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To adapt a well-known and often-mangled quote, there are some weekly newsletters where a week happens, and some weekly newsletters where years happen. That’s definitely not how the quote goes, but you get the point. Basically, I’m saying that this has been a very eventful week. There’s a lot of stuff I want to get to, and only a blog post in which to do it.

After all, a billion-dollar blockbuster deal between two of the hottest brands in beauty—who also, by no coincidence, happen to be two of the biggest champions of creator marketing you’ll find in any industry—doesn’t happen every week.

Don’t get me wrong: I was surprised when I heard the news. But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. And the more excited I am to see how things play out.

Enough teasing: you’re here for the data, the story, the inside scoop! Let’s get into it.

The Top Brand Acquisition of All Time (of the Week): E.L.F. Beauty x RHODE Skin

On a quiet Wednesday afternoon, E.L.F. Beauty shocked the beauty world by acquiring RHODE Skin, one of the hottest brands in not only beauty, but any industry. If you don’t believe me, peep E.L.F.’s official announcement, which features a shoutout to CreatorIQ’s data!

It’s not our first shoutout from this crew: Hailey Bieber famously (to me, at least) shared our data on her Instagram, which I’ll never stop reminding people. In fact, let’s pull up that picture again for old time’s sake.

Hailey Bieber sharing data from yours truly 

Ah yes, that’s the good stuff.

But wait, there’s more! Another time when we said nice things about RHODE Skin, we were signal-boosted by the official RHODE Skin account. This was actually a bit of a signal-boostception, since the official account was screencapping a post by Hailey Bieber Facts:

More CreatorIQ data in the wild 

It’s arguably an even greater honor for the stan account to notice us, tbh. This was all the way back in 2024, when RHODE Skin was No. 4—how times have changed! They grow up and conquer the world so fast.

That said, @haileyfacts, it’s Earned Media Value (EMV), not EVM. (Is that Earned Value Media or Earned Vedia Malue?)

Anyway, compliments aside, we’re still parsing all the implications of this blockbuster, billion-dollar deal, but you know that I have to say a word or two about it—especially since I’ve been known to say a word or two (or several thousand) about RHODE Skin.

A little over one month ago, I was touting RHODE Skin as one of the fastest-growing beauty brands I’ve seen in a long time. And just about one year before that, I identified RHODE Skin as one of the beauty industry’s hottest acquisition targets. So I guess what I’m trying to say is: you’re welcome, Hailey. Please send me, like, 0.1% of what you made when you signed the paperwork. I think I deserve that much, no?

Suffice it to say that I’ve been down this RHODE before, and some of the images I’m about to share will look familiar, given that you’ve already seen them. But here they are again, because I want to reiterate some of RHODE Skin’s most eyepopping numbers, and provide an early assessment of why the E.L.F. x RHODE pairing is so groundbreaking and exciting.

Give Me The Data

Since launching in June 2022, RHODE Skin has been one of the fastest-growing brands across CreatorIQ’s metrics not only in the skincare industry, but in the creator economy at large.

From April 2024 to March 2025, RHODE Skin ranked as the No. 1 skincare brand by EMV both in the U.S. and globally, and the No. 5 skincare brand by EMV in Europe.

U.S. data

But let’s go into greater detail with these top 10 skincare brands. Among its top 10 cohort, RHODE Skin ranked No. 1 in both YoY EMV growth and YoY Engagements growth.

Top 10 U.S. Skincare brands by EMV, ranked by YoY EMV growth

Top 10 U.S. Skincare brands by EMV, ranked by YoY Engagements growth

So it’s not just that more people than ever are talking about, or aware of, RHODE Skin: they’re liking, commenting on, and sharing content about the brand at a record pace. All of this is indicative of the Gen Alpha appeal that made RHODE Skin such an enticing target to E.L.F.

But it bears repeating that RHODE Skin has become a top brand not just in skincare, but in beauty at large. In that same 12-month analysis, RHODE Skin ranked among the beauty world’s top 15 brands by EMV.

Top 15 Beauty Brands by EMV: April 2024 - March 2025

As you can see, RHODE Skin ranked No. 12 in beauty by total EMV. Meanwhile, E.L.F., its acquiring brand, ranked 10th. In other words, RHODE Skin is sneaking up on some of the biggest, most established names in the industry.

Of the top 15 U.S. beauty brands by total EMV, RHODE Skin ranked No. 1 in:

• YoY EMV growth
• YoY Impressions growth
• YoY Engagements growth
• YoY Creator Count growth

Top 15 YoY Change: Top 15 Beauty Brands 

• RHODE Skin ranks No. 1 in YoY EMV growth
  • E.L.F. ranks No. 10

Impressions YoY Change: Top 15 Beauty Brands

• RHODE Skin ranks No. 1 in YoY Impressions growth
  • E.L.F. ranks No. 14

Engagements YoY Change: Top 15 Beauty Brands

• RHODE Skin ranks No. 1 in YoY Engagements growth
  • E.L.F. ranks No. 14

Creator Count Change: Top 15 Beauty Brands

• RHODE Skin ranks No. 1 in YoY Creator Count change
  • E.L.F. ranks No. 5

So while E.L.F. commands larger totals in these metrics (at least for now), and ultimately sees a larger sales base, RHODE Skin’s growth potential was simply too much to pass up.

I mentioned the Gen Alpha point above, which has been one of E.L.F.’s central talking points in framing the business angle of the acquisition, but I think there’s more to this deal than that. Here’s a quick high-level analysis about why this deal makes so much sense for both parties:

RHODE Skin presents the following strategic advantages/points of alignment for E.L.F. Beauty:

• The deal bolsters E.L.F.’s flagging EMV, Engagements, and Impressions growth
  • While E.L.F. claims larger totals in these metrics, RHODE Skin is growing more quickly, offering RHODE a clear strategic advantage.
  • Plus, if you combine E.L.F. and RHODE’s totals in these metrics, that would make the amalgamated company the No. 1 brand in beauty.
    • You better believe we’ll be looking for this in the data.

• The deal accelerates a broader merging of cosmetics and skincare
  • Across the beauty industry, skincare is growing more quickly as a category than cosmetics.
  • As a result, leading cosmetics brands are meeting consumers in the skincare aisle.
  • Fast-growing brands tend to offer skin-friendly makeup products, particularly with clean, natural, or science-forward messaging.

• E.L.F. provides a strategic partner for RHODE Skin’s global expansion
  • With RHODE launching in Sephora and looking to make inroads into the European market, E.L.F.’s established status represents a valuable opportunity.
  • Remember when I noted earlier that RHODE was just the No. 5 skincare brand in Europe over the last 12 months? I expect that to change.

• Both brands have a clear alignment in terms of ideology, values, and content strategy.
  • E.L.F. takes a creator-focused, social media savvy approach to its activations, while RHODE Skin was founded by a social media creator.
  • Both RHODE Skin and E.L.F. have highly visible female leadership, and have launched initiatives to empower female entrepreneurship in the beauty space.
  • E.L.F. was one of the first major beauty brands to experiment on and fully embrace TikTok—a channel essential to RHODE Skin’s rise.

This is the kind of story that makes covering the rise of the creator economy so exciting—it’s validation of everything we talk about week after week, and further proof that the creator economy is just the economy at large. Much more to come on this topic, but for now, congratulations to all the great people behind E.L.F. Beauty and RHODE Skin. I can’t wait to see what comes next.

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