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Indie Beauty Brands Outperform Giants through Creator Communities and Loyal Engagement

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Indie Beauty Brands Thrive via Creator Communities - Business Honor

Business Honor
12 November, 2025

Small Beauty brands are moving from celebrity buzz to real creator connections that help build trust and loyalty.

In 2025, e.l.f. Beauty acquired Hailey Bieber's Rhode for $1 billion, highlighting the value of not only a celebrity brand but also already proven brand equity. When Rhode launched in 2022, Bieber's status and celebrity drove 73% of the visibility for the brand business. A post to her millions of followers could sell out a product. By 2025, this number dropped to 14% as Rhode built out its creator community from 2,000 to 8,000 active partners that connected with new audiences driving more meaningful and sustainable performance. Paid collaborations with creators grew more than 41% year-over-year, yet engagement dropped almost 20%. Beauty giants are working harder while indie brands are drawing attention that is more engaging and more likely to last. To illustrate the 'why', Traackr, the global creator intelligence platform, analyzed millions of posts from 256 beauty accounts on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram from 2023-2025 across the U.S., U.K., and France.

The analysis revealed a clear trend: independent brands like Rhode, Rare Beauty, Huda Beauty, e.l.f., and Merit are taking their share of attention at a rate 14 times greater than a global portfolio company like Estée Lauder, L’Oréal, and Coty. Traackr empirical evidence also shows similar patterns across high-performing independent brands. Nearly half of creators partnered with independent brands have worked with them in the past compared to 38% for large portfolio brands. Huda Beauty was founded in 2013, by beauty influencer Huda Kattan, building a business around creators before the rest of the beauty industry caught onto it.

Today, 85% of their total attention comes from repeat creators, the highest rate of any opportunity measured in the Traackr study. “When you see the same creators coming back for a brand, it tells consumers that there is a relationship inside of a brand's world, not just around the brand,” said Sarah Davis, Senior Professional Consultant at Traackr. “The depth of that relationship creates credibility in consistency.” Re-engaged creators over time drive stronger visibility and lower cost per engagement. This allows indie brands like Rhode and Huda to expand their community while developing loyalty. For smaller brands, that' the efficiency that drives growth.