Over the past year, these nine beauty and skincare brands on the list of 2025 Brands That Matter found innovative ways to make customers see their inner beauty.
Some pulled back the curtain on behind-the-scenes processes, offering masterclasses in makeup and lessons in cosmetic chemistry. Others embraced humor, leaning into viral moments with ad campaigns all about angry arachnids and dirty-talking grandmas (yes, really).
Here are the brands proving beauty is more than skin-deep in 2025.
Bubble Skincare
Though every brand would love to be a favorite among Gen Z (and, increasingly, Gen Alpha, as it ages into purchasing power), not many have the chops to pull it off. Bubble is among the rare few that understand their young audience both monetarily—every product from moisturizer to lip balm to sunscreen retails for $20 or less—and culturally, as evidenced by its booming ambassador program. In 2024, its ambassador community nearly tripled, ballooning to more than 84,000 members. These Bubble lovers test new products and tout them across social media free of charge, driving more than 133 million social impressions last year. In the past months, Bubble has broken into the beauty space with products that fuse skincare with makeup, like its first-of-their-kind color-correcting balms, which combine clinical care and complexion without sacrificing quality or cost.
Dieux
Dieux does more than sell its customers skincare: It teaches them the science behind it. In 2024, the brand’s following on TikTok increased by 656%, thanks to its informative and entertaining content demystifying all things skincare that consumers are often in the dark about, from the methodology behind their packaging to intimidating skincare terms like “comedogenicity” (which is a measure of how likely a product is to clog your pores, FYI). That transparency has earned Dieux a loyal customer base with over 50% customer retention. Dieux’s launch at Sephora, its first-ever retail partnership, blew sales expectations out of the water, selling five times more than predicted. The brand’s collaborations in the fashion world reflect its ideals about beauty—acting as the skincare sponsor for no-makeup makeup looks at New York and Paris Fashion Week for Collina Strada, supporting women over 40 at the Met Gala, and raising funds for Black trans-led advocacy group G.L.I.T.S. with a limited-edition eye mask.
EltaMD
For the second year of marking March 13 as National Dermatologist Day, in 2025 the skincare brand launched its Derm Difference campaign, calling on real dermatologists to share personal stories of the trade, including why dermatology matters to them. It’s just one way that EltaMD, a brand renowned for its dermatologist-recommended sunscreens, celebrates the doctors that define its industry and earns itself credibility in the process. EltaMD’s dermatologist-forward content strategy earned the brand 63% year-over-year follower growth on TikTok in 2024. Offline, the brand’s commitment to skincare extends beyond its products, delivering more than 4,000 skin cancer screenings in collaboration with the Skin Cancer Foundation and the Sun Bus. This year, its new all-mineral UV Skin Recovery sunscreen caught the beauty world’s attention, nabbing recognition from Allure and awards Cosmopolitan, Women’s Health, and NewBeauty.
Eos Products
In the wrong hands, a brand’s social media being flooded with NSFW reviews from customers could be cause for alarm—but for Eos, it was an opportunity. The long-beloved lip balm brand’s expansion into body lotions in 2024 came with an unexpected side effect: consumers touting the new products as aphrodisiacs. This year, rather than avoiding the conversation and its potential controversies, Eos joined in the X-rated fun with its “DirtyDMs” and “Obsessedimonials” campaign—which featured real comments from customers raving about the new products—the former featuring an elderly woman reading the titillating testimonials aloud. Hearing a granny say that Eos’s Vanilla Cashmere Body Lotion can get you “flipped like a pancake” packs a punch of comedy that’s too often missing from advertising, and for Eos, it worked like a charm. Its new product line quickly became the fastest-growing body lotion in mass retail and the top-selling body lotion on Amazon.
Glow Recipe
Pop stars aren’t the only ones who can go on world tours: As Glow Recipe proved in 2024, skincare brands can do it, too. In honor of the company’s 10th anniversary, its founders set off across North America, South America, and Europe to share the Korean skincare philosophies that made their brand a hit. Glow Recipe continues to dominate the indie skincare space: Sales of its flagship products, including Dew Drops and Watermelon Toner, continue to grow year over year, while the launch of the brand’s Hue Drops, a tinted version of its signature serum, sold well following its fall 2024 launch. Additionally, the brand’s messaging helps break down stigmas around skin, avoiding all-too-common language like “Perfect Skin” and “Anti-Aging” and showcasing real skin in its advertising, thanks to a commitment not to retouch models’ photos.
Makeup by Mario
Makeup maven Mario Dedivanovic has two major claims to fame: his years-long trendsetting work with Kim Kardashian and popularizing the makeup masterclass. Now, as part of an exclusive partnership with Sephora, his eponymous makeup brand is bringing his signature educational experience to social media. Makeup by Mario invited tastemakers like Paige DeSorbo, Suni Lee, Katie Fang, and Steph Hui to be part of “mini masterclasses,” reimagining Dedivanovic’s formula to massive success: The brand reported record-breaking engagement online, with 154% global EMV growth on TikTok. Meanwhile, the brand’s products are now stocked in nearly 2,100 Sephora stores worldwide, including a recent launch at Sephora Mexico. The brand retains a strong following on Instagram and TikTok, with nearly 16 million follower between the two.
Maybelline New York
Appearing on all three of Love Island, Saturday Night Live, and Hot Ones is a pop culture hat trick in the 2020s, and over the past year, Maybelline pulled it off. The classic makeup brand has kept up with the times: In 2024, its TikTok campaigns garnered more than 100 million impressions, and its interactive content on Pinterest (a platform itself undergoing a Gen Z renaissance) boosted Maybelline’s follower engagement there by 30%. In addition to its buzzy media appearances, Maybelline’s stayed true to its values. That includes doubling down on its commitment to mental health advocacy through both a $20 million partnership with the WHO Foundation and expansions to its Brave Talk program, developing the in-person peer support program into a digital experience.
Neutrogena
The brand in 2025 has worked with John Cena to recontextualize his iconic “You can’t see me!” catchphrase from the wrestler/actor’s WWE days. Cena’s Neutrogena campaign applies it to the brand’s Ultra Sheer sunscreen while sharing how two skin cancer diagnoses made him realize the importance of UV protection. That personal level of storytelling has become a hallmark of Neutrogena’s messaging, which makes use of celebrity spokespeople to reach new audiences. Take its collaboration with Gen Z pop star Tate McRae, who reintroduced Neutrogena’s Hydro Boost products to a younger generation for the line’s 10th anniversary, or its utilization of actor and singer Hailee Steinfeld to address young Millennials and recommend products to minimize collagen loss. No matter a consumer’s skincare needs, Neutrogena has a product to meet them (and, odds are, a celebrity to pair it with).
Sol de Janeiro
The Brazilian skincare brand turned the stuff of marketing nightmares into a win. When a review for Sol de Janeiro’s Delícia Drench Body Butter, claimed that it attracted wolf spiders, the rumor mill went to work, with other reviewers jokingly agreeing that the product was a spider magnet, while arachnophobes worried that the memes were based in truth. Sol de Janeiro took it all in stride, capitalizing on the viral moment in 2024 with a joke of its own: a fake product, Aranha Spider Salve, that the brand said actually did attract spiders, unlike the real lotion that started the social media frenzy. The meme was a hit, earning Sol de Janeiro 9.76 million views on TikTok and 2.3 million impressions on Instagram. It was a testament to the brand’s adaptability.
This story is part of Fast Company’s 2025 Brands That Matter. Explore the full list of honorees that have demonstrated a commitment to their brand’s purpose and cultural relevance to their audience. Read more about the methodology behind the selection process.