Athletes Feats: Beauty industry puts female sports stars in the spotlight
By the time you are reading this, athletes Simone Biles and Sha’Carri Richardson will have represented beauty brands during the Paris Olympics (July 26-Aug. 11).
Sephora brought beauty to the streets. As the official partner of the Olympics, the beauty powerhouse set up pop-up stores in some Olympic torch relay cities and organized in-store events.
It isn’t just the Olympics that are spurring excitement for female athletes. The beauty industry also is leveraging women’s visibility in sports to spike sales, especially in the face of sales slowdown predictions.
Linking beauty and female sports stars is a pairing long overdue, industry experts said. Male athletes have long been associated with brand sponsorships, but women are finally getting their starting spot.
Leslie Ann Hall, founder of Iced Media, thinks putting female athletes in the spotlight is savvy. The beauty industry has been dominated by influencers and celebs who might be approaching saturation, she suggested. “Looking outside that core can be beneficial,” Hall said.
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There has been backlash from some influencers who aren’t always experts to recommend products, said industry expert Allan Mottus. Sports figures, he added, are viewed as more accessible. “They often make store appearances and get tremendous exposure during televised events. They are a good match for popular-priced products.”
The mass beauty industry could use the jolt. After three years of mid-to-high-digit growth, U.S. mass sales gains were held to 2% for the first quarter of 2024, according to Circana. Makeup was the hardest hit, declining more than 4%.
Famous sports figures showing off dazzling nails, hard-working setting sprays and sweat-free foundations could bring in gold for the mass landscape.
The fast-growing Milani brand just inked its first athletic sponsorship. Make It Last Setting Spray is the star of a campaign called “Face Set. Mind Set.”
“The campaign features four top female athletes who are competing at the highest level and highlights the connection between the product’s endurance and the unprecedented cultural momentum that women’s sports are seeing globally,” Jeremy Lowenstein, Milani’s chief marketing officer, said.
The four athletes are Team USA silver medal-winning artistic gymnast Jordan Chiles, WNBA pro Sabrina Ionescu, Team USA volleyball gold medalist Chiaka Ogbogu and weightlifting champion Mattie Rogers.
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The athletes are perfect matches for the product. “Make It Last provides the staying power that
helps makeup last through anything, whether that’s a regular workday and night out or hours of endurance training, a game in 90-degree heat, or a killer floor routine,” Lowenstein said.
The “Face Set. Mind Set.” campaign is featured across all of Milani’s channels and the athletes’ platforms on social media under the #SetWithMilani hashtag.
Procter & Gamble, a long-time supporter of the Olympics, used the summer games to launch its new Cleansing Melts water-activated skin- cleaning products. The product is the Official Facial Cleanser of Team USA. Olay enlisted athletes Sha’Carri Richardson, Athing Mu, Rose Lavelle, Natalia Grossman and Laurie Hernandez to promote the product.
This is the first time that Olay has been a brand partner of the event. “With a new product hitting the shelves, this year seemed like the perfect opportunity, said Lindsey Morahan, communications director, North America Skincare at Olay. The campaign will continue through September.
Long nails might seem detrimental to flipping and landing on a balance beam, but Olympic
gold medalist Suni Lee believes her talons are part of her persona. She’s teamed up with Kiss to promote the brand’s Salon X-tend Starter Kit, an at-home curing system. It includes an LED lamp, a soft-gel adhesive and a set of 30 nails. This is also Kiss’ first athlete as an ambassador.
Track phenom Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone was named the newest face of Neutrogena last year. She frequently mentions her voyages to CVS, where she first discovered Neutrogena’s Pink Grapefruit acne scrub. It was the first skincare product she owned, she said.
Simone Biles, the most decorated gymnast of all time, signed a two-year ambassadorship with K18, the fast-growing hair care brand.
Biles has also sparked sales of mass market cosmetics brands, such as Nyx, which she has frequently mentioned as her go-to lip products.
Rugby star and Olympian Ilana Maher appears in a social media paid sponsorship for L’Oréal’s Infallible Setting Mist. She sprays the mist, squirts herself with water and flops onto white sheets to show that her makeup stays on. “It’s a 10 out of 10,” she proclaimed in the post. She’s also appeared with content queen Mikayla Nogueria Hawken to promote L’Oréal beauty products.
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Nathalie Gerschtein, president of L’Oréal North America, is a big supporter of women’s
sports tie-ins. “Athletes have always inspired us, but specifically backing female athletes is a commitment to inspiring the next generation of young girls,” she said.
L’Oréal also partners with young athletes as an avenue to expose new customers to legacy brands. That’s one factor that appealed to Carol’s Daughter when it signed 20-year-old tennis star Coco Gauff earlier this year. Gerschtein said the company ties the sponsorships with in-store marketing. “We want to translate the excitement into stores because that’s the moment of truth.” The 20-year-old Gauff also helps introduce the legacy brand Carol’s Daughter to a new generation.
Tennis’ biggest name, Serena Williams, volleyed her way into Ulta Beauty this year with her makeup brand called WYNBeauty.
Williams is more than just the face of the 10 makeup products that span 91 shades. She played a crucial role in developing the brand after years of frustration with what was available on the market.
“Throughout my career, I was always searching for makeup that looked good after hours on the court, mixing products myself and creating my own formulas while traveling the world,” Williams said at the April launch “As I evolved and remained active both on and off the court, I needed products I could apply at 7:00 AM before a full day of meetings, spending time with my kids, making time for the things I love and still look good at the end of the day. I needed makeup that could truly move with me. That’s the intention behind WYN Beauty – for people to live in it every single day of their lives and enhance the beauty they already have.”
Williams also made a personal appearance at her Ulta Beauty in West Palm Beach, where she helped customers find proper shades and products.
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Mielle has Angel Reese, now a star on the WNBA’s Chicago Sky. Monique Rodriguez, who founded Mielle Organics in 2014, said Reese is a perfect fit for Mielle. “Angel is a rising star with bold beauty, confidence, strength and must-have edges who uses and genuinely loves Mielle products,” said Rodriguez.
The collaborations aren’t just with female athletes. Sally Hansen partnered with Jared McCain, a first-round pick by the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers. McCain is known for painting his nails and showing off his styles using Sally Hansen’s Insta-Dri nail polish. “I know a lot of people disagree, a lot of people don’t like it, but I’m just going to be myself and do what I think looks nice,” McCain said.
Beyond the deals with sports stars, beauty companies are advertising at sporting events. While the Super Bowl is a vivid example, brands like E.l.f., Nyx Professional Makeup and La Roche-Posay partner with many athletic events. The latter, in fact, is taking advantage of America’s obsession with pickleball. La Roche-Posay signed on last November as the official sponsor of the National Pickleball Tournament.
