It’s no coincidence the biggest beauty deal of the year — E.l.f.’s $1 billion acquisition of Hailey Bieber’s Rhode — involved a 28-year-old founder. Beauty is having a youthquake, with a slew of young founders, creators, executives, artists and scientists having an impact that belies their years.
Take 15-year-old Salish Matter, who has more than 4.5 million Instagram followers and recently launched a skin care line at Sephora, where clean fragrance brand Skylar — which was refounded by “Love Island USA” star Leah Kateb, 24, known online as the “people’s princess” — can also be found.
Meanwhile, on social media, influencers like Alix Earle are selling out products in a matter of minutes, while brands are tapping content creators like Golloria George for product development feedback. Then there’s the likes of Lili Reinhart, 28, and Aaliyah Arnold, 21, who are taking TikTok by storm with fresh takes on skin care and cosmetics. Individually, they’re each powerful. Collectively, they’re unstoppable.
Here, the most impactful young women in beauty.
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Aaliyah Arnold, 21, founder and CEO, BossUp Cosmetics
Image Credit: Courtesy BossUp Cosmetics is a fitting name for Aaliyah Arnold’s beauty company. She’s been an entrepreneur since age 9, when she started selling accessories made out of duct tape on Etsy. Today, BossUp Cosmetics, which sells lipgloss, lipstick, eye shadow, highlighters, blushes, apparel and more. With more than 2.5 million followers on TikTok, Arnold’s brand has seen mass success on the platform, selling out product and winning customer share during major events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
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Aliett Buttleman, 29, cofounder, Fazit Beauty
Image Credit: Lena Melnik Aliett Buttleman’s brand Fazit has gained star status with its glitter freckles made famous by Taylor Swift, who sported them at a Chiefs game. Following the viral moment, the brand, which has since partnered with E.l.f Cosmetics, saw a more than 1,000 percent sales increase.
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Alix Earle, 24, social media personality, entrepreneur, and host, Hot Mess
Image Credit: Cody Lidtke With 7.5 million TikTok followers and 4.4 million Instagram followers, Alix Earle is the breakout social media star of her generation. Her ability to sell out products after a simple post has been dubbed the “Alix Earle effect”; no wonder brands like Hero Cosmetics and Pantene have tapped her to be an ambassador. She also puts her money where her mouth is, investing in better-for-you soda brand Poppi and canned cocktail brand SipMargs.
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Amanda Calabrese, 27, cofounder and chief marketing officer, Sequel
Image Credit: Emilio Diaz / Sequel Stanford University graduate and member of the U.S. national team for lifesaving Amanda Calabrese, alongside classmate Greta Meyer, created Sequel, a new design for a more effective tampon during a 10-week college course. Now, tapping into her expertise as an athlete, Calabrese has secured several standout partnerships for Sequel, as it is the official tampon supplier for Stanford Athletics, Unrivaled 3×3 Basketball, Lexie Hull of the Indiana Fever, Athletes Unlimited, Audi Field and more.
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Bella Hadid, 28, model, founder, ‘Ôrebella and cofounder, Kin Euphorics
Image Credit: Rebecca Spencer Photography Talk about beauty and brains: While Bella Hadid has been a mainstay in the beauty industry thanks to her prolific modeling career, she has also tackled the beauty and wellness business world as the cofounder of nonalcoholic beverage company Kin Euphorics and as the founder of clean, oil-based fragrance line ‘Ôrebella, which is available at Ulta Beauty.
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Chelsea Uchenna, 22, celebrity makeup artist
Image Credit: Courtesy Chelsea Uchenna has made a name for herself as a celebrity makeup artist, working with clients like Doechii, Tyla, Saweetie and more. With 107,000 followers and growing on Instagram, she is also a burgeoning beauty content creator working with brands like Glossier, Topicals and MAC Cosmetics.
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Claudia Sulewski, 29, content creator and founder, Cyklar
Image Credit: Courtesy With more than 2.45 million YouTube subscribers and 2.1 million Instagram followers, Claudia Sulewski is one of the most established content creators on social media. Now she’s tapping into two of beauty’s biggest trends as the founder of Cyklar, a scent-forward body care brand backed by The Center.
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Ella Rose McFadin, 28, content creator and founder, Skin by Ella
Image Credit: Apple Photos Clean Up As a multifaceted lifestyle content creator, Ella Rose McFadin has gone on to make a name for herself in the beauty world with her brand Skin by Ella Rose. The brand has risen to fame for its clean formulas, particularly gaining traction on TikTok with essentials like Brow Gel. Watch her blossom!
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Golloria George, 24, content creator
Image Credit: Grace Bukunmi With more than 3.3 million followers, Golloria George has become a TikTok darling for her content, which spans beauty. She is most well-known for her content around beauty inclusivity, testing brands to ensure they are suitable for a variety of skin tones. Her content has led to the likes of Hailey Bieber reaching out to discuss her feedback for future formulations.
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Greta Meyer, 28, cofounder and chief executive officer, Sequel
Image Credit: Emilio Diaz / Sequel Division 1 lacrosse player and Stanford graduate Greta Meyer used her expertise as an engineering product design student when she teamed up with Amanda Calabrese to create a new design for a tampon. For Sequel’s first product, she landed on a first-of-its-kind spiral design that increases the efficacy of the tampon, which hadn’t been redesigned since its inception in 1929.
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Hailey Rhode Bieber, 28, founder, chief creative officer and head, innovation of Rhode
Image Credit: Yana Yatsuk Hailey Bieber has become synonymous with success, thanks to her wildly successful brand Rhode, which has launched viral products like its Peptide Lip Treatment and Pocket Blush. At just 28 years old, Bieber recently achieved the dream of many founders when Rhode was acquired by E.l.f. Beauty for $1 billion. Next stop: Sephora.
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Jess Hunt, 28, creative director and cofounder, Refy Beauty
Image Credit: Courtesy As a longtime beauty lover, Jess Hunt has garnered a following of more than 1.7 million people on her Instagram, which ultimately led her to found Refy Beauty. Now sold at Sephora and Selfridges, Refy has acquired cult status for fan-favorite products like its Brow Sculpt and Glow and Sculpt Primer.
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Julianne Goldmark, 30, founder and chief brand officer, Emi Jay
Image Credit: Courtesy Julianne Goldmark, a hair-obsessed creative, created viral brand Emi Jay simply with claw clips that people would actually love –- think cute designs and sturdy hardware. Now, she’s added a slew of other accessories and styling products and launched Emi Jay at Sephora, all while maintaining the brand’s cool factor.
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Katie Fang, 19, lifestyle and beauty creator
Image Credit: Cody Lidtke With more than 7.4 million followers on TikTok and Instagram, Katie Fang is celebrated as a voice for the younger generations, cultivating an inclusive community through her candid “get ready with me” videos. Fang focuses on showcasing a variety of products suitable for everyday use, from Too Faced foundation to Saie Beauty primer.
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Leah Kateb, 26, chief creative officer and refounder, Skylar
Image Credit: Courtesy of Skylar Leah Kateb was the runner-up on Love Island USA Season Six, gaining more than 3.55 million followers in just one month while she was on the show. Her foray into the beauty industry was motivated by her experience as a fragrance-sensitive consumer who was recently diagnosed with eczema. At Skylar, Kateb is making it her mission to create a portfolio of scents that are clean, sweet and long-lasting.
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Lili Reinhart, 28, actress and cofounder, Personal Day
Image Credit: Ssam Kim Lili Reinhart launched Personal Day — the TikTok-viral, acne-safe skin care brand — in October 2024 with the mission of providing consumers dermatologist-tested products to help manage and soothe breakouts after her own years-long struggle with acne-prone skin. Already, Reinhart has captured the attention of online beauty aficionados with two unparalleled products: the Nose Unplug Blackhead Melting Nose Strip and the Hypochlorous Acid Spray.
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Mihlali Ndamase, 28, creator and influencer
Image Credit: Courtesy of Mihlali Ndamase Recognized as one of the biggest beauty creators in South Africa, Mihlali Ndamase has more than 2.3 million followers on Instagram and 460,000 subscribers on YouTube. Outside of her social media, Ndamase has worked to champion independent beauty and fashion specialists through her platform called Malakyt, which was launched in 2021.
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Mikayla Nogueira, 27, influencer and founder, Point of View
Image Credit: Max Bronner With more than 16.8 million followers, Mikayla Nogueira has amassed a considerable following since joining TikTok in 2020, all while testing and reviewing a variety of products, creating intricate makeup looks and partnering with brands like Rare Beauty and Tula. After years of promoting other products, she decided to launch her own. Point of View launched in March 2025 with five products designed to hydrate and prime the skin before makeup and backed by venture capital heavyweight Imaginary Ventures.
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Millie Bobby Brown, 21, actress and founder, Florence by Mills
Image Credit: Courtesy of Florence by Mills Millie Bobby Brown created Florence by Mills, a cosmetics and skin care brand named after her great-grandmother, at just. Since its 2019 inception, Brown has expanded the product line to include fragrance and hair care and aims to evolve the brand to fit the needs of Gen Z consumers. Brown acquired a majority stake in Florence by Mills just a year after its debut in partnership with the brand incubator, Beach House Group.
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Monet McMichael, 25, influencer
Image Credit: Snif With 5.1 million followers across Instagram and TikTok, Monet McMichael is praised for her easy-to-follow makeup, hair and skin care tutorials, featuring a wide range of brands from Louis Vuitton’s new La Beauté collection to the drugstore staple, Neutrogena. But she doesn’t just praise all products; she shares her candid impressions, pointing out flaws in collections, especially when it comes to shade ranges. McMichael is regarded as a leader and a voice for BIPOC women in the beauty industry.
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Nadya Okamoto, 27, founder, August and author, “Period Power: a Manifesto for the Menstrual Movement”
Image Credit: Courtesy of Nadya Okamoto Wanting to deconstruct period stigma and honor the diverse menstrual experience, Nadya Okamoto launched August, a gender-inclusive, sustainable period care brand in 2021. Since its inception, Okamoto has used August to fight against the tampon tax by forming a league of brands across the personal care category called The Tampon Tax Back Coalition. Okamoto also founded her own nonprofit organization, Period, when she was just 16 years old.
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Nina LaBruna, 29, cofounder, Fazit Beauty
Image Credit: Savannah Reudy One of the first pioneers of press-on innovation, Nina LaBruna is, in part, responsible for coining the term “makeup patches.” She founded Fazit, a faux freckle patch brand Taylor Swift’s been known to wear, with her cofounder Aliett Buttelman in 2022. Together, the two have inspired a new era in beauty, one that encourages women to step outside the bounds of natural glam.
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Olamide Olowe, 27, creator, entrepreneur and CEO, Topicals
Image Credit: Courtesy of Topicals Olamide Olowe started Topicals, a science-backed skin and body care brand, on a mission to reimagine the ointment category and offer safe products for consumers with a diverse range of skin tones who may also be sensitive or have underlying chronic skin conditions. Olowe was recognized as the youngest Black woman to raise $10 million in venture funding for Topicals in 2024.
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Pritika Swarup, 29, model, CEO and founder, Prakti Beauty
Image Credit: Courtesy of Prakti Beauty Wanting to share the traditional Indian beauty practices she learned from her mom when she was a child, Pritika Swarup started Prakti Beauty, an ayurvedic skin care and wellness brand, in 2021. Since then, the model turned entrepreneur has worked to redefine beauty through Prakti, introducing products that connect the mind, body and soul from the inside out.
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Sahar Rohani, 30, cofounder and CEO, Soshe
Image Credit: Courtesy of Soshe Beauty Sahar Rohani first formulated the idea for Soshe, a cruelty-free cosmetics brand, as part of her college project at the University of Southern California alongside her cofounders Junyi Wu and Aidan Maddox. Through Soshe and the brand’s refillable alternatives, Rohani has sparked a wider movement against beauty packaging waste in the industry.
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Salish Matter, 15, creator and cofounder, Sincerely Yours
Image Credit: Courtesy of Salish Matter At just 15 years old, Salish Matter has amassed more than 4.5 million followers on Instagram and taken on the role of entrepreneur, cofounding Sincerely Yours, a skin care brand created for teenagers, alongside her father, Jordan. The beauty brand was intentionally designed as an approachable line for consumers with acne-prone skin and is sold at Sephora.
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Sami Bernstein Spalter, 30, cofounder, Form
Image Credit: Courtesy Alongside fitness creator Sami Clarke, Sami Bernstein Spalter built Form, which offers workouts and wellness content via its digital platform. In 2023, Form also launched its viral activewear line sported by the likes of Hailey Bieber, Kendall Jenner and Emily Ratajkowski. Spalter and Clarke also went on to launch the Transform podcast, which has amassed more than a million downloads.
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Taylor Frankel, 29, cofounder, Nudestix
Image Credit: Mollie Pie At the forefront of the minimalist movement is Taylor Frankel and her brand, Nudestix, a multitasking makeup brand that she cofounded with her mother. Nudestix was inspired by a “no muss, no fuss” approach to beauty, with products like dual-ended blush and bronzer sticks and tinted moisturizer that appeal to consumers of all ages.
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Tiara Willis, 21, creator and licensed aesthetician
Image Credit: Francesa Andre Although TikTok and Instagram have undoubtedly dominated conversations in the beauty category, Tiara Willis decided to take her expertise elsewhere, sharing formula information, product recommendations and skin care tips on X, formerly known as Twitter. Willis’ beauty discourse isn’t limited to her knowledge on best practices; she unapologetically calls out a lack of representation in the industry from the top-down, too.
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Toni Bravo, 25, content creator
Image Credit: Vijat M From running social media at Rare Beauty to amassing more than 725,000 TikTok followers and more than 36 million likes, Toni Bravo is no stranger to beauty content creation. Now, as a full-time content creator, Bravo has worked with a variety of brands, most recently collaborating with Tower28 on their new powder blushes giving her the title of “CEO of blush.”
