“All of beauty has changed because of technology,” explains Sophia Panych. “The first is backstage, primarily because I’ve done Fashion Week. I covered Fashion Week for eight years. I’ve gone to Milan and Paris twice a year to cover the shows. And that is something that has completely changed, not just for editors in magazines, but for the people that work backstage-the hair, the makeup artists, the models.”
Technology—and social media—has exposed something that used to be private and secretive. Exclusive is now broken wide open. There are no secrets left.
It’s changed how we talk about beauty makeup trends. Trends don’t really exist anymore because of social media. You get so much information at once, there’s no chance for something to build for six months and become a trend that everybody copies. It’s changed how important Fashion Week is in terms of those beauty trends.
Beauty brands work so fast now. Social media and technology have completely changed how brands strategize their product launches and how they get the news out about products to their consumers. The playing field has changed, and everybody has to shift their strategies and their plans. If the companies are changing their plans, the editors have to change how they cover them. It’s a cycle.
Panych continues, “As an editor, we work a lot faster and produce a lot more content. So that’s another thing that has definitely changed.”

Jeanne Grey, founder of GreyLayers says that cosmetics and beauty as a whole can change one’s personality. “When I was little, I used to observe my mom and how she got ready in the morning and completely transform from a completely simple person into somebody different. I saw how her personality changed along with that and I thought that was amazing. I wanted to grow up and see how I can do that for other people as well,” explains Grey.

Grey says about beginning her career as a social media beauty expert, “My advice to the younger me would be to just be you and just let things flow. And eventually, with experience, all the trial and errors counted in too, everything will just work out.”

The most common mistake that Grey has seen in the beauty industry is people not being prepared prior to getting into the career. She says, “You have to treat this career as you would any other career, being a lawyer, a doctor, any important one.” She also emphasizes being business savvy and professional. “This industry, especially because it is an easy play, you know playing with cosmetics, products and different kinds of experiences, you easily forget to be professional.”

One of the ways Grey has found success in her career is by putting together case studies. These case studies are reports of a certain niche project that she’s done in the past. “For instance, as an influencer, I have done projects for a lot of hospitality brands,” says Grey. In order to land a gig with a beauty brand, Grey creates a slideshow that ties in her hospitality background of traveling and creating content. She then combines beauty into that by showing them that she was able to use beauty products throughout her trip. “I highlight how I was able to create that and capture my audience at the same time.”

In 2016, the global beauty and personal care industry was valued at almost $444 billion. This dollar amount includes skincare, haircare, color cosmetics, fragrances, and other beauty-related products. This is a very large and profitable industry. Growth is predicted to be positive over the next five years.

So, who are the biggest names in the beauty and personal care industry? Let’s take a look at the top five companies by retail sales volume.

1. The L’Oréal Group is a French corporation that owns L’Oréal and Lancome. For additional information, visit the L’Oréal Group’s website. You’d be surprised at what you’d find, as they’re likely to own one or two of your favorite brands.
2. Procter & Gamble is an American company that makes excellent drugstore items, such as Oil of Olay.
3. Unilever is a large multinational company with a unique history. The company is from both the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. They also sell products like Dove all around the world.
4. Colgate-Palmolive is an American company focusing on drugstore beauty and personal care products such as Irish Spring.
5. The Estée Lauder Companies has an extensive luxury portfolio. Tom Ford beauty goods are owned and distributed by this American corporation.

In 2016, the L’Oréal Group took the #1 spot in the beauty and personal care industry. Even though they already have a strong portfolio, they continue to acquire or purchase exciting new brands. For example, they’ve purchased high-growth brands like IT Cosmetics and Urban Decay in recent years.

Hannah Bronfman, founder of HBFIT sits down with us and provides advice on how to get a career in the beauty industry and push yourself out of your comfort zone

“I think the advice that I would give to my younger self would be don’t feel awkward about cold calling and reaching out blind,” says Hannah Bronfman, founder of HBFIT. “I think there’s something to be said about a go-getter and someone who knows what they want and how to get it, or at least how they think they know how to get it.”

When you cold call someone and you have a heart and soul behind what you’re trying to achieve, that comes through. Maybe the first time, the person doesn’t answer the email but emails them again. Persistence is key.

A specific area of the beauty industry that’s changed via technology is the booking platforms. Hannah says a lot of these companies have created their own SaaS products, which is a statistical analytics system that is like the brain of a lot of these apps. Whether it’s Glam Squad, the Glamm app, Style Seat, all of these programs and technologies have created a new way that people interact with beauty and the way that beauty is booked for the professional and the consumer.

It’s brought the beauty world to a full on-demand system just like everything else that we see. So I think technology has an impact on the product and the way it’s designed.

Every single brand is trying to recreate the lipstick or foundation, lotions, gels that finish matte or true match a color, or lipstick that looks blue, but it’s going to turn bright pink. I think everyone’s trying to do this kind of surprise and delight using technology to help create a different product that hasn’t been to the market yet, says Hannah.

To prepare for an interview, you can do a few things differently. One, do your research, know who you’re being interviewed by, and know the trajectory of their career.

For the company that you’re interviewing for, know their past big product launches and what has gone on in the news.

Consider: Have they raised money? Have they been acquired? Did they go through a recall?

“Those are things that you want to know before an interview. And I think some other things that you can do is, always, if you’re going into a beauty meeting, wear lipstick, wear eye shadow, nothing that’s flashy, but something that says you’re an enthusiast,” Hanna explains. “And always be polite, take your time when you’re speaking. It comes off a lot better when you don’t say the word like or um.”

This article will discuss two aspects of the marketing process: analyzing sales over time and collecting feedback. These details are crucial since you want to know whether your product is a success or not.

Because you’re continuously attempting to improve your customer service, gathering feedback is critical. When it comes to client connection building, the first thing to remember is to make sure you’re offering customers what we call “perceived value” in marketing, which is an essential concept.

Perceived value relates to a customer’s internal assessment of whether a product is worth the price you’re asking. This value is in terms of both money and the time and effort it takes to obtain it. As a result, you’re continually striving to make sure you’re in sync with your customers’ perceptions of value. It would be best if you also kept in mind that customers sometimes misjudge value and cost.

Consider how a rare ingredient for a scent or a special pigment for a cosmetic will significantly increase the price of your product. If your customer doesn’t value the unique ingredient, you’re not going to pay for it because it doesn’t match their perceived value. This area is where you should get input regularly.

You must ensure that your assessment of your proposition’s value correlates to the customer’s sense of value. You’ll do this because you want to build long-term connections with your customers. The main objective of marketing is to increase consumer loyalty. You strive to gain and build long-term relationships with your customers.

Repeat customers are more likely to generate more profits for your business. The 80/20 rule in marketing suggests that 20% of your clients account for 80% of your profits, which is a significant amount of money. You should make a considerable effort to cultivate long-term customers.

To do so, you must first figure out what their needs and wants are. A customer’s need is something they can’t live without. Customers crave or desire something based on their personality, culture, or society. Marketers of beauty products and fragrances tend to focus on wants rather than needs. To establish a devoted customer base, you’ll need to concentrate on this topic.

Attracting customers and keeping customers are two separate matters. Customer relationship management (CRM) is how businesses tackle this critical issue of customer relationships. CRM encapsulates the marketing process. It’s the method of establishing and keeping profitable customer relationships by providing superior value and satisfaction to all of your customers.

Writing a headline for digital is very different from writing a headline for print. [INSERT SPEAKER HERE] believes that was actually probably one of the hardest things about switching over to digital after about four or five years in print. “When you’re writing for the magazine, a headline needs to get your point across in two to three words. You’re looking at idioms, and song lyrics, and movie titles to find a witty, kind of fun way to express the story in such a succinct manner,” explains [INSERT SPEAKER HERE].

When it comes to digital, the headline needs to do a number of things. It needs to draw the reader in, and it needs to make it clear what they’re about to read. The story online is only as strong as the headline. No one’s going to read it if it doesn’t have a great headline. “Think about all of the things that you see on your Facebook feed or your Twitter feed daily, and what you click on. It’s the headlines that draw you in, it really is,” says INSERT SPEAKER HERE].

[SPEAKER] explains the process of choosing a headline for digital copy, “At Allure, our process for a story is we submit three headlines for each story. One that’s super straight across, saying this is what you’re about to read. Then one that’s a little more vague. It kind of leaves the reader wondering, ‘what am I about to read? This is really interesting.’ Then the third can be a little bit more fun, funny, or witty. We actually have four or five editors from the social team and the editorial team weigh in on which headline we should use.”

Choosing a headline for digital is a real process. “There was definitely a transition of before, when we used to just-the writer used to just submit a headline that’s what went up, to when we put this process in.” [SPEAKER] believes this process has really strengthened the content and traffic numbers. “I think brainstorming a couple headlines is always super helpful for me when writing one for digital. And again, think about what would make you click, and that’s what you want to write.”

 “The most important point I’m going to talk on is mastering what I like to call the new language of beauty. I say ‘new language of beauty’ because the way we used to speak about it when I started seven or eight years ago was very different than it is today- especially online. When I was an editorial assistant first starting, we wrote about beauty in a way that hit at women’s fears- especially with aging. We talked about how to fix things and what you’re doing wrong,” Says Sophia Panych

Today you can’t speak like that. It’s a very different world. You need to talk about beauty in a way that’s less scary and more celebratory and fun because beauty is fun. Makeup is fun. Perfume is fun. It’s lighthearted.

We’re also much more inclusive than we’ve ever been. Inclusivity is a huge buzzword in the beauty industry right now, and for a very important reason. Magazines left out a big group of people, cultures, and races, and that’s something that we’ve been trying to be very aware of these days.

“For example, when you’re writing about hair and curls, we used to speak about curly hair as white girls with ringlets when there’s-that’s not the case at all,” Explains Panych. “Thinking about making sure you include all cultures and all different types of hair is important.”

We want to be more aware of age positivity and talk about skin care as you would fitness or health.

Not talking about skin care like have a wrinkle, it’s awful, and your life is over. Instead, talk about it in a way that’s not so dire and scary.

When writing about beauty online, it’s really important to speak about beauty in a modern way that focuses on positivity, that doesn’t focus on fear and negativity, one that focuses on health and wellness, and one that’s inclusive of all different types of beauty.

Writing about beauty online is similar to writing about beauty in print. You never want to sound like you are regurgitating the facts laid out in a press release. It is still essential to be a strong writer, able to craft a story.

While there are many fundamental similarities, there are vital points to consider when writing for a digital publication. Much like writing in print media, sounding authentic and relatable is crucial. And as you would in writing in any medium, be sure your content is reliable and accurate.

The first key to writing for an online publication is for your words to feel natural to the reader. One way to do this is to write as though you were having a casual conversation with a friend. It can help to read each sentence aloud. You can even pretend your friend is in the room with you.

If the sentence sounds the least bit forced, cheesy, or as though you are just listing facts directly from a press release, then it’s probably time to stop and rework that sentence.

People gravitate to digital content similar to the type of beauty advice they would find on social platforms like Reddit. People today want to feel like they are getting beauty advice from real people in the same real-world situations they might find themselves in.

Thinking in these terms while writing will keep your article sounding genuine and lend to your relatability, which is the second key point to remember when writing for an online publication.

You don’t want to sound too dictatorial. Gone are the days of the royal “we” in beauty writing. Try to avoid using “beauty speak” that you would find on a press release. In digital beauty writing, you want to let your personality shine through so people can relate to you and to the story you are telling.

Still, beauty writing online is often like walking a fine line. It’s important not to sound as though you are superior to your reader. While you want to speak to your reader like a friend, be wary of using “internet speak.” It’s easy to say the latest trending phrases, to sound cool and in the moment. It’s good again to stop here and decide if what you are writing is something you would say in a real-life situation.

If you write anything that would be an actual hashtag or a trending phrase, it’s best to make the change. No one goes around saying “LOL” instead of actually laughing, right? If you suddenly realize you just wrote “all the feels” or “brows on fleek,” it’s no longer conversational; it’s just cheesy and sounds unnatural.

Writing about beauty online isn’t very different than writing for a print publication. The transition is easy if you keep these key points in mind and remember to be yourself.

When compared to the exciting and timely stories generated from the front lines of global conflicts, beauty stories can seem tedious and not newsworthy. How can a writer take a story about makeup and make it compelling, engaging, and captivating?
10,000 Words vs. 500 words
One beauty writer found incredible struggle trying to write a simple story on mascara. Her husband, also a journalist, reports from the front lines of conflicts around the globe. While he is off doing exciting things, she is struggling to make mascara interesting. “I was working on a mascara story,” the writer says, “And I had to find a way into this story that was interesting. I had to find a way to make mascara compelling and captivating, and I had to raise the stakes. And I sat there with these tubes of mascara at my desk trying to think, like, how can I make this interesting?”
When her husband returned from the war, they had an ongoing debate about which was harder to write. Is it harder to write 10,000 words about a conflict in the Middle East or 500 words about a tube of mascara, which nobody really wants to read about? They just want to wear it, and they want to feel good. And this debate has gone on for ten years. Even her husband eventually agreed that beauty writing is hard. A man who goes to the front lines of war and writes 10,000 words describing it, could not get five words out about why mascara was interesting or exciting.
Bottom Line: Beauty Writing is No Small Feat
Writers who are looking to pursue or upskill their career in the Beauty industry, take note. Beauty writing is one of the most challenging fields.

The biggest mistake new writers make in the world of beauty is sounding like they’re writing an ad.

Say you’re given one shampoo and you have to write about this shampoo. How are you going to make that different from the advertisement for that shampoo?

You’re not paid by this company. You are paid by your readership.

Your job is to be an editor. It’s the single biggest edit you’ll make in your career as a beauty writer.

If it’s a product that you absolutely hate but you have to write about it for the story, you have to acknowledge that maybe you hate it, but maybe there’s somebody who doesn’t. Maybe you have fine hair and somebody has long, thick, coarse hair. There’s always a way to let the reader know that an editor had her hands on this—that it didn’t come out of a factory; that it’s not all rainbows and unicorns.

“You have to speak truth to power,” says Danielle Pergament, “and the power, in this case, would be Procter and Gamble or Estée Lauder. You have to say, ‘This is the most amazing eye cream I’ve used all week, but at the same time, this one thing happened.’ Or, ‘I didn’t love the smell.’”

You have to be honest. It’s the most important thing you can be as a beauty writer.