Key Takeaways:
For years, Tarte has been one of the internet’s favorite brands to critique. Its influencer trips have been dissected in viral TikToks, while comment sections filled with debates over excess, authenticity, and the ethics of brand-sponsored luxury. At times, the brand’s marketing machine has felt less like a campaign strategy and more like a cultural lightning rod—prompting consumers to ask a recurring question: has the beauty industry’s most visible creator ecosystem gone too far?
The scrutiny hasn’t been limited to marketing spectacle. Over time, the brand has also faced criticism from creators over a lack of representation and inclusivity, from product shade ranges to the demographics reflected in its influencer campaigns. These debates have repeatedly pushed Tarte into the center of broader industry conversations about who beauty marketing serves, and who it leaves out.
Yet despite the backlash, Tarte has not retreated from creator culture. If anything, it has doubled down. To understand why, it helps to go back to the brand’s beginnings.
The Origin Story
Founded by Maureen Kelly in 1999, Tarte began with a single product idea: a cheek stain designed to deliver natural-looking color at a time when heavy, chalky powders dominated the market. Working out of her New York City apartment, Kelly bootstrapped the brand before launching the product on QVC in 2005, where it quickly sold out.
In 2014, Tarte Cosmetics was acquired by the Japanese beauty giant Kosé Corporation. The deal involved Kosé purchasing a 93.5 percent stake in the company for approximately $135 million, while Kelly remained CEO.
From the outset, Tarte positioned itself around high-performance formulas powered by naturally derived ingredients, years before “clean beauty” became industry shorthand. Just as importantly, the brand built its reputation through founder-led storytelling and a direct connection with consumers.
That instinct for narrative building would later evolve into something much larger. Despite its controversies, creator marketing has become a multimillion-dollar growth engine for Tarte. The results are tangible: seven-figure revenue from collaboration-led drops, more than 40,000 new customers acquired through creator partnerships, over 182,000 units sold across launches, and a 50,000-person waitlist tied to collaborations alone.
A Living Strategy, Not a Static Playbook
Kelly believes influencer marketing has worked for Tarte because the company treats it as a living strategy rather than a static playbook. “Our mindset is to keep evolving, keep raising the bar, and keep our community genuinely excited about what’s next,” she told BeautyMatter.
Rather than chasing scale for its own sake, Tarte prioritizes cultural relevance and authentic affinity. Partnerships like Tarte x Dunkin and Tarte x Diet Coke weren’t engineered marketing moments, Kelly said; they grew organically from what the brand’s community already loved. Rooted in everyday lifestyle cues, the collaborations felt inevitable rather than opportunistic.
As Kelly explained, the best creator marketing doesn’t feel like marketing at all. “Staying visible today doesn’t mean being louder. It means being intentional. When you’re present in moments that already matter to people, trust follows naturally.”
But Tarte’s visibility has also made it particularly vulnerable to creator-led critique. In 2018, the brand faced one of its most widely discussed controversies after launching its Shape Tape foundation in just 15 shades. Many creators argued the lineup failed to adequately serve deeper skin tones, prompting widespread backlash across social media. When accused of excluding people of color, the brand responded that the initial launch included “winter shades,” with deeper tones expected in summer when consumers were more tanned.
The comment quickly became a flashpoint in industry conversations about inclusivity—and a reminder of how quickly creator commentary can reshape brand perception online.
The Evolution of Trippin’ With Tarte
Few brands have become as synonymous with influencer trips as Tarte, and few have faced as much scrutiny as the format has become controversial online.
Over the years, Trippin’ With Tarte excursions have drawn criticism ranging from the appearance of tone-deaf luxury to questions about the brand's diversity approach. Some creators, makeup artist Robert Welsh for example, even speculated that the brand intentionally leans into controversy as a form of “rage-bait marketing.”
In 2023, a press trip to an F1 race in Miami sparked another round of debate. Influencer Bria Jones posted a TikTok describing an experience she said differed from those of non-Black influencers on the trip, including being sent home earlier than others. In the now-deleted video, Jones said the experience made her feel like “a second-tier person,” comparing it to a “sorority situation.”
The video circulated widely before Jones later apologized and removed it—a move some critics suggested came after pressure from Tarte. Kelly declined to comment directly on past controversies, but she acknowledges that criticism around influencer trips ultimately forced the company to rethink how those experiences were communicated.
“The criticism wasn’t always about what we were doing,” she said. “It was about what people were seeing.”
According to Kelly, Tarte’s trips have long included real customers, support for local businesses, and contributions to community causes. On its most recent trip to Turks and Caicos, the brand partnered with local small businesses for room drops, spotlighted local founders across content, and donated $30,000 to Potcake Place, a local dog rescue.
Yet the online comments told a different story. “Comments were asking why we weren’t involving customers or giving back,” Kelly said. “That was the wake-up call. The work was always happening—we just weren’t doing a good enough job showing the full picture.”
Instead of retreating, Tarte recalibrated. The trips themselves didn’t change as much as the transparency around them did.
The brand began communicating more clearly who was invited, how the experiences were funded, and how community initiatives were integrated—often with support from brand partners to keep activations responsible rather than excessive.
“If you don’t show your work, people will fill in the blanks for you,” Kelly said. “That’s a lesson I’ve taken seriously.”
Humor as Reputation Management
When TikTok rumors circulated that Kelly had fired her entire marketing team, she responded not with a press statement but with humor, posting a tongue-in-cheek video titled: “POV: you’re the Tarte marketing team that the internet says should be fired.”
Kelly remembers the moment clearly. “It was so off- base that we were like… Ookay, we have two options here. Hide under a desk or get in on the joke and shut it down fast.”
The video quickly went viral. “Humor has always been part of how we communicate,” she said. “When you lead with authenticity, your community has your back.”
The irony: the trip under criticism delivered one of the strongest returns in the history of Trippin’ With Tarte. “While the internet was busy writing think pieces, our community was shopping, converting, and showing real love.”
Conversion Trust over Vanity Metrics
For Tarte, the key performance indicator isn’t follower count, it’s what Kelly calls “conversion trust.”
“We want conversion trust, not vanity metrics. The creators whose comment sections read like group chats, not ads.”
The brand measures signals such as how often audiences ask for product links, whether creators organically mention products outside paid moments, and whether their communities show up consistently across launches.
“A million followers doesn’t matter if no one is taking your recommendation.”
This focus has translated into repeat sellouts and successful collaboration drops. But Kelly emphasizes that those outcomes rarely come from a single viral spike.
“Seven-figure launches don’t come from one viral moment. They come from long-term credibility built one real relationship at a time.”
Campaigns and Community
Long-term partnerships sit at the center of Tarte’s creator strategy. According to Kelly, many collaborations begin with in-person relationships built during Trippin’ With Tarte experiences.
“A successful long-term relationship always starts in real life,” she said. “You can’t fake chemistry, and you can’t shortcut trust.”
Internally, scaling looks less like expanding a roster and more like deepening relationships—working with creators who grow alongside the brand, provide product feedback, and integrate Tarte naturally into their content.
Influencer Aspyn Ovard’s collaboration illustrates that depth. The partnership donated 100 percent of proceeds—$600,000—to cancer research.
“That level of impact only happens when trust runs deep on both sides,” Kelly said. “Avoiding creator fatigue comes from building a new community, not just building a bigger roster.”
Scaling Through Transparency
As audiences increasingly demand transparency over spectacle, Kelly sees opportunity rather than constraint.
“Transparency is what allows creator-led growth to scale. Spectacle is short term. Trust compounds.”
For Tarte, scaling means going deeper rather than bigger: more long-term partnerships, greater visibility into impact, increased customer inclusion, and deeper creator involvement in product development.
“We’ll continue to invest in creators as partners, not placements. When creators feel ownership, the content performs because it’s real.”
In an industry chasing the next algorithmic edge, Tarte’s advantage may be surprisingly analog: relationships built face-to-face, nurtured over time, and amplified with intention.
Spectacle may capture attention. But as Tarte’s performance metrics suggest, transparency, trust, and community are what ultimately convert.