What Top Makeup Brands Are Doing on TikTok in 2026

Makeup brands spent the week turning launches into episodic entertainment rather than isolated product posts. The strongest feeds paired cinematic reveals with creator-style proof, founder access, humor, and participatory prompts. TikTok carried the conversation and experimentation; Instagram carried polished scale, event recaps, and campaign worlds, though many brands still cross-posted identical assets.

Makeup brands are building launch stories, not simply announcing products

The clearest pattern from July 25–August 1 was campaign sequencing. Rare Beauty, Morphe, Saie, Fenty Beauty, Tarte, Kylie Cosmetics, ILIA, and ONE/SIZE each stretched one launch across multiple posts with different jobs: tease, reveal, explain, demonstrate, contextualize, and convert.

Rare Beauty offered the fullest example. Its fragrance rollout moved between dreamlike hero filmmaking, ingredient and packaging details, Selena Gomez speaking or dancing with the product, accessibility messaging, retailer exclusivity, and a simultaneous music release. The campaign therefore had both a polished brand world and a reason to keep following the story.

Morphe used a more linear reveal structure. It first withheld the product behind a cloud motif, moved to an explosive single-shade glimpse, then showed the complete Cloudlight blush range through a rhythmic unboxing. Instagram added a comment-to-DM mechanic to the teaser, converting curiosity into a launch reminder.

Saie followed a similar sequence but grounded it in summer sensory cues: a beach teaser with wave audio, a community-requested shade reveal, a humorous creator application, then an upscale collaboration-event recap. Fenty compressed the system into a dark, diamond-covered campaign film that visibly demonstrated sparkle across several products.

What brands appear to be trying: make every launch asset answer a different question. What is coming? What does it look like? Why is it relevant? How does it perform? Who endorses it? Where can it be purchased?

The product demo is becoming entertainment

Straightforward application remains everywhere, but several brands wrapped proof inside curiosity, comedy, role-play, or a recognizable cultural format.

Catrice opened on a black lip balm and delayed the color result with a countdown. Its bronzer-freckle tutorial similarly started with the finished effect before showing the unconventional brush technique. Both formats make the demonstration itself resolve a question.

Huda Beauty used three distinct proof styles: Huda Kattan personally applying a lip combination, a creator explaining how five blush-placement shapes change the face, and a founder-to-camera announcement about Sephora Brazil. The feed alternated personal authority, saveable education, and community news instead of forcing every message into one template.

Half Magic turned a theme-park visit into an eyeliner wear test, showing multiple faces after the experience and labeling the absence of fading, transfer, and smudging. Danessa Myricks Beauty used a more traditional creator test, applying Blurring Balm Powder directly to oily skin and showing the immediate result.

This is an important distinction: brands are not abandoning proof. They are hiding the proof inside a more watchable premise.

Campaign worlds are replacing generic launch aesthetics

The most distinctive campaigns gave the product its own setting, language, props, and recurring joke.

Tarte’s Snatch Stick rollout became the Glambulance: a lavender medical vehicle populated by artists in scrubs, mock procedures, clinical props, cosmetic-surgery language, and a breaking-news parody. One post introduced the dual-ended contour stick; another toured the vehicle; another put a creator on a cot for a mock nose-job contour session.

Glossier built its Balm Dotcom activity around New York rather than around formula claims. The product became a street-interview microphone, founder Emily Weiss moved through a labeled city itinerary, and sidewalk stickers directed people toward a Balmdega experience. Product visibility varied, but the city remained the connecting narrative.

Other brands used smaller worlds. Fenty chose midnight, black packaging, crystals, and dramatic light. Saie chose shorelines, sunlit skin, and summer travel. ONE/SIZE used cupcakes and a color wheel to hint at pastel complexion products before revealing them.

The practical shift is from asking, “How should we photograph this product?” to asking, “What repeatable universe does this product belong in?”

Humor is getting shorter and more product-native

The week’s more effective humor concepts did not bolt a meme onto an unrelated product. The product itself became the joke.

Tower 28 placed its concealer in bed as if it were having a nightmare. MAC treated a repeatedly sold-out lipstick shade as the subject of a serious documentary. NYX staged lipstick habits as corporate violations. Benefit joked about a familiar dramatic audio while keeping the post extremely short.

The shared construction is simple: one recognizable premise, immediate visual comprehension, and little or no explanation. These posts appear designed for recognition and sharing rather than full product education.

Founders and celebrities are being used as formats, not just endorsements

Celebrity presence was most useful when it supplied a repeatable content structure.

Selena Gomez moved between campaign model, product demonstrator, musician, and emotional narrator. Kylie Jenner answered informal questions about when she would wear each Mood Stones fragrance. Huda Kattan taught, celebrated retail expansion, and asked viewers for feedback. Patrick Starrr presented ONE/SIZE’s Mexico launch through a bilingual, lotería-inspired product reveal.

Merit took the opposite approach with Dan Levy: makeup stayed secondary while he discussed confidence, anxiety, and creativity during a bathroom-style GRWM. The celebrity supplied the reason to watch; the products became part of the ritual rather than the subject of a sales pitch.

Sephora similarly gave figure skater Alysa Liu an after-hours store-shopping format. Her personal selections, direct-to-camera explanations, and self-deprecating humor made the retailer feel like a playground rather than a catalog.

Education is becoming modular

Brands are breaking education into several levels rather than relying on one standard tutorial.

Essence showed the widest range. It participated in blue eyemaxxing, tested a TikTok-sourced freckle-pen-as-lip-liner idea, created a pause-to-pick-your-shade game, and produced a longer recurring Essence Lab segment explaining tubing mascara technology.

L’Oréal Paris showed a pronounced platform split. Its TikToks used comment replies, home-style creators, a hot-Pilates routine, and step-by-step product application. Its Instagram content used models, studio lighting, editorial typography, compact benefit claims, and cinematic product imagery.

ILIA mixed the two approaches. It used a TikTok photo carousel like a digital product brochure, while its campaign film delivered macro application, waterproof and sweatproof claims, diverse models, split screens, and a whispery voiceover.

Nostalgia is functioning as product organization

The week included clear ’90s and 2000s references, especially around lips. Revlon grouped multiple products beneath a ’90s neutral or vampy-lip idea. MAC revisited several decades of lip trends. Maybelline presented a three-step 2000s lip. Milk Makeup brought back Eye Vinyl and Tattoo Stamp as part of a throwback collection.

Revlon’s executions ranged from brisk, music-led tutorials to a more personal Instagram voiceover about watching a mother create ’90s lip combinations. That personal memory made nostalgia a story rather than just an aesthetic label.

This strategy is useful because an era supplies the shade palette, application technique, styling, music, and hook at once.

TikTok and Instagram are doing different jobs—but not consistently

A real platform distinction appeared on feeds such as L’Oréal Paris, Glossier, Merit, Essence, and Sephora:

• TikTok leaned toward participation: comment replies, direct speech, creator demonstrations, visual jokes, photo carousels, experiments, and imperfect-feeling tutorials.
• Instagram leaned toward presentation: hero films, macro textures, event recaps, celebrity scale, polished brand typography, and longer campaign storytelling.

However, many brands—including Fenty, Kylie Cosmetics, MAC, Revlon, Catrice, and Morphe—cross-posted effectively identical assets. Cross-posting was not automatically a weakness, but it meant the platform difference came mainly from distribution and captioning rather than creative design.

The most revealing reach-versus-resonance split appeared in campaigns such as Rare Beauty and Kylie Cosmetics. Highly polished Instagram films reached enormous audiences, while casual founder-led TikToks often generated a much denser response relative to their reach. That does not establish format causation, but it shows why brands should evaluate reach and audience reaction separately.

Cultural moments were crowded, not differentiating

National Lipstick Day drove a large amount of content from Fenty, MAC, Maybelline, NYX, Essence, ColourPop, Revlon, Patrick Ta, and Sephora. Brands used discounts, giveaways, shade combinations, free products, historical references, and limited-time retail messages.

The moment was useful as a conversion deadline, but the phrase itself did not make a post distinctive. MAC stood out by turning a sold-out shade into a mock-documentary character; NYX used a milestone and giveaway; Revlon committed to a broader ’90s-lip series. The creative mechanism mattered more than the calendar label.

Festival content also appeared across MAC, Essence, Saie, Sephora, and creator-led brand mentions. MAC’s Slayyyter Lollapalooza GRWM was notable because the artist discussed her styling inspiration while products were integrated into the preparation process.

The emerging format mix

Across the official feeds, six format families defined the week:

Longer vertical video also remained viable when the premise supported it. Glossier’s street interviews, Merit’s Dan Levy conversation, and Sephora’s celebrity shopping trip ran much longer than the week’s six-to-fifteen-second product clips. Brands are not converging on one ideal duration; they are matching duration to the strength of the format.

Photo carousels are another meaningful part of the mix, particularly on TikTok. Saie used one for a community-requested reveal, Huda Beauty for lip-combination selection, ILIA for structured product claims, and Essence for interactive shade choice. They functioned less like recycled Instagram graphics and more like self-paced product stories.

What the strongest brands are doing differently

They give every post one job. A teaser creates uncertainty; a tutorial resolves it; a founder post supplies authority; an event recap supplies social context.

They alternate polish with proximity. Rare Beauty paired a cinematic fragrance film with playful Selena clips. Merit paired macro product imagery with a conversational celebrity GRWM. Danessa Myricks paired creator proof with a founder reaction celebrating an early supporter.

They turn benefits into visible actions. Catrice revealed a color transformation, Half Magic tested eyeliner at a theme park, Huda mapped blush placements, and Fenty applied sparkle under dramatic light.

They localize announcements instead of merely translating them. Huda addressed Brazil directly; ONE/SIZE used Patrick Starrr, bilingual speech, music, styling, and a lotería-inspired device for Mexico.

They build recurring formats. Essence Lab, Glossier’s New York street world, Tarte’s Glambulance, and founder-led tutorials can continue beyond one product.

Where brands still look weak

Several feeds remained heavily dependent on repetitive product application, generic lip-combination clips, sale reminders, and near-identical cross-posts. That content can keep a feed active, but it gives viewers little reason to recognize the brand before the logo appears.

Another weakness was separating entertainment from proof. Some polished teasers created atmosphere without explaining the product; some tutorials explained everything without a compelling premise. The strongest launch systems used both, across separate posts, rather than asking one video to perform every job.

There was also a visible difference between reach and resonance. Some large-view Instagram posts attracted relatively light interaction, while smaller TikToks produced much stronger audience response. That can reflect platform distribution, audience size, boosting, celebrity reach, or creative choices, so it should not be treated as a clean causal comparison.

The takeaway for the next makeup-brand content cycle

The week’s best operating model is a content system, not a list of isolated ideas:

1. Establish a recognizable campaign world.

2. Tease one unresolved visual or emotional question.

3. Reveal the product without explaining everything at once.

4. Follow with creator or founder proof.

5. Turn the benefit into a challenge, experiment, or tutorial.

6. Add a participatory post that asks viewers to choose, pause, comment, or save.

7. Use Instagram for the fuller campaign expression and event world.

8. Use TikTok for conversation, testing, humor, and community response.

The larger lesson is that makeup content is moving away from “look at this product” and toward “enter this story, watch this result, or make this choice.” The product still needs to be visible and understandable—but the feed now needs a premise strong enough to make that proof worth watching.

Scope and confidence

This review covers posts surfaced from July 25 through August 1, 2026, across more than 50 makeup-brand searches, with deeper official-feed review for major, mass, luxury, celebrity-founded, and emerging brands. TikTok coverage was fresher and more complete than Instagram search coverage, so Instagram conclusions should be read as a broad directional scan rather than an exhaustive inventory of every regional account.