How E.l.f. Cosmetics Leveraged Micro-Influencers to Create Its Fall Launch

If you've never heard of Beautyscape, you're not alone — Google won't even bring you to a website. E.l.f.'s vice president of marketing, Mara McCune, explained that Beautyscape is more than just a competition. [Editor's note: at the time of publication, McCune is no longer with the company.] "Beautyscape has become our influencer platform, so it's not just events," McCune said. "[Beautyscape] is a part of how we might work with somebody who is creating content, or how we send product every month and ask them to do things with us."

In terms of events, McCune said they don't have a certain number a year, but so far the brand has had one annually. This Beautyscape included a trip and the contest on Instagram. The 20 contestants who won the Instagram contest were brought together in New Orleans over the course of three days. During that time, they explored the city to garner inspiration for a second competition: broken into groups of five, they were required to present a collection and campaign to a judging panel, including McCune and makeup artists Patrick Ta and Achelle Richards.

The goal was to select the team that incorporated New Orleans, presented an on-trend concept, and overall wowed the judges with their presentation. The judging criteria included creativity, brand fit, retailer potential, and consumer appeal. It was important that the teams weren't too on-the-nose with their collections, as well.

After touring the city and being introduced to the products E.l.f. has to offer, each team was assigned a graphic designer to bring their vision board and specific products to life. Team Evolution — which included contestants Leslie Alvarado, Yuri Antillon, Kathlyn Celeste, Irsah Javed, and Mia Randria — presented the Treasured Metals collection. Inspired by the architecture abundance in the Big Easy, like iron fences, and brass bands performing during second lines, they created an eye shadow palette, blush and highlighter palette, lip gloss, and liquid lipstick.

"We learned that the people really treasured the history and culture of the city," said Kathlyn Celeste, a member of the team. "We really wanted to bring that into it. Paying attention to the metals in the city and knowing that metallics are really on trend and relevant, we were able to really meld everything together. Seeing how those metals evolve and transition is how we decided on the colors. For example, coppers will evolve to green and golds into browns or orange shades."

The "evolution of metals" idea ultimately impressed the judges and landed Team Evolution the big win: their capsule collection would be brought to life, and each contestant won $10,000. After New Orleans, E.l.f. worked with its research and development team to create colors and formulas based on the team's idea. From start to finish, it takes about six months to produce a collection like this, and there are a lot of moving parts. "We are all very creative and all had so many ideas that we brought to the table," team member Antillon said. "The most difficult part was that we really had to narrow those ideas down. But it was all part of the process."

"The team really captured the essence of New Orleans and translated it into a beautiful, wearable collection," said Marissa Cedarleaf, the senior brand manager, on why Team Evolution won. "Each element was thoughtfully designed, and the products are a great fit with our regular assortment."

Ta in particular was keen on the blush and highlighter palette, as it was something he felt would make a better fit for his kit in lieu of another contour and highlight palette.

Changes had to be made from the original concept deck, but it wasn't extreme. The name was tweaked to Modern Metals, and the packaging for the items originally included a lot of fleur de lis influence, which was ultimately nixed. The layout for the eye shadows also changed, but the shades stayed fairly consistent with the original concept presented.

To promote the launch, the winning team has been featuring the collection on their individual Instagram pages and YouTube channels. Keep reading to see each product in the Modern Metals collection, which are all vegan and cruelty-free and range from $6-$12.

The matte blushes are infused with primer powder so you don't have to worry about reapplying. The shimmer highlighting powder has fine shimmer to help blur lines and create a soft-focus glow on the skin.

The 10-pan palette includes metallic finishes and mattes.

This liquid lip is a terracotta nude with a long-lasting formula. It includes vitamin E to nourish and condition the lips and a diamond-shaped doe's foot applicator.

The gloss has a golden shimmer and can be worn alone or over the liquid lipstick. It's also infused with vitamin E.