Wicked: For Good will hit theaters in less than a month and beauty brands are teaming up with the iconic movie to create Wicked themed products. Beyond Glinda actress Ariana Grande’s R.E.M. Beauty and her fragrance line, pink and green themes are gracing the beauty scene. From brands with older audiences, to those who are popular with young fans, the beauty industry is (ga)littered with Wicked-themed products. Brands as high end as Glinda’s bubble and drugstore beauty brands are jumping into Oz.

Skincare brands are leveraging the fact that pink goes good (or well) with green to release new and reimagined products. Farmacy has released limited edition cleansing balms in a pink and green set. The popular skincare brand Bubble has released a shareable lip balm set.

In the nail department, Essie has dropped a line of themed nail polish and Impress has collaborated with Wicked to drop an emerald press on nail set. As Glinda says, to “fix your hair”, Kristin Ess has repackaged their haircare for a limited “Wicked” themed haircare routine.

It seems like every brand is collaborating with Wicked to create chatter for their brands. So I asked our PR experts: How long does the buzz around trends usually last? How much traction do these collabs generate for beauty brands? Do collaborations with pop culture moments establish a stronger brand following?

Here are the experts' insights:

• Pop culture collaborations can help reach new audiences
• Use these moments as findy tools, not revenue strategies
• Use pop culture moment to start conversations
• It's a pulse of huge sales volume and merchandise awareness
• The brand joins a cultural conversation

Pop culture collaborations can help reach new audiences

Emily Reynolds, Owner at R Public Relations

"Pop culture moments last less time now than they ever have before. Any brand capitalizing on a pop culture moment, like the Wicked release, needs to ensure its products stand on their own, too. For Essie, that means creating enviable polish colors that look beautiful even after the movie is released. Pop culture collaborations can help build brand awareness and reach new audiences more than anything else."

Use these moments as findy tools, not revenue strategies

Alissa Landra, Co-Owner at D’Landra Wooden Floors

"I work in the luxury flooring space, and we've learned a lot about trend-based marketing from watching finish colors and design styles come and go. The "Blockbuster" and "Silent Blue Raincoat" collections we curated had their moment when certain aesthetics were hot on Instagram, but we saw requests drop 60-70% within 8 months as the next big thing emerged.

What separates a flash from foundation is whether the collaboration introduces new customers to something they genuinely need or just entertains them briefly. In flooring, when we align with a trending style—like the white oak European look that dominated Pinterest two years ago—we capture attention, but those customers only stay if our installation quality and service backs up the initial excitement. Beauty brands face the same test: a Wicked nail polish might get someone to try Essie for the first time, but if the formula chips in two days, that TikTok moment means nothing long-term.

The brands I respect most use these moments as findy tools, not revenue strategies. They're banking on 5-10% of those trend-driven buyers remembering the experience and coming back when they actually need mascara or skincare three months later. That's why our showroom focuses on the consultation experience over flashy displays—because when the aesthetic trend fades, quality and trust are what keep customers calling."

Use pop culture moment to start conversations

Lital Lev-Ary, Owner at Light Touch Laser Spa NYC

"I've been running Light Touch Laser Spa in Manhattan for over 15 years, and I've watched beauty trends explode and fade since before Instagram existed. The honest answer about these Wicked collabs? Most brands will see a 2-4 week spike, then crickets—unless they already had a reason for customers to care about them before the green packaging showed up.

The buzz dies fast because pop culture moves on, but what actually sticks is when the collaboration introduces your brand to someone who needed your solution anyway. When we featured real client change stories in our "Forevermore Yourself" campaign, those weren't trend-chasing—they connected with people searching for confidence during major life transitions. That's why those clients became family and kept referring others years later.

Here's what I tell aesthetic brands all the time: a Wicked collab might get someone to click, but if your consultation process is generic or your results don't match the hype, that customer ghosts you faster than Elphaba leaving Oz. The brands that'll win long-term are the ones using this moment to start conversations about what customers actually struggle with—like Bubble forcing shareability, which creates real peer recommendations beyond the movie's shelf life.

The real question isn't how long the Wicked buzz lasts, it's whether you're memorable enough that when someone finally decides they're ready for your service six months from now, they remember you existed. Trends are introductions, not relationships."

It's a pulse of huge sales volume and merchandise awareness

Gabrielle Marie Yap, Culinary Entrepreneur at Carnivore Style

"The buzz created by these collaborations is very short for purposes of product development, directly keyed to the marketing life of the pop culture event. The prime selling time is about ten days before the premiere, slamming shut about 4 weeks later. The pop culture collaborations do not create a more loyal following to the brand, but entire groups of transactional type consumers. In other words, they are fans of Wicked, but not necessarily of the beauty brand and their loyalty lies in the trend itself, not in the quality of the product. My whole body of work validates that the process is one of a pulse of huge sales volume and merchandise awareness, but not of a core consumer base through a sense of community.

To illustrate the point: a theme item in menus at one of my restaurants would be the special dessert which is emerald green, timed with the release of the movie which would sparkle with a 300% increase in sales for four weeks but with the lumps of these buyers being converted to true diners who are long term diners who come back for eating usually about 10%. The real value of this is getting the name of your company in front of a new group, but if you do not have a vastly improved core product, that will keep them after the excitement dies down, the collaboration is a costly introduction, not a relationship build."

The brand joins a cultural conversation

Kate Ross, PR Specialist at Irresistible Me

"Wicked-themed collaborations are the perfect storm of nostalgia + virality + visual storytelling. These pop-culture tie-ins usually see the strongest traction in the 2 - 4 weeks leading up to a movie’s release, when social chatter peaks and user-generated content amplifies the campaign.

The color codes-pink and green-make for scroll-stopping visuals with instantly recognizable symbols.

They humanize the brand. You're no longer just selling a product, you're joining a cultural conversation.

The hype itself is temporary, but the association with an empowering or nostalgic film often leaves a lasting impression on brand perception.

We at Irresistible Me have found that movie-inspired collections even "inspired by" versus officially licensed do best when they are story-driven: the fans want to feel part of the moment, not just buy it."

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