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On February 18, bride-to-be Kayla King posted a TikTok labeled, “Day one: emailing brands for products to include in my bachelorette gifts to my bridesmaids.” With over 468,000 views and more than 10,000 saves, the video sparked a micro-movement for 2024 brides. Even though King, in her video, said she was following the actions of a video she had seen, it was her post that wound up inspiring a small army of brides to think like influencers. Comments included “Brb doing this now💍” and “Can you show us a sample email so I know what to write lol.” King mentioned emailing nail-care brand Olive & June in her post, and the brand responded. “Bestie! Send us a message here! We got you! 💖💖💖,” said the comment, which has nearly 1,000 likes. Since then, King posted a video unboxing her Olive & June goodies for her bridesmaids.
Since then, several beauty brands have reported receiving so many inbound inquiries from brides-to-be that they’ve had to develop dedicated strategies. Still, the fact that they are responding at all denotes a shift in the atmosphere: Brands understand that rewarding customers, and not just creators with hundreds of thousands of followers, is important and worth their time. After all, community is the new influencer.
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Women’s razor and body-care brand Flamingo saw an influx of inbound inquiries a couple of days after King’s first TikTok, said Natalie Pace, Flamingo’s head of brand communications. “We really wanted to be a part of the conversation,” she said. After considering its options and deciding it wouldn’t fulfill all requests, the brand settled on a giveaway, which felt like the most “sustainable” option, Pace said. The giveaway awarded 25 brides 10 sets of four Flamingo products each. The sets included its Polished Chrome Razor, its Mini Foaming Shave Gel, its Tweezers and its Refillable Dermaplane Razor. “We decided on the number 25 because we wanted people to feel like they had a chance to win,” Pace said.
Flamingo has not seen social posts result from the giveaway, which ended on February 29. “We will be monitoring that, but that wasn’t really the intent of it,” Pace said. “It was more so to provide a solution for all these inquiries we were receiving and to surprise and delight this audience.”
The reaction to the giveaway was extremely positive, Pace said, noting that “People were shocked that we responded.” Timing was also key — the brand launched the giveaway within a week of the inbound inquiries pouring in. “We wanted to capitalize on the viral moment of it all. … It was a quick turnaround and also a quick promotion period — the giveaway was only up for a week,” she said. Flamingo’s TikTok post about the giveaway had “record-breaking” engagement for the brand, she said. Currently, it has 14,000 views and 295 comments.
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“We thought it was pretty savvy of these brides … to essentially [ask brands to] sponsor their bachelorette party. What’s the harm in that, especially if these brands provide a product that resonates with this audience?” Pace said.
As wedding season kicks into full gear, Flamingo is open to the possibility of doing more bridal-themed giveaways, Pace said, adding, “Bachelorette parties are great moments for us to engage with our audience.”
Beauty Pie, the membership-based brand, has also received a flurry of inbound requests for bachelorette party products. Many are similar in format to the influencer pitches the brand is used to receiving, said Roya Weiner, Beauty Pie’s vp of influencer marketing and strategic talent partnerships. She noted that the brides asking for products usually offer to create content in exchange for the gifts. Like Pace, Weiner was excited by the outreach. “My immediate response was, ‘Wow, they love this brand. Something we’ve given them or said to them over the last year has worked. And now they want to introduce their friends to it,'” she said.
Beauty Pie decided to create a dedicated landing page for brides looking to include Beauty Pie in their bachelorette gifting. Set to go live next week, it will include a discount that is a “better promotion than they will find anywhere else,” Weiner said. The landing page will highlight products the brand believes would work well for a bachelorette gift bag, but brides will be able to choose whatever products they like and use a $25 coupon on purchases of $75 or more. The bride will also be given a two-month complimentary membership to Beauty Pie. Brides do not need to provide proof that they are, in fact, brides to take part.
The brand is also leveraging this moment to create tailored content relevant to this moment in its customers’ lives. The content will address questions such as, “If I’m going to a daytime wedding, when in my makeup routine should I apply my SPF?” Weiner said. The brand will share this content across its social channels over the next few weeks and months.
Beauty Pie strategized when it came to settling on its response to brides, Weiner said, “We basically told our community team to avoid saying no to anyone. We don’t want to turn anyone down. [We want to] figure out how we can show up in these moments with these community members, or anyone who’s excited about an introduction to the brand.”
For her part, King has around 2,000 followers. In addition to Olive & June, she’s been able to connect with and receive products from brands including Milk Makeup and some more bridal-specific brands. Her profile is specific to her wedding planning experience — for example, her handle is @thebridekayla. When creating the account, she didn’t have specific expectations, she said. But, she noted, “I had seen people mail [wedding] invitations to companies, and they’d [send] them gifts. … So I was like, ‘I’ll shoot my shot.’ And I made a video about it.”
“You see the crazy influencers getting hundreds of packages, and they’re just opening, opening, opening. It’s really cool to see [brands] reach out to people who actually love their brand and use their products — it makes an impact. … I had zero followers, so being able to get a PR package and gift it to my girls had so much more meaning,” King said. “It wasn’t normal. It was just the coolest thing.”
Spate Trend Watch: Toner pads are back
Toner pads are gaining popularity, accumulating an average of over 7,000 monthly Google searches, a year-over-year increase of more than 30%. This surge is attributed to a K-beauty trend that initially gained traction on TikTok and has since evolved into a significant search interest.
The majority of these searches are focused on pre-soaked toner pads, but there is also interest in reusable toner pads and dry toner pads, indicating a diverse range of preferences among consumers. Some users are specifically looking for Korean toner pads. Acne is a predominant concern among consumers, who are seeking toner pads for their clarifying and exfoliating benefits.
Leading brands like Mediheal, Needly and Anua have emerged as frontrunners of this trend, capturing the attention of consumers with their innovations and documented results.
“There’s a strong K-beauty influence here, as the majority of these searches are for toner pads from Korean brands. And the convenience of pre-soaked cotton pads offering a wide range of benefits — such as acne treatment, calming effects, exfoliation and anti-aging properties — is very exciting,” said Yarden Horwitz, co-founder of Spate. “With consumers seeking out specific brands alongside this trend, the search behavior indicates intent to purchase. Beauty brands that want to keep up with today’s consumer will need to experiment with new product formats that cover a variety of benefits, as well as multi-sensorial properties.”
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