Exclusive: Beauty service Ipsy is becoming a marketing solutions company, too

Creator Playbooks // August 25, 2026 Exclusive: Beauty service Ipsy is becoming a marketing solutions company, too By Julia Waldow Ipsy Ipsy is now offering marketing services as it looks to onboard new brands and court more customers.

The beauty subscription company is debuting Ipsy Marketing Solutions, an offering it says can help beauty brands build awareness, generate demand and drive retail sales. The service relies on Ipsy’s first-party data, product-trial ecosystem and creator network, and includes everything from event sponsorships to paid media investments.

Participating brands will pay Ipsy a fee, and the service will be available in the U. S. , Canada and Mexico. Ipsy launched in 2011. Its core offering is a personalized subscription beauty bundle that features samples or full-size products from the likes of Rare Beauty and Nars.

Its subscribers — of which it has millions — take a quiz to be matched with makeup, hair-care and skin-care products, which are delivered on a monthly or quarterly basis. Ipsy members provide product feedback and make social-media content, too; customers generated 5 million product reviews last year, per the company.

Now, Ipsy is betting that the insights it’s collected from these beauty enthusiasts will prove valuable to brands, as well. Ipsy offers a unique proposition in that it curates 4,000 products from some 500 brands a year, CEO Galen Smith told Modern Retail.

Ipsy also monitors popular trends among its user base, which it explores in its annual “Beauty Discovery Report.” In 2025, for instance, Ipsy found that Gen Z embraced lip gloss, while serums edged out foundations. Ipsy members test an average of 30 unique brands annually, and 88% said they join Ipsy to discover new brands and products.

“We have a deep knowledge of our consumer base from the quiz and other signals that [shoppers] give us … when they’re putting together their monthly box or bag,” Smith said. “We have honed this ability over the years to be this incredible marketing service to beauty brands. Ipsy Marketing Solutions is that next extension of who we are.”

Ipsy declined to share revenue but is looking “for opportunities to grow” its base of beauty lovers, Smith said. The company has raised more than $230 million in funding since its launch. In 2020, Ipsy acquired BoxyCharm for $500 million. At the time, the two companies, combined, had more than 4.

3 million subscribers and more than $1 billion in annual revenue. Ipsy will tailor Marketing Solutions to what partner brands are looking for, per the company. New or emerging beauty brands may want to provide Ipsy subscribers with travel-size or deluxe-size samples. Others may be interested in tapping Ipsy’s network of some 3,000 creators for content.

Still, Ipsy will only work with brands that seem like a good fit for its members, Smith stressed. “We wouldn’t want to steer them toward a product that we didn’t believe in ourselves,” he said. Ipsy has offered similar marketing services before, but on a more individualized basis.

For instance, Ipsy previously supplied members with samples of the Korean skin-care brand OliviaUmma. It then ran a targeting campaign against that group, timed to the brand’s March Sephora launch. (The product, Milky Resurfacing Brightening Toner Pads, ended up selling out.) Meanwhile, in April, Ipsy partnered with E. l. f.

Cosmetics to hold an exclusive creator masterclass around E. l. f.’ s Soft Glam Cream Blush and Bronzer. That same month, Ipsy hosted a launch dinner with Rodial to celebrate the brand’s Salmon DNA Water Oil collection. In this way, marketing services have been “part of the DNA” at Ipsy for years, Smith said.

Ipsy Marketing Solutions is “really making it more formal,” he explained. Ipsy now has three staffers for Marketing Solutions, including a general manager, and may bring on more people as the business ramps up. Right now, Ipsy’s biggest challenge around Marketing Solutions is education.

“Ipsy has been in the marketplace for a long time, but [we’ve] got to now educate [people] that these are additional services,” Smith said. The company is building a website for the service, and it will reach out to brands it works with about the offering.

It’s also hoping to bring on new brands, including those not yet in large retailers like Sephora or Ulta, and help nurture those relationships. Ipsy’s investments in beauty marketing coincide with larger interest in the category. According to Circana, in the U. S. , during the first six months of the year, prestige retail beauty sales increased 7% to $17.

1 billion. Mass retail sales also rose 7%, to $39. 2 billion. Fragrance and skin care were some of the highest-performing categories. Copy link