Beauty Summary: How fragrance wins in the TikTok Shop

For co-founder and CEO of Snif Bryan Edwards, entering the TikTok Store was not exactly an option, but a necessity.

“If you don’t use the TikTok Shop, you will be left behind,” said Edwards, who took the scent brand to a public trading platform in 2025. “To me, the TikTok Shop is the last arbitrage opportunity that exists on the Internet. It reminds me of Facebook 10 years ago.”

On March 10, almost nine months into its TikTok Shop acquisition, Snif reached its biggest day of sales, thanks to a four-hour stream hosted by influencer Mikayla Nogueira to promote Sun Only, a perfume she created in collaboration with Snif. According to the brand, the livestream generated more than $400,000 in sales, attracted more than one million unique viewers and helped Snif become the No. 1 fragrance brand on the platform and jump 635 spots to become the No. 1 brand. 96 worldwide on TikTok Shop.

While Nogueira’s stream and his 17 million followers may represent the pinnacle of success on the platform, Snif is far from the only fragrance brand that can succeed in the TikTok Shop. According to data from Charm.io, the TikTok Store generated more than $162 million in fragrance sales by 2025.

“Two and more years ago, we didn’t know if we could sell a fragrance that you couldn’t smell online.” It turns out we can, because fragrance is about telling stories more than the front and back view,” said Ajay Salpekar, gm of beauty at TikTok Shop. While 60% of fragrance viewers are men, 75% of fragrance buyers on TikTok are women, according to Salpekar. And livestreaming is a growing fragrance channel, he said, as 76% of fragrance users on the platform they bought in the livestream.

“Brands are increasingly using the TikTok Store as a way to launch their new fragrances,” Salkepar said. “Many of these fragrance innovations or scents or profiles are developed in collaboration with designers, whether it’s something specific, like Snif and Mikayla’s collaboration, or [inspired by] opinions of users who provide Lives of creators or short videos. Brands take note of that. ”

Livestream shopping, while a well-established model in markets like China, is still a relatively new behavior for many North American consumers. But Salpekar said TikTok helps brands connect with content creators who can produce livestreams and short content through programs like the quarterly “TikTok Shop Beauty Besties.”

“Once a quarter, we bring together some of our most prominent brands and most promising designers, and we make a play on goods, new disasters or products that will be launched in certain campaigns,” said Salpekar. “And with this, there are these relationships that are established between creators and brands that lead to compelling content, whether it’s short video or live.”

Edwards said that Snif’s TikTok Shop presence is profitable, to the extent that it has hired a house manager to oversee its operations on the platform. But he says the value of the platform isn’t just about driving sales.

“We view TikTok Shop as a marketing channel, not a sales channel,” Edwards said. “It generates revenue, but the real value is that it raises the bar across every retail channel we use, including,​​​​​​​​and especially, Ulta.”

Getting to the stage requires playing the TikTok game, however. That includes distributing free samples to creators every month in hopes they’ll spread the word about the brand and participate in discounts and promotional deals, some of which are sponsored by the brand and others managed by TikTok directly, Edwards said. TikTok’s rating system, which ranks content creators on a five-point scale based on factors such as their writing propensity and stores TikTok stores on factors such as how they fulfill orders, rewards those who play by the rules and can punish those who don’t.

“If we miss a delivery, those points stop, and we are excluded from the algorithm,” he said. “So we are encouraged to make sure we have all our ducks in a row and provide a good customer experience.” And, as the retail levels go up, we get more priority.”

Edwards believes these conditions create trust and transparency among buyers and sellers. And the TikTok Shop model is helping to push what was once a long way to create social content.

“Think about the history of news production: It was a customer who came to Snif, had to spend his money to buy the product.” We send it to them, and then hopefully that client will go on TikTok to do a piece of content about us,” he said. “And [TikTok Shop] you’re increasing the likelihood that they’ll produce a piece of content about you, because they’re a highly motivated, content-creating audience, so you’re speeding up this whole process, and you’re multiplying it.

While fragrance is one of the most expensive categories of beauty, many fragrance brands that dominate the TikTok Shop, such as Phlur or Lattafa or Oakcha, offer bottles for less than $100. But Salpekar is confident that more high-end and popular brands will join the platform in time.

“With any new platform, usually the first growth tends to be more affordable. But what we have seen is, every quarter, the value of the values ​​is increasing as more brands, as well as users, get used to buying their fragrances here,” he said. “I fully expect that over time, you will see fame, popularity and perfume on the platform.”

That is, if TikTok continues to work. The unstable status of TikTok in the United States has discouraged many content creators who rely on the platform and – as those who remember the heyday of Facebook can testify – social media platforms are far from stable institutions. But Edwards is confident that the TikTok Store is here to stay. And he’s not the only one: In March, Snif’s main sales partner, Ulta Beauty, announced that it was joining the platform, and TikTok also announced plans to create its own fulfillment center.

“We’re betting that, because TikTok is so deeply rooted in American society and culture, it’s not going anywhere,” Edwards said.

System management:

• Shiseido has appointed Caroline Foo as its chief executive officer for Malaysia. Foo will retain his current role as managing director of Shiseido Indonesia, overseeing the Japanese beauty leader in both countries. He will focus on creating market growth and relationships between the two Southeast Asian markets.

• L’Oréal has appointed Nora Wolfe as svp and head of US media. Wolfe was most recently the chief investment officer at Beauty Co-Lab, a unit of the Omnicom Group within L’Oréal USA.
• Anna Teal is stepping down as CEO of Grown Alchemist. Teal, who joined the skincare brand as CEO in 2023, will launch a new health brand, Afima. She will also introduce Beautiful Hustle, a Substack about beauty, health and business.

Things you should know:

• The Italian Competition Authority is reportedly investigating Sephora and Benefit Cosmetics over the premature use of adult cosmetics by children and teenagers. The investigation concerns whether LVMH beauty brands may be encouraging children to buy face masks, serums and anti-aging creams without proper warnings.

• German conglomerate Henkel to buy Olaplex in a $1.4 billion deal. The American hair care brand was founded in 2014 and acquired by Advent International in 2019 – Advent International will exit its investment. Henkel’s portfolio ranges from home care to personal care products, and includes the Got2B and Schwarzkopf hair care brands.

• Advent International will buy California body care brand Salt & Stone for an undisclosed amount. Rock Salt, founded by former snowboarder Nima Jalali in 2017, has reached a revenue of $165 million by 2025. The brand also launched a partnership with Kendall Jenner’s tequila brand 818 in March.

Status of the week:

The 57th edition of Cosmoprof, held in Bologna from March 26-29, welcomed more than 255,000 industry professionals from more than 150 countries, and saw 3,104 exhibitors from more than 10,000 products and 68 countries.

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