The beauty industry has recently been evaluated to be worth £347 billion and is expected to grow at exponential levels. Whether it’s reading a product review online or capturing some amazing skincare tips, the internet is exploding with ways in which buyers can connect with the best beauty products available and how to use them as a part of their everyday beauty routine. The rise of the beauty blogger has very much helped this spurt of growth.
These types of beauty influencers have a different approach to what consumers are used to. Using the likes of various social media portals including TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube channels, they bring ‘reality’ to the beauty industry by showing an authentic, trusted opinion, over and above the voice of the brand itself. Celebrities and top models are no longer the only options for beauty brands to showcase their products.
Luxury beauty is a market that has particularly grown on Instagram. Many luxury beauty brands have harnessed the power of social media creating a hub of engaging content to bring the brand’s story to life.
Instagram’s Skincare Space
The skincare space on Instagram right now is huge. It’s jam-packed full of content around the best skincare products and routines to adopt from various dermatology and skincare experts.
Why? Because it works extremely well for all parties involved.
The skincare brand gains rapid exposure to its products, the public gets to view top tips and in-depth tutorials from those in the know when it comes to glowing skin, and the skincare influencers get a tidy sum for their involvement. It’s a hugely effective, win-win situation.
1. @aesopskincare
The Aesop Instagram feed blends abstract art with product perfectly. Art and skin care are not classic blends of subjects, however, colour themes have enabled this synergy.
By mixing these two subjects, the brand is successfully and subtly telling its story, communicating brand’s values and directly engaging with its target audience, offering some great skincare advice in the process.
2. @the_ayu
Australian beauty brand Ayu sell fragranced natural oils to balance the mind, body and spirit. They have approached their social presence creatively.
Their Instagram is curated similarly to a magazine: a careful balance between product, campaign and lifestyle content. This is the perfect equation to subtly sell to the user, whilst keeping them entertained and educating them about the brand.
The brands simplicity continues in the copy of the updates with a consistent one word in capitals. We’ve one word: BEAUTIFUL.
3. @Kerastase_official
Kerastase’s Instagram strategy is all about engagement – their 490k following can vouch their strategy is working. They repurpose a lot of user generated content and they share influencer posts – this sometimes is not the most luxurious strategy in terms of look and feel but given the brands positioning as a brand which is widely available and affordable – this works.
Content is continually diverse and as such the very feed engaging – again, similarly with Aesop, Kerastase share content in “colour bursts” – sets of content using a colour theme – to tie in the content verticals.
4. @pfeffersal
Pffer Sal is a Luxury skin care clinic based in Fitzrovia, London. Their Instagram is nothing short of incredible. Not only is the account beautifully curated with images which lend to skincare routines, the images also flow from one colour to the next (a recurring theme with professional looking accounts).
Playing to gender stereotypes, the colour scheme has predominantly saluted pink.
The clinic has also treated each Instagram post as a blog post – each adding value to the user. For example, they share information on the importance of using an SPF, which can be found in various skincare products today including cleansers, moisturizers, as well as traditional sunscreens.
5. @laprairie
Arguably one of the top cult luxury beauty brands, La Prairie celebrates its Swedish heritage with a clean design. La Prairie differ from many other beauty brands in that they’re using Instagram almost as a product look book – they’re only sharing the highest quality studio shot photography.
There are no UGC posts, no influencers present, no untouched images. With their strong reputation as a leading beauty brand with a higher price point, this kind of a feed works for them- it maintains their exclusivity.
6. @CreedFragrances
Creed Fragrances are a luxury fragrance brand for the discerning shopper. The fragrances have been developed by the family for generations and are one of the few remaining fragrance houses using traditional ingredients and processes.
Their social media channels are managed by Croud Luxe who carefully curate their look and feel with beautiful campaign images and designs a bespoke strategy for Creed’s social channels and Influencer Marketing.
In just over six months, Croud Luxe has grown Creed Fragrances Instagram followers by 120%, Facebook by 50% and Twitter by 21%. Across all their channels we have seen an average engagement rate of 5.2% with a peak of 10.6% on Facebook.
7. @marcbeauty
All hail the person working on this feed. The synergy between the product, the product inspiration, the over arching brand image is seamless – much to do with the colour scheme working beautifully. Excuse us, we’re off to buy some brown eye shadow.
8) @lelabofragrances
Le Labo is the perfect showcase of craftsmanship for luxury beauty. Their feed is curated with a dark colour pattern, sharing a mixture of product imagery with work in progress imagery and some of their sister account posts which add a tone of humour to their brand @overheardlelabo
9. @narsissist
Nars’ official account is a great example of a cosmetics brand who embraces UGC (User Generated Content) beautifully curated by their team. Their feed is a beautiful splash of colour that mixes product imagery with professional makeup artists shoots featuring their Nars at its best.
10) @sarahhillmakeup
Sarah Hill is an independent makeup brand from Scotland whose range of products is designed to enhance natural beauty. Their feed includes campaign imagery with product shots that align with their brand identity. They also play with the images sizes to give a more artistic look to their feed.
11. @gothamista
Renee Chow is a skincare enthusiast and content creator, specializing in Korean beauty. She even had her own lifestyle store in New York City before becoming an extremely popular skincare influencer.
Through Renee’s videos and posts, followers can get some very real and valuable tips as to how you can achieve a clear complexion with a little time, understanding, and a selection of some good hydrating products.
12. @shanidarden
Highly talented esthetician Shani Darden is responsible for the flawless skin of some of Hollywood’s most famous faces. Having trained under a leading Beverly Hills dermatologist, she learned hands-on how to deal with skin of every nature, including dry skin and sensitive skin.
Shani’s Instagram account is filled with fantastic skincare tips and tutorials on how to achieve a glowing complexion. Her range of Shani Darden Skincare is also promoted here and can be bought online at various sources including her own website and Sephora.
Croud Luxe is a social media markeing agency and we also specialise in influencer marketing if you need help managing your brand’s social media presence or helping you with your content strategy, please do get in touch.
