For years, beauty brands treated social media as the top of the marketing funnel and retail as the conversion stage. TikTok Shop has collapsed the traditional funnel. Discovery, education, and purchase now happen within the same scroll, forcing brands to rethink not only where consumers buy beauty, but how they discover it. Few brands illustrate that shift better than The INKEY List.
An early adopter of TikTok, the ingredient-led skincare brand joined TikTok Shop UK's beta program in 2023, long before social commerce had become a priority for most beauty companies. What began as an experiment has evolved into one of the platform's biggest beauty success stories.
Today, The INKEY List ranks among TikTok Shop UK's top five beauty brands, has grown more than 1,000% year over year, and has become the platform's largest body care brand. Its Glycolic Acid Exfoliating Body Stick alone ranked as TikTok Shop UK's third best-selling beauty product in June, selling 63,000 units and generating 118 million impressions in a single month. Since launch, the product has surpassed 300,000 sales and accumulated more than 7,000 five-star reviews.
For Colette Laxton, co-founder of The INKEY List, the turning point wasn't when sales began to climb, but when the company realized TikTok Shop had become a meaningful commercial channel rather than simply another marketing platform.
"We were very early to TikTok itself," she told BeautyMatter. "We were comfortable with snackable educational content, so when TikTok UK asked us to join the beta for TikTok Shop in 2023, we said yes. It was a huge learning journey for both of us."
The real shift came years later. "Midway through last year, we had this moment where we said, 'Okay, this is meaningful to us as a business.'"
Rather than folding TikTok Shop into existing responsibilities, The INKEY List made a structural commitment. The company moved its head of social into a dedicated TikTok Shop role, built a specialist team for the channel, and positioned it within its "discovery commerce" division alongside Amazon and direct-to-consumer operations. "I thought, if we're going to do this," Laxton said, "let's do it properly."
That decision reflects a broader evolution taking place across beauty retail. Social commerce is no longer simply another sales channel. Increasingly, it is becoming the first point of product discovery and is influencing every channel that follows. The question is no longer whether TikTok Shop can generate transactions, but whether it can reshape how consumers move across the wider retail ecosystem.
The INKEY List's TikTok Shop success hasn't been built on chasing viral moments. Instead, the brand argues, its growth comes from treating the platform as an education engine first and a sales channel second, a distinction that is increasingly translating into performance beyond TikTok itself.
"For years, people talked about omnichannel, but nobody really knew what it meant," Laxton said. "For the first time, we can physically see it."
Rather than existing in isolation, TikTok Shop now sits at the beginning of what The INKEY List describes as a retail flywheel. Consumers discover products through creator content or TikTok Live, and purchase through the platform, or continue their journey elsewhere. The result, according to Laxton, is measurable growth across Amazon and Sephora.
"We can physically see our Amazon sales and retail sales uplift," she said. "Our whole SKU mix of what works in retail has shifted because of TikTok. This isn't just a nice halo—it's genuinely redefining the brand."
Emily Caine, Head of Beauty at TikTok Shop UK, said that the pattern is becoming increasingly common across the category.
"My take is, I know where the customer journey ends, but I really believe it starts on our platform," she told BeautyMatter. "We're becoming the gateway for product discovery." She points to measurement studies showing that TikTok activity drives sales not only on brands' own websites but also at retail partners, suggesting that discovery commerce is becoming an increasingly important acquisition channel rather than simply another checkout destination.
A key driver of that discovery is The INKEY List's creator ecosystem. Around 75% of the brand's TikTok Shop revenue now comes through affiliates, who collectively publish up to 6,000 videos each month. Instead of tightly controlling every message, the company has invested in educating creators, employing a dedicated affiliate manager, and hosting regular training sessions where creators can ask the brand questions directly.
"People worried affiliates would damage the brand because you can't control the messaging," Laxton said. "We've found the opposite. If you educate them properly, they're part of your community."
That community extends to TikTok Live. The brand hosted 45 hours of live shopping sessions in June alone, with Colette regularly appearing to answer skincare questions, demonstrate products, and speak directly with consumers. For Caine, that accessibility—not aggressive promotion—is what differentiates The INKEY List from many brands entering social commerce.
"They give consumers direct access to the people behind the brand," she said. "Whichever way you discover The INKEY List on TikTok Shop, it feels human."
That approach has produced extraordinary growth, but it also raises a broader question. If TikTok Shop has become one of beauty's most powerful discovery engines, what actually separates lasting commercial success from fleeting virality?
The INKEY List's success also challenges one of beauty's longest-held assumptions: that social commerce is built on novelty.
The platform's biggest winners are often perceived as brands that chase trends, flood feeds with discounts, or engineer products purely for virality. Laxton argues the opposite has been true for The INKEY List. "I don't think our product has gone viral because it's a viral product," she said. "It's gone viral because it solves a genuine problem."
The Glycolic Acid Exfoliating Body Stick, which has remained one of TikTok Shop UK's best-performing beauty products for months, wasn't intended to become social content. Instead, consumers found multiple use cases—from keratosis pilaris to ingrown hairs to rough feet—and creators amplified those stories organically.
That distinction matters because it changes how brands should measure success. Instead of focusing solely on impressions or one-off sales spikes, The INKEY List now watches retention just as closely. "Virality sounds great," Laxton said. "But if nobody comes back, what's the point? What we've been really pleased to see is the retention."
TikTok Shop's data increasingly supports that thinking. Caine believes discovery commerce is less about replacing retail than strengthening it, creating repeated touchpoints between brands and consumers before they eventually purchase wherever is most convenient.
For brands, that represents a significant shift in mindset. Discovery is no longer confined to advertising, while retail is no longer the sole measure of commercial success. The brands winning on TikTok Shop are investing in creator education, community management, and consumer conversation with the same seriousness once reserved for retail partnerships and media buying.
In that sense, The INKEY List's growth may be less about mastering TikTok than recognizing that commerce itself has changed. For decades, beauty brands fought to win shelf space. Increasingly, the battle is won much earlier. In the era of discovery commerce, the brands shaping tomorrow's retail winners may simply be those that earn consumers' attention before they ever walk into a store.
Having turned TikTok Shop into one of its fastest-growing commercial channels in the UK, The INKEY List is now looking to replicate that momentum in the United States. While the principles behind its strategy remain the same, the execution will differ.
"The strategy is still affiliates," Laxton said. "But in the US, we're going to focus less on Live. The UK has really nailed live shopping, whereas the scale of affiliates in the US is honestly mind-blowing. It's scary, exciting, and could be an absolute beast."
Rather than viewing the American market as a simple copy-and-paste exercise, the brand is adapting to different shopping behaviors while remaining committed to the philosophy that has underpinned its UK success: authentic creators, educational content, and community over hard-selling.
That philosophy also extends to pricing. While TikTok Shop has developed a reputation as a discount-driven marketplace, Laxton is determined not to let promotions define the brand.
"We've always challenged ourselves to be an accessible brand without becoming a discount brand," she said. "I have no interest in a race to the bottom."
Instead, The INKEY List has leaned into product routines and bundles rather than deep discounts, encouraging consumers to build complete skincare regimens rather than chase individual hero products. The goal is long-term customer value, not one-off viral spikes.
"I want to capture someone for the long term," Laxton said. "Whether they buy again on TikTok Shop, Amazon, Boots, or our own website, I don't really mind. As long as they're having a good experience with The INKEY List."
TikTok Shop believes that mindset will translate beyond the UK. According to Caine, the brands seeing the greatest success aren't necessarily those with the biggest budgets, but those willing to commit fully to the platform's creator-led ecosystem.
"Great product, authentic creators, and brands that really lean into the platform—that's the recipe," she said. "Whether it's the UK, the US, or new markets, those fundamentals don't really change."
As social commerce continues to mature, perhaps the biggest lesson from The INKEY List isn't that TikTok Shop can generate extraordinary sales. For beauty brands, the competitive advantage may no longer lie in securing shelf space. It may be winning the scroll first.
