One of the toughest parts of picking a topic for an authority site is finding one that’s evergreen.
You can definitely profit in the short term from fads, but then you have to start all over again.
Or your niche dies a death because of a sudden economic downturn, and we all know how often they happen.
But the makeup and cosmetics industry is pretty much impervious to recessions, the political climate, or even wars.
There are certain luxuries, people will afford, no matter what.
Even better is the fact that the global cosmetics market was worth over US$600 billion in 2018, and it looks like it will hit US$1 trillion by about 2027.
To add to this, our affiliate marketing statistics show that beauty and skincare is one of the top 3 most profitable affiliate niches. The average affiliate marketer in this space earns $12,475 per month.
So we set ourselves the task of finding some of the best makeup affiliate programs out there.
And we found some real humdingers for you.
Makeup Affiliate Programs
- Stila Cosmetics Affiliate Program
- Yves Rocher Cosmetics Affiliate Program
- Spencer Barnes LA Makeup Affiliate Program
- Olive Young Affiliate Program
- Elizabeth Arden Makeup Affiliate Program
- Alpyn Beauty Cosmetics Affiliate Program
- Avon Cosmetics Affiliate Program
- Tula Skincare Probiotic Skin Care Affiliate Program
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Stila Cosmetics
Stila Cosmetics is the creation of renowned celebrity makeup artist Jeanine Lobell.
The company name comes from the Italian word for “to draft” or “to pen”, and their vision is to offer customers a range of makeup that can help you create a look that’s unique to you.
Stila Cosmetics has a 20-year track history with a range of award-winning products that are as at home on the fashion walkway as they are anywhere else.
The brand was re-launched in 2009, with a special focus on its affiliate program and e-commerce efforts.
The nice thing about any makeup affiliate program is that your visitors will order it again and again if they like it.
And Stila does their bit in helping you profit from that by offering unlimited instances of sales commissions during the 90-day cookie, and tempting repeat orders by offering free shipping with orders over $50.
- URL: Stila Cosmetics affiliate program
- Commission rate: 6% per sale
- Cookie duration: 60 days
Yves Rocher Affiliate Program
Yves Rocher is a brand name that is instantly recognizable to anyone who sees it, even if they know nothing about makeup.
And yes, I’m probably related to them, but that didn’t influence my decision to include them here. Honest.
The company has been in business since 1959 and has grown from there to become a cosmetics empire with over 2,000 stores around the world.
Yves Rocher prides themselves on their use of natural ingredients and keeping their range of cosmetics and skincare products affordable in a market where some companies charge ludicrous amounts for a tiny vial of eye serum.
As makeup affiliate programs go their network earnings score isn’t at a level we’d normally accept for inclusion in a roundup like this.
But their 15% commission rate is well above the industry average, so that swung the balance.
Plus their sheer brand appeal and recognition means you’re not trying to sell people products they don’t recognize.
Their EPC also shows they’re doing enough sales volume online to justify working with them.
- URL: Yves Rocher affiliate program
- Commission rate: 15% per sale
- Cookie duration: 30 days
Spencer Barnes LA
Spencer Barnes is a celebrity makeup artist with some very famous clients, including everyone from Mila Kunis to Meghan Markle.
The next obvious step for a beauty expert is to branch out to create their own range of products, which is exactly what Spencer did.
And that includes a whole range of cosmeceuticals or products that deliver surgery-like results but without ever having to go under the blade.
Spencer Barnes is one of the biggest names in celebrity beauty and cosmetics, so if that’s your audience, then this is a range of products to seriously consider promoting.
First things first is the program’s ‘Power Rank’ of 239on ShareASale, and then its EPC of $122.
Those two figures combined mean that pretty much anyone sending traffic to this offer is making money.
A commission rate of 10% might seem low but bear in mind that people shopping on this site are likely to drop hundreds of dollars in a single visit.
And that’s just on their first visit.
- URL: Spencer Barnes LA affiliate program
- Commission rate: 10% per sale
- Cookie duration: 30 days
Olive Young
Olive Young is one of the leading and most trusted K-Beauty brands in Korea and has been in business since 1999.
If you’re not sure what K-Beauty is, it’s basically cosmetic and skincare products that are either from Korea or based on Korean products.
Here’s the crazy thing – the K-Beauty makeup industry alone is worth almost $13 billion per year, and that only looks set to grow.
Now if you combine those numbers with the fact that women in Europe and North America are just starting to use K-Beauty subscription box services, you’ll get that these products are very much in vogue at the moment.
Right now is as good a time as any to profit from this current craze, if you have the right audience.
This is a real niche program to promote, which is what will turn some affiliates off even trying.
- URL: Olive Young affiliate program
- Commission rate: 5-13%% per sale
- Cookie duration: 30 days
Elizabeth Arden Makeup & Skincare
Elizabeth Arden is another makeup brand that doesn’t really need an introduction.
They opened their first salon in 1910 on Fifth Avenue, NYC, and have become a household name since then.
Elizabeth Arden pretty much kickstarted the cosmetics industry a century ago, although she did have to change her name from Florence Nightingale Graham to have the impact she did.
And now, a century later, Elizabeth Arden is still synonymous with “total beauty”, and the idea that “To be beautiful is the birthright of every woman.”
You’d imagine that the makeup affiliate program behind a brand like this would be worth promoting, right?
It is, and for a number of reasons.
The first of these is that not only is this a recognized brand, but they’re being pretty clever in how they use social media.
So that shows growth and adaptability.
Their affiliate vendor metrics tick all the right boxes too, plus you can receive multiple commissions from repeat sales within their 30-day cookie period.
- URL: Elizabeth Arden affiliate program
- Commission rate: 8% per sale
- Cookie duration: 30 days
Alpyn Beauty
Alpyn Beauty sells a range of alpine cosmetic and skincare products that are, “green, sustainable and luxurious”.
The fact they’re actually grown in the mountains of Jackson Hole, Wyoming is an aside – their product range is based on wild-crafted alpine botanicals.
Which is a very posh way of saying they’re not only totally natural but also made from sustainable sources.
It’s interesting to see a niche within a niche coming into focus here.
Makeup and cosmetics are obviously profitable to promote, but there’s a sub-niche here for sites based on 100% environmentally friendly makeup products.
Just something for you to consider.
Alpyn Beauty products aren’t exactly cheap – their products retail at around $60 per jar.
But they allow their customers to pay for their order in 4 interest-free installments, so that’s a clever way of reducing the sticker shock that can lead to cart abandonment rates soaring.
You get 25% of every sale, and with an average order size of over $100, that means you’ll earn $25 per sale.
Now multiply that by the thousands of men and women who’ll happily pay $60 for a tiny bottle of organic skin serum.
- URL: Alpyn Beauty affiliate program
- Commission rate: 25% per sale
- Cookie duration: 30 days
Avon Cosmetics
Avon is probably more famous for its door-to-door cosmetic sales (now called social selling, apparently) business than their presence online.
You probably don’t even realize why you know there were “Avon calling!” ads, but that goes to show how much of a cultural phenomenon they became.
They even made it onto the silver screen – check out this clip from Edwards Scissorhands.
Avon has been doing this for 130 years, so are one of the most recognizable cosmetics brands out there.
The only real downside to this affiliate program is that Avon still recruits “social selling” representatives every day, so there’s a certain level of competition you’ll have to deal with.
That being said, you’ll have to look pretty hard to find another brand that people not only know about but trust as much as Avon.
Avon products sell, and the proof of that is that their social selling teams have been profiting from them for well over a century now.
- URL: Avon affiliate program
- Commission rate: $2 – $20 per sale
- Cookie duration: Up to 45 days
Tula Skincare Probiotic Skin Care Products
Tula is the creation of Dr. Roshini Raj, an actual doctor with a medical degree, so she’s probably safe from any future Google updates.
But SEO jokes aside, Dr. Raj created a range of cruelty-free skin care products which also don’t use any of the usual chemicals or additives found in similar “natural” products.
Instead, they’re made from a range of probiotics, ceramides, and rice protein, for example.
Cruelty-free is also an important distinction because many of the cosmetics companies that claim to not test their products on animals omit that they sometimes do so when required by law.
Tula is, as of right now, one of the top-performing products in the entire skincare/cosmetics category.
They’ve been active in the affiliate sphere now for almost 5 years, during which time they’ve managed to maintain their sales volume and presence.
Lots of companies have come and gone in that same timeframe, so Tula is definitely doing something right.
- URL: Tula Skincare affiliate program
- Commission rate: Unknown
- Cookie duration: Unknown
Conclusion
Makeup is a niche you could easily dismiss based on the assumption that it’s either too competitive, completely saturated, or both.
But after digging through the various makeup affiliate programs across a number of networks, there are still gaps in this market.
As we mentioned earlier, the sub-niche here is certified cruelty-free/100% natural cosmetic products, because consumers are now more environmentally aware than they have been in decades.
The best way to tap into that same audience is with an authority site.
You don’t know what an authority site is?
No problem – sign up for our free training session and we’ll show you how it all works.
And no, this isn’t another pitch fest where the intro is 25 minutes long, then we talk in vague terms about affiliate marketing for 40 minutes, and then spend the last 15 minutes talking about all the mega, super-duper, unheard-of-before bonuses you’ll get if you sign up today.
We actually teach you stuff.
Valuable stuff.
