Beauty disruptor brands, seemingly born overnight on social media, are turning single-hit products into booming direct-to-consumer (DTC) businesses. Sacheu Beauty and Wonderskin’s lip stains, UKLash’s eyelash serum, Baebrow’s eyebrow tint, Medicube’s overnight collagen-wrapping mask and Pink Honey’s brow glue have all become viral sensations without partnering with outside retailers. Can the hype last?
The beauty industry has entered an era where virality drives sales at an unmatched speed — one beauty product is sold every two seconds on TikTok Shop, per the social media platform’s data. Upstart brands are leveraging social media algorithms and paid ads to build entire businesses off a single viral product. Success now hinges on creating must-have moments: formulas promising dramatic results, ultra-specific before-and-afters and a sense of urgency fuelled by scarcity.
Social media virality plays a crucial role in brand visibility and when people see a product, often showcased with compelling results, enough times, they buy. “Virality on social media has been instrumental in getting our brand in front of a massive audience,” says Baebrow founder Victoria Singh. The brand’s Instant Tint eyebrow line took off thanks to ads highlighting its easy application. “But we know that long-term success comes from delivering consistent value, not just momentary hype.”
Hype has become a key tool for beauty brands where, borrowing heavily from streetwear culture, limited releases and influencer endorsements spark consumer desire. TikTok has amplified this phenomenon by creating viral moments that rapidly increase brand visibility and drive sales. In the short term, this approach has proven successful, allowing brands to capitalise on trends and virality. But for brands looking to achieve more than a fleeting moment of fame, the challenge is maintaining momentum after the initial buzz subsides.
As Ana Andjelic, author and brand executive, explains: “Hype is necessary; it just depends on if the brand has the money to keep the hype going.”
Hype pros and cons
TikTok Shop has transformed beauty brand growth by seamlessly integrating product discovery and purchasing, turning unknown brands into overnight sensations. Since the shopping platform’s UK launch in 2021 (2023 in the US), it has become a major e-commerce player and according to company data more than 44 per cent of UK users purchase directly through the app.
The sheer rise in commerce shopping and community has cemented the perfect platform for beauty brands to leverage TikTok Shop’s algorithm-driven visibility, in-app and live shopping, and influencer partnerships to drive instant sell-outs. Take TikTok brand Master Brows as an example, which leveraged the platform’s promotional tools to amplify brand awareness and drive sales by boosting top-performing videos of its mascara mask treatment. As a result, the brand garnered over 64,000 views, 1,200 followers and over $5,600 in gross merchandising value (total amount of money paid for orders) with a 156 per cent ROI based on boosting top-performing videos — underscoring the platform’s impact and viral opportunity.
To sustain growth, Baebrow focuses on product innovation, exceptional customer experience and a strong DTC foundation. It continuously evolves its brow offering, emphasising a hassle-free, results-driven approach and user-generated content to stay authentic. By maintaining strong supplier relationships and utilising predictive inventory planning, Baebrow ensures to meet demand without overproducing. Customer engagement is enhanced through social media content, email, SMS marketing as well as the Baebrow rewards programme, which helps to turn first-time buyers into long-term customers. While DTC remains the priority, the brand is also exploring retail expansion, with success on platforms like Revolve, where its bestseller Hold Up! Brow Wax is available to purchase.
Wonderskin, a makeup and skincare brand launched in 2020 and best known for its lip stains, counted 300,000 units sold on TikTok Shop in 2024 and more than 16 million views on its product platform, according to the brand. Wonderskin reports that one of their lip stains sells every five seconds on TikTok Shop. Co-founder and CEO Michael Malinsky recognises the power of viral trends, but cautions that a strong value proposition is essential for lasting success.
“There is nothing wrong with jumping on a viral trend. If you do not have a value proposition that will have a customer coming back to you in the future, then no viral trend in the world will suffice,” he explains. As an emerging company, Malinsky and the Wonderskin team recognised that when consumers purchase from a brand they’re yet to engage with, they tend to trust other people over paid ads. So the brand built a community of more than 20,000 content creators that work with the company via affiliates and is bringing its DNA to life via stores and collaborations. Plans for an omnichannel strategy include traditional retail partnerships, which are due to be announced later this year (the brand is already sold on e-tailers Amazon and Beautybay), and further brand tie-ups on the back of its limited-edition Lipotle lip stain in partnership with Chipotle from last summer that sold out in hours.
Virality can lead to quick sales, but the rush can bring challenges as the speed of success often leaves companies grappling with inventory and supply chain issues.
“We spend over $50,000 per product on clinical testing and development to ensure that our products meet the highest standards for safety and efficacy,” says Nisha Patak, co-founder and COO of Lion Pose, a skincare brand whose Unspotted hyperpigmentation and Placenta moisturiser went viral on TikTok. “As we grow and scale, this will of course mean we need to test batches at random to ensure consistency, conduct regular quality control checks throughout our supply chain, and provide our manufacturing partners and facilities with regular forecasts and projections to ensure they can meet demand.” Malinsky echoes the importance of inventory management. “The increased demand has certainly seen us reach an out-of-stock position more than once, and we communicate that clearly when it happens,” he says.
While social virality can drive significant visibility, there are inherent risks. “The problem with virality is that by essence it’s ephemeral,” explains Lion Pose CEO Madhu Punjabi. To circumvent this fate, the brand focuses its approach on what is constant, like its core value system, which includes building products rooted in science and proven via clinical testing to be effective and safe for all skin tones, types and textures. Lion Pose’s product innovation strategy reflects this balance. While the brand’s Unspotted treatment, a product aimed at reducing dark spots, garnered lots of attention, one of the concerns about using a strong acid or retinol on the face is that it can be very drying. But it was the subsequent launch of the brand’s hydrating Pep Talk, a bio-placenta moisturiser that mimics the peptides in a mother’s womb to create baby skin, that solidified its market positioning; the product sold out on Sephora.com just two months after launch.
TikTok content
Viral brands must also stand out while maintaining a distinctive identity and meet growing demand — without losing the agility necessary to respond to market trends. “The brow category is becoming increasingly competitive, with both indie brands and established beauty giants launching products,” says Baebrow’s Singh. “Standing out and maintaining our unique voice is crucial.” For brands, carving out a space in the beauty sphere requires building strong relationships with suppliers, investing in predictive inventory planning to better anticipate customer needs, leveraging automation where possible and continuing to innovate with products and messaging.
Virality to long-term value
For brands to make the move to long-term success, they need momentum. Jue Wong, group CEO at Performance Beauty Group, compares viral success to hitting a hole-in-one: “It’s unlikely you’ll do it again and again.”
Cassie Cowman, co-founder of beauty consultancy View From 32, says: “If longevity is the goal, then there needs to be a clear focus on the brand positioning to ensure that no matter what viral message is coming through, it always ladders up to the brand to continue growing the pie.” She references K18, which was able to capitalise on the virality of its Leave-In Molecular Hair Mask while continuing to push the envelope from a positioning and product innovation standpoint.
“Brands cannot be everything for everyone. They need to ensure they aren’t capitalising on a trend or a viral moment that doesn’t align with who they are or who their customer is just to get a bump in sales or awareness,” Cowman continues. “They need to be able to parallel path the viral moment and squeeze all the juice out of that lemon while maintaining their key positioning.”
This all holds true for brands who see venture capital as the path to growth. “For investors to really consider anything, it cannot be a one-hit wonder,” Wong adds. Investors prioritise a brand’s infrastructure — product development, marketing, sales and operations — over just top-line revenue. It’s no longer solely about how much a brand makes, but whether it can sustain profitability and manage spending effectively. Long-term success depends on maintaining sustainable profitability, a principle that has remained unchanged.
While DTC channels are great for building brand loyalists, Cowman believes that retail remains a vital extension of a brand’s community, offering a space for potential customers to discover and test products. Retailers can also capitalise on the virality of brands in their existing assortments and gain credit with their customers for featuring them.
The consensus among brands, investors and consultants is that hype coupled with the tactics discussed above can deliver long-term love. But the rise of hype-driven beauty brands could be emblematic of a larger cultural shift within the ever-evolving attention economy. As the beauty industry embraces the whirlwind of virality, only those with the infrastructure to build lasting connections will stay in the game. That said, not all brands are built for longevity, and for some, the viral wave may be enough to succeed, even if they don’t last forever.
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