As the company that makes the best of beauty accessible to every eye, lip, and face, we know that makeup is a powerful way to bring people together.

Our challenge? Getting the world to believe it, too. So we decided to put it to the ultimate test: could two people heal a blemished relationship by applying makeup to one another? 

With that, e.l.f.’s “Make Up Over Makeup” video series was born. 

Across our 3 episodes (so far) we’ve tapped Gen Z’s favorite former couple, TikTokers Chris Olsen and Ian Paget, famous Vanderpump Rules frenemies Katie Maloney and Scheana Shay, and finally, our most impressive episode to date, Love is Blind Season 6 breakout stars and ex fiances, Chelsea Blackwell and Jimmy Presnell. 

Each episode brought the drama, tea, and emotion that our audience was craving. We even drove them from TikTok and Instagram via teasers over to YouTube to watch the full episodes, generating massive cross-platform conversations. Fans were moved by the honesty and maturity of each pair. 

“Make Up Over Makeup” was a huge success. As a Gen Z brand, our objective was to get everyone watching our long-form content and talking about it, and that's exactly what we did.

Our primary KPI was video views, and Episode 1 alone received 7.6M views across owned and earned channels. Episode 1 landed at #16 on YouTube's Global Trending Videos chart, and quickly became e.l.f. 's best-performing YouTube video ever, all with $0 in paid media spend. 

Episode 2 cemented the success of the series, and brought in an additional 6.4M views. Once again, the series was a hit with fans and with the press.

Episode 3 was our most successful episode to date. We managed to leverage the timeliest drama, driving 3.8B impressions and over 27M views. 

And people didn't just watch, they engaged. Beyond video views, the content brought in a combined 1.6M engagements, with overwhelmingly positive sentiment. “Make Up Over Makeup” proved once again how e.l.f. is always at the cutting edge of Gen Z culture. In a world of 6-second attention spans, people were watching our long-form content and asking for more.