Why It Works: How Elf Beauty uses behavioural science to power its growth

Our journey around town exploring the secret behavioural science techniques of the big brands on the high street has taken us to grab a coffee, a juicy steak and a cheeky McDonald’s.

All that munching, though, has left us in dire need of a glow-up and there’s only one brand on the (virtual) aisle that stands out: Elf Beauty.

Elf (Eyes. Lips. Face.) has effectively positioned itself as a wallet-friendly, high-performing cosmetics brand. And if we look a little closer, we’ll spot some subtle – and smart – applications of behavioural science, which help customers click add to basket.

Let’s take a look.

A smooth experience sells

We’re looking for blush first. But how do we know which shades will flatter rather than clash?

Thankfully we can turn to Elf’s ‘Try-On’ feature. If you’ve used it, you’ll know how satisfyingly easy it is. Upload a photo or switch on your camera and start swiping through lipstick shades or highlighters. One click and you’re wearing it.

Simple, yes, but also surprisingly persuasive.

Why? Because it taps into a bias known as perceptual fluency. This is the idea that things we can more easily mentally process feel better, and more desirable.

There’s some interesting evidence to back this up. In a 2011 study, Ryan Elder from Brigham Young University and Aradhna Krishna from the University of Michigan showed participants an ad for cake, but with one small twist: sometimes the fork was positioned on the right-hand side of the plate, sometimes on the left. People were also asked whether they were right- or left-handed.

The results? When the fork was on the same side as the participant’s dominant hand, their purchase intent jumped by 35%. Same cake – it just felt easier to imagine eating it. And if people can imagine eating it, they’re more likely to desire it.

That’s the same principle at play with virtual try-on. It removes the need for a leap of imagination, making your thinking more fluent: you see your face, you see the colour, you (hopefully) like what you see. And crucially, because it’s easy to picture yourself using the product, you’re more likely to buy it.

The smoother the path, the stronger the pull. Elf puts this idea to good use in their app and online, but there are other factors afoot too.

Honesty, up front

So, we’ve chosen a shade. But before purchasing, we’ll just check what other people have said about the product, just to be sure.

And scrolling through reviews online, we notice something a bit unusual: they don’t hide the negative ones. In fact, they highlight the most helpful critical reviews.

It’s a clever move – and a textbook example of a tactic known as stolen thunder. That is reducing the impact of negative information by openly admitting it.

Evidence comes from a piece of research in 1993 by psychologist Kipling Williams at the University of Toledo. He ran a study in which participants read about a criminal trial. In some versions, the prosecution revealed a damaging piece of evidence about the accused man. In others, his defence lawyer admitted it first.

When the prosecution revealed the evidence (the “thunder” condition below), participants rated the defendant’s likelihood of guilt as 6.61. But when the defence team got in first (“stolen thunder”), that number dropped to only 5.83.

That means they were 12% less likely to see the defendant as guilty with the up-front approach. This occurred even though the defence made no attempt to deny the damaging evidence, they just admitted to it.

Trial Version	Mean Perception of Defendant’s Guilt (11-point scale)
Thunder (prosecution reveals damaging evidence)	6.61
Stolen Thunder (defence admits first)	5.83

Adapted from Williams (1993)

Admitting a flaw suggests the defence is being transparent, and this carries over to anything else they might say. And we can apply this idea to brands too.

The lesson? When a brand is the first to admit a flaw, it suggests honesty, so all its other claims become that much more believable.

So, when Elf shows you that, yes, the product might not work as well for cheeks as it does for lips, they’ve taken control of the narrative. And instead of losing trust, they’ll more likely win it.

Clearpay clears the way

We’re almost at the point of checking out. There’s just a moment of hesitation. Should we really be splashing out on more cosmetics? Does it fall within this month’s budget?

A-ha! No need to worry. Let’s use Clearpay and split the cost into four smaller, interest-free payments. Might as well add a few more bits to the basket now, today’s payment is so small.

Simple enough, but again, the psychology behind this runs deep.

There are two principles at work here. One is present bias – this is our tendency to put more weight on the immediate cost of something and underplay the future.

A 2011 study by Anna Breman at the Stockholm School of Economics illustrates how timing affects willingness to pay. She called 1,134 regular donors at the charity Diakonia and asked them to increase their donations.

She phrased the question in one of two ways:

• “Would you be willing to increase your regular payment starting now?”
• “Would you be willing to increase your regular payment starting in two months?”

When the increase took effect immediately, donations rose by an average of 18.60 SEK. But when the increase was delayed by two months, they rose by 24.60 SEK – that’s 32% more.

The takeaway: people are much more willing to pay out if the added cost is postponed.

Group	Donation increase per donor (SEK)
Give more now	18.60
Give more in 2 months	24.60

Adapted from Breman (2011)

Clearpay exploits the same dynamic. By removing the pain of payment from the present, people are more likely to commit. That lipstick doesn’t feel like £8 anymore – it feels more like £2. The rest of the payment feels much less painful as that happens in the future.

But Clearpay goes one step further, with a second tactic: temporal reframing.

In an experiment that I conducted with colleagues, we showed people the cost of a car, represented as either daily, weekly, monthly, or annual amounts.

The shorter the time frame – and the smaller the price shown – the more appealing the deal felt. Daily pricing made the car seem almost five times better value than when it was shown as an annual lump sum. Even though the total cost was the same.

Clearpay uses that same shift in framing – breaking a larger number into smaller chunks makes the cost seem lower and more manageable.

So Clearpay doesn’t just split payments, it splits your perception of cost too.

Beautiful psychology

Elf may not seem like an obvious case study in behavioural science, but it has grown incredibly fast to become second only to L’Oreal in the mass beauty market. And a look beneath the surface reveals smart use of behavioural science tactics that will have helped with its glow-up.

Elf makes the purchase decision easier with perceptual fluency. They build trust with stolen thunder. And they ease the pain of parting with cash using present bias and temporal reframing.

It’s proof that these psychological principles aren’t just for burgers. They can work across categories, from fast food to fast beauty.

And maybe that’s the real Elf magic: they’ve cracked the code on what makes people feel good, not just after they’ve bought, but before they do.