As creators take a more holistic approach to their content, the boundaries between beauty and other industries have also rapidly blurred. As a result, influencer marketing promotes more than just the function of products. “Now, you have people who don’t necessarily have any form of professional training, or may not even be creating the bulk of their content within the world of beauty itself, but they dabble in beauty as part of a broader set of lifestyle trends,” says Alex Rawitz, director of research and insights at CreatorIQ, an influencer marketing and creator management platform.
CreatorIQ’s top performing beauty creators by earned media value (EMV) from May 2025 to April 2026 — among them Monica Ravichandran, Aditya Madiraju, and Lina Noory — embody this: while their specialty is beauty, they aren’t limited to the subject. This week, for example, Ravichandran posted a video on how she would get dressed as someone who is “petite” and “curvy”. Meanwhile, Madiraju’s videos aren’t only limited to advice on blush placement and finding one’s foundation shade; he has also talked about getting his eyes checked while trying on a selection of Warby Parker glasses. In another video, he can be seen teasing his appearance on Hosted by Nabela Noor, a new lifestyle series that aired on Tubi in May.
Reality sells
As influencers expand their approaches, there still “has to be something that makes people think about you and know who you are”, advises Johnson. Throughout Duxbury’s highly viral career, her adoption of extreme, full-coverage makeup has frequently sparked intense debate and criticism. Though it’s arguable that, without such controversy, she may not have the following she has today. It hasn’t deterred brands like Prada, YSL Beauty, L’Oréal, Elf Cosmetics, and Morphe from partnering with her either.
The same could be said of American beauty influencer Mikayla Nogueira. With over 17 million followers on TikTok, her “GRWM” videos show her applying makeup while sharing the messy details of her divorce. Nogueira is among a growing wave of creators who use the GRWM format to simultaneously discuss sensitive or unpopular topics. “She’s been very public about it,” says Johnson, adding that the shock factor may be one thing keeping viewers coming back to Nogueira, aside from her love for beauty.
Rawitz observes that with deliberately provocative creators, “there’s some kind of drive for gossip or drama that is satisfied by following them”. It’s often the impetus for a “hate follow”, in which people follow accounts on social media whose content they actively dislike or fundamentally disagree with. In those cases, viewers “don’t necessarily want the lifestyle for themselves, but it satisfies some kind of itch”, Rawitz explains. “I think it’s a large reason why reality TV took off, and creators are starting to blur that line.”
Johnson recounts when an influencer was taken to Coachella as part of a brand deal and “there was big drama” around them at the music festival. “I asked the brand how that was, like, ‘Oh my gosh, was it horrible?’ And they said, ‘No.’ It didn’t drop sales, and if anything, encouraged more people to buy the product.” In her view, “it’s no different than a reality star playbook. There has to be something that makes a mass amount of people talk about you, whether that’s good or bad. I don’t know that brands necessarily care what it is, unless the person does something that’s catastrophically and morally wrong, and obviously anything that is racist or bigoted.”
Asked whether Kelly ever felt it was a risky move for Tarte Cosmetics to work with individuals who were outspoken and therefore, at times, unpredictable, she responds: “I think brands sometimes make the mistake of looking for perfect spokespeople” or try “to smooth out the edges that made someone influential in the first place.” However, “consumers aren’t looking for perfect people, they’re looking for authentic ones.”
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