New Direction

ESCHEWING BEAUTY VLOGGER DRAMA ON YOUTUBE AND INSTAGRAM’S OVERLY CURATED AESTHETIC, WE’RE TURNING TO TIKTOK FOR A TONGUE-IN-CHEEK TAKE ON BEAUTY — AND BRANDS ARE FOLLOWING SUIT

- Souzan Michael Galway

In April last year, legendary haircare brand Marc Anthony saw a mysterious uptick in the sales of its Strictly Curls curl-defining lotion, from a collection that launched in 1997. After doing some digging, the brand found that the spike was due to the TikTok #StrictlyCurls challenge, in which users applied the lotion and showed off the results on the video app. Today, the hashtag has more than 11 million views, contributing to the 60 per cent increase in Strictly Curls product sales. Similarly, in October, Clairol Professional saw its Shimmer Lights Shampoo, which launched in the ’80s, go viral on TikTok. This was thanks to the #PurpleShampooChallenge (it currently has more than 23 million views), which involved users trying to change their hair colour by coating it in the product.

Still in its infancy, TikTok (which was launched in China in 2016 and made available to outside markets in 2017) was last year ranked as number seven on the list of the 10 most downloaded apps of the past decade, ahead of YouTube (15 years old) and Twitter (14 years old). And the coronavirus crisis has seen global usage skyrocket further, as people look to share and consume content and release tension with dance challenges. Around 41 per cent of users are aged between 16 and 24, making the success of the Marc Anthony and Clairol products even more curious. Not only were these products launched decades ago, but they were also designed for a completely different demographic. Marc Anthony usually targets women aged between 25 and 40, while Clairol’s purple shampoo was designed to brighten greying hair.