If there’s one thing that we love about the beauty world, it’s that innovation will never cease. What’s considered de rigueur today can easily be toppled by something greater tomorrow, thanks to the trailblazers who continue to break new ground in skincare, makeup, and bodycare.
We’ve rounded up a list of these brands and products that have sparked a revolution of sorts in their respective categories and have forever changed the beauty game for the better—and here’s why they’re worth discovering and following.
Dior Beauty
The Luxury Beauty Winner
Luxury designer brands have long wanted their piece in the beauty industry pie, and a strong contender who’s taken their slice—and rightly so—is Dior Beauty. The fashion house has been putting its efforts in all the right places, from signing top Korean celebrities such as Blackpink’s Jisoo to represent it, to having its hero products go viral on social media, such as the Dior Addict Lip Glow Oil.
Dior Beauty gets the top spot in beauty brands of 2023, with over a million searches on Google, per data by U.K. company Landys Chemist, NewBeauty reports. Likewise, the BOF reports Dior Beauty to land the second spot of most-talked-about beauty brands in 2023, garnering US$ 389 million in MIV or media impact value.
Its ability to stay relevant through trends and across generations is, of course, thanks in large part to the French house’s commitment to timeless beauty and style, its high-quality products, and moving through the times with ease and a knowledge of what’s of-the-moment. The brand’s raison d’etre is reflected in every aspect of its products, from its signature fragrances for men and women to its Dior Rouges, and many more, giving it an intrinsic charm that makes it all the more covetable to long-time and newfound fans alike.
Estée Lauder
The Skincare Pioneer
One of the most iconic beauty empires of all time, this 75-year-old brand has done more than just sell thousands of products; it carved a path for many other beauty upstarts to follow. Its namesake founder went from selling homemade face creams to producing groundbreaking skincare and makeup products that have become staples in every woman’s vanity. The most popular, of course, is Estée Lauder’s Advanced Night Repair Serum, the first night serum and repair product to ever hit the market. Dubbed as “The Little Brown Bottle,” it was a precursor to important advancements in the anti-aging category and remains one of the most beloved and bestselling serums in the world.
Calvin Klein
The Gender Bender
ICYDK: Lifestyle brand Calvin Klein is responsible for democratizing fragrances with CK One in 1994—the very first perfume openly marketed as unisex (a.k.a. “One for all”). At a time when men’s and women’s personal care products were clearly divided, the product stood out as a rule breaker, mesmerizing audiences with its clean notes, unpretentious packaging, and novel messaging. Hailed as the scent of the ‘90s, it went on to pave the way for gender fluidity not just in the fragrance category, but in the beauty landscape as a whole.
The Ordinary
The Industry Rebel
In a market where flowery descriptions and complex formulations are the norm, The Ordinary is anything but ordinary. Launched in 2016 under Deciem (known for its tagline, The Abnormal Beauty Company), it was designed to go against the grain, focusing on simplified products with just one or two active ingredients and offering them at extremely affordable price points.
What’s more, the brand did away with the fancy labels and used key ingredients as product names, allowing shoppers to understand formulas from a clinical point of view. No frills, no vague claims; just plain old science complemented by cool, no-fuss branding. This level of transparency, which many companies adopted later, proved to be the key to the brand’s outright success, and helped spawn a more discerning breed of consumers.
Rare Beauty
Making an Impact Beyond Beauty
In today’s modern beauty world, and for Gen Z beauty fans who make up a considerable part of the market, putting out good products is the bare minimum—beauty brands need to stand for something. In many ways, this is what Rare Beauty founder and the most followed woman on Instagram, Selena Gomez herself, is and does: in touch with and connected to her audience, unapologetically herself, flawed but beautiful, and here to make an impact.
Besides having high-quality, chicly packaged makeup must-haves that really work (case in point: its best-selling liquid blush), Rare Beauty is followed for a myriad of other things. Gen Zs love that it is inclusive, from its shade range to the makeup looks it espouses (it’s meant to highlight what’s unique to you, instead of making everyone look like everyone) to the employees that make up its workforce (more than 60% of its staff are people of color, per Fast Company). On social media, Rare Beauty starts the conversation beyond trends and makeup how-tos, from managing one’s mental health to dealing with unrealistic standards and body shaming to the importance of education to putting up the Rare Impact Fund that supports mental health initiatives. What Rare Beauty does is real (and rare!) hard work, which, years and generations ago, may have been too big of an ask from beauty brands.
Fenty Beauty
Champions of Inclusivity
When Rihanna launched her buzz-worthy Fenty line with a whopping 40 shades of foundation in 2017—it’s now at 50 shades—the makeup world was stunned. This move, fronted by a world-renowned black woman, no less, sparked that much-needed conversation around inclusivity. It highlighted the glaring void in the makeup industry that has left many skin tones unmatched. “There’s this middle ground that’s covered really, really well,” Rihanna said at the launch. “But then if you’re very pale or if you’re very dark, there aren’t a lot of options.”
And so the Fenty effect began. While brands like M.A.C and Make Up For Ever already carried a wide range of face base shades even before Fenty entered the scene, Rihanna’s global influence proved to be the push that makeup manufacturers needed to finally create products catering to the whole shade spectrum—extreme ends included. Fenty also continues to disrupt the status quo by featuring models of all shapes, sizes, genders, and ethnicities.
Drunk Elephant
Clean Cult-Favorite
It is also one of the first digitally native, direct-to-consumer companies in the industry, heavily banking on e-commerce and online channels to reach its market. This has been a tactic that was emulated by many other emerging brands.
Recognized as one of the pioneering “clean” beauty brands in the U.S., Drunk Elephant was founded in 2013 by Tiffany Masterson, who simply wanted to create products without what she has coined the “Suspicious 6.” She believed that these six ingredients were the root of her skin issues (essential oils, drying alcohols, silicones, chemical sunscreens, fragrances/dyes, and SLS). Her concept proved to be pivotal as it helped jumpstart a “clean” movement, with brands eliminating harmful chemicals from their formulas and putting the focus on skin’s natural health.
E.l.f.
The Trend-Setter
E.l.f., which stands for “eyes, lips, face” continues to be popular among the younger set. It is, after all, a beauty brand that moves with the times and is social media-savvy, fun, and a trendsetter, to say the least. From memes to spoofs, Roblox games, and premiere passes to the new Mean Girls movie, E.l.f. knows the trends to ride, or it starts it.
Before the age of TikTok, E.l.f. had long gained fans for its wide range of products that have earned rave reviews from real users and experts alike, and these are offered at friendly price points, too. E.l.f. is also known for its dupes, making high-end favorites accessible to its market. Last but not least, the fact that its products are thoughtfully made makes it appealing to Gen Zs, as makeup must-haves being vegan, clean, and cruelty-free, are important values to them.
The success of E.l.f. does not come with controversy, sad to say, from its attempt to switch to a streaming platform via Twitch and not including a Black streamer and the brand’s marketing firm’s alleged ties to a controversial, so-called sex cult in the past. While this isn’t the best way for a beauty brand to make headlines or disrupt the scene, it’s good to know that its followers are discerning and adept at issues that demand to be addressed—and won’t settle for anything less, yes, even from a beauty brand.
Glossier
The Beauty Conversationalist
Glossier was founded after beauty blogger Emily Weiss of Into the Gloss identified a gap in the beauty industry. After growing an engaged online community of women, she discovered beauty needs that existing companies were not fulfilling. Glossier has since positioned itself as a brand that’s built on and around conversation (thanks to social media), one that actively involves consumers in the product creation process.
Runners-up
Clarisonic
The world-famous cleansing brush may have said goodbye, but it leaves behind a lasting legacy after triggering the rise of beauty devices, including its biggest rival, Foreo.
Beautyblender
The art of makeup blending has never been the same again since the brand’s edgeless, teardrop-shaped sponge entered the scene (and sparked numerous copycats, too).
Dyson
After realizing there hasn’t been much innovation in the hair dryer category in over 60 years, the brand deviated from household appliances and launched its first beauty product, the Supersonic, in 2016, and started a hair dryer revolution.
