The Numbers Behind Danessa Myricks’ Beauty Empire (HBBIP #108)

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Even though I said last week that I was moving on, it turns out that I’m still not over CreatorIQ Connect. 

I know, I know—we’ve been talking about it a lot lately. But think of it this way: we’re not trying to rub it in if you missed the special day; we’re trying to help you see what all the fuss is about, and feel like you were there. Plus, if you were able to make it, we’re helping you relive all the highlights.

One highlight for me, and hopefully for at least a few other people, was the panel that I was lucky enough to conduct with an all-star lineup of guests:

The HBBIP Live panel at CreatorIQ Connect

My thanks once again to Mindy Chun of OneSkin, Malena Higuera of NOYZ, and Romain Gaillard of The Detox Market: great people, fantastic brand leaders, and even better co-panelists. Superstars all! Rest assured that once I get my hands on a session recording, it’ll be all over this newsletter.

But wait. Hang on. Hold the phone. Is it possible that this image contains another superstar? (And no, I’m not talking about myself.)

Zoom…enhance…

A closeup of a VIP CreatorIQ Connect attendee

Why, that’s beauty icon and CreatorIQ Connect speaker Danessa Myricks! 

When I say that as I gazed out into the front row of the session audience and saw Danessa gracing us with her presence, please believe that I was starstruck. After all, it’s not every day that a face from my local Sephora display is staring at me IRL.

Now believe it or not, I’ve actually had Danessa Myricks Beauty circled as a target brand for this newsletter for quite some time—many months, in fact. So her attendance at this session, not to mention the key role she played in making CreatorIQ Connect so wonderful, is just the cherry on top.

And speaking of the top…

The Top Brand of All Time (of the Week): Danessa Myricks Beauty

Normally when I profile brands for this newsletter, I stick to full-year growth charts for the prior five years, 2020 to 2024, and then treat 2025 on a bit more of a qualitative basis. After all, the full year hasn’t elapsed yet: it’s not fair to compare 12 months to nine. Right?

Not necessarily. Danessa Myricks Beauty had other ideas:

Danessa Myricks Beauty's EMV, 2020 - 2025

You’re reading this correctly, folks—unless you’re not, in which case, let me correct you. Danessa Myricks Beauty really did collect more EMV in just the first nine months of 2025 than it had in all of 2024. And it wasn’t a narrow margin, either: $132.3M EMV in 2024, and $166.2M EMV from January to September 2025. That would be a healthy improvement for a full year, but we’ve still got all of Q4—typically a very active period in the world of beauty—to go.

Danessa Myricks Beauty's Engagements, 2020 - 2025

It was a similar story for Danessa Myricks Beauty’s engagements, which jumped from 77.1M in 2024 to 103.7M for the first nine months of 2025…

Danessa Myricks Beauty's Impressions, 2020 - 2025

…As well as the brand’s impressions, which surged from 1B to 1.6B.

Was this growth prompted by a big spike in the brand’s creator or post count?

Danessa Myricks Beauty's Creator Count, 2020 - 2024

In a word, no. This chart doesn’t show Jan-Sep 2025, because I don’t want to taint Danessa Myricks Beauty’s momentum by showing a decline. While the brand’s 2025 creator count comes close, it doesn’t surpass Danessa Myricks Beauty’s 2024 total, which completes a very pretty staircase-like growth pattern.

Danessa Myricks Beauty's Post Count, 2020 - 2024

Post count entails a slightly more jumbled staircase, but things are still trending in the right direction. Danessa Myricks Beauty’s 2025 post count was even further off from its 2024 total, so the brand’s improvement didn’t come from a sudden influx of mentions.

While that might seem like a negative, I view this as a good thing: it means that despite seeing fewer creators and posts, Danessa Myricks Beauty is surging across performance metrics, with its 2025 content resonating more deeply than ever.

Per-Channel Impressions Share, Danessa Myricks Beauty, Oct 24 - Sep 25

When we delve into the per-platform numbers, we see that there’s no single social channel fueling impressions for Danessa Myricks Beauty. While we might expect TikTok to have the lead here, as the platform is typically responsible for the bulk of beauty brands’ impressions, it’s almost perfectly balanced with Instagram. YouTube, for its part, occupies a larger share of the pie than I typically see from beauty brands.

Per-Channel Engagements Share, Danessa Myricks Beauty, Oct 24 - Sep 25

In another counter-intuitive finding, TikTok actually drives a greater share of engagements for Danessa Myricks Beauty. Usually, we’d expect this to go the other way.

So here we have a brand whose impressive growth is breaking the mold in multiple ways. What’s behind Danessa Myricks Beauty’s success?

Here’s a pretty telling place to start: 118%.

That’s not another growth figure, or at least not entirely. To be less cryptic, that’s the brand’s creator retention for the period of October 2024 to September 2025. We measure creator retention by taking the EMV generated by a brand’s retained creator population during a certain time period, then dividing that by the total EMV generated for the brand during the previous corresponding time period. And by retained, I mean the creators who posted about the brand during both time periods.

So right here with Danessa Myricks Beauty, we’re looking at what retained creators generated in October 2024 to September 2025, versus what those same creators, plus creators who subsequently dropped off, generated from October 2023 to September 2024.

The result: Danessa Myricks Beauty’s faithful fans just kept posting and posting and posting.

Retention is key to understanding which brands are built for long-term success. As former CreatorIQ Chief Strategy Officer and current beer hype-man Conor Begley said approximately twenty thousand times during his time here, retention builds empires. If you’re seeing a retention rate of ~80%, then you’re doing pretty well. If you’re seeing 118%, then it’s time to start building statues for the Myricks Dynasty.

What stands out to me about the content for Danessa Myricks Beauty, more than any individual campaign or moment, is how consistent creators are in their passion for the brand, and how thoroughly integrated Danessa Myricks Beauty is within not only their posts, but their lives at large. It’s Monica Ravi-Conway giving the brand top billing at her traditional Indian wedding; it’s fellow CreatorIQ Connect highlight Shima Katouzian shouting out the brand in a series of TikTok tutorials, cementing her place as one of Danessa Myricks Beauty’s top incoming EMV-drivers; it’s creators expressing their love of the brand via a flurry of summer content praising Danessa Myricks Beauty as a ‘flawless skin’ solution.

While my panel at CreatorIQ Connect presented three brands that have mastered the beauty game, it turned out that there was another masterclass in the room all along. Thank you, Danessa, for being there. Next time, I promise to get a better picture of you than just the back of your head—hopefully because you’ll be up on stage with me.

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