Sephora Announces Second Class Of Yearlong ‘#SephoraSquad’ Influencer Initiative

Sephora has announced the second class of its #SephoraSquad — an influencer initiative first unveiled last May whereby the prestige beauty retailer taps a diverse faction of beauty creators over the course of a year to create sponsored content and glean insights for future advertising and retail initiatives.

Sephora announced the 62 winners today — comprising both online beauty creators (across makeup, skin care, and hair care) and Sephora employees alike, hailing from the United States and Canada. In addition to working with different brand partners, winners will gain free products, networking opportunities, event invites, exposure on Sephora’s digital channels, and other tools and resources to help grow their careers.

The application process (predominantly conducted via Instagram) was open from March 9 to April 10, and semi-finalists were announced on April 20. Applicants were asked to cull testimonials from followers, and in selecting Squad members, Sephora said it was seeking “unique, unfiltered, sorry-not-sorry storytellers with a diverse range of followers, points of view, and interests.”

The #SephoraSquad program is operated in partnership with influencer marketing platform Fohr, which helped design the application tool, Sephora said. Judges included members of Sephora’s merchant and marketing teams, as well as participants in the first round of the #SephoraSquad. You can check out this year’s lineup — including both emerging and established names like Kiitan A., Beauty By Ish, Samuel Rayy, and Terrell Britten (pictured above) — right here.

Sephora stocks roughly 400 prestige beauty brands and operates 490 standalone locations in the Americas — as well as 660 locations inside JCPenney department stores.