What Top Makeup Brands Are Doing on TikTok in 2026

Makeup brands spent the past week accelerating holiday launches while making the creative feel less like advertising: products became comedy props, story devices, sensory objects, tutorials and cultural punchlines. TikTok rewarded personality, proof and platform-native jokes; Instagram delivered greater scale but mostly received the same edits, revealing surprisingly little platform-specific adaptation.

Makeup brands are already in full holiday mode

This review covers official TikTok and Instagram activity observed from October 17–24, 2026 across roughly 30 makeup brands, from mass-market names such as Maybelline, NYX and e.l.f. to prestige and founder-led brands including Fenty Beauty, Rare Beauty, Huda Beauty, Rhode, Kylie Cosmetics and r.e.m. beauty.

The clearest story is a seasonal handoff. Halloween artistry remains active, but holiday launches, gifts, vaults, advent calendars and limited editions are already taking over the publishing calendar. Brands are not waiting until November: they are trying to establish the object, color palette and campaign world that consumers will associate with the season.

ColourPop turned its first advent calendar into a full content engine rather than a single announcement. One Reel moves through more than 25 quick, hands-only cuts: doors open, products emerge, textures are swatched and mechanical sounds punctuate the sequence. The calendar supplies both the product and the repeatable format.

Kylie Cosmetics built a broader launch narrative around its Winter Kissed collection. Kylie Jenner and Ariel Tejada combine shade demonstrations with candid stories about previous makeup mishaps, then send viewers to the longer YouTube tutorial. It sells the launch through chemistry and access, not a list of claims.

Dior, Haus Labs, Patrick Ta, ColourPop, Benefit, Makeup by Mario, r.e.m. beauty and e.l.f. were also publishing around seasonal collections, giftable sets or holiday-specific shades. The competitive pressure is therefore not merely to release holiday products—it is to give the release a recognizable content world.

The biggest format shift: the product is becoming part of the entertainment

The most distinctive work this week did not interrupt entertainment to demonstrate a product. It made the product necessary to the joke or story.

Urban Decay’s Ghost Hunter Hotline is the most ambitious example. Its setting spray becomes a magical object inside a short scripted drama: women use it to make serial ghosters disappear into purple smoke. Pool splashes still communicate durability, but the product claim is embedded inside a revenge-fantasy trailer and cliffhanger.

Glossier took a less literal but equally entertainment-first route. Its “Merry Little Meltdown” holiday film cross-cuts between women rushing, wrapping, bathing and getting ready before guests arrive. Products sit naturally inside the chaos; the story closes on the campaign line rather than a purchase command.

The week’s sharpest celebrity execution came from r.e.m. beauty. Ariana Grande applies lip mask from an applicator attached to the toe of a ballet slipper, laughs through the demonstration and hums along with the holiday music. The comments sampled were overwhelmingly about her behavior, personality and appearance—the product earned attention by participating in the bit.

This is not yet the dominant makeup format across TikTok. Broader recent-video comparisons still show conventional tutorials and transformations as more established families. But the brand examples above point to a meaningful creative direction: entertainment is moving from a wrapper around the demo to the mechanism that makes the product memorable.

Sensory content is doing the work that product copy used to do

A second major lane removes explanation almost entirely. Brands are using close-ups, texture, shine and synchronized movement to let viewers perceive the payoff before reading a claim.

e.l.f.’s Glimmer Cloud Reel slowly sweeps a plush puff over the arm, shoulder and décolletage of a model with deep skin, allowing the particles to catch the light. There is no presenter and no overlay explaining the finish. The shimmer is the argument.

Rhode extended this into a coordinated launch system for scented Peptide Lip Tints. One post pairs extreme macro formula swipes with food-based scent descriptions; a photo post organizes glossy drops into a collectible grid; another video shows the tints applied by different creators. Together, the assets move from desire, to range comprehension, to real-world proof.

Danessa Myricks Beauty used lighting as evidence. A creator finger-swatches the Lightwork VIII palette across her arm and changes the angle under studio light, making the multichrome shifts visible rather than merely calling the colors “multidimensional.”

The strongest sensory posts are not generic product beauty shots. Each isolates an attribute that video can prove especially well: shimmer catching light, gloss moving across a surface, mascara sliding off or pigment shifting as the viewing angle changes.

Proof-led demonstrations remain the conversion backbone

Entertainment is expanding, but brands have not abandoned utility. The more important change is that the strongest demonstrations answer a specific buying objection instead of showing a generic routine.

Rare Beauty’s Spanish-language tutorial addresses fear of an intense red blush. The presenter uses one dot, explains the brush and blending technique, and shows the shade becoming soft and wearable. A separate Instagram format tries all eight lip-oil shades on a stated skin tone, solving shade uncertainty rather than application anxiety.

Tarte front-loads the unusual part of tubing mascara: the formula sliding cleanly off with warm water. It then works backward through application, a bare-versus-coated comparison and the finished result. Starting with removal gives viewers a reason to keep watching that another mascara application would not.

Charlotte Tilbury created several versions of the same setting-spray proposition. A TikTok stitch turns the bottle into a character receiving a pep talk before a long night. Event footage associates it with a 10K run. The strongest proof comes from a creator who applies the spray, checks in throughout the race and shows her makeup after sweat and spilled water.

L’Oréal ran two very different creative systems around Blurfiller. Polished creator films use personal histories, archival images and before-and-after lip shots. A native comment-reply post drops the studio narrative and rapidly demonstrates five product combinations in response to a viewer’s question. The latter is less cinematic but more immediately useful.

Halloween is dividing brands into artists and entertainers

Halloween content is still present, but brands are using it for different strategic jobs.

NYX turns a Bride of Frankenstein look into a fast tutorial. It opens with a transformation, identifies a costume idea and then walks through graphic eyes, lips and painted stitches using visible NYX products. The outcome is theatrical, but the viewer could recreate it.

MAC takes the opposite route. Its static TikTok photo post presents four editorial Halloween treatments on one face as a MACzine cover. There is no tutorial and no physical product demonstration. It is designed to reinforce artistic authority.

Morphe and Tarte also participated in seasonal artistry, while NYX published Halloween ideas repeatedly. The useful distinction is not whether a brand posts Halloween makeup; it is whether Halloween is being used to teach, demonstrate artistry, generate comedy or package a giveaway.

Brands are borrowing attention from culture instead of manufacturing every moment

Some of the week’s strongest concepts required very little production because the cultural event had already supplied the context.

Tower 28 reacted to its unexpected appearance inside a South Park Sephora parody. The brand filmed a laptop screen, placed the real products beside it and used the “Ariana, what are you doing here?” audio. The matching logos make the joke understandable almost instantly.

Saie used a more deliberately constructed cultural remix. A bottle of Glowy Super Gel is composited onto a Victoria’s Secret-style runway with wings and a sparkling outfit while Cher’s “Believe” plays. It reduces an event sponsorship or fashion-show association to a single visual joke.

These posts are notable because they do not merely place makeup near a trend. They identify a brand-relevant detail inside the cultural moment: Tower 28 was visibly present in the parody, while Saie’s glow proposition maps naturally onto the spectacle of an angel runway.

Founder and celebrity access is still powerful—but only when something happens

Celebrity presence alone is no longer the complete idea. The better posts give the celebrity a task, relationship or comedic premise.

Fenty Beauty had Rihanna physically demonstrate how CASETiFY phone cases hold an Invisimatte Mini or lip product. The utility reveal unfolds through live conversation with a co-host, ending with Rihanna’s informal “What else do you need?” rather than a polished voiceover.

Kylie Cosmetics uses the familiarity between Kylie and Ariel: the tutorial becomes a vehicle for backstage stories. r.e.m. beauty pushes personality further, letting Ariana’s strange ballet-slipper demonstration become the whole creative idea.

Huda Beauty shows another route: let creators carry the product story. One long creator video combines PR unboxing, conversational reactions and a full routine; an Instagram execution turns the bronzer palette into a precise, labeled face map. The brand gets both emotional discovery and structured education from creator-led media.

TikTok and Instagram are playing different roles—despite sharing the same files

TikTok is where the brands in this sample behaved most like participants. The platform received stitches, comment replies, casual demonstrations, photo posts, reaction memes, multilingual tutorials and personality-led humor. It is the testing ground for voice and native behavior.

Instagram generally delivered much larger reach for established brand accounts, but the content itself was often not redesigned. Glossier, Fenty Beauty, Urban Decay, Tower 28 and Kylie Cosmetics all posted identical or effectively identical cuts across TikTok and Reels in the examples reviewed.

That creates a platform paradox. Instagram may be functioning as the larger distribution surface, while TikTok supplies the creative grammar. Brands are borrowing TikTok’s pacing and informality, then syndicating the result rather than making a distinct Reel.

The missed opportunity is adaptation. The Urban Decay trailer, for example, is identical across platforms even though TikTok could support character replies, episodic responses or stitched reactions, while Instagram could package the series through Collab posts, cast-led distribution or clearer episode navigation.

What the performance signals reveal

A few representative posts show why reach alone is a poor way to judge these strategies. Engagement below is likes divided by views, not a complete measure of comments, shares, sales or paid support.

The personality-heavy r.e.m., Huda and Kylie posts combined substantial reach with strong like response. Saie’s single visual joke also generated strong resonance relative to its reach. By contrast, L’Oréal and Tarte reached much larger audiences than their like response would predict; this could reflect broader distribution, but the available evidence cannot determine why.

Glossier’s campaign film illustrates the reverse. Its TikTok reach was modest despite a healthy like rate, while the identical Instagram Reel reached a much larger audience. That is a distribution difference, not evidence that the underlying film became better on Instagram.

A brand-by-brand map of the strategies in play

The real strategic shifts to watch

1. Holiday campaigns are becoming content systems

A single hero film is no longer enough. Rhode’s launch moves from macro texture to product grid to creator application. ColourPop’s calendar generates teasers, door openings, swatches and unboxings. Kylie combines announcement content, application clips, founder banter and a longer YouTube destination.

2. The best demos begin with the friction

Rare Beauty starts with an intimidating red blush. Tarte starts with unusual removal. Charlotte Tilbury starts with a 10K wear test. L’Oréal answers a real comment asking what to pair with its liner. The demonstration is organized around doubt rather than around the brand’s preferred product description.

3. Products are becoming characters and props

A lip mask attached to a ballet slipper, a magical setting spray that removes ghosters and a glow bottle walking a fantasy runway all give the product a role. This is more memorable than placing a package beside a trending sound, but it only works when the object’s function or identity remains legible.

4. Creator content is splitting into two tiers

One tier is candid and discovery-led: unboxings, reactions, comment replies and native stitches. The other is highly structured: labeled shade maps, controlled before-and-afters and precise application steps. Brands are using both because they solve different jobs—trust and comprehension.

5. Cross-posting is the default, not true platform strategy

Several major brands are publishing the same cut on both platforms. That is operationally efficient and can still work, but it leaves native opportunities unused. The creative increasingly looks TikTok-native everywhere, while distribution strategy—not the edit—does most of the platform differentiation.

What makeup marketers should take from this week

The strongest strategy is not to choose between entertainment and product education. It is to assign each post one clear job, then make the format prove that job quickly.

For a holiday launch, that means building a sequence: establish the visual world, create a sensory anchor, show the range, resolve the main objection, introduce a personality-led moment and react to culture when the connection is genuine. One polished campaign video cannot perform all six functions equally well.

The deeper lesson is that makeup content is moving away from “show product, apply product, reveal result” as a universal template. That sequence still converts, but the most culturally effective brands are adding a stronger reason to watch: a story, a test, a joke, an object transformation or a piece of access viewers cannot get from the product page.