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

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

Why sustainable beauty brands use influencer marketing

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

• Creators prove the formula works. Shoppers worry that a cleaner formula won't perform as well, and a creator using it on camera answers that. A creator with 293k followers showing off Aveda's new texture spray got 9.6M plays.
• Creators tell followers where to buy it. Many sustainable beauty brands sell through big retailers as well as their own site, so creators point followers to the right shelf. 13 of ILIA's last 50 sponsored posts tag Sephora.
• A fan can say why the brand matters. Values like ethical sourcing sound like marketing from a brand and like a reason to buy from a fan. A creator with 32k followers listed "naked products, fighting animal testing, ethical buying" as the reason they buy from Lush.
• Real use outdoors backs up the claims. A mineral sunscreen is easier to trust when you see it on a hike or in a garden. 9 of Osea's last 50 sponsored posts feature its Marine Screen SPF, often outdoors.

Top sustainable beauty brands using influencer marketing

These are the most-searched sustainable beauty 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. Lush: fans in its Friends of Lush program

24 of Lush's last 50 sponsored posts carry #friendsoflush, the tag for its Friends of Lush affiliate program, and they come from 19 creators, most with under 50k followers. Another 23 posts were disclosed as gifted, from PR boxes to spa invitations. Unlike the other four brands, most of its creators are in the UK (15) rather than the US (8), and none of the posts use a code.

• Creators: @deborahruiz (518k), @lovezoepotter (171k) and @thepinupghoul (14k) are among the creators who've posted for Lush.
• How posts were disclosed: 23 gifted, 22 paid partnership, 3 unspecified, 2 affiliate

What to take from it: Give affiliates a seasonal reason to post. A Friends of Lush affiliate with 14k followers built a Halloween "boo basket" from Lush products and got 66k plays, more than four times their following.

2. ILIA: gifted kits for a new eyeliner

16 of ILIA's last 50 sponsored posts introduce its new Thru Line waterproof eyeliner, mostly as part of a three-piece "Art of the Eye" kit, and 16 captions credit the product as "gifted by ILIA". It almost never books the same creator twice: 48 different creators made its 50 posts. 28 of its creators are in the US, and none of the posts use a code.

• Creators: @olafflee (2.3M), @chantalmonaghan (370k) and @laurenstein.makeup (6k) are among the creators who've posted for ILIA.
• How posts were disclosed: 31 gifted, 12 paid partnership, 5 ambassador, 1 affiliate, 1 unspecified

What to take from it: Pay small creators for short, simple demos. A makeup creator with 6k followers posted an "obsessed with this mascara" video for ILIA and got 130k plays, more than 20 times their following.

3. Osea: a 30th birthday creators could celebrate

18 of Osea's last 50 sponsored posts celebrate its 30th anniversary, many pointing to a limited 30 Years of Bestsellers set sold at $148 instead of $240. It has the most ambassador posts of the five brands, and 13 posts include a creator code. 38 of the 41 creators with a listed location are in the US.

• Creators: @byzareefa (2.5M), @sgm3chic (203k) and @sw1n1 (183k) are among the creators who've posted for Osea.
• How posts were disclosed: 17 paid partnership, 16 ambassador, 9 affiliate, 4 gifted, 4 unspecified

What to take from it: Let creators bring your product into what they already film. @sw1n1 got ready for a kuchipudi dance performance with Osea's Marine Screen sunscreen, and the ambassador post got 910k plays and 24.3k likes, Osea's most-viewed post.

4. Cocokind: gifting every new launch

Cocokind labeled more of its last 50 sponsored posts as gifted than any other brand here, and most of them introduce something new: 18 captions mention something new, 9 feature its Hydrating Electrolyte line and 7 its Milky-Soft Face & Body Cleanser. 31 of its creators are in the US, and none of the posts use a code.

• Creators: @sarah.talabi (1.4M), @fountainof30 (186k) and @hydrationceo (296k) are among the creators who've posted for Cocokind.
• How posts were disclosed: 35 gifted, 10 paid partnership, 3 ambassador, 1 affiliate, 1 unspecified

What to take from it: Lead with the use people won't expect. @hydrationceo's "I would NEVER use body wash on my face... unless it's the @cocokind Milky Soft Face & Body Wash" got 157k plays, Cocokind's most-viewed post.

5. Aveda: two launches and local teams

28 of Aveda's last 50 sponsored posts launch one of two products, its Tousle Texture spray (17) or One For All Leave-In Elixir (11). 12 posts tag a local account like Aveda UK, Aveda Ireland or Aveda Japan instead of only the global one. Its creators are based in the US (25), the UK (5), Ireland (2) and Canada (2), and only one post includes a code.

• Creators: @summermckeen (1.6M), @kristinkonefal (236k) and @christiinelizabeth (4k) are among the creators who've posted for Aveda.
• How posts were disclosed: 30 paid partnership, 9 ambassador, 6 gifted, 5 unspecified

What to take from it: Send creators to your salons, not just your products. A creator with 4k followers showing a custom summer color from a local Aveda salon got 354k plays, nearly 100 times their following.

What the top sustainable beauty brands have in common

Looking across all 250 posts, four patterns stand out:

• Sustainability rarely makes the caption. Only 10 of the 250 posts mention values like vegan, cruelty-free, reusable or ethical. Creators talk about how the product feels, smells and works instead.
• Smaller creators get more out of their audience. Across 200 posts with visible likes, creators under 50k followers got a median of 2.3% of their followers liking the post. For creators above 50k, it was 0.6%.
• Gifting does a lot of the work. 99 of the 250 posts were labeled as gifted, more than a third, compared with 91 paid partnerships.
• Gifts often land in PR hauls. 21 of the 250 posts are hauls where the brand shows up next to a pile of other brands, mostly for Cocokind and ILIA.

How to run a sustainable beauty influencer marketing campaign

Here's how to run a campaign step by step, using what the top sustainable beauty 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 sustainable beauty brands' posts show both goals at work. Osea's creator codes on its anniversary set are built to drive sales that week. Aveda's launch posts from creators with over a million followers and Lush's Sanrio and Moomin collections 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: if you sell products people use up and rebuy, like Osea's body oil (one creator says they go through a bottle every month), track repeat orders from each creator's customers.

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 47k followers who films shower and hair-wash routines got 118k plays with Lush's Sticky Dates hair primer in a "post hair wash pamper" video, two and a half times their following, because people who watch routines are the ones shopping for body care. Across all five brands, creators under 50k followers got about 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 (shoppers swapping plastic for refills, vegans who check every label, people with sensitive skin) 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 zero-waste bathroom routines", and Modash's AI creator search surfaces matching creators on the platform you're searching.

• Check who else they've posted for. @just_janci posted for Osea, Cocokind and Aveda. Modash shows which brands a creator has already posted sponsored content for.

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

3. Choose the deal type

Sustainable beauty brands lean on gifting. Cocokind and ILIA labeled 35 and 31 of their last 50 posts as gifted, while Aveda disclosed 30 as paid partnerships.

• Gifting works for limited editions creators will want to open on camera, like Lush's Halloween PR box.
• Paid posts suit launches that need to land on a date, like a new SPF before summer or an anniversary set.
• Affiliate works for products people use up and reorder, like body oil, shampoo or cleanser.
• Ambassador deals suit creators who've used your products for years, like an Osea ambassador over 60 who said she's been a partner for four years.

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 sustainable beauty

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

• Routines. 18 of Osea's last 50 posts feature its body oil, usually as one step in a creator's body-care routine. Ask creators to show where your product fits in a routine they already film.
• Visits. 8 of Lush's posts come from its stores, spas and workshops, and 5 of Aveda's from an Aveda salon. Invite creators somewhere they can try the product, not just unbox it.
• Collabs. 9 of Cocokind's posts launch lip balms made with soda brand Olipop, and 6 of Lush's feature its Sanrio and Moomin collections. Pick a partner whose fans overlap with yours.

Whatever the format, give creators one partner hashtag, like #oseapartner or #avedapartner, and a short list of the sustainability claims they're allowed to make, like vegan or refillable.

5. Launch with tracked links and time-limited codes

Osea was the only brand of the five to lean on codes: 13 of its posts include a creator code, like an extra 10% off its anniversary set. Lush, ILIA and Cocokind used none, and Aveda used one.

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 sustainable beauty brands rarely rebook: only 32 of their 211 creators posted more than once. That's a missed chance in a category where people want proof a product gets used up and bought again, like an Osea ambassador with 17k followers whose caption simply said "the empty bottles speak for themselves". Cocokind is the exception, with 11 of its 39 creators posting twice.

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 refill, a seasonal scent or a limited collab, so their posts don't repeat.

Where sustainable beauty creator programs go wrong

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

• Counting a PR haul as a campaign. A product held up for a few seconds in a haul next to ten other brands doesn't tell followers much about it. When you gift, ask for a post about your product alone, and judge creators on those posts, not on hauls.
• 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 sustainable beauty, that could be a refill launch, a seasonal scent, or a new shade to try.
• 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, scent and refill to your creators before it goes live.
• Letting creators make green claims you can't back. Words like "plastic-free", "carbon neutral" or "eco-friendly" in a sponsored caption count as your claim, and the FTC's Green Guides expect you to be able to prove them. Give creators an approved list of claims with the proof behind each, and check captions before they go live.

FAQ

How much does sustainable beauty 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 sustainable beauty influencer marketing?

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

Which sustainable beauty brands use influencer marketing?

Lush, ILIA, Osea, Cocokind and Aveda are the most-searched sustainable beauty brands in the US, and all of them run active creator programs. See the breakdown above for who each one works with.

Should sustainable beauty 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 sustainable beauty posts we analyzed, creators under 50k followers got about 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 sustainable beauty 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 sustainable beauty creator program

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