Ariana Grande’s R.e.m. Beauty, Sephora Among Top 10 Beauty Brands on Social Media in October

In October, culture and beauty were perhaps even more inextricably linked than usual, data shows.

For instance, insights from influencer marketing platform Traackr show that Ariana Grande’s R.e.m. Beauty saw a surge in social media buzz thanks to its collaboration with Universal Pictures and “Wicked,” which stars Grande and released in theaters last week following an elaborate promotional campaign.

The brand, which Grande bought back from former parent company Forma Brands in 2023, took the number-two spot by brand vitality score (VIT) in October, which is Traackr’s proprietary measurement of a brand’s social media reach and engagement. It was second only to Sephora, a mainstay on the ranking thanks to the retailer’s creator reach — Sephora garnered mentions from more than 7,000 creators in October, far outpacing the 1,530 creators average.

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Maybelline New York is another routine top performer, but in October its performance was specifically bolstered by its inaugural sponsorship of the TCS New York City Marathon, advent calendar seedings and buzz surrounding its “Brave Together” campaign for World Mental Health Day.

“Brands who are consistently in the top 10 — L’Oréal Paris, Maybelline — they have a wide variety of activations going on all the time; they’re not reliant on one thing,” said Holly Jackson, Traackr’s global professional services director of influencer strategy and measurement. “A key trend we’re seeing is that brands who are doing well are participating in cultural moments — we saw it with the Olympics, and now with ‘Wicked,’ and even with Rare Beauty and Sephora — part of what drove their performances was their joint Mental Health Day donation campaign.”

Rare Beauty stands out for another reason, too: it had more than 3,000 activated influencers during the month of October.

This is in stark contrast with fellow celebrity beauty brand Skkn by Kim, which only saw 102 activated influencers in October but made the ranking nonetheless thanks to its Kardashian founder’s own star power (average reach across the brand’s mentions nets out at 10.1 million users).

Grande, too, contributed significantly to R.e.m.’s October growth, with the brand seeing 598 activated influencers during the period and an average reach of 2.5 million.

“We are seeing a shift in terms of these [camps] of brands who are relying extensively on one big push or activation, and others who routinely have a lot of different activations in motion,” said Jackson, adding that the role of the influencer, too, is evolving. “Influencers aren’t siloed anymore into just product seedings — a lot of brands are thinking more about how to incorporate them into larger, core roles in brand marketing campaigns.”

The top 10 beauty brands by VIT in October, per Traackr.

1. Sephora

2. R.e.m. Beauty

3. Rare Beauty

4. L’Oréal Paris

5. Ulta Beauty

6. Skkn by Kim

7. Colourpop

8. E.l.f. Cosmetics

9. Maybelline New York

10. Huda Beauty