Glow Recipe grew on one viral serum and Sephora.
One TikTok review sent daily site sales up 600% in four days in 2021. The founders turned that into a system, and Sephora carried it to $150M in retail sales a year later.
BLOOM10X did not work with Glow Recipe. This breakdown uses public sources only, linked below.
- 2014Christine Chang and Sarah Lee found Glow Recipe
- 2017First own product; Sephora is the first stockist
- Feb 2021A TikTok review of the “Dewy Duo” goes viral
- 2021First outside money: a minority stake from North Castle
- 2022Glow Gang fan program; $150M in retail sales
- Sep 2023Sephora’s top skincare seller in the US
Retail sales tripled in two years.
Sales by year
How one post became a system
Sources measure differently. Vogue Business gives retail sales of $45M, $93M and $150M for 2020–2022; Forbes put 2020 at $60M and 2021 at about $100M. Bloomberg reported 2022 revenue of $80M, below the $150M retail figure for that year. Fortune, the most recent, calls 2023’s ~$300M revenue; next to those 2022 numbers it reads closer to retail sales, so we show it apart.
Five plays behind the growth.
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Turn one viral post into a system
In February 2021 a TikTok review of the Watermelon Glow toner and dew drops took off. Four days later daily site sales were up 600%, and 84% of that week’s buyers were new. The team combed the comments for creators and shipped them product within days (Forbes, Dec 2021).
Copy this: when a post takes off, send product to the best commenters that week and run the post as an ad. Creator seeding →
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Name the menu after the trend
The founders added “Dewy Duo”, the name TikTok gave the pair, to the site navigation and tuned search terms to TikTok trends (Forbes). In November 2026 the dew drops page still lists a “Tiktok Exclusive” 3-piece bundle (glowrecipe.com).
Copy this: use the words buyers use for your product in your menu, search and bundle names. Conversion →
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Pay fans in access, not fees
The Glow Gang program (2022) gives 190+ fans early products and site credit for monthly posts, worth over $10M in earned media (Vogue Business, Oct 2023). A 2023 campaign cast 10 community members “without knowing what they look like” (Glow Recipe YouTube).
Copy this: offer your 50 best customers early access and store credit for regular posts, then run those posts as ads. Partnership ads guide →
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Let Sephora carry the shelf
Sephora has stocked Glow Recipe since 2017; by September 2023 it was Sephora’s top skincare seller in the US (Vogue Business). The founders tailor marketing to each retailer (Fortune, Feb 2024), and the top Meta ads today send shoppers to Sephora.
Copy this: if a retailer sells more of you than your site does, judge ads on total sales, not site ROAS alone. ROAS calculator →
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Build the line around the hero
The first own product was the Watermelon Glow Sleeping Mask, after 1,024 formulations (Forbes). The Watermelon Glow name now covers toner, dew drops, mist and SPF; dew drops and toners were 41% of 2023 business (Fortune).
Copy this: stretch your best seller’s name and look across three to five products before you launch a new line. LTV calculator →
“As a beauty brand, once you go viral on TikTok, it immediately converts to sales like never before.”
The dew drops page, annotated.
- 1Proof on the photoAn Allure Readers’ Choice 2024 badge sits on the first image.
- 2Rating under the name4.8 stars from 2,363 reviews, then who it’s for: dark spots, dryness, texture, dullness.
- 3Sizes as a ladderFull-size (40ml), mini (15ml) and jumbo, plus a 3-piece “Tiktok Exclusive” bundle in the options.
- 4One-time is the default$36 is preselected; “Subscribe & Save 5% off” at $34.20 sits below it.
- 5Social proof as urgency“89 people have added this product to cart.”
- 6Price on the button“ADD TO BAG - $36”, then Wishlist and Apple Pay.
- 7The routine upsellAn avocado cleanser with “ADD FOR $28” in “The Routine” carousel.
64 live ads, many sending buyers to Sephora.
“The collab you’ve been waiting for is here”
A Korean noodle brand meets the Glass Balm lip line: two kit-only shades, Original and Carbonara. “Now available at Sephora.”
5 of the 50 newest ads sell this collab.
“Two Korean Icons. One Kit.”
32 of the 50 newest ads carry this one headline, launched in batches from Oct 30 to Nov 6, 2026.
Other new ads sell holiday sets: “The best-selling 12 Days of Glow” and “Four Best Sellers in One Value Set!”
Active US ads on the Glow Recipe page, Meta Ad Library, Nov 10, 2026. Counts from the 50 most recent ads.
How the collab ad is built.
- 1Hook: it’s finally hereWritten for people who already heard about the collab.
- 2Two fan bases in one line“Korea’s cult-favorite noodle meets our award-winning Glass Balm.”
- 3A reason to buy nowTwo new shades only in the kit: Original and Carbonara.
- 4The product in the other brand’s worldThe kit sits on a pile of noodles.
- 5The retailer as the closeThe ad ends with Sephora, not the brand site.
Our wireframe of ad 1137379445466423 in the Meta Ad Library, seen Nov 10, 2026. Instagram only. Not a copy of the ad.
Three Glow Recipe videos.
“It was important for us to capture super fans of the brand and to give them insider access.”
Read it with three caveats.
- You can’t schedule a viral post. The 2021 review was a customer’s, unpaid. What Glow Recipe controlled was the speed of the follow-up.
- Sephora did the distribution. Most $1M–$10M Shopify brands sell mainly on their own site, so site ROAS still matters.
- Different numbers, different bases. Retail sales, revenue and earned media value aren’t the same thing; we label each one.
- What we’d change: 5% off is a small reason to subscribe to a daily serum, and one-time is preselected. We’d test a bigger discount with subscribe as the default.
Seven moves for a $1M–$10M brand.
- When a post takes off, seed product to its best commenters that week. Creator seeding
- Run the post and the creators’ videos as partnership ads. Partnership ads guide
- Put the name buyers use for your product in your menu and bundles. Conversion
- Give your best customers early access for regular posts. Retention
- Add a routine upsell next to the button on hero pages. Raise AOV
- Plan enough new ads to keep up when demand spikes. Creative volume calculator
- If a retailer sells more of you than your site, judge ads on total sales. ROAS calculator
Where every number comes from.
- Tanya Klich, “Glow Recipe Reaches $100 Million In Sales; Cofounders Share Ingredients For TikTok Success,” Forbes, Dec 17, 2021. forbes.com
- Kati Chitrakorn, “Glow Recipe: Setting the record straight on the sale, and what’s next,” Vogue Business, Oct 20, 2023 (retail sales, Glow Gang, Tribe Dynamics EMV, Bloomberg’s $80M revenue report). vogue.com
- Emma Hinchliffe and Joey Abrams, “How two L’Oréal alums built TikTok-famous Glow Recipe into a $300 million skincare brand,” Fortune, Feb 13, 2024. fortune.com
- Glow Recipe, homepage and Watermelon Glow Niacinamide Dew Drops product page, viewed on mobile Nov 10, 2026. glowrecipe.com/products/watermelon-glow-niacinamide-dew-drops
- Meta Ad Library, active US ads for the Glow Recipe page, viewed Nov 10, 2026. facebook.com/ads/library
- Glow Recipe, official YouTube channel (@Glowrecipe), videos dated Aug 1 and Aug 3, 2023. youtube.com/@glowrecipe
