The Top 10 Black-founded Beauty Brands on Social Media in January

Makeup brands are leading the momentum of Black-founded beauty on social media, data shows.

According to creator marketing platform Traackr, the top five Black-founded beauty brands in January by social media reach and engagement — as measured by Traackr’s VIT metric — were all makeup players, with Fenty Beauty, Danessa Myricks Beauty and Juvia’s Place among them.

Pat McGrath Labs, which filed for bankruptcy at the end of the month, ranked number-four, though just 6 percent of its VIT came from bankruptcy-related commentary, according to Traackr founder and chief executive officer Pierre-Loic Assayag. Most of its volume was driven rather by tutorial-led content from creators like @margaret_kov, who has one million followers on TikTok and is known for acne-focused videos, and a mention from Candice Swanepoel.

Looking at the latter half of the top 10, hair care was the prominent category, with Beyoncé’s Cécred; Briogeo, and Tracee Ellis Ross’ Pattern Beauty making the list. Topicals, at number seven, was the sole skin care brand in the top 10.

“Danessa Myricks Beauty is the big story here,” said Assayag, adding that the brand has nearly doubled its year-over-year VIT and maintains a notably high creator retention rate, with creators posting about the brands nearly six times a year on average. One of the most impactful posts in recent months was an August TikTok video by @april.byjoiles showcasing a seamless client shade match using the deepest shade of Danessa Myricks’ Blurring Balm powder. The post garnered nearly 12 million views and 600,000 likes.

“It was simple, product-focused, and showed inclusive shade ranges and product efficacy. That’s what’s actually moving the needle in beauty social right now,” Assayag said.

The top 10 Black-founded beauty brands by VIT earned in January, per Traackr.