It’s no secret social media has become the platform of choice for aspiring young beauty entrepreneurs looking to make their mark. Accessible to all, and allowing talented trend-setters to build a following, it has been the catalyst for some of the biggest careers and best-known names in the industry.
From Insta influencers to YouTube vloggers, here are just some of the incredible beauty professionals who have made the transition from blogger to business …
Emily Weiss – Glossier
These days Glossier is known for its affordable and uncomplicated makeup, while its founder Emily Weiss is considered “The Beauty Guru for Millennials”, according to the New York Times.
But Glossier didn’t kick off with the launch of products or as a high-profile brand.
Weiss built Glossier from a blog entitled Into The Gloss. With a focus on women’s beauty and grooming routines, Into the Gloss was initially a side project for Weiss while she held down a day job as a styling assistant at Vogue.
When Into the Gloss reached 10 million page views per month, Weiss took the plunge, left her day job and concentrated on her blogging full-time. In 2014, she launched an initial line-up of four products and announced the website glossier.com
The rest as they say is history. According to Fortune, Weiss has “quietly turned Glossier into one of the most disruptive brands in beauty”.
Chloe Morello – Face Halo
Home-grown beauty influencer Chloe Morello is the stuff of legend. She started blogging in 2012, before building up a massive YouTube following for her on-trend makeup tutorials.
Morello steadily gained fame while holding down other day jobs, including a stint working as a plaque
designer at a crematorium in Canberra.
Now the world-renowned beauty vlogger also complements her successful career as an influencer with a product line that includes Face Halo makeup remover, eyebrow shaping kits, and makeup.
Jeffree Star – Jeffree Star Cosmetics
Internet celebrity Jeffree Starr could quite rightly be described as a man of many talents. Starr began his rise to fame as the most followed person on MySpace where he promoted his music career.
By 2014, he had launched his own YouTube channel and cosmetics range and he continued to gain a massive following. In 2018, Starr earned a reported $18 million for his YouTube endeavours alone, which saw him ranked as the fifth highest paid YouTube star that year.
Meanwhile, his collection of velour liquid lipsticks, highlighter palettes, lip scrubs, eyeshadow palettes, clothing, and accessories, such as mirrors and make up bags, remain hugely popular.
In March, he released “Blue Blood” eyeshadow, which reportedly sold out in seconds.
Huda Kattan – Huda Beauty
Long before Huda Kattan released false eyelashes famously worn by Kim Kardashian, she was blogging away on WordPress at a site called Huda Beauty.
Since those eyelashes catapulted her to fame, Kattan has also released a series of further products including eye shadow palettes, liquid lipsticks, lip liners, highlighter palettes, foundations, concealers, powders and liquid eyeshadows.
The former makeup artist for Revlon now has an estimated 35 million followers on Instagram and has been described as one of “The 25 Most Influential People on the Internet”, “a Kim Kardashian West of the beauty influencer economy”, and one of the “10 most powerful influencers in the world of beauty”.
Elle Ferguson – Elle Effect
Elle Ferguson’s rise to fame began as a daily email with her bestie Tash Sefton when the pair were working together at General Pants. Within a short time that email had become the website They All Hate Us, and by last year the site had 660,000 visitors a month.
The platform and her rising profile were the natural launching pad for Elle’s personal passion, finding the perfect spray tan. Earlier this year she did just that, launching the Elle Effect – a tanning brand that quickly made the Bondi girl a household name and her products a must-have item.
Big dreams
Do you have aspirations to become a beauty influencer, conquer social media and build your own dream business?
Start the journey with The French Beauty Academy. Our SHB50115 Diploma of Beauty Therapy & CUA51015 Diploma of Screen Media includes a focus on both the practical skills required to work within this industry and the business nous needed to establish yourself as a beauty entrepreneur. The dual diploma incorporates valuable marketing and social media units to empower you to maximise your business opportunities.
From business planning to occupational health and safety, recruitment, and marketing, our Beauty Diploma is designed to give you the ultimate toolkit to carve out the business future of your dreams.
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