With 8.4 million on Instagram and 4.9 million followers on TikTok, Rare Beauty has become the most popular celebrity brand of 2025.
But this isn’t because Selena Gomez is a huge star, I mean, she is, and Rare Beauty has greatly benefited from her stardom. But the real hero of its success is the Rare Beauty marketing team!
They have truly made this beauty brand a standout among all the others, including Fenty Beauty by Rihanna and Kylie Cosmetics by Kylie Jenner.
In this blog, I’m going to tell you how the Rare Beauty marketing strategy took this brand from a new venture to a top business in just 5 years!
Short Summary
- Rare Beauty has emerged as the leading celebrity beauty brand of 2025.
- With over $367 million to $400 million in sales by early 2024 and a $2.7 billion valuation, the brand experienced enormous commercial success.
- With genuine, informal content from Selena Gomez and a variety of creators, the brand mastered TikTok, frequently transforming straightforward consumer inquiries into viral moments.
- The brand incorporates inclusivity through a variety of campaign imagery, accessible packaging, and large shade ranges.
- User-generated content is the star of their marketing. It makes them unique and real, unlike other beauty brands.
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How Successful Is Rare Beauty: Statistics
If you ask me how successful Rare Beauty is, I will just point to the numbers.
Honestly, they tell the whole story. This isn’t just a successful celebrity brand anymore; I think it’s a beauty powerhouse that is totally redefining the industry!
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My Jaw Dropped at Their Revenue
Rare Beauty’s net sales absolutely exploded.
According to Forbes, Rare Beauty’s revenue generated $367 million in 2023, while Wikipedia states that it crossed $400 million in the 12 months leading up to February 2024.
Growth like this is a serious commercial success, not just a one-hit wonder!
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They’re Valued in the Billions!
The brand’s valuation has recently hit an estimated $2.7 billion.
I feel like that number really solidifies their place alongside the giant, long-established names in beauty. They’re playing in the big leagues now!
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They’re Sephora’s Favorite
I love that Rare Beauty isn’t just surviving; it’s thriving on the shelves!
The brand is listed among Sephora’s best-selling brands and is recognized as the fastest-growing celebrity beauty brand on social media.
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Everyone’s Talking About Them (Literally)
Here’s a fun one: Rare Beauty had over 17 million Google searches in 2023, making it the most-searched brand globally when considering the overall strength of their brand presence.
I think that level of public curiosity means they have a massive cultural influence and are constantly on consumers’ minds.
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Strategies Rare Beauty Marketing Team Implemented in the Last Five Years
Rare Beauty didn’t succeed by accident. Here are the key strategies that drove their phenomenal growth:
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Purpose-Driven Marketing: The Rare Impact Fund
Let’s talk about the core of their entire brand. Rare Beauty launched with a clear mission beyond just selling makeup: to promote self-acceptance and support mental well-being.
- 1% of Sales Commitment: From day one, they committed one percent of all sales to the Rare Impact Fund, which raises money to increase access to mental health services for young people globally. While other businesses do things like this as a separate charity, it’s an integral part of Rare Beauty’s DNA.
- The Rare Chats and Community: They hosted weekly “Rare Chats,” which started as Zoom calls during the pandemic and transitioned into in-person meetups. These chats focused on mental health and community support, which built a loyal audience before the brand even had products to sell.
- Affirming Product Names: How Rare Beauty names its products is also very smart. The products are named Worthy, Empathy, and Grateful, which might seem like a subtle detail, but it constantly reinforces the brand’s core values every time a customer uses the product.
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Mastering TikTok and Short-Form Video
While many older brands are still trying to accept TikTok, Rare Beauty built their empire on it.
They knew their audience (Gen Z and Millennials) lived there, and they tailored their content accordingly.
- Authenticity First: The brand leans heavily into unfiltered, relatable content. Selena Gomez herself posts casual tutorials from her home, making the application look easy and effortless. This contrasts sharply with the hyper-polished, unattainable look of traditional beauty ads.
- Creator-Led Content: They prioritize working with a diverse roster of creators across different skin tones, abilities, and genders, which showcases the products’ diversity. This builds trust because the content feels like a recommendation from a friend rather than a sponsored ad.
- Turning Questions into Viral Content: When a fan asked on TikTok how to use the Soft Pinch Liquid Blush, the brand quickly responded with a short, engaging tutorial video. This direct, reactive approach turned a simple customer service question into a viral moment (which famously caused the blush to sell out repeatedly).
Check out this video for an example:
@rarebeauty shade is Beam btw @Selena Gomez #rarebeauty #rarebeautylipgloss #lipgloss #selenagomez ♬ оригинальный звук – . -
Inclusivity as a Core Product Feature
Inclusivity is often missing in a lot of the beauty brands. They claim that they’re inclusive but aren’t actually.
Some beauty brands have been criticized for the same in the past, but Rare Beauty is different!
It didn’t treat inclusivity as an afterthought; they built it into the product and campaign strategy from the start.
- Massive Shade Range Launch: The brand launched in 2020 with an extensive 48 shades of foundation and concealer, immediately signaling their commitment to serving a global, diverse customer base.
- Accessible Packaging: They designed packaging that is easy to open and handle, making the products accessible to people with limited mobility. This attention to detail spoke volumes about their commitment to a truly inclusive community.
- Diverse Campaign Imagery: Their campaign imagery intentionally features models of all ages, genders, and backgrounds, reinforcing the idea that Rare Beauty is makeup “made to feel good in, without hiding what makes you unique.”
Here’s a video by an Instagram influencer reviewing Rare Beauty’s liquid blush:
View this post on Instagram -
Held on to Consistency
Another thing that Rare Beauty got right was the importance of consistency on social media platforms.
If you look at their Instagram or TikTok, you will see a cohesive grid and consistent content that makes the brand look active and responsive.
- UGC Videos: They post a lot of user-generated content consistently, which increases their credibility in the beauty industry.
Example of UGC Content on Rare Beauty’s Instagram Profile
- Combination of Formats: They experiment with different formats on social media and don’t rely on just videos. From carousels, product launches, tutorials, to collaborations, they do it all, and they do it well!
- Daily Content: Rare Beauty’s social media is super active. They post content daily, and that explains why they have so many followers on Instagram and TikTok.
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- With scheduling, you can plan and automatically publish all your posts across multiple platforms weeks or months ahead.
- Its visual drag-and-drop calendar provides a complete, easy-to-use overview of all your scheduled and published content.
- You can instantly track performance metrics like engagement, reach, and clicks for every post, giving you the data needed to refine your strategy.
- Social listening lets you monitor brand mentions, relevant keywords, and industry trends across the web, allowing you to find and repurpose valuable UGC videos instantly.
- It centralizes all comments, messages, and mentions from every platform into one unified dashboard, helping you respond promptly to your community.
- UGC Videos: They post a lot of user-generated content consistently, which increases their credibility in the beauty industry.
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What You Can Learn From Rare Beauty Advertising
If you look at how traditional beauty brands advertise, it’s usually glossy, highly edited, and focuses on “fixing” a flaw. Rare Beauty flips that entirely.
Their advertising is less about selling a product and more about selling a feeling and a belief system.
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Lead With Mission, Not Product
An Instagram Post by Rare Beauty Rare Beauty’s ads never start with, “Buy this foundation!” They start with: “We believe in the beauty of imperfections.”
Every campaign, from their first global effort, “Every Side of You,” is designed to make you feel seen.
Instead of featuring flawless models, the ads show a diverse cast sharing moments of vulnerability and self-expression.
In their major brand spots, Selena Gomez isn’t the star; she’s often just the voiceover, gently narrating the message of self-acceptance.
This shows that the mission is bigger than the founder, which builds genuine trust.
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UGC Is the New Billboard
UGC on Rare Beauty’s Instagram Page Rare Beauty realized that the most powerful advertising isn’t a paid commercial, it’s a friend’s recommendation, and it worked wonders for their brand!
Their viral success, especially with the Soft Pinch Liquid Blush, wasn’t driven by a huge brand ad spend. It was driven by creators filming unfiltered swatches and reacting in real-time.
So, they get real people to try their products on social media and post that content on their official page.
Not just unrealistically gorgeous models but actual people whom we can connect with.
But that doesn’t mean that they don’t do ads, they do!
However, their ads on TikTok and YouTube Shorts are often simple, quick, and feature authentic, educational content from diverse creators.
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Embrace Inclusivity Like Rare Beauty
Their advertising makes inclusivity non-negotiable; it’s just how they operate, which is a powerful message to a generation that values authenticity.
Their campaigns feature people of all skin tones, ages, genders, and abilities. It’s not a token gesture; it’s the foundation of their visual identity.
They even highlight their accessible packaging (like rounded caps) in some materials.
This small detail turns an inclusive design choice into an advertising point, signaling deep care for all customers.
Here’s a video of Selena Gomez explaining the thought behind her newly launched perfume’s packaging.
@rarebeauty Rare Eau de Parfum is HERE. A new fine fragrance that captures the essence of a perfect moment: Warm and decadent with a touch of spice, this eau de parfum opens with notes of creamy caramel and pistachio, gives way to intoxicating vanilla infused with peppery ginger, and then dries down to earth sandalwood. Thoughtfully designed with accessibility in mind, the luxe, ergonomic bottle ensures the most effortless and comfortable dispensing, with an intentional twist-to-lock cap for travel. Available now only @sephora, @sephoracanada, Sephora @Kohl’s, and rarebeauty.com #selenagomez #rarebeauty #makeup #fragrance #rareeaudeparfum @Selena Gomez ♬ son original – Rare Beauty
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Conclusion
So, what have you learned from Rare Beauty’s explosive growth and unique marketing over the last five years?
Even if you cannot and should not replicate their viral blush, you can definitely adopt their philosophy.
If I had to boil down the Rare Beauty blueprint into a single piece of advice for your brand in 2026, it would be this: Lead with Heart and Follow with Data.
The brand didn’t become a multi-billion-dollar business just by having a celebrity founder or a good product.
The Rare Beauty marketing team succeeded because they understood that today’s consumers, especially Gen Z, are tired of being told to be “perfect.”
They have given us a clear roadmap: Stop selling an ideal, and start selling self-acceptance.
Now, it’s your turn! Which one of these Rare Beauty strategies are you excited to try first in your own marketing plan?
