The Barefaced Podcast

Episode: Sephora Part 2: The Tech Obsessed Beauty Retailer
Host: Lily Twelve Tree (Barefaced)
Date: March 17, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode picks up the Sephora story from 2015 onward, focusing on Sephora’s transformation into a tech-obsessed beauty retail behemoth. Host and beauty analyst Lily Twelve Tree explores how Sephora’s embrace of digital innovation and influencer-driven marketing catapulted its growth, reshaped beauty internet culture, and cemented its dominance over the last decade. The narrative is split into three parts: Sephora’s digital evolution, its early influencer strategies, and the development and impact of the Sephora Squad ambassador program.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Host Updates & Context (00:00–05:00)

• Lily shares a personal update: Stepped back from higher education to run her beauty startup, Unfiltered, and explains her absence from the podcast.
• Set up for the episode: This is an exploration of Sephora from 2015–2026—a period when revenue grew from $4B to $17B and digital innovation became central to its strategy.
• 2016’s cultural impact: Emphasized as a “monumental year for beauty” and strongly linked to digital trends, influencer culture, and Sephora as the core retailer for budding beauty fans.
• Memorable personal anecdote:

  “I managed to save about $800 and I dropped it all on a single trip to Sephora, which is insane. I was like 14, 15...” (04:35, A)

2. The Three-Part Structure

a. Part 1: The Digital Revolution and Tech Innovation (05:00–16:00)

• Sephora’s early digital bets pay off: Website (’90s), mobile app (early 2010s), Color IQ technology (2013)—a culture of experimentation is at the core of Sephora’s evolution.
• Bridget Dolan’s 2016 WWD Digital Beauty Forum talk:
  • Emphasis on calculated risk-taking and scrappy innovation:

    “Our mantra in the Innovation Lab is to think big, take risks, test fast and rapidly, iterate... It’s a small team, and starting scrappy... It can’t all squarely fall on me to innovate the entire company.” (09:42, B)

• Working with both tech giants (Google, Apple, YouTube) and startups:

  “We also really get in the kitchen with innovators large. So we're talking to the Googles and the apples and the YouTubes... and then we're also... so lucky that we get to speak with all of these little teeny startups...” (10:41, B)

• The 2015 Innovation Lab: A real, model store in San Francisco for experimenting with emerging tech (“I can’t imagine anyone else having that amount of money to invest in something like that.” – 11:34, A).
• Key philosophy: Customers buy content, not products—ahead of its time in 2016, prescient for 2026.

Notable Tech Examples

• Modiface partnership:
  • Virtual Artist AR tool (2016 launch): “The Virtual Artists had seen over 200 million shades tried on and 8.5 million visits to the feature.” (Approx. 13:15, A)
  • Critique: These tools “suck and they are utterly useless" (13:00, A), but recognized the scale and cultural impact.
• Color IQ and Skincare IQ: Personalized tools for matching products—a “strategic” Skincare IQ launch as skincare overtakes makeup in sales, though Lily is skeptical these tools were the true growth drivers.
• E-commerce boom: Online sales rose 4x from 2016–2022 (from $580M to $3B), attributed (perhaps over-credited) to digital efforts.
• 2016 Kik chatbot: First of its kind among retailers, but Lily questions the fundamental efficacy of tech over human touch in beauty recommendations.

  “You are not purchasing something purely because an AI or a chat told you to... AI or chat is a replacement for search. Absolutely. But nothing fundamental like ‘what do I need?’ type questioning.” (Approx. 16:00, A)

b. Part 2: Influencers—From Organic Plays to Strategic Collaborations (16:00–34:00)

• Sephora’s earliest influencer moves: Collaborated with UK beauty YouTuber Lauren Luke in 2009—one of the first major beauty-influencer brand collabs.
  • Highlight Clip:

    “Hi, everyone. This is going to be a sneaky peek. Look what I've got. It's a Sephora key. We're going to go and open the door and have a little sneak peek around the whole store and see if we spot the end cap, which my makeup's going to be on...” (21:14, C)

  • Lily’s nostalgic reaction:

    “This clip. My God, I love the Internet. I have linked the full video on substack because it actually, it makes my heart sing.” (22:10, A)

• Organic vs. Paid: Early campaigns often product-gifting; the distinction between “organic” and “paid” wasn’t yet established.
• Rise of the “haul” videos: Sephora became an aspirational destination, as seen in montages of creators excitedly naming the retailer as “my favorite and only makeup store that I ever…” (Claudia Sulewski montage, Approx. 24:00)
• YouTube’s growth engine: Tutorials and reviews fueled by search, not algorithms. This shifted focus from retailer to brand, as beauty-obsessives became product-centric.
• Sephora’s strategic move: Formal ambassador program and brand support for launches, e.g. Summer Fridays Jet Lag Mask becoming a top-seller within a week of launching at Sephora.

c. Part 3: Ambassadors and the Rise of Sephora Squad (34:00–End)

• The Sephora Collection rebrand circa 2016:
  • Intention: Forge a stronger, more distinct identity (“Beauty Uncomplicated” campaign, ambassador partnerships).
  • Move to influencer-driven campaigns with an agency (Style Hall) and development of a tiered ambassador system.
• Olivia Jade as front-runner ambassador:
  • Lily’s pop culture sidebar: Olivia’s infamous role in the college admissions scandal while headlining Sephora’s campaign.

    “That Olivia was made by her parents to pose on a rowing machine as they then paid off the rowing coach at UCLA US$500,000...” (Approx. 39:00, A)
    “When all of this scandal happened, Sephora dropped their contract with her...” (Approx. 41:00, A)

  • Reflections on influencer risk and millennial targeting.
• Program evolution: From hand-picked ambassadors to the democratized, scaled model of Sephora Squad:
  • Sephora Squad (2019 launch):
    • Mass application process (16,000+ in first year), required community testimonials—“a pretty wild twist on crowdsourcing.” (Approx. 46:00, A)
    • Partnered with FOHR to manage at scale.
    • Growth: 27 members in 2019, 72 by 2022.
    • Output: Claim of 6,000+ content pieces/year produced by the squad.
    • Brand impact:
      • 63% lift in purchase intent, 48% in brand awareness (2021 earnings call).
      • Lefty data (2023): Sephora’s TikTok campaign saw 1013% ROI increase.
    • Marketing halo:

      “It’s really this ripple effect where a few dozen individuals are able to create this groundswell of activities throughout the year, which you don’t see with [other retailers like] Ulta.” (citing Tracker data, Approx. 49:00)

  • Creator perspective: Lily notes that while she’s skeptical of influencer programs, Sephora’s model is preferable to murky “brand trips”; at least, transparency (“hashtag ad”) is improving trust.
• User-Generated Content (UGC) revolution:
  • Sephora leverages creators with “10 to 80k” followers; at this scale, micro-influencer programs produce diverse and extensive content more cheaply than in-house or agency work.

Memorable Quotes and Moments

• On why covering Sephora’s story matters:

  “The reason I tell it is because of how much Sephora’s success can be attributed to jumping on things early... They’re running this retailer as a tech company over a beauty company.” (1:00:00, A)

• Nostalgia for early YouTube:

  “I forgot what the early days of influencing were like... She’s just so bloody excited to be there and she just loves it.” (22:10, A)

• Commentary on digital innovation:

  “Customers don’t buy products, they buy content.” (static paraphrase of Bridget Dolan’s 2016 talk)

• Influencer fatigue:

  “I just then kind of trust that creator a little bit less because I’m like, okay, now you’re entirely compromised. But that’s not really fair. It’s just a different take on hashtag ad...” (Approx. 58:30, A)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 01:05 — Lily’s personal/professional update
• 04:00 — Personal Sephora shopping anecdote (2016 nostalgia)
• 07:45 — The impact of digital and influencer culture on Sephora’s growth
• 09:42 — Bridget Dolan on innovation (“think big, take risks, test fast, iterate”)
• 13:15 — Launch and scale of Virtual Artist & AR in-store/online
• 16:00 — Critique of beauty chatbots and implications for trust/personalization
• 21:14–22:10 — Lauren Luke’s OG YouTube collab with Sephora (memorable quotes)
• 24:00 — Claudia Sulewski’s Sephora montage and haul video era
• 34:00 — Sephora Collection relaunch, Olivia Jade as ambassador, and influencer realities
• 46:00 — Launch of Sephora Squad, community-driven application process
• 50:00 — The exponential scale and ROI of Sephora Squad (performance stats)
• 58:30 — Reflections on influencer marketing’s evolution and tradeoffs

Summary

Sephora’s tech-forward mindset—from early websites and apps to AR-powered tools and chatbot experiments—set the stage for its unprecedented dominance from 2015–2026. The company’s first-mover status in influencer marketing, from organic YouTube haul culture and pioneering collabs to multi-tiered ambassador and community-driven programs like Sephora Squad, demonstrated an ongoing willingness to experiment, iterate, and scale what works.

Crucially, Sephora’s model of combining innovation, proximity to tech, and a deep understanding of digital-era content and community unlocked a flywheel of organic buzz, creator-driven advocacy, and immense growth. While Lily expresses skepticism about some tech tools and the commercialization of influencing, she credits Sephora for redefining retail marketing, building community, and continually adapting—a playbook unmatched in the beauty business.

Find more research, links, and extended content at: barefaced.substack.com