From Twitter to retail: how celebrities are dictating beauty sales

Researcher, Nina Nowak tells CosmeticsDesign.com USA that there is no doubt that stars are dictating new “it” looks and indicate the directions in which global beauty standards will move.

This can mean new and profitable business opportunities for the cosmetic companies tracking these trends.  

32% of consumers aged 18-24 and 34% of those aged 25-34 claim that it is important or very important for them to adopt the latest cosmetic looks/styles, compared with only 21% and 16% for the age groups of 45-54 and 55-64.

Datamonitor Consumer​'s stats, Nowak says, may not come as surprising as the younger generations are easily influenced by celebrities and more appearance-focused.

"The looks-oriented generation fuels the demand for new make-up tools and products that allow them to emulate the looks of current beauty icons and t​witter is unquestionably one of the most powerful modern 'trend-spreading' tools," she tells this publication.

Twitter status is king​

According to Nowak, the major Twitter style gurus, such as Katy Perry (55.2 million followers), Rihanna (36.6 million), Kim Kardashian (22.7 million), Miranda Kerr (3.0 million), and Cara Delevingne (1.8 million), are all being watched by millions of fans, ready to follow their beauty advice.

As an example, she says a famous picture of reality star Kim Kardashian with a heavy layer of un-blended highlighter on her face created an online storm and contributed to an explosion of the face contouring trend.

This 'contouring' technique had already been well-known in the professional make-up community but went mainstream after the picture was uploaded, which has seen huge demand for contouring kits, highlighters, and bronzers, backed up by hundreds of online tutorials and beauty blogger posts.

Star inspired trends ​

Other star-inspired trends like the 'statement brow' took off over the last two years, creating demand for multiple eyebrow products such as brow powders, waxes, pencils, and brushes.

Cara Delevingne kicked off the trend with thick and daring brows that first shocked consumers and then gained millions of fans and followers, all of them in need of products that could help them to achieve the desired effect.

Both upscale and high street brands joined the race, releasing products that would please fans of striking brows, and many of these brands were debuting in the eyebrow-enhancing area with their first eyebrow-targeted release

Finally, the market analyst says it is safe to say that celebrities contribute to the shape of current beauty trends. However, as much as consumers are willing to imitate celebrity looks, they will not necessarily be convinced by star-filled adverts and beauty brand campaigns to buy a certain product.