Quick answer
Likes and comments are not the same signal. Across 5,610 beauty (makeup) collab reels from August–November 2026, the combined median engagement rate is 1.53%, but likes scale with views (celebrity reels can carry a 146:1 likes-to-comments ratio) while comments spike on giveaway or "comment to win" mechanics, sometimes outnumbering likes by 24:1. Benchmark the two separately, not as one number.
A beauty brand picks Reels over static posts for a reason: a 15-second demo of a cleansing balm melting off makeup, or a transformation cut to a trending audio, travels further and converts attention faster than a flat-lay photo ever could. Reels get pushed into non-follower feeds, they carry sound and motion that a product shot can't, and they compress a sampling or discovery decision into the time it takes to scroll past. That's why beauty is one of the categories leaning hardest into reel-first collaborations right now.
But "performing well" on a reel means different things depending on what a brand is trying to measure. A reel can earn millions of likes purely because a well-known face posted it, with barely any comments. Another reel, from a far smaller account, can earn comments in the hundreds of thousands because the brief asked people to comment to enter a giveaway while its like count stays modest. Both can show a similar headline "engagement rate." This piece breaks that number apart, using real collab data, so a brand can tell which signal it's actually looking at before setting a benchmark or judging a result.
Methodology
Engagement rate = (likes + comments) ÷ views, calculated per post and reported as a median to limit the pull of outliers. Follower tiers are based on following at time of posting. Likes-to-comments ratios are calculated directly from individual post data. The core dataset covers 5,610 makeup-category collab posts from 2,962 creators and 214 brands, posted between 5 August 2026 and 3 November 2026.
The headline numbers
Source: MyWall Genie · 5,610 collabs · 2026-08-05 to 2026-11-03
A blended median of 1.53% is a workable anchor for a mixed-tier beauty campaign, but it averages two different behaviours into one figure. Nano and micro creators together account for 65.4% of all beauty collabs in the window, mostly accounts where likes and comments move together, rather than the celebrity-reach or giveaway-mechanic reels that pull the two apart at the extremes, covered next.
Likes and comments benchmarks for beauty reels: why the two signals differ
Likes are a low-effort, near-automatic response to a reel that looks good in the first second a double-tap while scrolling. They correlate closely with view count, which is why big-reach creators post huge like totals almost regardless of what the caption says. Comments require a viewer to stop, type and publish something, a much higher bar. They spike reliably when a reel gives someone a specific reason to comment: a question, an opinion prompt, or most dramatically a giveaway that requires a comment as the entry mechanic.
Two real collab posts make the split obvious. A reel for reneeofficial, posted by @rj.mahvash (3 million-plus followers) and @maisamayhoon, pulled 3,639,491 likes against just 24,930 comments — a likes-to-comments ratio of roughly 146 to 1. A kaybykatrina reel from @katrinakaif ran an even wider ratio, about 227 to 1 (2,338,349 likes to 10,317 comments). These are reach-driven posts: huge visibility from a well-known face, with comments trailing far behind, which is entirely normal for celebrity-tier reach plays.
Flip to the comment side and the pattern reverses sharply. A giveaway reel for ibacosmetics, posted by @zeherasamseer, pulled 38,860 likes but 937,122 comments — comments outnumbered likes by roughly 24 to 1, because the entry mechanic required a comment. That single post's combined engagement rate works out to about 71% of views, far above any normal benchmark, simply because the mechanic forces a comment from nearly everyone who watched. A similar giveaway reel for parulgargbeauty by @parulgargmakeup ran a gentler but still comment-heavy ratio of about 2.7 likes per comment, versus the double- and triple-digit likes-per-comment ratios on the reach-driven posts above.
Likes-led vs. comments-led beauty reels, side by side
What this means for reading a benchmark report
A single blended engagement-rate figure cannot distinguish a reach win from a giveaway spike. Before comparing two reels' "engagement," check the likes-to-comments split: a reel with an unusually high comment share relative to its tier is very often running a giveaway or an explicit comment-to-win mechanic, not generating organic product interest at that rate. Brands benchmarking creative quality, not giveaway mechanics, should look at comment share on non-giveaway, non-affiliate posts specifically.
How follower tier shapes the likes-to-comments mix
Overall engagement rate by follower tier for the beauty category is covered in depth in Grynow's engagement rate benchmarks for beauty influencers; the figures below are shown only to explain how tier interacts with the likes-versus-comments split, not as a standalone tier benchmark.
Median engagement rate by follower tier (beauty reels)
| Tier | Collabs | Median ER (%) | Avg views | Median views | Repeat rate (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nano | 1,524 | 1.9% | 25,734 | 3,151 | 19.9% |
| micro | 2,147 | 1.46% | 35,520 | 7,857 | 16.2% |
| macro | 1,516 | 1.32% | 102,630 | 26,813 | 23.9% |
| mega | 423 | 1.59% | 545,500 | 72,276 | 32.2% |
Source: MyWall Genie · 5,610 collabs · 2026-08-05 to 2026-11-03
Mega-tier reels post the second-highest blended rate (1.59%, after nano's 1.9%) despite being the most likely to carry the 100+:1 likes-heavy pattern seen in the celebrity examples above; large audiences still generate meaningful comment volume even when comments are a small share of total reactions. Applying each tier's median rate to its median view count gives a rough combined likes-plus-comments figure per typical reel: about 60 for nano, 115 for micro, 354 for macro and 1,149 for mega. On any individual mega-tier reel, the actual split can swing from a 146:1 reach pattern to something far more comment-heavy the moment a giveaway enters the brief.
Reading tier benchmarks correctly
A mega creator's average views (545,500) run nearly four times a macro creator's (102,630), so brands chasing sheer reach and the like counts that come with it still lean mega or macro. Brands chasing comments specifically, rather than reach, often get better value from nano or micro creators paired with a genuine comment-prompting brief, since a smaller, more invested audience tends to respond to a direct question more readily than a passive scroll-and-like audience does.
How the likes-to-comments balance moved over three months
Beauty reel collabs by month (Aug–Nov 2026)
Collab volume rose from 1,479 posts in August to 2,340 in October, the peak month before a partial November count. The blended rate stayed in a tight 1.44%–1.63% band across the period, but that stability hides shifting composition: a month with more giveaway-driven affiliate posts shows a different likes-to-comments balance than a month dominated by straightforward tagged content, even when the headline rate looks almost identical. Volume growth alone doesn't tell a brand whether the extra collabs were reach plays or comment plays; the collab-type breakdown below does.
Collaboration type changes the likes-to-comments balance
| Collab Type | Collabs | Median ER (%) | Avg views | Repeat rate (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| tagged | 2,782 | 1.47% | 81,462 | 27% |
| collaborative | 2,660 | 1.58% | 99,455 | 12.7% |
| affiliate | 168 | 1.6% | 63,179 | 11.2% |
Source: MyWall Genie · 5,610 collabs · 2026-08-05 to 2026-11-03
Collaborative posts carry the highest median engagement rate (1.58%) and the highest average views, closer to the reach-and-likes pattern seen in the celebrity examples above. Tagged posts run a lower headline rate but a notably higher repeat rate (27% versus 12.7% for collaborative), suggesting brands return to this format even though its single-post numbers look modest. Affiliate posts are where the giveaway mechanic concentrates most heavily in this dataset; a brand evaluating an affiliate creator's "engagement" should check whether a comment-to-win post is inflating the average before judging the creator's typical performance.
How to set separate likes and comments targets when briefing
- Set a likes target for reach goals. If the brief is awareness-led, benchmark against views and likes together. Mega and macro creators with strong average views (545,500 and 102,630 respectively) are the better fit, and a 100+:1 likes-to-comments ratio on that kind of post is normal, not a red flag.
- Set a comments target for interaction goals. If the brief wants conversation, product feedback or UGC-style response, specify a comment-prompting CTA in the brief itself rather than leaving it to the creator's default caption style a direct question reliably lifts comment share even without a giveaway.
- Separate giveaway comments from organic comments when benchmarking. A post with a "comment to win" mechanic, like the 71%-of-views engagement rate seen on one affiliate giveaway reel above, is not comparable to a standard product reel; exclude or flag giveaway-mechanic posts before using comment counts to judge creative quality.
- Use tier-specific combined benchmarks for a quick gut-check, not a final verdict. The 1.9% nano, 1.46% micro, 1.32% macro and 1.59% mega medians are a fair baseline for a typical, non-giveaway reel, but check the likes-to-comments split on any post that beats its tier by a wide margin before assuming it's a creative win.
- Expect tagged content to earn repeat bookings. At a 27% repeat rate, tagged-style posts seem to be the format brands commission again, even without chasing a single post's peak numbers.
For adjacent categories, skincare influencer engagement rate benchmarks show that the likes-to-comments pattern isn't universal across beauty subcategories; skincare's demo-heavy format skews the mix differently than makeup's. A broader primer on influencer marketing for beauty brands covers how to write a brief that specifies the right KPI likes-driven reach or comments-driven interaction before a single reel goes live.
For cost and platform context on running a first campaign in India, the India influencer marketing benchmark report for international brands is a useful reference, and the Beauty of Joseon store visit campaign shows what a well-briefed campaign can look like in practice. Translating likes-and-comments benchmarks into a working shortlist is usually easier with an influencer marketing agency in India, since agency teams typically track current giveaway-versus-organic patterns across more categories than a single brand team monitors in-house.
Key takeaways
Likes and comments measure different things: likes track reach and visual appeal, comments track how much a reel made someone stop and respond. A reach-driven celebrity reel can run a 146:1 or 227:1 likes-to-comments ratio and still be a strong reach buy; a giveaway reel can flip that ratio to 24 comments for every like and still not reflect genuine product interest. Blended engagement rate (1.53% median across this dataset) is a fair quick benchmark for a typical, non-giveaway reel, but any post that beats its tier by a wide margin is worth checking for a giveaway mechanic before it's treated as a creative win. None of this data measures sales or brand lift; it measures what's visible on the post, which is still the fastest first check before and after a campaign runs.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a likes benchmark and a comments benchmark for beauty reels?
Likes benchmark reach and visual appeal and scale closely with view count; reach-driven celebrity reels in this dataset ran likes-to-comments ratios as high as 227:1. Comments benchmark active interaction and spike sharply on giveaway or comment-prompting mechanics, sometimes outnumbering likes by 24:1 or more. Blending the two into one engagement-rate figure hides which behaviour actually drove the number.
Why do some beauty reels have far more comments than likes?
This usually signals a giveaway or "comment to win" mechanic rather than organic enthusiasm. One affiliate giveaway reel analysed here generated 937,122 comments against only 38,860 likes because the entry rule required a comment, pushing its engagement rate to roughly 71% of views — far above a typical 1–2% benchmark.
What is a good combined engagement rate for a beauty reel in India?
Across 5,610 beauty collab reels, the median blended engagement rate is 1.53%. By tier, nano creators median around 1.9%, micro around 1.46%, macro around 1.32% and mega around 1.59%, though any single post's split between likes and comments can vary widely around that median.
Should a beauty brand count giveaway comments the same as organic comments?
No. Giveaway-mechanic comments reflect participation in a prize draw, not product interest, and can inflate a post's apparent engagement rate well beyond what a standard reel would achieve. Flag or exclude comment-to-win posts before using comment counts to judge creative quality or a creator's typical performance.
Do mega creators get more likes relative to comments than smaller creators?
Often, yes. When the post is reach-driven rather than interaction-driven, the celebrity examples here ran likes-to-comments ratios well over 100:1. But mega-tier reels involving a giveaway or comment prompt can swing the other way just as easily, so tier alone doesn't predict the likes-to-comments split; the content format does.