Michelle Castano
Editor-in-Chief
The age of the influencer. The age of the Instagram model. Ten years ago, we wouldn’t have imagined that these trendy hobbies would be become lucrative careers.
Within the beauty industry, we are seeing beauty bloggers collaborating with well- known makeup brands.
Most recently, Colourpop Cosmetics launched a loose pigment eyeshadow collaboration with KathleenLights.
This YouTuber and blogger has a following of four million subscribers and brings in viewership through honest reviews of beauty products and makeup tutorials.
Jaclyn Hill, another YouTuber and Instagram beauty guru has collaborated with Becca Cosmetics.
Together, Hill and Becca Cosmetics created the now cult-favorite highlighter named “Champagne Pop.”
Recently, Jaclyn Hill partnered with Morphe Brushes. Together, they released The “Jaclyn Hill Palette,” which featured 35 matte and shimmery eye shadows ranging from warm tones, transitional brown shades and even a bright turquoise tone.
With the success of her self titled palette, Hill decided to launch the vault palettes alongside Morphe. The vault palettes were essentially rejected shades that didn’t make the cut for the “Jaclyn Hill” palette.
Sales of the vault palettes skyrocketed, although makeup users were saying that some eyeshadow shades were patchy and not the desired “satiny” consistency.
Following the eyeshadow consistency debacle, Jaclyn addressed her audiences and buyers through her medium, YouTube and even SnapChat.
Through interactions and accessibility, makeup buyers are largely taking into account what these beauty bloggers have to say and promote.
Want to know if the new Fenty (Rihanna’s makeup line) concealer is worth the hype? A video review of this particular product is on Jeffree Star’s YouTube channel.
Spoiler Alert, this Fenty concealer is in fact Jeffree Star approved.
Once Star reviewed Milk Makeup’s kush infused collection, Sephora
employees noted that Milk’s kush product range was “flying off the
shelves.”
Whether content is sponsored or not, it should be stated by the beauty blogger, and in most cases usually is.
Beauty bloggers interact with their followers by liking their comments on social media, asking viewers what kind of content they are interested in seeing and creating contests and giveaways.
Want to know what is baking and contouring? Look no further than Dutch beauty blogger NikkieTutorials.
Nikkie explains that baking is a concept in which an individual applies loose powder underneath foundation or concealer.
She explains that she lets the powder “bake” for a couple minutes and dusts it off.
The end product would be long lasting makeup, ideal for proms, outdoor events and music festivals.
Contouring is the application of dark pigments that an individual applies to add the element of “shadows” to the face; this gives the appearance of more chiseled and accentuated cheekbones among other benefits to this contouring technique, states Nikkie.
Beauty bloggers are not only teaching their viewers how to apply makeup, but they are giving their subscribers a sense of community.
They are appearing at beauty retailer meet and greets, doing ribbon-cutting ceremonies and doing question and answer panels.
Following this online influencer success, cosmetics companies are gearing their marketing towards social media. In fact, Drew Barrymore’s “Flower Beauty” does all their marketing advertisement directly through Instagram.
Cosmetics companies are noticing that communication shouldn’t be one-sided. They are discerning that through responding to its followers’ comments and reposting their images, these brands are selling more products.
What is slated next for these beauty bloggers?
A television production, much like Huda Beauty’s FaceBook series could be their next stepping stone.
Could we keep up with these influencers?
castm46@mail.broward.edu