What Beauty Brand Know (That Most Marketers Forget)

In partnership with

Hey Marketers, welcome back👋

Beauty ads aren’t really about lipstick or foundation anymore.
They’re about confidence, identity, and connection.

And that’s why I love looking at beauty campaigns when I study UGC —
because no other industry has mastered the art of selling feeling quite like they have.

Most of them don’t start with:

It’s why you remember the way Dove made you tear up —
or how Rare Beauty makes you feel seen.
Or even how Glossier made “you and your friends in good lighting” feel like a whole brand movement.

💡 What These Campaigns Do Right

Here’s the thing — beauty brands look effortless, but their storytelling is intentional.
They follow a pattern we can all steal:

1. Emotion first, product second.
   They don’t lead with ingredients or claims — they lead with meaning.

2. They sell identity, not function.
   The message isn’t “buy this mascara,” it’s “this is how confidence looks on you.”

3. They make real people the hero.
   The story always comes through someone’s lived experience — that’s why it sticks.

🧠 What Marketers (in Any Niche) Can Learn

Beauty campaigns remind us that people don’t fall in love with features — they fall in love with feelings.

Even if you’re selling SaaS, supplements, or sneakers — your job isn’t to show the “what.”
It’s to make people feel the “why.”

That’s where UGC shines.
Because real people don’t talk in slogans — they talk in emotion, frustration, hope, and transformation.
That’s what makes UGC believable — and why beauty brands build entire storytelling engines around it.

🪞 How to Apply It (Even If You’re Not in Beauty)

Here’s how you can use the same storytelling DNA in your own campaigns:

✨ 1. Find the emotion, not just the angle.
Don’t just ask, “What’s the benefit?” — ask, “What do people feel before and after using this?”

🎥 2. Let UGC capture transformation.
Encourage your creators or customers to tell the “before–after–why it matters” story, not just a testimonial.

🌿 3. Make your visuals breathe.
Keep it soft, human, and simple — fewer polished shots, more lived-in moments.

🫶 4. End with community.
Every great beauty campaign ends with belonging — “this is our story.”
Build that sense of shared identity in your own space too.

Here’s how other brands have applied the same storytelling approach in their campaign

✨ The Big Takeaway

If your next campaign starts from emotion instead of data,
you’ll already be miles ahead of the average ad in your feed.

Because numbers tell you what’s working —
but stories tell you why. 💭

Maybe that’s the biggest secret beauty brands hold —
They remind us that good marketing always starts with feeling something first.

Because no matter what you’re selling,
people still want to see a piece of themselves in your story. 💭

🪄 P.S. From Me to You

I came across this and thought it might be useful —
Galactic Fed (the agency behind Varo and Quiznos) is offering marketers a free growth audit from their senior team.

If you’ve been meaning to get a second opinion on your strategy before scaling spend, this could be worth a look.
👇

Get a Senior Growth Team to Review Your Marketing Strategy.

Galactic Fed’s senior growth team has scaled brands like Varo, Edible, and Quiznos. And now they’re opening a limited number of free 1:1 sessions with these growth geniuses to help ambitious founders find their next breakthrough.

They’ll dig into your traffic, funnels, and ad performance to surface what’s working, what’s wasting money, and where your fastest growth levers really are.

Spots are limited, but one session could change your next quarter or your entire fiscal year.

Reserve your session before they fill up. →

📎 About that pitch deck I promised…

Two weeks ago, I mentioned a UGC pitch deck I use to help creators and marketers reach out to brands more effectively. You can now access it here: [Get the deck].

The deck includes a customizable message template you can adapt for any brand. It’s designed to sound genuine, highlight your creative approach, and start a real conversation—not a cold pitch.

🗓️ Next Week:

We’ll talk about “The Data Trap” — how marketers start out with curiosity, but end up creating for metrics, not people.
And more importantly, how to bring the human touch back into your performance strategy.