The beauty of working in Public Relations is that you can work in so many different fields. Among the many types of PR, there is Beauty PR: Public Relations for beauty and cosmetic products.
You may be familiar with Beauty PR if the you are passionate about the beauty industry. To promote the brand and the products, PR professionals usually choose to work with influencers and famous makeup artists aka MUAs. They send them free “PR boxes” so they could share with their followers their thoughts about the brand. A PR box generally contains the newest products of the brand, and even all the products of the brand sometimes. Brands such as Huda Beauty, Anastasia Beverly Hills, Color Pop Cosmetics or Morphe are known for sending their products and using influencers to promote their makeup products.
Using social media influencers to talk about their brand usually adds more credibility to the cosmetic company, as the influencers can say whatever they want about the products, whether they like them or not. They can give their honest opinion through YouTube video reviews for example, or through their other social media accounts. The public is more likely to be attracted to a product when the reviews about it are positive and honest.
PR practitioners who work in the beauty industry also organize big events to raise the brand awareness and to present their products or campaigns. They invite journalists and influencers to test their new products and, hopefully, make vlogs or share the event with their followers on social media. Many makeup brands are known to be very creative when it comes to launch events. For example, Tarte Cosmetics dedicates a special budget for their events. They organize special trip events for their campaigns under the hashtag #trippinwithtarte, where they invite the most famous influencers and vloggers in the makeup field. This way, the brand is sure to reach an important number of customers and boost the sales. Kat Von D is also known for the events that she does for her brand. For the 10th anniversary of Kat Von D Beauty, she threw a huge party at Vibiana Cathedral in Los Angeles where she invited influencers and MUAs from all around the world. In their fancy and eccentric outfits, a lot of the guests seized the opportunity to share the best moments of the event with their fans, which gave to the brand more visibility and therefore a better image.
Generally, beauty PR agents don’t pay the influencers to talk about them. They do send them free products to review and discount codes, but what it is going to be said about them rests with the makeup artists or influencers. For example, when the youtuber says to the followers that she or he isn’t paid for reviewing the product, it gives more credibility to both of the brand and the youtuber’s statements.
The companies surely take a risk as they know that they can get a negative feedback that could damage their reputation. But still, if it’s the case, they could work on improving their merch and trying to give a better image of their brand.
Working in the makeup and cosmetics world as a PR professional can be fun and exciting. It requires creativeness and imagination. If you are passionate about makeup, you will absolutely be mixing pleasure and business in your daily life. You will meet new people and work on pleasant campaigns. As long as you are persistent and motivated, you will undoubtedly have a great time.