic deal with heroes and innovation.”

The Originals

Augustinus Bader: Augustinus Bader burst onto the skincare scene three years ago and its momentum shows no signs of slowing. After launching with just two products, cofounders Charles Rosier and Bader have expanded right into a full skincare lineup and late last yr entered the prestige hair fray. The brand tapped into its hero ingredient, TFC8, and published clinical trials stating demonstrating its ability to supercharge hair growth and strength. Bader has also forayed into wellness, launching hair and skin ingestibles with probiotic strains. Still, the brand isn’t taking its eyes off its core skincare category. Its newest, the Ultimate Soothing Cream, a heavier alternative to cult classic The Wealthy Cream, is anticipated to achieve $20 million in sales for its first yr in the marketplace.

Beautycounter: Beautycounter and its founder Gregg Renfrew helped spark the conversation about “clean” beauty when it launched in 2013. Today, clean beauty has fully entered the mainstream, and the corporate (and its founder) are one among the strongest players in a category that’s now table stakes for entry. Still, Beautycounter isn’t about to rest on its laurels: Armed with investment after Carlyle Group acquired a majority stake, Beautyounter tapped Marc Rey to be CEO, to spearhead all the things from international expansion to a possible IPO. Renfrew, within the meantime, stays as committed as ever to amplifying her advocacy work, particularly in passing the brand new Personal Care Products Safety Act, which can be the primary regulatory laws passed in greater than 80 years governing the industry.

Briogeo: Briogeo is a brand of firsts. Founded by Wall Street alum-turned-entrepreneur Nancy Twine, Briogeo was one among the primary to interrupt through within the prestige hair space, and can also be the primary brand to be acquired by Wella as that company carves out a recent path for itself under the ownership of KKR. It was a wise bet. Twine has ably melded hair health and well-being, making a superfoods-fueled line that appears set to expand its purview from hair to skin. Post-acquisition plans also call for an aggressive expansion into Europe and Asia. “We checked out corporations growing even faster than us,” Wella CEO Annie Young-Scrivner said of the acquisition. “With Briogeo’s size, Twine has just knocked it out of the park, doing extremely well in premium retail and in addition constructing her digital capability.”

Byredo: Call it one among the fiercest acquisition battles in recent beauty history: The weeks leading as much as Puig taking a majority stake in Byredo were rife with speculation about who was going to purchase the brand (with every major name in beauty being bandied about) and no wonder: The Swedish-based brand founded by Ben Gorham in 2006 stays as buzzy and directional as ever, almost twenty years after its founding. Not one to rest on his laurels, Gorham has consistently taken the brand into recent ground — most recently color cosmetics, with skincare said to be within the near- to mid-future — and he stays as passionate (and inventive) as ever. The one-time athlete is super competitive and he likes to win. With a recent team behind him, looks just like the sky’s the limit.

Charlotte Tilbury: Come for the star power, stay for the products. Charlotte Tilbury has had a blockbuster first yr under Puig’s ownership because the fastest-growing makeup brands within the U.S., in keeping with the NPD Group. Tilbury, one among Hollywood’s most adept makeup artists, is a master at driving buzz, whether tapping the likes of Twiggy and Kate Moss to be the faces of the brand or jumping into the metaverse with virtual reality shopping. No surprise it’s a social media darling. Charlotte Tilbury generated $326 million in EMV, in keeping with Tribe, and in addition garners a monthly average search volume of 801,000 on Google. From Mecca in Australia to Saks Fifth Avenue in Manhattan — each of which recently began carrying the brand, global retailers can’t get enough.

Deciem: Leave it to Deciem, the brand that first blurred the lines between mass and prestige with accessibly priced products in specialty distribution, to rehabilitate na ingredient like sulfates. But it surely did just that when it launched hair care earlier this yr. Disrupting the established order has been a winning strategy to date for the brand. The Atypical is the fourth largest prestige skincare brand within the U.S., in keeping with NPD, and averages nearly 2 million monthly searches, in keeping with Spate. It’s a success on TkTok, with 2.5 million followers and greater than 2 billion views for its videos on serums alone. No wonder execs at parent company the Estée Lauder Cos., cite it during earnings calls, lauding its positive impact top-line sales and bottom-line health.

Diptyque: Sixty years old and still smelling as fresh as a daisy. The luxe home and private fragrance brand Diptyque is on a roll, with a revamped tackle retail starting with a recent store in SoHo, N.Y. It follows trends adeptly, olfactively and otherwise, including a recent rose-forward collection that got here to market this yr, an expansion into home goods and the brand’s growing authority on TikTok, where videos mentioning Diptyque surpass 40 million views. The brand’s mainstays, though, are still in full flower. Philosykos, a woody personal fragrance inspired by Greek fig leaves, was voted one among the 100 biggest fragrances of all time within the Beauty Inc poll of industry insiders.

Goop: Gwyneth Paltrow is laughing all of the strategy to the bank. Though the entrepreneur and founding father of Goop could also be mocked for scents like “This Smells Like My Vagina” and her Netflix show exploring psychedelics for psychological healing, as wellness has taken root so has Paltrow because the undisputed queen of the self care scene. She has steadily built out Goop’s product launches with a strategic cadence of launches. Today, the brand has hero skus in skincare and ingestibles, and he or she’s also increasingly dabbling in beauty beyond her own brand. Earlier this yr, Paltrow invested in Crown Affair, a hair care brand sold on Goop, and he or she’s also invested within the makeup brand Saie. All of the while though, she’s firmly focused on Goop — and bottling that incredible Gwyneth glow.

Hero Cosmetics: Speak about an apt name. After starting her business with an easy pimple patch, Hero Cosmetics founder Ju Rhyu has broadened her strategic vision to incorporate a sturdy retail footprint and a “problem-solution” mind-set to to conquering the skincare category. Although nearly all of consumers come to the brand via its Mighty Patch franchise, Hero’s assortment now features a slew of products for an array of skincare concerns. That strategy is proving to be a winning one at Goal, Ulta Beauty and on Amazon — and has quickly fueled sales to an estimated $140 million this yr.

Kristin Ess Hair: A case study in tips on how to win at mass retail, Maesa-incubated Kristin Ess Hair’s runaway success at Goal is claimed to bring the brand’s sales volume to $230 million in retail sales this yr. Based on IRI, Ess’s shampoo and conditioner sales shot up 42 and 35 percent, respectively, in relatively flat categories that only grew 5.7 percent and a pair of.8 percent. The star stylists’ dry shampoos and hair coloring also swelled double digits. Booming sales also drove growth at Maesa, where hair care made up 53 percent of its $344 million net sales within the 2021 calendar yr.

Ilia: One among the buzziest — and first — brands in “clean” makeup has big ambitions. After the Courtin-Clarins family snapped up the Los Angeles-based Ilia, Prisca Courtin, deputy CEO of Famille C, outlined her ambitions to WWD to “make the brand the worldwide leader in clean color [cosmetics].” If sales are a sign, it’s well on its way. The brand’s turnover tripled from $30 million in 2019 to $100 million in 2020, driven by hot demand for its Super Serum Skin Tint, which has sold greater than 1 million units since launch in 2019. Capitalizing on those gains, the brand introduced a vitamin C-SPF hybrid in three translucent shades this yr.

Maison Francis Kurkdjian: Baccarat Rouge 540, the scent that began as a limited run of 250 units, has taken Maison Francis Kurkdjian into the cult status zone, with a fan base including Winnie Harlow and Kacey Musgraves. Regular consumers adore it, too, especially young ones. The scent has garnered greater than 140 million views on TikTok, and saw its average monthly search volume on Google grow 31 percent, in keeping with Spate. Sales-wise, it’s no slouch. It’s a top 10 seller within the U.S. prestige market, and equally as popular with beauty industry insiders, who named it as one among the highest 10 best fragrances of all time.

Olaplex: The runaway hit of the wonder world that has seemingly single-handedly fueled the expansion of the prestige hair category, Olaplex continues to ride the relevance wave. The largest player in prestige hair care within the U.S., sales are expected to achieve $826 million in sales this yr, putting billion-dollar brand status well within sight. On Google, searches near 1.5 million on average per thirty days, in keeping with Spate, and that digital prowess extends to social media. Olaplex is the highest hair care brand ranked by EMV, with $117,602,700 and a roster of greater than 9,000 creators. And all of this with a brilliant tight lineup consisting of just nine products (three of which consistently top bestseller lists at Sephora ad Ulta beauty.) As CEO JuE Wong told WWD, “We don’t want sku proliferation, we wish sku innovation.”

Tatcha: With a turnover of about $250 million, Tatcha’s business is important. But that hasn’t stopped its recent C-suite — comprised of three digital savvy execs from PlayStation and P&G, together with founder Vicky Tsai, from supercharging its strategy. The strategy is working. The brand is the ninth largest prestige skincare brand within the U.S., per the NPD Group, and the second largest by EMV, having brought in nearly $70 million previously yr, in keeping with Tribe Dynamics. (Fans are said to incorporate Meghan Markle and Kim Kardashian.) Despite its size, the Unilever Prestige-owned brand isn’t afraid to take risks, when it launched a product on the livestreaming platform Newness. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Tula: Tula is the fastest-growing prestige skincare brand within the U.S., in keeping with the NPD Group, and the highest skincare brand on social media, in keeping with data from Tribe Dynamics, with an earned media value just shy of $100 million. No wonder P&G Beauty snapped it up in January as a cornerstone of its recent Specialty Beauty division, joining Farmacy Skincare and Ouai Haircare. The brand’s probiotic skincare formulations are very on course with wellness-obsessed Millennial and Gen Z consumers, and CEO Savannah Sachs and her team have adeptly deployed quite a lot of digital levers to further spread the message. Despite its stratospheric success, the brand still has loads of runway for growth, especially internationally. Gut instinct, indeed.

The Emergents

Ami Colé: One yr since its founding, Ami Colé — and its message of no-makeup makeup for melanin-rich skin — is quickly gaining steam. The brand, founded by Diarrha N’Diaye-Mbaye, launched to much fanfare by itself website and with purpose-first retailer Thirteen Lune, following a $1 million seed round including Katherine Power, Hannah Bronfman and The Cut’s editor in chief Lindsay Peoples Wagner. Now, it’s steadily constructing out its assortment with a spread of concealers and loose powders, and its digital-first marketing approach has garnered Ami Colé-related videos on TikTok have greater than 660,000 views.

Bubble: Speak about going big. When d-to-c brand Bubble decided to expand into brick and mortar distribution, the Gen Z skincare brand founded by Shai Eisenman in 2020, went into nearly 4,000 Walmart doors with its under-$20 full lineup. To date so good. The mix of accessible prices with efficacious formulas is anticipated to lead to retail sales of $20 million this yr and continued growth online. On TikTok, Bubble has greater than 3.5 million likes and with a gradual stream of product launches on the horizon, that is one phenom that doesn’t appear like its bursting any time soon.

Fashion Fair: One among the primary brands created by and for Black women within the early ’70s, Fashion Fair has entered a powerful second act. The brand relaunched at Sephora last yr under the stewardship of householders Desirée Rogers and Cheryl Mayberry McKissack. What’s recent: a reformulation the beloved Iconic Lipstick and a big selection of vegan complexion products, designed by former creative director of makeup, Sam Positive. HBO Max acquired a Sephora-produced documentary on the brand’s relaunch, a primary in garnering consumer engagement with entertainment. A pioneer in additional ways than one.

Floral Street: Marrying corporate know-how with entrepreneurial drive has served Floral Street founder Michelle Feeney well. The founder, a veteran of the Estée Lauder Cos., has brought her 360-degree vision for clean fragrance to fruition, and it’s resonating with consumers. The brand grew 257 percent within the U.S. — not even its home market. Overall sales are expected to achieve 15 million kilos at retail in 2022, and a part of that growth comes from Feeney’s imperative to drive exposure. Floral Street’s discovery set is its top seller, and her mission to “scentscape your life,” as she told WWD, has prolonged to home products.

The Inkey List: Fresh on the heels of an infusion from Aria Growth Partners, The Inkey List has earned sales and street cred in equal measure, because of partnerships with retailer Sephora and creator Hyram Yarbro on a recent line. Although cofounders Colette Laxton and Mark Curry have their eyes on recent geographies like Asia, business continues to be booming Stateside. The Clean at Sephora brand recently nabbed an Allure Better of Beauty award for its Retinol Anti-Aging Serum, and its posts each garner as much as 6,000 people saving every one for reference. That engagement is reflected in performance: Industry sources estimate the brand will top $100 million in sales this yr.

K18: Beauty’s love affair with biotechnology — and consumers’ with proprietary hair care — has catapulted K18 into the $100 million sales realm in record time. The brand, which only sells one product and launched at the top of 2020, has generated greater than 10.8 billion views on TikTok for its #K18HairFlip challenge, and already gets a monthly 70,000 average searches on Google, said Spate. It’s on target to achieve between $112 million and $150 million in sales for 2022, up from $75 million last yr. Not bad for a newcomer.

Live Tinted: Striking the balance between influence and purpose comes easily to Deepica Mutyala, who founded Live Tinted with a passion for inclusivity, and nearly half one million followers on Instagram. Mutyala’s drive and vision have attracted blue-chip beauty investors like Bobbi Brown and NYX founder Toni Ko and leading retailers like Ulta Beauty. Sources estimated the business reached between $5 million and $10 million in sales last yr, driven by Mutyala’s solution-oriented approach to product creation. Last yr’s Hueguard, a mineral sunscreen that doesn’t leave a white forged on deeper skin tones, took home a Beauty Inc Award — and garnered a ten,000-person strong wait list even before launch.

Maude: Sexual wellness is making its way away from the perimeter and toward the highlight, and Maude, founded by pioneer Eva Goicochea, is leading the charge. The brand, which helped inaugurate the category at Sephora, has also expanded into recent international markets within the E.U., U.K., in addition to Australia and Canada, and even ventured into supplements in partnership with brand Asystem. As if vibrators couldn’t get any buzzier, it also counts actress Dakota Johnson as a co-creative director and investor.

Parfums de Marly: Horses feature prominently in Parfums de Marly’s branding, so no surprise that the brand has galloped to success. It was one among the large winners of the pandemic, riding the surge in fragrance sales to triple-digit growth. Delina has change into a bona fide hero scent, in Parfums de Marly’s stand-alone stores in addition to third-party distribution like Nordstrom and Saks Fifth Avenue. Sales are soaring — within the U.S., the brand’s largest market, in addition to in China and Europe — and surpassed 130 million euros in 2020 alone. Parfums de Marly is winning on social, too, with views on TikTok reaching 20 million. A thoroughbred is born.

Pattern Beauty: Actress and entrepreneur Tracee Ellis Ross built Pattern Beauty on the premise of purpose, and he or she is bolstering that mission by taking it beyond the brand. Ross now serves as a diversity and inclusion officer at Ulta Beauty, and even released a two-track record in partnership with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation as a part of the brand’s “Legacy” campaign. Pattern’s product range has also expanded to incorporate a satin cap and a transition mask for consumers weaning off of hair relaxers, and your entire hair care line can now even be found at Sephora, with whom Ross inked a partnership last yr. She’s teased the thought of launching skin and body care, and why not? In the case of products, Ross is clearly a natural.

Moon Juice: Amanda Chantal Bacon isn’t any stranger to going against the grain (or grain-free, for that matter). An early arriver to wellness, beauty’s ingestible craze and the mushroom-as-hero-ingredient frenzy, Moon Juice has stood the test of time as its products go from controversial to coveted. Its Sex Dust adaptogen mix is the highest wish-listed item on the Klarna app, and that sustained interest also extends to the investor community. Moon Juice closed a $7 million series C funding round last yr, led by True Beauty Ventures.

Pat McGrath Labs: Pat McGrath has long relied on her vast cultural lexicon for marketing expertise — remember when the brand’s collaboration with Supreme sold out in mere seconds — and this yr, she’s put big hopes on the small screen. After two collaborations with the record-shattering Netflix show “Bridgerton,” McGrath has solidified her marketing genius status, leading a category on the upswing post-pandemic, when artistry brands saw the best growth of some other brand type in 2021. McGrath doesn’t just think makeup, though. Earlier this yr, she debuted her first skincare product, an essence to prep the skin.

Uoma Beauty: As an early pioneer of purpose, Sharon Chuter epitomized her inclusive vision for the wonder industry with Uoma Beauty upon its 2019 launch. Now, she’s bringing other beauty brands into the fold. The brand rebooted the “Make It Black” campaign in partnership with E.l.f. Cosmetics, Flower Beauty, MAC Cosmetics, Mented and Morphe, and is refocusing on product launches for the yr ahead. Her lineup still plays well digitally, with videos mentioning Uoma Beauty accumulating greater than 20 million views on TikTok.

Versed: One campaign, 50 million organic views. Versed, Katherine Power’s mass-market brainchild under the Clique Brands family, was among the many first to harness the ability of TikTok, starting with a campaign around its Doctor’s Visit Quick Resurfacing Mask. Sales soared — from 400 to three,000 percent, depending on the channel — and Versed has taken that buzz to body. Videos making mention of its retinol body lotion have amassed 11 million views on TikTok. Clearly, it’s goal of writing a recent chapter for skincare is working.

Westman Atelier: Gucci Westman is among the many world’s most wanted makeup artists, known for her skin-first approach and clientele starting from Gwyneth Paltrow to Drew Barrymore. Her brand takes her no-fuss appeal to the masses, with multipurpose products that really blur the lines between color cosmetics and skincare. Westman is her own best model, openly sharing her battles with rosacea and sharing her techniques for naturally camouflaging her skin condition. The message is striking a chord. Following the brand’s partnership with Sephora last yr, sales were said to have reached $40 million at retail, with even loftier goals to expand the brand beyond beauty into lifestyle.

 

Our Methodology

WWD Beauty Inc consulted quite a lot 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 market within the U.S., we checked out rankings of the highest performers and highest-growing brands provided by the NPD Group. We also checked out the fastest-growing brands within the prestige market by category. For the U.S. mass market, IRI provided sales information for the 52 weeks ending March 20, 2022. Globally, Euromonitor International provided sales rankings for every category for 2021. We also used sales and growth data from the WWD Beauty Inc top 100 annual rating of the world’s largest beauty corporations.

Digital Success

To find out the brands with the best digital engagement, we consulted data from Tribe Dynamics, Spate and the L2 Digital IQ Genius List. We also consulted Klarna’s top wish listed products, in addition to bestseller pages and lists on sephora.com and ulta.com.

Agility and Innovation

We took under consideration our own reporting when factoring in product innovation, trend leadership and agile response rates to the aspects which have most impacted the primary quarter of 2022. Moreover, we relied on corporations’ self reporting when compiling figures related to monetary and product donations.

Industry Awards

We took under consideration industry awards, corresponding to the Allure Better of Beauty awards, the Marie Claire Prix d’Excellence, in addition to our own Beauty Inc Awards and rating of the 100 Biggest Fragrances of All Time.

 

Styled by Alex Badia

Makeup by Frank B. for The Wall Group

 

FOR MORE FROM WWD.COM, SEE:

The 2021 Beauty Inc Power Brands

Bubble, Skin Look after the Gen Z Set, Goes Into Walmart

Why the Clinique NFT Matters for the Beauty Biz