Most skincare influencer marketing advice stops at "work with micro-influencers" and "be authentic". We wanted to see what the biggest skincare brands actually do, so we pulled the 50 most recent sponsored posts for each of the most-searched skincare brands in the US and looked at who posted, how each deal was disclosed, and which posts took off.

Here's why skincare brands work with creators, the commonalities in their strategy, and a step-by-step way to run your own campaign.

Why skincare brands use influencer marketing

Creators do a few things for skincare brands that ads and product pages can't:

• Creators prove the texture on camera. Skincare shoppers want to know how a formula feels and whether it leaves a mark before they buy. 4 of La Roche-Posay's last 50 sponsored posts promise a sunscreen with no white cast, something a product photo can't show.
• Experts explain what the product does. Ingredient lists are hard to read, so people look for someone who can explain them. 10 of CeraVe's last 50 sponsored captions mention dermatologists, from derm creators to the #DevelopedWithDerms tag.
• Routines show where a product fits. A new moisturizer is easier to buy when you can see where it goes between cleanser and SPF. 12 of Laneige's last 50 sponsored captions walk followers through a routine.
• Skin concerns have their own creators. People with acne or sensitive skin follow creators who share their skin type. A Glow Recipe ambassador's moisturizer post tagged #acneproneskin got 157k plays, more than twice their following.

Top skincare brands using influencer marketing

These are the most-searched skincare brands in the US, according to Ahrefs. Deal types show how each post was disclosed (for example, with a paid partnership label or an ambassador hashtag). Creator tiers: micro 10k–50k followers, mid-tier 50k–500k, macro 500k+.

1. La Roche-Posay: a summer built around one sunscreen

26 of La Roche-Posay's last 50 sponsored posts feature its Anthelios sunscreen, and all 50 went live between June 30 and July 24. 13 are about dark spots and pigmentation, and 12 of those come from creators in Singapore and the Gulf. Its creators are based in the UK (9), Singapore (7) and the UAE (7), 37 posts were disclosed as paid partnerships, and none use a code.

• Creators: @shahadssl (7.1M), @bvuilleumier (267k) and @nevenamalenovic94 (95k) are among the creators who've posted for La Roche-Posay.
• How posts were disclosed: 37 paid partnership, 9 gifted, 4 unspecified

What to take from it: Sell the habit, not just the bottle. A creator in Serbia with 95k followers built a post around "that one friend who's obsessed with SPF" and got 537k plays, more than five times their following.

2. CeraVe: routines matched to the weather

CeraVe's posts follow the weather. 7 come from CeraVe Africa's #skincidents campaign for winter-dry skin, and 5 from Australian creators launching its new Hydrating HA Water Gel, while US posts push sunscreen and back-to-school routines. 5 captions send followers to Target. 13 of its creators are in the US and 7 in South Africa, and none of the posts use a code.

• Creators: @tylerjcameron (2.1M), @sidneywonder_ (152k) and @erincarolus_wp (38k) are among the creators who've posted for CeraVe.
• How posts were disclosed: 37 paid partnership, 8 gifted, 3 unspecified, 1 affiliate, 1 ambassador

What to take from it: Give a big creator a short series instead of a single post. Tyler Cameron posted twice for CeraVe in four days, a day in the life with its new Invisible Mineral SPF that got 940k plays and a sun-safe backyard reveal that got 487k.

3. Clinique: Moisture Surge and one cult lip shade

Clinique split its last 50 sponsored posts between two heroes: 11 feature its Moisture Surge moisturizers and 11 its Black Honey Almost Lipstick, sold as "one shade that looks so good on everyone". Another 7 feature Daily Calm, its range for sensitive skin. 21 posts tag a local account like Clinique UK or Clinique South Africa, its creators are based in the US (18) and the UK (8), and none use a code.

• Creators: @mariale (5.9M), @hydrationceo (296k) and @carolinestordal (39k) are among the creators who've posted for Clinique.
• How posts were disclosed: 27 paid partnership, 11 gifted, 8 unspecified, 4 ambassador

What to take from it: Book creators whose skin matches the product's promise, then book them again. Clinique Nordic booked a Danish creator with 39k followers twice in July to film routines for sensitive skin, and the posts got 241k and 315k plays.

4. Glow Recipe: PR boxes for every fruity launch

Glow Recipe labeled 28 of its last 50 sponsored posts as gifted, the most of the five, and many are PR unboxings. 14 feature its Watermelon line, including a new Peptide Glow Cushion Cream and a Beautyblender collab, and 9 cover the return of its Banana Soufflé moisturizer. 16 captions point followers to Sephora, 23 of its creators are in the US, and only one post includes a code, for Cult Beauty.

• Creators: @jeenie.weenie (2.5M), @cam_make_up (179k) and @redmone_ (236k) are among the creators who've posted for Glow Recipe.
• How posts were disclosed: 28 gifted, 12 paid partnership, 8 ambassador, 2 unspecified

What to take from it: Bring back a fan favorite and let your creators break the news. Glow Recipe's relaunched Banana Soufflé showed up in 9 posts, and an ambassador's post about it got 626k plays and 33k likes, about 14% of their following.

5. Laneige: PR boxes and the Wonder Lab tour

Laneige labeled 21 of its last 50 sponsored posts as gifted, and 8 are PR unboxings or hauls. Its paid posts lean on experiences: 4 come from its Wonder Lab pop-up and roadshow, and 4 from its build-your-own Bespoke Lip Sleeping Mask. 23 posts tag a local account like Laneige UK or Laneige Canada, its creators are based in the US (15), Canada (8) and the UK (6), and none use a code.

• Creators: @haleyybaylee (9.6M), @halleykate (326k) and @bloves.beauty (70k) are among the creators who've posted for Laneige.
• How posts were disclosed: 24 paid partnership, 21 gifted, 4 unspecified, 1 ambassador

What to take from it: Let creators keep the bloopers. A PR unboxing that "didn't go as planned" from a Canadian creator with 70k followers got 1.5M plays and 21k likes, by far Laneige's most-viewed gifted post.

What the top skincare brands have in common

Looking across all 250 posts, four patterns stand out:

• They gift far more than they sign. 77 of the 250 posts (31%) were labeled as gifted, more than five times the 14 labeled as ambassador posts.
• Smaller creators get more out of their audience. Across 190 posts with visible likes, creators under 50k followers got a median of 1.8% of their followers liking the post. For creators above 50k, it was 0.4%.
• Sunscreen sets the summer calendar. 41 of the 250 posts mention SPF or sunscreen, and 34 of those went live in July.
• Views don't follow follower count. A Black Honey post from a creator in Turkey with 20k followers got 86k plays, and a La Roche-Posay SPF stick post from a creator with 7k got 62k.

How to run a skincare influencer marketing campaign

Here's how to run a campaign step by step, using what the top skincare brands do at each stage.

1. Pick one goal and one metric

Decide what the campaign is for before you pick a single creator, because the goal changes who you book, how you pay them and what you ask them to post. The top skincare brands' posts show both goals at work. CeraVe's Target posts are built to drive sales. La Roche-Posay's Wimbledon tennis club and Laneige's Wonder Lab tour are built for reach.

• Sales: track revenue per creator with a unique link and code.
• Awareness: track views, saves and reach per post.
• Repeat orders: a cleanser or a daily SPF like La Roche-Posay's Anthelios runs out every few weeks, so track how many of each creator's customers come back to reorder.

Pick one metric per campaign so you can compare creators fairly afterwards.

2. Find and vet creators who fit your brand

Follower count is the last thing to filter on. A creator with 8k followers who could tell Glow Recipe's Cushion Cream "was made in Korea just by swatching it" got 1.1M plays, because that's the kind of detail K-beauty fans look for. Across all five brands, creators under 50k followers got over four times the likes relative to their audience.

Our survey found niche micro-creators are outperforming mega-influencers: nearly 60% of marketers said niche influencers performed better in 2025 than in 2024.

• Write down who buys your product (people with sensitive or acne-prone skin, K-beauty fans, daily SPF wearers) and look for creators living that life.
• Search Modash's database of 380M+ creators and filter by audience demographics (age, gender, location), bio keywords, engagement rate and fake-follower checks.
• Or describe that creator in plain language, like "creators who film skincare routines for sensitive skin", and Modash's AI creator search surfaces matching creators on the platform you're searching.

• Check who else they've posted for. @laurenwolfe posted for CeraVe, Clinique and Laneige. Modash shows which brands a creator has already posted sponsored content for.

You can also find skincare influencers for free, for example by searching the hashtags your buyers follow.

3. Choose the deal type

Paid posts lead in skincare. La Roche-Posay and CeraVe each disclosed 37 of their last 50 posts as paid partnerships. Glow Recipe is the exception, with 28 labeled as gifted.

• Gifting works for new textures creators will want to try on camera, like a new moisturizer or lip balm.
• Paid posts suit campaigns tied to a season or an event, like a sunscreen push before summer.
• Affiliate works for products people reorder, like a cleanser or a daily SPF.
• Ambassador deals suit creators who can show results over weeks, like the Glow Recipe ambassador who posts empties and restocks.

Commission-only is getting harder to sell, though. Over 23% of marketers in our survey said creators would take performance pay only if a flat fee came with it. If you run tiers, the average commission tiers in our affiliate research were 10%, 14% and 19%, and brands with more than one tier had more active affiliates.

4. Brief the content formats that work in skincare

The captions from the top skincare brands point to three formats that carry most of their creator content:

• Routines. CeraVe's creators describe a routine in 13 captions, from back-to-school mornings to post-swim skincare. Ask creators to film each step in order, with your product in hand.
• Texture close-ups. La Roche-Posay's creators film the "satisfying drip" of a sunscreen before blending it in, and Glow Recipe's swatch a cushion cream. Ask for a close-up of the formula on skin.
• Unboxings. Glow Recipe's and Laneige's creators open PR boxes on camera. Ask creators to put one product on their skin before the video ends.

Whatever the format, give creators one partner hashtag, like #cliniquepartner or #laneige_partner, and a list of what they can and can't say about results.

5. Launch with tracked links and time-limited codes

Codes barely show up among the top skincare brands: only 1 of the 250 posts includes one, and it's for a retailer. Captions send followers to stores instead, with Sephora named in 27 posts and Amazon in 11.

Codes also leak. In our affiliate marketing research, 47.6% of marketers said they struggle with code poaching, where a creator's code ends up on coupon sites.

• Give every creator a tracked link for everyday posts, and add a code only for launches and sales.
• Put an end date in the caption so followers know the offer won't last.
• If creators use "comment for the link", make sure the link they send by DM is their tracked link.

In Modash, each creator gets a tracked link and a code tied to your Shopify data, so sales from DMs, bios and stories all count toward the right person. Commission is calculated on net revenue after refunds and returns.

6. Rebook your best creators

The top skincare brands rarely rebook: only 16 of their 230 creators posted more than once. That's a missed chance in skincare, where one post can show a texture but only a creator who keeps using a serum can show what it did. Clinique, with 7 repeat creators, is the exception.

Most marketers want to do more of this. In our influencer marketing trends survey, over 60% said they plan to invest more in long-term partnerships, but only 54% actually ran more of them last year.

• Start new creators on a single post, then offer a longer deal to the ones who hit your metric from step 1.
• Use revenue per creator, not likes, to decide who gets rebooked. Modash's campaign dashboard shows revenue, orders and ROAS for each creator.
• Give rebooked creators something new each time, like a new formula, a seasonal SPF or a limited-edition scent, so their posts don't repeat.

Where skincare creator programs go wrong

The top brands avoid a few mistakes that trip up smaller programs:

• Asking for results after a few days. A creator who posts two days after the box arrives can only talk about how a product feels. If the caption will talk about clearer skin or faded spots, send the product at least four weeks before the post date.
• Offering commission-only deals to established creators. In our survey, 63% of marketers said influencers were open to becoming affiliates in 2024. In 2025 that fell to 26%. When you reach out to established creators, offer a flat fee plus commission rather than commission alone.
• Running the affiliate program on autopilot. In our affiliate research, marketers who were "very involved" with their affiliates had 71.5% of them active. "Very hands-off" marketers had 10%. Affiliates post when you give them a reason to, so check in every month with something new to share. For skincare, that could be a new formula, a seasonal routine, or a restock of a favorite.
• Sending affiliates old product. 93% of marketers gift products to affiliates, but almost 30% don't refresh them when something new launches. Send every new formula to your creators a few weeks before launch, so they have used it by the time they post.
• Letting creators make medical claims. "Cures acne" or "gets rid of dark spots" can turn a cosmetic into a drug claim. Give creators approved wording, like "helps the look of dark spots", and check captions before they go live.

FAQ

How much does skincare influencer marketing cost?

It depends on platform, following and engagement. Micro-influencers often work for free product plus a fee in the low hundreds per post, or an affiliate commission. Larger creators charge more. Many brands start with gifting plus commission to test fit before committing to flat fees. To estimate what a specific creator is likely to charge, drop their handle into our free Instagram influencer pricing calculator.

Which platform is best for skincare influencer marketing?

Instagram carries most skincare creator work, and every sponsored post we analyzed for the five most-searched skincare brands ran there. TikTok is worth testing too: in our survey, marketers rated TikTok videos the highest-performing deliverable (53.2%).

Which skincare brands use influencer marketing?

La Roche-Posay, CeraVe, Clinique, Glow Recipe and Laneige are the most-searched skincare brands in the US, and all of them run active creator programs. See the breakdown above for who each one works with.

Should skincare brands work with micro or macro influencers?

It depends on your goal. A launch chasing awareness leans bigger, a conversion play leans smaller and more trusted. In the skincare posts we analyzed, creators under 50k followers got over four times the likes relative to their audience size, so most brands should build their base with micro-influencers (10k–50k followers) and add bigger names for launches.

How do I measure skincare influencer marketing?

Track sales per creator with unique links and codes, then compare revenue against what you paid (fees, product and commission). Our engagement rate calculator and fake follower checker help you vet creators before you spend, and our guide to influencer marketing ROI covers the full calculation.

Start your skincare creator program

Find creators, manage relationships, pay them in 180+ countries and 36 currencies, and track every sale through Shopify – all in one place, with no fees taken out of creators' pay. Try Modash free, no credit card required – or browse the top skincare influencers to see who's already out there.