Sephora’s making a big play for the skincare market with its Skin Obsessed campaign. The beauty giant is leaning into the absolute chaos that is everyone’s skincare routine these days and positioning itself as the answer to all that overwhelming choice.
Working with TBWA\Chiat\Day LA and filmmaker Taika Waititi, the campaign is rolling out everywhere: connected TV, social, streaming audio, you name it. The two main spots, Security and The Hunt, nail those all-too-familiar moments when you’re drowning in skincare products and have no idea what actually works. Then Sephora swoops in as your curator-slash-savior.
The timing makes sense. Skincare’s exploding—the market is projected to hit $194 billion market by 2032. While other brands chase whatever single ingredient is trending on TikTok this week, Sephora’s focused on scale and consistency. The campaign feels polished without being overdone, genuinely funny without trying too hard, which tracks with how Sephora’s been showing up all year.
This isn’t Sephora’s first time going big on storytelling. They’ve been investing in longer-form content like the Beauty & Belonging film and their Remezcla collab. It’s all part of staying culturally relevant while building toward owning more of the skincare space.
Sephora’s Social Media Presence
As of April 2025, Sephora has reach across every major platform:
- Instagram: 22.7M followers
- TikTok: 1.77M followers
- X: 2.2M followers
- Facebook: 20M followers
- YouTube: 1.5M subscribers
- LinkedIn: 2M followers
Instagram’s where Sephora really lives—22.7 million followers and all the big moments happen there first. Product launches, creator partnerships, campaign rollouts. The numbers back it up too. TikTok’s different energy entirely: more relaxed, more creator-led, and the engagement rates are actually insane for a brand account. They’re clearly not trying to control every piece of content, and it’s paying off.
Facebook’s doing the heavy lifting for anything that needs wide reach—giveaways, big announcements, the stuff that has to hit everyone. YouTube’s where people go when they actually want to learn something, so that’s all tutorials and event coverage. X is basically a help desk at this point. Every single post is customer service. LinkedIn does what LinkedIn always does: job posts and corporate news.
The smart thing is they’re not reinventing themselves for each platform. Same brand, just adapted to whatever works best for that space.
Note: Analysis covers up to 3 months of content through April 2025.
Inside Sephora’s Social Media Brand Strategy
Most beauty brands pick a lane and stick to it. Sephora doesn’t have that luxury or that limitation. As a retailer carrying hundreds of brands, their social strategy looks more like their stores: organized, accessible, and built around helping people navigate choices rather than pushing a single point of view.
Curation Over Chaos
The data shows Sephora’s feeds mixing content from Rhode launches to Rare Beauty moments to fragrance drops. Instead of simplifying the beauty landscape, they’re organizing it, helping followers navigate the overwhelming number of choices available.
Campaigns That Scale
Sephora’s approach to campaign content focuses on creating assets that work across multiple touchpoints. Rather than building completely separate creative for each platform, they develop content that can be adapted to different formats while maintaining the core message. It’s about working smarter, not harder.
Tone That Shifts, Message That Doesn’t
Instagram gets polished but approachable. TikTok gets creator-led and casual. LinkedIn gets professional and strategic. But across every platform, Sephora maintains the same role: the connector, the explainer, the brand that helps you make sense of it all. The voice adapts to fit the space, but the positioning stays consistent.
Content Over Personality
Unlike brands that lean heavily on founder stories or behind-the-scenes moments, Sephora keeps the focus on products and trends. Even creator partnerships center around what’s being used, not who’s using it. It’s about the “what,” not the “who”—which makes sense for a retailer whose job is to surface the best across categories, not promote individual personalities.
Same Message, Different Formats
Sephora doesn’t flatten their identity to fit each platform. They adapt format, not positioning. Instagram carries campaign visuals. TikTok focuses on creator perspectives. Facebook drives promotion. YouTube leans educational. LinkedIn frames everything for industry and investors. The strategy remains intact across all of them, just expressed in whatever way works best for each space.
Sephora on Instagram: Volume, Variety, and Product at the Center
Sephora isn’t slowing down on Instagram. Between February 1 and May 20, they shared 159 posts with their 22.7 million followers. Their feed is all about products, from new blush drops and sunscreen launches to fragrance teasers, cultural moments, and collabs with creators. It’s fast, fresh, and always on.
The announcement of Rhode’s upcoming launch was the top performer, earning 535,709 engagements. A carousel celebrating Women’s History Month followed with 174,206, while Chappell Roan’s cameo landed at 120,732. Rihanna’s “face card” post featuring a full Fenty routine drove 109,660 engagements.
Mid-tier hits included a coordinated reel featuring Glossier, Rare Beauty, Haus Labs and more (107,022), Laneige’s post on its Matcha and Taro Bubble Tea Lip Sleeping Masks and Lip Glowy Balms (63,001), and a short captioned post—“The sun is scared of him”—which still reached 51,040. Fragrance content also performed well: an ASMR-style nail care reel brought in 46,946, a Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue launch earned 43,457, and a YSL Libre L’eau Nue debut reached 24,465 engagements.
Other standout moments came from the tower28 powder blush drops (6,146) and cultural celebrations such as Women’s History Month (9,837) and Nowruz (28,076). Even niche product teases managed to pull 107,022 engagements. Reels made up 77% of all posts and consistently outperformed other formats.
Sephora’s Instagram isn’t about sticking to one perfect aesthetic—it’s about keeping things dynamic. The feed is bold, fast-moving, and made to scale, with fresh visuals, frequent updates, and a confident voice that keeps beauty lovers scrolling, tapping, and adding to their cart.
Sephora on TikTok: Fast, Funny, and Product-Focused
Sephora’s TikTok gets it. With 1.77 million followers and over 2.29M engagements across 101 videos this period, the numbers prove this platform works for them. The content is quick, playful, and creator-driven—product moments and videos that feel like they’re made by people who actually love beauty.
The top performer this period? A feel-good clip featuring @tannerwiththe_tism spreading joy in-store—6.9M views, 1.09M engagements, 16% engagement rate. It’s not about product at all, but it’s still very Sephora. Other high-performers: a Met Gala tease featuring ballerina @nazlia yunus earned 4.2M views and 232K engagements, and a playful carousel with @linsmakeuplooks brought in 166K views, 23K+ engagements with 14% engagement.
@sephora When the prima ballerina shows up to the festival 🩰 @nazlia yunus ♬ heartbreak sunset – choppy.wav
On the product side, momentum came from launches and limited drops. @milkmakeup’s new Cooling Water Tint drove 4.6M views, 56.6K engagements, and a future of beauty teaser featuring multiple brands brought in 61M views, 52K engagements. Sephora’s Savings Event posts performed consistently, too, and content featuring @Mario, Pat McGrath, and others got steady traction across April.
The format mix keeps things interesting: humor and trending audio alongside product demos and creator reviews. Voiceovers, meme formats, and short captions make for good scrolling. Posts like “no, he cooks for me” (13M views, 115.9K engagements) or “She IS a baddie, though” (55K views, 966 engagements) show how Sephora just has fun with it.
Fragrance, skincare, lip products, and seasonal routines show up most. Engagement rates hovered around 1.29% on average, with many of the top 20 posts spiking between 6–16%, which means both loyal followers and new viewers are actually watching.
Sephora’s TikTok isn’t trying to be polished—that’s why it works. It’s fast, fun, and feels like part of the community instead of an ad that wandered into your feed.
Sephora on X: Customer Service, Not Storytelling
With over 2.2 million followers and 91 posts during the review period, Sephora’s presence on X is strictly functional. Every post is a customer service reply—offering assistance, requesting order details, or directing users to live chat and support lines. No product content, no campaign messaging, and no original brand posts were shared during this time.
Engagement is minimal. The account saw just 11 total engagements across all replies, with an average engagement rate of 0.07% and 15,645 impressions. A handful of posts earned 1 engagement each, while most replies had none.
The tone remains consistent and courteous. But unlike Sephora’s presence on Instagram or YouTube—where product storytelling drives engagement—this account functions more like a help desk. It’s visible, responsive, and reliable, but intentionally quiet when it comes to content.
Sephora on Facebook: Light Touch, Familiar Themes
With over 20 million page likes and 51 posts during the review period, Sephora’s Facebook presence is steady and straightforward. Most posts are cross-platform repurposes—focused on new product drops, giveaways, and seasonal campaigns—with a voice that’s consistent, brand-led, and occasionally playful.
Top-performing content closely mirrored Instagram. The Rhode launch announcement led with 1,972 engagements, followed by a captioned ASMR-style nail post—“Can’t go out tonight, my hands are full”—which brought in 1,905. A Laneige app-exclusive lip balm post earned 572, while the La La Land x Sephora giveaway pulled 558 engagements. Another standout: a cryptic “🤫” caption reel (546), proving that intrigue still draws clicks.
Met Gala content made appearances. The post highlighting Angel Reese’s look earned 104 engagements, while broader mentions of event beauty moments landed in the 100–300 range. Across all posts, Sephora averaged 269 engagements per post.
Format-wise, the feed leans heavily on static image posts, with video and reels making fewer appearances. The tone is tight and product-focused—rarely veering into long copy or deep storytelling. Instead, it stays visual and short-form: a punchy caption, a strong image, and good hashtags.
Facebook might not be Sephora’s flashiest platform, but it does its job. It’s not about trying new things—it’s about showing up consistently. For the broad audience still checking Facebook for product updates and promos, that steady presence works just fine.
Sephora on YouTube: Long-Form with a Side of Personality
Sephora’s YouTube channel strikes a balance between beauty how-tos and easygoing editorial content. With 1.5 million subscribers and over 145 million views, it’s a go-to spot for product tutorials and brand spotlights.
In the review period, the channel published 13 videos totaling 29, 571 views. The most-watched content wasn’t a product tutorial—it was a behind-the-scenes Met Gala feature with WNBA star Angel Reese, which brought in 8,479 views, 381 likes, and 46 comments. Pat McGrath’s prep video for the same event followed with 3,733 views, suggesting that celebrity proximity and access still drive interest.
Education remains a focus. A beginner’s guide to Sephora Collection makeup brushes earned 2,575 views, and a summer hair trends feature brought in 1,912. But most uploads hovered in the 1,000–2,000 view range.
The Beauty Edit series adds a lifestyle angle, showcasing real customers and creators organizing vanities, confronting overflowing collections, or getting makeovers. Titles like “A Beauty Lover’s Cry for Help” and ”Makeup Artist Cried After Vanity Makeover” play up relatability, while still staying inside Sephora’s polished brand world. These episodes performed respectably, each earning between 1,600 and 1,900 views.
YouTube might not be Sephora’s loudest platform, but it’s one of the most personal. It highlights the people behind the products, combining useful content with a natural, down-to-earth tone. The approach feels more conversational than scripted.
Why Sephora’s Social Media Strategy Works
The numbers tell the story. Instagram’s doing the heavy lifting with posts like the Rhode launch pulling 304,431 engagements. TikTok’s where the real action is—that @tannerwiththe_tism store visit hit 1.09M engagements with a 16% engagement rate. Meanwhile, X is just customer service replies with barely any engagement at all.
Each platform’s doing what it does best. Instagram gets the big moments—product drops, creator collabs, cultural tie-ins. TikTok gets the personality and the viral moments. YouTube handles the how-to stuff people actually search for. Facebook does the broad announcements. X solves problems.
What’s working is that Sephora sounds like Sephora everywhere, just adapted to fit the space. They’re not reinventing themselves for each platform or chasing every trend that pops up. They show up where it makes sense, post what works there, and the engagement proves people want it.
Final Thoughts
The bigger picture here isn’t about social media tactics—it’s about Sephora positioning itself as the place where beauty discovery happens. While other brands are building their own ecosystems, Sephora’s building the infrastructure that connects everything else.
Look at their top-performing content: it’s rarely about Sephora-branded products. It’s Rhode launches, Rare Beauty moments, creator collaborations across dozens of brands. They’ve figured out how to make money by making other brands famous, and their social strategy reflects that reality.
That’s what makes this approach sustainable. They’re not dependent on one viral moment or one trending ingredient. They’re the constant—the place people go to figure out what’s worth trying next. And the engagement numbers suggest that’s exactly what their audience wants them to be.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Why is Instagram still Sephora’s strongest channel?
Because it mirrors how people shop beauty—visually, socially, and in real time. The pace, format, and voice match the behaviors of their core customer.
2. How does Sephora balance campaign content with daily posts?
By layering. Limited drops and campaign moments are timed alongside creator reels and recurring formats. It never feels like a hard sell.
3. What’s the role of platforms like Facebook or X?
They’re less about engagement and more about presence—giving customers a familiar place to check in, ask questions, or catch up.
4. Is Sephora’s voice the same everywhere?
It adapts to each space—but it's always recognizably Sephora. Whether it’s a glam tutorial or a product tease, the tone stays smart, direct, and a little playful.
