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
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