Where are all the beauty brands in women’s sports? (2025)

Ilona Maher’s strong red lip, Sha’Carri Richardson’s nails, Sunisa Lee’s lip combo. The list could go on. These athletes know that how you show up is part of your power.

This is present from the highest levels of the sport down to the grassroots. As senior strategist at Ear to the Ground, I talk to women’s sports fans every week to get an in-depth view of what they care about and what drives the cultures they’re in.

This is part of our Fan Intelligence platform, for which we collaborate with a global community of over 11,000 culturally connected fans to get an in-depth view of what drives the cultures they’re in. They all tell us that looking after their appearance is a key part of how they perform in their chosen sport.

For example, Naomi, a 25-year-old women’s football fan from the UK said: ”I’m a strong believer that if you look good, you play good.”

It’s a well-worn and sadly patriarchal narrative that women have to choose between looking good or being good at what they do. What generations of incredible athletes have shown us is that this simply isn’t the case. You can have both. And the fans love it.

High engagement

Fans of women’s sports want brands to show up and support the sports to grow. Some 71% of them believe brands have a responsibility to uplift women’s sports, according to Women’s Sports Trust. What’s more, 46% are more likely to engage with sponsors compared to those in men’s sports. A third of the women’s sports audience would describe themselves as strongly interested in beauty and cosmetics, according to GWI.

Women’s sports fans tend to have deeper, more intimate relationships with their favorite athletes. Fans who watch women’s sports regularly are 3.5 times more likely to buy a product promoted by a woman athlete than another type of influencer, according to Parity. Fans want to capture the essence of what makes these athletes who they are and imitate that themselves.

For example, we recently spoke to Jumai, a tennis fan from the US and Nigeria, who told us that before each match she watched content of Coco Gauff to help her feel more confident: “She just has this innate confidence on court. I started watching her and then boom, I played with confidence,” Jumai said.

And this close, personality-led fandom is nurtured on both sides. Our analysis of the social content of several female footballers found that the personal content they posted outperformed their brand content by several percentage points.

As the audiences for women’s sports grow annually, each side of this equation will be looking for ways to continue to feed that closeness.

Beauty’s place

Women’s sports in the USA are full of creative campaigns for beauty brands and intelligent partnerships with athletes. NYX, Glossier, Mielle, Urban Decay, and more, partner with teams across the WNBA and WSL. The Paris Olympics were a standout beauty moment, with many of the headlines driven by Fenty, Glossier, and LVMH via Sephora. Meanwhile, Charlotte Tilbury and Rimmel are both tapping into F1’s highly engaged female fanbase through the F1 Academy and F1 Arcade respectively.

These brands are reaping rewards in creative excellence, high brand recall, and in making a real impact on the lives of women who take part in and love these sports. They achieve this by boldly embracing fun, confidence, and creativity – drawing a clear connection between the value they offer and the qualities fans admire in athletes.

The market is relatively empty in Europe. Il Makiage has been beauty partner of Arsenal Women’s since 2022 and Estée Lauder creates pop-up experiences with Manchester United Women as part of a wider partnership across both the men’s and women’s clubs. They are the only major beauty brands involved in British women’s football, despite the rapid growth of this market.

Most campaigns in European sports focus on deodorant or facewash. All things we need and love, but not things that change the conversation around women’s sport and have a real impact.

Jump in

There is clearly space for more beauty brands in women’s sports and a desire from fans for them to be involved.

The first step for any beauty brand is to be purposeful and clear about the story that they are trying to tell. This should lean on the strengths that beauty gives to athletes: confidence, creativity, self-expression. Then, partner with the right athlete and tap into the engaged and close audience around them. Finally, creatively tell stories about the athletes to their highly engaged fans that offer a new and intimate look at who the athlete really is.

All the female athletes we’ve discussed today are brave enough to use beauty to push the boundaries of what women are allowed to do. And more beauty brands should step up to join them.