August 21, 2026
What does it take not just to move in step with the times, but to play a role in shaping them?
With booming businesses and even bigger ideas, the 50 brands comprising WWD Beauty Inc’s 2026 Power Brands list have cracked that code. From legacy players that know when to pivot — and when to stay the course — to the bright-eyed emergents that push the whole industry’s ecosystem forward, these companies make beauty the dynamic world it is today.
Some of them dominate sales charts; others fly high on social media and across global communities, and the rest are driving the biggest breakthroughs of our times. A rarified few are doing all of the above. Together, these 50 brands raise the bar on what beauty is, can and will be.
1 Amika
Amika
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Nineteen years in and arguably at the top of its game, Amika still isn’t resting on its laurels. The brand, which has both the number-one dry shampoo and the top hair mask in the prestige market, planted its flag in a new category in February: Body care. Infused with the brand’s signature fruity-floral scent, the foray included a body wash, butter and vitamin-C-infused body oil, aiming to expand Amika’s share of consumers’ beauty routines. Just six months later, Amika went deeper into color care with a three-piece collection that boosts shine and hue vibrancy for the long haul. Amid it all, customers have been down for the ride: CreatorIQ data shows Amika was the fifth beauty brand by global EMV growth from June 2025 through May 2026. Born in Brooklyn, but heard around the world.
2 Anua
Anua
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One of the key pioneers of K-beauty’s second wave, Anua’s momentum shows no signs of slowing. After building a formidable global e-commerce business via Amazon and TikTok Shop, the brand has now proven its affordable, efficacious skin care offerings can also translate to brick-and-mortar success Stateside via Ulta Beauty. Thanks to viral favorites like its $23 Heartleaf 77 Soothing Toner and $27 PDRN Hyaluronic Acid moisturizing cream, Anua’s sales exceeded $500 million in 2025 — and that number is set to grow even further in 2026, thanks to an inaugural foray into dermocosmetics and a partnership with fellow beauty sphere superstar Kendall Jenner, who became the brand’s first global ambassador in June.
3 Byoma
Byoma
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Mass skin care standout Byoma wrapped a banner 2025 with more than $300 million in retail sales and an acquisition by Bansk Group, just three years after launch. Since 2022, Byoma has proven just how far barrier care at an affordable price point can go, with its hero $15 gel cream moisturizer selling every six seconds globally, while a steady cadence of innovations have sought to forge new frontiers for the brand’s accessible approach, accruing more than 60 beauty awards in the process. And Byoma isn’t skimping on efficacy, either: In the last four years, the brand has invested more than $2 million to complete over 110 clinical trials, capturing 130,000-plus skin measurements along the way — learnings from which will no doubt be channeled into more brightly colored, power-packed products.
4 Byredo
Byredo
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Even as Byredo enters its 20s, the Swedish luxury brand remains a pace-setter in niche fragrance. Launched by Ben Gorham in 2006, Byredo has become a cornerstone in the continued success of parent company Puig’s fragrance business since its acquisition in 2022, with sales up double digits in the last 12 months according to Circana. In the U.S., bestsellers are Mojave Ghost and Gypsy Water, while in Europe, Bal D’Afrique — which recently gained a more gourmand, Absolu iteration — reigns supreme. Ever the world-builder, Byredo ushered in Bal D’Afrique Absolu with a dance-driven “Scent in Motion” campaign shot in Accra and choreographed by Burkina Faso-born Ladji Koné. That’s not the only new ground the brand is breaking: last fall, it relaunched its Night Veils extrait collection with new bottles and scents, and this summer Byredo debuted its first body mists in six bestselling scents. We’d say Byredo walked so the niche perfume boom could run — and the brand continues to lap the competition.
5 Carolina Herrera Beauty
Carolina Herrera Beauty
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A decade later and still kicking. Since launching in 2016, Carolina Herrera’s Good Girl — in its signature high-heel flacon — has maintained its bestseller status, with Circana data provided by the brand showing it ranked as the number-one prestige feminine fragrance franchise across the U.S., Europe and Latin America in 2025. The scent has seven flankers and counting, and last year, Carolina Herrera added a new pillar, La Bomba, to its women’s fragrance business as it expands beyond its hero. All in all, Carolina Herrera’s total beauty business has tripled in size in the last decade, as it expands beyond the fragrance counter. Now, color cosmetics, creative directed by the house’s star designer Wes Gordon, has gained increasing distribution Stateside and internationally, with a bright fashion-forward ethos that consumers have embraced. Maybe Good Girls do have more fun.
6 CeraVe
CeraVe
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Combining science with cultural savvy, CeraVe has cemented itself as a leading brand among beauty’s most coveted customer cohorts. Data from Nectar Social shows CeraVe is the number-one beauty brand by resonance among Gen Z men across Instagram, TikTok and Reddit, while CreatorIQ reports it reached $650.6 million EMV in the 12 months ending May 2026, making it a top-five skin care brand globally by the metric. CeraVe is also the top skin care brand by affinity among teens of all genders, according to Piper Sandler’s Taking Stock with Teens Survey, and has been for several years strong. While the brand is best known for gentle skin care hits like its $15 Daily Moisturizing Lotion and $16 Hydrating Facial Cleanser, its hair care business is also taking off as CeraVe brings its fine-tuned, “medutainment”-led approach to new categories.
7 Chanel
Chanel
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It’s not just Matthieu Blazy’s Chanel that’s having a moment: the French house’s beauty business is also riding high, with Circana reporting that it is the top fragrance brand in the U.S. In July, Chanel introduced a Coco Mademoiselle Crush Absolu fragrance, expanding the bestselling Coco Mademoiselle franchise it first introduced 25 years ago. In tandem with the launch, the brand added songstress Gracie Abrams as its newest face, and elsewhere has grown its body care business with new oils, lotions and soaps in loved scents like Chance Eau Fraiche and Chance Eau Splendide. But Chanel is also bringing back the buzz in other categories, particularly color, creating a viral sensation with products like the Chanel Kit & Caboodle and a limited edition Denim collection that had consumers singing the bleus when it became a sold-out sensation.
8 Charlotte Tilbury
Charlotte Tilbury
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In the face of multiplying imitators, makeup juggernaut Charlotte Tilbury is finding the white space. Already a top-10 cosmetics player by global EMV and the number-six brand overall on sephora.com, the brand entered new territory this year, naming Sobhita Dhulipala its inaugural beauty muse in India, and opening its first two stand-alone boutiques in the region this spring in partnership with Nykaa. The retail expansions don’t stop there: In its home market of the U.K., Charlotte Tilbury entered Boots for the first time, and none other than Tilbury herself was honored with a CBE for her contributions to British beauty. On a velocity level, the Puig-owned line is going strong: it sells one jar of Magic Cream each minute, while at least one product in its Airbrush franchise sells every two seconds globally. Well, that’s certainly one form of pillow talk.
9 Clarins
Clarins
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The number-one premium skin care brand in Europe, Clarins is sitting pretty. The family-owned brand sells one Double Serum every three seconds, and with the July launch of Double Serum Eye, Clarins is betting it can leverage its signature rejuvenating technology to forge yet another hero, in a new category. In total, Clarins Groupe’s sales reached $2.26 billion in 2025, increasing 5.3 percent, while key geographies — the U.S. and mainland China — saw even faster growth of 10 percent and 7 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, its Lip Oil — the OG that has spawned an entire category — continues to shine, proof that heritage can be hip in an age of ever-decreasing attention spans.
10 Dibs
Dibs
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Since launching in 2021, Dibs Beauty has leveraged its makeup-stick savvy all the way to the number-one prestige blush rank at Ulta Beauty. Cofounder and chief executive officer Jeff Lee is tireless when it comes to driving the brand’s success, taking a boots-on-the-ground approach — literally — and visiting at least one Ulta store in all 50 states last year. No doubt that closeness to the consumer has sharpened an instinct for where people want to see Dibs play next: in June, the brand’s innovative Brush Dry Shampoo Cleanser sold out in under three weeks, and more recently, Dibs planted its feet in the complexion category with a two-in-one brightening and concealing Edit Stick. The brand’s hero Desert Island Duo stick, meanwhile, garnered roughly $100 million EMV in the last year. Desert Island Beauty Status, indeed.
11 Dior
Dior
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A pillar of not just designer beauty, but the industry at large, Dior’s generational run has yet to falter. First-half Circana data provided by the brand shows that even as competition in the space heats up, Dior Sauvage is still the number-one men’s fragrance franchise in the U.S. Meanwhile, Dior’s Addict Lip Glow Oil — one of the first beauty products to achieve modern-day virality — is still the top prestige lip oil in the U.S., five years later. That hasn’t stopped Dior Makeup creative and image director Peter Philips from dreaming up new playthings, adding an inaugural lip gloss stick to the Addict franchise this summer, plus serum infusions to the Forever Skin Glow and Wear foundations. On the fragrance front, perfume creation director Francis Kurkdjian isn’t standing still, either: in 2026, Dior added a trio of Gen-Z-focused, gourmand Addict eaux de parfum, as well as a woody-floral Sauvage Extrait. Guess fragrance shoppers aren’t the only ones going beast mode.
12 Dolce & Gabbana
Dolce & Gabbana Beauty
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Even as leadership changes abound at Dolce & Gabbana, the success of the designer house’s beauty business has been steadfast. The range, which kicked off in 2023 in its current, in-house iteration (Dolce & Gabbana previously had a licensing agreement with Shiseido) has cemented its status in fragrance, while cosmetics are following closely behind. In less than three years, D&G Beauty’s Devotion fragrance pillar has become its number-one franchise, outpacing even the 25-year-old icon, Light Blue. In April, the brand entered Sephora, where its latest Your Devotion Eau de Parfum became the number-one sales-driving product online within two weeks of launching in June; meanwhile the $40 travel spray has demonstrated a nearly 15 percent conversion rate. In makeup, D&G Beauty’s hero is the Ever Icon Eye Palette, while other products like its vegan cream blush sticks and its perfume gels look to position the brand on the cutting edge of beauty. And that, folks, is how you make a comeback.
13 Dossier
Dossier
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Dupes may have been the starting point, but they won’t be the finish line for Dossier. Launched direct-to-consumer in 2019, the brand has become a viral sensation for its under-$60 imitations of prestige and designer fragrances. Charm.io data shows that Dossier is doing roughly $13 million in annual sales on TikTok Shop alone, up 67 percent year-over-year, with much of that business coming from the brand’s burgeoning collection of original scents. Dossier sells in more than 7,000 doors across Walmart, CVS and Target, and last year planted its flag on “scent row” in New York City’s NoLita neighborhood with a first stand-alone boutique. Fragrance enthusiasts aren’t the only ones paying attention: in April, private equity firm American Pacific Group took a stake in the brand. Looks like It Factor isn’t just a Dossier Originals bestseller — but also, the brand’s plan of action.