Charlotte Tilbury’s reign as the most talked about beauty brand on both TikTok and Instagram in the UK has ended, with L’Oréal Paris taking up the crown in 2025.
The French beauty giant had an earned media value (EMV) of £238.5m on TikTok and £28.6m on Instagram, according to influencer marketing firm Kolsquare’s Beauty Rankings report for the first half of the year.
This was driven by an estimated 14,523 TikToks videos mentioning L’Oréal Paris, with a combined 5.1 billion views and more than 82 million engagements.
Despite new and agile players joining the beauty arena each year, L’Oréal Paris’ success came down to its status as a “legacy brand that is well entrenched”, Katy Link, Head of Brand at Kolsquare, told Cosmetics Business.
“Its wide product range that appeals to all age demographics, accessible positioning and always-ambassador strategy, combined with targeted activations around events and product launches, are strong pillars for its success.
“The brand drives a higher engagement rate on Key Opinion Leaders (KOL), aka influencers, posts on Instagram, despite having fewer KOLs and content that mentions it than Charlotte Tilbury, which helps to boost its EMV.
“Brands looking to dethrone L’Oréal Paris should engage and nurture long-term relationships with relevant KOLs to drive brand love and engagement on social [media].”
L’Oréal Paris proved itself no slouch on Instagram either, with an estimated 13,000 posts mentioning the beauty brand.
Its dominance on Instagram came down to an “always-on, layered macro and micro KOL strategy”, Link added.
She continued: “In H1 2025, consistent evergreen campaigns, combined with heavy always-on Instagram collaborations across skin care and make-up, and the brand’s Cannes ambassador engine and social commerce integration, reveal an ongoing global comms system that also underpins UK social presence.”
L’Oréal Paris' performance has knocked Charlotte Tilbury down from the first place rankings it garnered in Kolsquare’s 2024 Beauty Rankings report.
The Puig-owned brand had an EMV of £102.7m on TikTok and EMV of £28.568,380 on Instagram in 2025, bumping it down to fourth and second place, respectively.
Charlotte Tilbury’s declines are “likely down to a shift in focus back toward Instagram and macro-led storytelling”, said Link.
She continued: “TikTok nonetheless maintained strong performance due to the depth of brand equity on the platform.”
On both platforms combined, the number of content mentioning Charlotte Tilbury declined 12% year-on-year, while the number of KOLs mentioning the brand rose 4.25%.
Despite this, the brand continues to tap into one of Europe’s largest influencer communities, working with 15,113 influencers on Instagram, according to Kolsquare.
Where have all the other beauty brands ranked?
Skin care brand CeraVe overtook L’Oréal’s La Roche-Posay as the top skin care business on TikTok, generating an EMV of £107.4m.
Scandinavian brand Ole Henriksen also rose 67 places on Instagram to claim the number one spot in skin care on the platform, with a 7% engagement rate.
Link said: “Ole Henriksen has made a serious play in the UK market this year.
“It has done so while activating far fewer KOLs and generating much less content on Instagram than its more well-known competitors.
“This could indicate that the brand could have sponsored its content much more aggressively, amplifying fewer but higher-performing posts.”
Garnier, meanwhile, topped the rankings on TikTok for hair care.
On Instagram, L’Oréal’s Kérastase dominated with an EMV of £14.663m, supported by some 702 influencers.
Garnier worked with more influencers (1,671) and posted more content (6,065 versus 2,002), while Kérastase achieved a stronger engagement at 4.9% compared to Garnier’s 3.1%.
On the cosmetics side, NYX Professional Makeup held onto the top place with Huda Kattan-owned make-up brand Huda Beauty securing the number two spot.
Other surprise make-up wins were Made By Mitchell moving from number 12 to make the top ten at seventh place, and NARS jumping four places to rank ninth.
But it was Kattan’s brand performance in particular which was highlighted by Link.
“In 2025, Huda Beauty shifted from a mega-heavy to micro-first strategy on both TikTok and Instagram, leveraging short-form UGC from recruited creators, which helped drive TikTok success,” said Link.
“Across both platforms, the number of content mentioning the brand almost doubled, with a 44.6% increase, while the number of KOLs mentioning the brand rose 35%.
“82% of KOLs mentioning the brand were micro and nano creators.”
Looking ahead to the remainder of the year, the competition will be dictated by seasonal sales periods like Black Friday and gifting opportunities associated with Christmas, Link said.
They added: “Expect the intense competition between the big brands on social media to ramp up.
“The TikTok beauty rankings for H1 2025 show a fair bit of volatility and jostling for position: we would expect this to continue as more brands continue to invest in TikTok and in TikTok Shop in the UK.”
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