Influencer brands are no longer just merch drops with a famous name attached. The strongest creator-led companies now compete with established consumer businesses on retail distribution, product innovation, earned media and, in some cases, hundreds of millions of dollars in sales.
For this 2026 ranking, we looked beyond follower count. We combined current Instagram performance from Click Analytic with public commercial signals such as revenue, retail sales, acquisitions, valuations and market-share data. The result is a list designed to answer a more useful question: which influencer-founded brands have turned audience attention into durable brand power?
The social data below comes from Click Analytic analyses run on 21 September 2026. Commercial figures come from company disclosures and reputable business reporting; where a figure is an estimate, projection or historical milestone, we label it as such.
Three findings from the data
- Rhode is the fastest-growing Instagram account in our 15-brand sample, with Click Analytic showing +27.25% follower growth.
- PRIME has the highest engagement rate (2.60%) and the highest average Reels views (2.83M) in the sample, even as its follower count is declining.
- Huda Beauty has by far the largest Instagram audience at 56.2M followers, while ONE/SIZE (+14.31%) and Dae (+8.82%) stand out as smaller brands with strong current follower growth.
| Brand | Followers | Growth | Engagement | Avg. Reels views |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rhode | 5.28M | +27.25% | 1.14% | 1.418M |
| SKIMS | 7.31M | +2.09% | 0.05% | 0.328M |
| Feastables | 1.96M | +2.16% | 1.07% | 0.220M |
| Rare Beauty | 8.63M | -0.05% | 0.33% | 0.892M |
| Huda Beauty | 56.22M | -2.18% | 0.10% | 1.305M |
| PRIME | 2.33M | -5.19% | 2.60% | 2.829M |
| Summer Fridays | 1.49M | +6.67% | 0.34% | 0.091M |
| Chamberlain Coffee | 0.541M | -0.27% | 0.33% | 0.134M |
| TALA | 0.641M | +4.22% | 0.09% | 0.054M |
| REFY | 1.07M | +3.64% | 0.14% | 0.059M |
| Dae Hair | 0.341M | +8.82% | 0.17% | 0.017M |
| ONE/SIZE | 0.805M | +14.31% | 0.20% | 0.072M |
| Alphalete | 1.27M | -2.83% | 0.05% | 0.043M |
| Sour Strips | 0.211M | -2.23% | 0.10% | 0.015M |
| Kylie Cosmetics | 23.83M | -3.03% | 0.06% | 0.386M |
The top influencer brands in 2026: quick ranking
This ranking balances commercial scale, current social momentum, founder-to-product fit and evidence that the brand can operate beyond a single viral launch.
| # | Brand | Creator/founder | Instagram signal | Commercial proof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rhode | Hailey Bieber | 5.28M | +27.25% | $212M LTM net sales; acquired for up to $1B |
| 2 | SKIMS | Kim Kardashian & Jens Grede | 7.31M | +2.09% | $5B valuation; targeted $1B+ 2025 net sales |
| 3 | Feastables | MrBeast | 1.96M | +2.16% | ~$250M 2024 sales; $20M+ profit |
| 4 | Rare Beauty | Selena Gomez | 8.63M | -0.05% | Crossed $400M LTM net sales in 2024 |
| 5 | Huda Beauty | Huda Kattan | 56.22M | -2.18% | $945.8M 2025 media impact value |
| 6 | Summer Fridays | Marianna Hewitt & Lauren Ireland | 1.49M | +6.67% | $244M annual retail sales (Sep 2025 estimate) |
| 7 | ONE/SIZE | Patrick Starrr | 805K | +14.31% | ~$135M 2024 revenue; ~40% EBITDA margin |
| 8 | REFY | Jess Hunt & Jenna Meek | 1.07M | +3.64% | £40.3M FY2024 turnover; £100M 2025 projection |
| 9 | PRIME | Logan Paul & KSI | 2.33M | -5.19% | Peak: $1.2B 2023 sales projection; later decline |
| 10 | Kylie Cosmetics | Kylie Jenner | 23.83M | -3.03% | Coty paid $600M for 51% in 2020 |
| 11 | Dae Hair | Amber Fillerup Clark | 341K | +8.82% | ~11% of Sephora online haircare sales in 2025 |
| 12 | TALA | Grace Beverley | 641K | +4.22% | £19.8M FY2025 revenue; +19% |
| 13 | Chamberlain Coffee | Emma Chamberlain | 541K | -0.27% | Internal plan targeted $33M+ 2025 revenue |
| 14 | Alphalete | Christian Guzman | 1.27M | -2.83% | Private; founder has described $100M-scale brand building |
| 15 | Sour Strips | Maxx Chewning | 211K | -2.23% | 20K units first hour; 1M+ bags year one; Hershey acquisition |
What is an influencer brand?
An influencer brand is a consumer brand in which a creator, influencer or public figure plays a founder-level role in the product, identity and distribution of the business. That is different from a standard brand ambassador, who is paid to promote a company they do not own or control.
That distinction matters. The best influencer-founded brands do not rely on fame alone: the founder’s audience gives the company an initial distribution advantage, but the product still has to earn repeat purchase, retail space and cultural relevance. In 2026, the strongest examples span beauty, apparel, food, beverages and coffee.
How we ranked these creator-led brands
We did not rank brands by follower count alone. A large audience can create awareness, but it does not automatically translate into sales or durable demand. We considered four signals:
- Commercial proof: disclosed or credibly reported revenue, sales, valuation, acquisition value, retail market share or other hard business evidence.
- 2026 social momentum: Instagram audience size, Click Analytic follower-growth metric, engagement rate and average Reels views.
- Founder-brand fit: whether the product makes sense for the creator’s expertise, audience and content history.
- Durability: evidence of repeat demand, retail expansion, profitability, category leadership or growth beyond an initial viral launch.
If you want to benchmark creators or campaigns using similar metrics, see our guides to influencer engagement rate and influencer marketing strategy.
15 top influencer brands to watch in 2026
1. Rhode - Hailey Bieber
Category: Skincare & beauty
Click Analytic data (21 Sep 2026): 5.28M followers | +27.25% follower growth | 1.14% engagement | 1.42M average Reels views | $24.8K avg. EMV
Rhode is the clearest 2026 example of an influencer brand becoming a large consumer company without losing its social-native identity. Hailey Bieber launched the brand in 2022 around a deliberately tight skincare assortment, then used creator seeding, visual product design and founder-led content to turn launches such as the Peptide Lip Treatment into internet events.
The commercial proof is unusually strong. Rhode generated $212 million in net sales in the 12 months ended 31 March 2025 before e.l.f. Beauty agreed to acquire the company in a deal worth up to $1 billion. The brand then expanded through Sephora across Europe in 2026, following record-setting Sephora launches in North America and the UK.
Source: e.l.f. Beauty acquisition announcement
Click Analytic shows why Rhode still belongs at the top of a 2026 social ranking: it has 5.28 million Instagram followers, a 1.14% engagement rate and 1.42 million average Reels views, with +27.25% follower growth - the strongest growth figure in our sample. The important lesson is that Rhode did not abandon creator marketing when it reached scale; it turned creator-led demand into retail distribution.
$212M LTM net sales·Up to $1B acquisition·5.28M followers·+27.25% growth·1.42M avg. Reels views
Source: e.l.f. Beauty Europe expansion
Related Click Analytic reading: Rhode Skin’s Product Launch Wins Again.
2. SKIMS - Kim Kardashian & Jens Grede
Category: Apparel, shapewear & activewear
Click Analytic data (21 Sep 2026): 7.31M followers | +2.09% follower growth | 0.05% engagement | 328K average Reels views | $33.0K avg. EMV
SKIMS shows what happens when founder awareness is paired with rigorous product expansion and retail execution. Co-founded by Kim Kardashian and Jens Grede, the company has moved from shapewear into underwear, apparel, menswear, physical retail and activewear, turning Kardashian’s reach into a much broader consumer platform.
In November 2025, SKIMS raised $225 million at a $5 billion valuation. Reuters reported that the company expected to surpass $1 billion in 2025 net sales and was deliberately shifting toward a larger physical-retail footprint. That makes SKIMS one of the clearest examples on this list where the company’s commercial scale can stand independently of the founder’s personal social following.
Its brand Instagram tells a different but useful story: 7.31 million followers and positive follower growth, but only 0.05% engagement in the Click Analytic report. That gap is a reminder that social engagement is not the same as brand power. SKIMS has become a scaled retail business where reach, celebrity, product, distribution and partnerships all work together.
3. Feastables - MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson)
Category: Chocolate & snacks
Click Analytic data (21 Sep 2026): 1.96M followers | +2.16% follower growth | 1.07% engagement | 220K average Reels views | $9.2K avg. EMV
Feastables is arguably the purest creator-commerce business in the ranking. MrBeast did not simply license his name to a chocolate bar; he used the same mechanics that power his media business - spectacle, challenges, audience participation and massive organic distribution - to launch and repeatedly promote a physical product.
The model has translated into real economics. Investor documents reported by Bloomberg and Fortune showed Feastables generating about $250 million in 2024 sales and more than $20 million in profit. The comparison is especially striking because MrBeast’s media business produced similar revenue over the same period but lost money, making chocolate the more profitable engine.
Source: Fortune, citing investor documents and Bloomberg reporting
On Instagram, Feastables has a smaller audience than the celebrity beauty giants, but its 1.07% engagement rate is more than twenty times the rate shown for SKIMS in our snapshot. That reinforces a key theme of this ranking: a highly activated audience can matter more than a huge passive one.
4. Rare Beauty - Selena Gomez
Category: Beauty & cosmetics
Click Analytic data (21 Sep 2026): 8.63M followers | -0.05% follower growth | 0.33% engagement | 892K average Reels views | $39.4K avg. EMV
Rare Beauty has succeeded because its founder story, product design and mission reinforce each other. Selena Gomez’s emphasis on approachable beauty and mental-health advocacy gives the brand a recognizable point of view, while products such as Soft Pinch Liquid Blush created a repeatable product franchise rather than a one-off celebrity launch.
Business of Fashion reported that Rare Beauty crossed $400 million in net sales in the 12 months ending February 2024. In 2025, Vogue reported that the brand generated $671.5 million in media impact value and grew that metric 18% year over year. Rare’s commercial scale and cultural reach make it one of the most durable celebrity-founded beauty companies in the market.
Click Analytic shows 8.63 million Instagram followers and nearly 892,000 average Reels views. Follower growth is essentially flat in the current snapshot, but the audience remains large and active enough to sustain major launches. That matters because mature influencer brands eventually need to shift from explosive follower acquisition toward retention, product innovation and repeat purchase.
5. Huda Beauty - Huda Kattan
Category: Beauty & cosmetics
Click Analytic data (21 Sep 2026): 56.22M followers | -2.18% follower growth | 0.10% engagement | 1.31M average Reels views | $253.9K avg. EMV
Huda Beauty is the veteran creator-founded brand in this list. Huda Kattan built authority as a makeup artist and beauty blogger before launching false lashes in 2013, making the founder-to-product connection unusually direct. More than a decade later, the company remains one of the world’s most visible digital beauty brands.
In 2025, Huda Beauty returned to full founder ownership after Kattan bought back the minority stake held by TSG Consumer Partners. Vogue’s 2025 social-media analysis also placed Huda Beauty as the top makeup brand by media impact value, at $945.8 million. Those figures illustrate a brand whose influence extends well beyond its own feed.
Source: Huda Beauty ownership announcement
Source: Vogue media impact analysis
Click Analytic shows 56.22 million Instagram followers - by far the largest brand audience in this ranking - and 1.31 million average Reels views. Its follower count is currently declining by 2.18% and engagement sits at 0.10%, suggesting a mature audience rather than a hyper-growth phase. Scale, however, remains extraordinary.
6. Summer Fridays - Marianna Hewitt & Lauren Ireland
Category: Skincare & beauty
Click Analytic data (21 Sep 2026): 1.49M followers | +6.67% follower growth | 0.34% engagement | 91K average Reels views | $6.8K avg. EMV
Summer Fridays is one of the strongest examples of influencers building a beauty company around product and aesthetic rather than personality alone. Founders Marianna Hewitt and Lauren Ireland launched with a single Jet Lag Mask in 2018 and gradually expanded into skincare, lip products, makeup and fragrance while maintaining a consistent visual identity.
Business of Fashion reported Yipit data estimating $244 million in annual retail sales as of September 2025. The brand has also expanded its retail footprint and moved into collaborations outside traditional skincare, showing that the creator-founded model can evolve into a broader lifestyle brand.
Source: Business of Fashion, citing Yipit data
The account has 1.49 million followers with +6.67% follower growth in Click Analytic - one of the stronger positive growth rates in our sample. Summer Fridays is useful evidence that influencer-founded beauty does not need a celebrity-sized personal following when the product, aesthetic and community reinforce each other.
7. ONE/SIZE - Patrick Starrr
Category: Beauty & cosmetics
Click Analytic data (21 Sep 2026): 805K followers | +14.31% follower growth | 0.20% engagement | 72K average Reels views | $3.7K avg. EMV
ONE/SIZE is the breakout growth story in this ranking. Patrick Starrr launched the brand in 2020 around high-performance makeup that reflects the techniques and products he used as a makeup creator. The result feels like an extension of expertise rather than an unrelated celebrity side business.
Business of Fashion reported that ONE/SIZE reached roughly $135 million in 2024 revenue with an approximately 40% EBITDA margin. Vogue also reported that its On ’Til Dawn Setting Spray became a major bestseller and that the brand generated $356 million in earned media value in 2024.
The current social momentum supports that business story: Click Analytic shows +14.31% follower growth, the second-highest figure among the 15 brands here. ONE/SIZE is a useful counterpoint to the biggest accounts in the ranking - it demonstrates that a sub-million-follower brand can still build a nine-figure business when product-market fit and creator credibility are strong.
~$135M 2024 revenue·~40% EBITDA margin·+14.31% follower growth
8. REFY - Jess Hunt & Jenna Meek
Category: Beauty & cosmetics
Click Analytic data (21 Sep 2026): 1.07M followers | +3.64% follower growth | 0.14% engagement | 59K average Reels views | $4.8K avg. EMV
REFY turned the “clean girl” beauty aesthetic into a recognizable product system, but the more important story is what happened after virality. Influencer Jess Hunt and entrepreneur Jenna Meek used hero products, distinctive packaging and community-led activations to build a brand that has continued to expand beyond brows.
Filed accounts reported by City A.M. show turnover rising from £24.8 million to £40.3 million in the year ended August 2024. Vogue later reported a projected £100 million in 2025 full-year revenue, with the US becoming the company’s largest market. That trajectory is strong evidence that REFY has moved beyond social trend status.
Click Analytic shows 1.07 million followers and +3.64% follower growth. The engagement rate is relatively modest at 0.14%, but the combination of ongoing audience growth and strong commercial acceleration is exactly why the company ranks above several much larger accounts.
9. PRIME - Logan Paul & KSI
Category: Hydration & energy drinks
Click Analytic data (21 Sep 2026): 2.33M followers | -5.19% follower growth | 2.60% engagement | 2.83M average Reels views | $11.6K avg. EMV
PRIME is both a success story and a warning about creator-brand hype cycles. Logan Paul and KSI used their combined audiences, rivalry-turned-partnership narrative and sports sponsorships to generate extraordinary demand after launch. Bloomberg reported that PRIME was set to surpass $1.2 billion in 2023 sales.
But the later numbers are equally important. UK turnover fell more than 70% in 2024, from £112.2 million to £32.8 million, according to accounts reported by City A.M. This makes PRIME more useful to marketers than a simple victory story: massive creator distribution can create demand quickly, but repeat purchase and category durability still determine the long-term curve.
Interestingly, social attention has not disappeared. PRIME has the highest engagement rate in our Click Analytic sample at 2.60% and the highest average Reels views at 2.83 million, even while followers are down 5.19%. High social engagement and weakening sales can coexist - a reminder not to use engagement as a proxy for revenue.
2.60% engagement·2.83M avg. Reels views·-5.19% follower growth·UK turnover down over 70%
10. Kylie Cosmetics - Kylie Jenner
Category: Beauty & cosmetics
Click Analytic data (21 Sep 2026): 23.83M followers | -3.03% follower growth | 0.06% engagement | 386K average Reels views | $107.5K avg. EMV
Kylie Cosmetics helped establish the modern playbook for celebrity and influencer-founded beauty: direct access to a huge audience, limited product drops, social-first launches and a founder who could create demand without relying on traditional media.
The historical commercial milestone is still hard to ignore. Coty paid $600 million for a 51% stake in Kylie’s beauty business in 2020, valuing the partnership at roughly $1.2 billion. In its fiscal 2026 results, Coty continued to describe Kylie Cosmetics as a core prestige brand and cited strong multi-category growth, including cosmetics and fragrance.
Source: Coty transaction announcement
Today, Kylie Cosmetics still has 23.83 million Instagram followers and an estimated average earned media value of $107.5K per post in Click Analytic, but follower growth is negative and engagement is just 0.06%. The brand’s place in this ranking is therefore about both legacy and continuing scale rather than current social acceleration.
11. Dae Hair - Amber Fillerup Clark
Category: Haircare
Click Analytic data (21 Sep 2026): 341K followers | +8.82% follower growth | 0.17% engagement | 16.5K average Reels views | $1.5K avg. EMV
Dae is a smaller company than the celebrity giants above it, but that is exactly why it belongs in the ranking. Amber Fillerup Clark built an audience around beauty, hair and lifestyle content before launching the haircare brand, giving Dae a clear founder-to-category fit.
According to retail data reported by Beauty Independent, Dae captured about 11% of Sephora’s online haircare sales in 2025, making it one of the retailer’s strongest-selling hair brands in the tracked data. That is a more meaningful commercial signal than follower count alone because it shows demand inside a competitive retail environment.
Click Analytic shows only 341,000 Instagram followers, yet follower growth is +8.82% - the third-highest positive figure in our sample. Dae is proof that creator-led brands can build category power without needing a multi-million-follower brand account.
12. TALA - Grace Beverley
Category: Activewear & apparel
Click Analytic data (21 Sep 2026): 641K followers | +4.22% follower growth | 0.09% engagement | 54K average Reels views | $2.9K avg. EMV
TALA grew out of Grace Beverley’s fitness audience, but the company has increasingly tried to behave like an apparel brand first and an influencer brand second. Its positioning around flattering activewear, design detail and more responsible materials gave the business a reason to exist beyond its founder’s reach.
For the year to March 2025, TALA reported revenue of £19.8 million, up 19%, according to Retail Gazette. Wholesale grew sharply, and the company expanded into physical retail with stores in London. Those are important signs of channel diversification for a brand that began online.
Click Analytic shows +4.22% follower growth on the TALA account. Engagement is modest at 0.09%, but the company’s increasing retail footprint illustrates a pattern seen elsewhere in this list: once a creator brand reaches a certain level, social media becomes one acquisition channel among several rather than the entire business model.
13. Chamberlain Coffee - Emma Chamberlain
Category: Coffee, matcha & beverages
Click Analytic data (21 Sep 2026): 541K followers | -0.27% follower growth | 0.33% engagement | 134K average Reels views | $2.5K avg. EMV
Chamberlain Coffee works because Emma Chamberlain’s relationship with coffee predates the company and has been a recurring part of her content identity. The brand started direct-to-consumer, then expanded into grocery, ready-to-drink products and physical cafés - a path that makes the business less dependent on any single platform.
Chamberlain Coffee raised a $7 million Series A in 2022. A later internal pitch deck reported by Business Insider showed the company targeting more than $33 million in 2025 revenue and full-year profitability, although that figure was a plan rather than a reported result. The distinction matters, and we would not present the target as completed sales.
Click Analytic shows 541,000 followers, a 0.33% engagement rate and 134,000 average Reels views. Follower growth is roughly flat. The brand’s strength is therefore founder-category authenticity and offline expansion rather than explosive brand-account growth.
14. Alphalete - Christian Guzman
Category: Fitness apparel
Click Analytic data (21 Sep 2026): 1.27M followers | -2.83% follower growth | 0.05% engagement | 43K average Reels views | $5.7K avg. EMV
Alphalete is a useful example of the fitness-creator model that pre-dates today’s celebrity beauty boom. Christian Guzman built trust through workout and lifestyle content, then expanded that audience into apparel, events and a physical fitness ecosystem in Texas.
Because Alphalete is private, current company-reported revenue is not publicly available and third-party estimates vary widely. Guzman has publicly framed the wider business as a $100 million-scale brand-building story, but that should be treated as a founder claim rather than audited revenue. The safer evidence is the company’s longevity, retail footprint and 1.27 million-follower brand account.
Click Analytic currently shows negative follower growth (-2.83%) and a 0.05% engagement rate. That places Alphalete lower in a 2026 momentum ranking, even though it remains an important case study in turning a niche fitness audience into a standalone apparel brand.
15. Sour Strips - Maxx Chewning
Category: Candy & snacks
Click Analytic data (21 Sep 2026): 211K followers | -2.23% follower growth | 0.10% engagement | 14.7K average Reels views | $952 avg. EMV
Sour Strips is the smallest brand account in the ranking, but it may be one of the clearest examples of niche audience depth turning into a meaningful consumer outcome. Fitness creator Maxx Chewning launched the candy brand in 2019 around a simple product insight: make sour candy he genuinely wanted to eat.
Hershey says Sour Strips sold 20,000 units in its first hour and more than one million bags in its first year. Hershey acquired the business in 2024, while Chewning remained involved in marketing and innovation. That acquisition is a powerful reminder that the value of an influencer brand is not proportional to the size of its Instagram account.
Click Analytic shows about 211,000 followers today, with -2.23% follower growth and 0.10% engagement. The social account is modest, but the business outcome - national retail distribution and acquisition by a major confectionery company - earns Sour Strips a place in the top 15.
