A single #whimsy video tags 5 to 15 brands: how to get on that list
TikTok whimsy posts rose 62% in four months, yet the top 20 brands share just 182 mentions and NYX leads with 8.8%. Here is how brands enter a tag as one line on a product list, and what to avoid doing.
The word of summer 2026 is whimsy. Bows and frills, a coloured mug, a walk with no destination. It names the habit of treating small daily moments as worth romanticising. Business Insider named it Gen Z's word of the year(source: nss magazine), and the New York Times described it as recast into a way of living that mixes playfulness, spontaneity and staying present(source: The Week).
Glowcast (Global Beauty Intelligence, powered by WHOTAG AI) analyses posts, hashtags and video from Instagram and TikTok beauty influencers with multimodal AI, tracking hashtag volume and brand composition by country. Open whimsy with that data and two things stand out. The tag is not beauty-only, and beauty still takes the top of it. Where a brand fits sits between those two facts.
- Whimsy names an attitude rather than a look or an ingredient: treating small daily moments as worth romanticising, which is why baking and everyday storytelling carry the tag alongside makeup.
- TikTok whimsy posts rose 62% from 3,731 in April 2026 to 6,030 in July. Only 4 of the top 15 are beauty, yet beauty holds first, second and third place.
- Brands appear as material, not as the subject. One video tags 5 to 15 brands, so the top 20 share just 182 mentions and NYX leads with 8.8%.
#whimsy is an attitude, not a look
One video shows what whimsy looks like. Below is a July top post that has nothing to do with beauty: someone making pastel candles. It drew 287,800 likes, and the creator tagged it #candles #whimsy #datenightideas. No product, no face.
The candle is no exception. The same month put a med student telling a story about her new car (219,000 likes)(source: @dr.mrs.knits) and someone showing off supermarket baking liners (215,000)(source: @leighlivslovely) in the upper ranks, right beside the makeup. Whimsy names no ingredient and no look, so it crosses categories freely.
Anxiety drives it. One trend analyst explains that this aesthetic lands hardest in uncertain periods, offering an escape and beauty for its own sake when events feel ugly(source: Harper's Bazaar SG). Hence a vocabulary of bows, frills and ruffles, none of it practical.
Why #whimsy will not end with the season
The press has already caught it. Whimsical searches on Etsy each rose at least 50% year on year(source: The Week), and beauty press sorted 20 whimsy products into makeup, fragrance, hair accessories and nails(source: Who What Wear). Glowcast counts point the same way. TikTok whimsy posts climbed from 3,731 in April 2026 to 6,030 in July without a single down month.
The decisive clue lies elsewhere. YPulse traces this behaviour back to 2021 and the pandemic(source: YPulse), when young people went looking for joy in the moments they could still control. It has resurfaced under changing names ever since, whimsigothic among them. Whimsy is the current name for a five-year-old habit, not a new arrival. The label will change again while the behaviour stays, which is the case for funding a running format over a single campaign.
How beauty is using #whimsy right now
Sort July's top 15 TikTok whimsy posts by type and beauty takes 4, fashion 4, everyday life 7. Beauty is not the majority, but it sits at the top. First place is a date-night makeup video at 569,100 likes, second the nails at 431,400, third a makeup tutorial at 326,900.
Brand mentions sharpen the picture. The top 20 brands hold 182 mentions between them, and within that NYX leads at 8.8%. Rhode, a skincare brand, takes second at 6.6%, e.l.f. third at 6.0%.
| Rank | Brand | Share of ranking |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | NYX Cosmetics Colour |
8.8%
|
| 2 | Rhode Skincare brand |
6.6%
|
| 3 | e.l.f. Colour |
6.0%
|
| 4 | Morphe Colour |
6.0%
|
| 5 | Rare Beauty Colour |
6.0%
|
| 6 | Target Retail |
6.0%
|
Data: Glowcast, powered by WHOTAG AI
NYX appears as material, not as the subject
Open the posts naming NYX and most read as product lists. A creator builds one look, lists 5 to 15 brands in the caption, and a NYX liner or highlighter takes a single line. July's strongest such post was titled "whimsy isnt hard" and tagged five brands together: about-face, ColourPop, Stila, NYX and Lilly Lashes. It drew 6,658 likes.
The format runs in series rather than one-offs. One creator posts whimsy makeup part 2 and part 3; another runs a series called "the whimsy diaries". The video below is one episode of it, listing 8 brands, with a caption stating outright that it is neither an ad nor a gifted placement.
If you build content around #whimsy
Two things to avoid first. Commentary frames whimsy as creativity and lightness plus a quiet resistance to overconsumption(source: nss magazine) — the idea that a good day costs very little. Lead with hauls and purchase prompts and you collide with the audience the tag came from. The series creator above spelling out "not an ad" in her caption shows the air in the room.
The second is satire. TikTok also carries posts mocking the trend for a preciousness that sits badly against adult reality(source: Yahoo Lifestyle). A brand declaring its own whimsy is the easiest target of all.
What to use is simpler. Do not launch a tag. Of the 6,030 posts in July, only 441 registered as advertising, or 7.3%. Real posts pair whimsy with whimsymakeup, whimsicalaesthetic, fairycore and grwm, so specifying whimsy alone breaks the combination a creator already uses and the video travels less far. And send the products a single video can establish on their own: visible colour, a shape worth holding up, a pocket moment worth filming.
- Do not launch a new tag. Specifying whimsy alone breaks the creator's existing combination and the video travels less far. Let whimsymakeup, fairycore and grwm ride along.
- Do not lead with the purchase prompt. Resistance to overconsumption and a satire layer both attach to this tag. Anything that reads as an ad becomes the target.
- Send screen-visible products across several episodes. Start with items that leave colour or hold their shape on camera, and let a creator carry the series rather than closing after one video.