Swan Beauty may have discovered the fastest path to brand awareness, albeit an expensive one.
As of early last week, the 4-month-old AI mirror startup was only known by beauty editors, insiders and a few others — it had under 3,000 followers on Instagram. But then, on Thursday, influencer Brigette Pheloung’s bachelorette trip kicked off with the brand as the exclusive sponsor — and any awareness challenges it had were all but eliminated in a social media minute.
Though the company’s follower count hasn’t moved much — it now has 4,400 Instagram followers and 2,500 TikTok followers — it nearly broke the internet in the days since Pheloung’s bachelorette festivities kicked off. Pheloung is better known by her handle, @acquiredstyle — she cracked 1 million Instagram followers over the weekend and has 1.7 million TikTok followers.
Glossy snagged an exclusive first interview with Colby Mitchell, Swan Beauty’s founder, who shared the decision to become Pheloung’s sole brand sponsor for her bachelorette.
Mitchell connected with Brigette Pheloung and her twin sister, Danielle, through The Leo Group, a self-described “brand-building” company that helped the sisters build their clothing brand, Phe Phe. Over a dinner at Polo Bar, the group chatted about “our brands, just women supporting women and different ideas for our brands,” Mitchell said. This was before Swan Beauty launched in January 2026, she noted.
Later, in talking about her upcoming bachelorette trip, Pheloung told Mitchell that there would be a “lot of discovery” taking place,” Mitchell said. “[Pheloung] said, ‘I have a loyal community that I can share with you,'” she said. Mitchell decided that sponsoring the trip made sense, as Swan is “a culture-first company and a category-defining brand” at the intersection of AI and beauty, she said. “It was really an authentic way for us to build community.” Of course, she added, a bachelorette trip would also be a natural setting for “Get Ready With Me” content, which aligns well with Swan’s capabilities.
Swan sells a $795 mirror that works with an app that costs $94 a year or $9.95 a month. The mirror’s key functions include an AI skin analyzer that scores the skin out of 100 — this process was developed alongside dermatologists and works by scoring and tracking seven key skin concerns: wrinkles, pigmentation, texture, oiliness, redness, acne and UV spots. Users can track their progress over time and purchase recommended products from Cos Bar, the upscale beauty retailer recently acquired by Mitchell’s husband’s family’s private investment firm, Mitchell Family Office. The mirror’s SmARt Makeup Artist feature creates a dynamic overlay on the user’s face to help guide their technique in creating looks with step-by-step instruction from celebrity makeup artists Carolina Gonzalez, Allan Avendano and Fiona Stiles. The app can be purchased and used without the mirror, which may be a far more palatable price point to peers of 28-year-old Pheloung.
On Thursday, Pheloung and 16 guests boarded the Mitchell family’s private plane, outfitted with Swan-branded pillows and catering, and flew to a villa in St. Barth’s, provided by Swan. Contrary to online speculation, Mitchell said the Mitchell family does not own the villa where Swan hosted Pheloung and her guests.
In a post on Monday, thanking Swan and others involved in the trip, Pheloung tagged vendors including @bachboss, which she thanked for “all the amazing decor, coordinating dinners and scheduling the itinerary,” and @heartfelttravel, “for booking and coordinating our villa.” A Swan representative clarified that Bach Boss had provided complimentary services, while Swan had paid for Heartfelt Travel’s services.
Mitchell declined to comment on what the brand spent on Pheloung’s bachelorette. However, taking a look at six- to seven-bedroom villas in St. Barth’s, the cost could run anywhere from $15,000 to about $50,000 for a four- to five-night stay. And though the price would be slashed considerably because the Mitchell family owns the plane, between fuel, maintenance, landing fees, crew costs and catering, the four-hour flight could still cost $66,000-$85,000 to operate both ways.
Seven of Pheloung’s guests, all creators themselves, were gifted the mirror. They included Lauren Wolfe (1.3 million TikTok followers; 529,000 Instagram followers), Kit Keenan (363,000 TikTok followers; 444,000 Instagram followers) and Danielle Pheloung (650,000 TikTok followers; 414,000 Instagram followers). But only the Pheloung sisters had posting requirements attached to the trip, with Brigette’s totaling “over 15” posts, a representative for the brand said. Mitchell’s goal for these posts, she said, was for them to “bring awareness to Swan and awareness to [the creators’] loyal communities, and to educate their communities on the Swan platform.”
Growing awareness, Mitchell said, is extremely important. “We are looking to be here for the long haul and build a community and loyal members of Swan, and we want to be cutting edge and innovative for the beauty lovers,” she said. “So, this was great brand awareness, but Swan is here to stay, and we’re really excited to educate our users and welcome beauty enthusiasts into our community.”
Mitchell called the bachelorette trip the brand’s “largest impact.” The brand’s overall launch strategy, she said, has been “intentionally phased,” with an initial focus on beta testing and education. “Upon entering the market, Swan focused on establishing credibility through reviews and organic advocacy, while building the [brand] community in tandem, both within the product, through the social platform and app, and externally through creators and early adopters.” Now, with some of this foundation built, Mitchell said, “We wanted to move into a larger-scale brand awareness play. This partnership marks an effort to drive brand awareness through a high-impact cultural moment.”
Although rumors flew on social media about the funding the brand had secured — one Reel a referenced a $12.5 million investment — Mitchell confirmed that she self-funded the company. “That’s definitely not enough,” she said, regarding the rumored funding amount, noting that Swan is a tech product. The Mitchell Family Office owns a number of healthcare companies in addition to various other businesses like the luxury hotel The Daxton. Colby’s husband, Mark Mitchell, founded and then sold U.S. Medical Management to Centene. When he later exited that business, he told CNBC he received a total of $325 million.
The trip’s impact on brand awareness was undeniable. On Friday, the Substack “Feed Me” sent a newsletter with the headline “What is Swan Beauty?” while Maggie Sellers Reum’s “HotSmartRich” Sunday newsletter led with the headline “Swan Beauty Lore.” Countless TikToks and Instagrams have speculated about the brand and the bachelorette, and Reddit threads have exploded with commentary about the trip.
Since the trip began and the branded private jet was unveiled on social media, Swan Beauty has seen explosive growth across some key metrics, showing the power of creator marketing. The brand’s total impressions across TikTok and Instagram surged more than 3,800% to 19.9 million over the past seven days, while engagements climbed more than 11,000% to 1.2 million, driving an 8.32% engagement rate, up 1,180%. Weekly earned media value reached $1.7 million (up 4,900% in the past seven days), including $724,600 from Instagram (up 2,300%) and $978,800 from TikTok (up 29,500%), as the volume of content the brand was tagged in rose by 2,700% in the past seven days.
On TikTok, specifically, the brand’s monthly video views rose 1,400% to 573,000, and its profile views skyrocketed 130,000% to more than 329,000, compared to the prior 28-day period. Instagram views increased 1,800% to 1.6 million, and interactions increased 1,000% to nearly 29,700.
The partnership also delivered significant downstream business impact: Website sessions jumped 520% week over week, fueled by a 2,700% increase in Google search traffic, a 260% increase in Instagram traffic and a 190% rise in direct traffic.
And perhaps most notably, the momentum is translating into conversion: Swan’s iOS app downloads surged 4,000% week over week, subscription signups rose 1,900%, and the platform surpassed 27,000 user profiles by April 25. The brand confirmed it had seen a sales spike but declined to provide further details.
Mitchell said the response was larger than she could have anticipated. “It has been incredible. I’m really glad that we’ve intrigued so many people,” she said. “From a brand standpoint, we want to educate people that we are a new beauty technology platform. … We have lots of exciting features to explore.”
“The conversation surrounding Swan Beauty is going to be fundamentally different now than it was before. It wasn’t a brand on my radar or one I had heard of. They have dramatically expanded their audience. Everything else, in terms of perception of the brand, or even perception of the activation itself, is kind of second order from that primary goal of spreading brand awareness,” said Alex Rawitz, head of research and insights at CreatorIQ.
Given the high cost of the product, Rawitz said, it was savvy to link up with an unabashedly lavish moment such as Pheloung’s bachelorette trip. “There’s always, when you’re talking about a product that is this expensive and this niche, going to be the risk of alienating consumers or being decried as out of touch or elitist or just not practical for the everyday,” he said. “The brand leaning into something this splashy and this over-the-top isn’t necessarily the worst strategy, because ultimately, they are going to be marketing to a certain clientele, just based on who’s in the running for this sort of product to begin with.”
Sponsoring a bachelorette trip, let alone a luxury one to St. Barth’s, will, of course, come with criticism — of the brand, the guests, even their outfits. (Reddit snark pages lit up with commentary.) Comments on Instagram included, “Which black mirror episode in this?” and “Girl touch some grass.” But, simultaneously, creator Bridget Bahl (@bridget, 1.8 million Instagram followers) commented, “I don’t know what an ai mirror does but I want one now.” And many others remarked on the success of the partnership, with comments like, “The content turnaround is insane and needs to be studied,” and “Brilliant partnership & has been so fun to follow along!!” On Thursday, Brigette shared a code with her followers for one free month of SWAN’s app.
“[Between] a universally beloved campaign, something like Gap’s work with Katseye, to a universally reviled campaign, like American Eagle with Sydney Sweeney, … this is somewhere in between,” Rawitz said, “This is probably mostly people who are watching for the spectacle of it all. They don’t hate the brand, but they’re just kind of confused and interested in the whole thing,” That, he said, presents Swan with the opportunity to continue to shape the narrative moving forward.
“If they own the fact that they are an expensive product for an exclusive clientele, that will be a more effective strategy long-term than trying to lean into anything that tries to make this product consumer-friendly,” he said. “[That just doesn’t make sense as a] brand identity. … You’re not necessarily trying to make inroads with the affordable beauty [creators] on this one.”
