How to Get PR Packages From Beauty Brands With a Small Account (What Got Me 15 Gifted Collabs in 4 Months)

Okay so, honest answer first: with a small account you mostly don’t get PR packages. You get gifted collabs, and that’s the better deal anyway. A PR package is a brand mailing product to a list of influencers and hoping someone posts. A gifted collab is you asking a brand for product in exchange for a video you both agree on. The second one is what I did: about 15 gifted collabs in my first four months, starting with 14 Instagram followers, plus more than 15 paid videos alongside them. Nobody put me on a PR list. I asked, in a specific way, and this is that way.

PR packages vs gifted collabs: which one you can actually get

“PR package” usually means a brand or its PR agency has a list of creators and mails them launches, hoping for an unboxing or a story. Getting on that list is a reach game, and a 300-follower account doesn’t make the cut. Even when you do get one, there’s nothing attached to it: no brief, no rights, no relationship. The brand often doesn’t know your name; a spreadsheet does.

A gifted collab is a smaller, clearer deal. You start it, you agree what you’ll film, the brand sends product, you deliver a video they can post, and you get a real brand name for your portfolio. It’s also the first rung of the ladder to paid work: my first month was 7 gifted collabs and 2 paid videos, and the first paid one was $100 at 14 followers.

	PR package	Gifted collab	Paid UGC
Who starts it	The brand or its PR agency	Usually you	You or the brand
What you owe	Nothing (they hope you post)	One agreed video, on time	The deliverables in the contract
Usage	Unclear, often nothing agreed	Organic on their channels, in writing	Organic, plus paid usage if they pay for it
Where it leads	Maybe more boxes	A brand name, then a paid second round	Repeat clients

If you searched “how to get free PR packages”, the realistic version of what you want is the middle column.

And yes, the left column does eventually happen, but it happens because of the middle one. At the end of September, about four months in, a big skincare brand I had never contacted DMed me, asked for my address and mailed a box, no brief attached. A second one is on its way as I write this. Both found me through videos I’d made for smaller brands, not through a PR list. Nobody mails product to an account with no work on it; they mail it to an account that already looks like a creator.

Which beauty brands send product to small creators

I keep a spreadsheet of about 350 beauty brands and have contacted about 150, roughly 120 by email and 30 through creator forms, logging every reply. The pattern in who said yes to product is pretty clear:

• Small DTC beauty brands, roughly 10k–200k Instagram followers. Big enough to have product to send, small enough that an email reaches a human.
• Founder-led, with a specific kind of founder. The brands that actually bought content from me had founders with a marketing or PR background who don’t film their own content. Founders who are influencers themselves almost never do; they are the content.
• Newly launched Sephora brands. These responded best of anyone. A brand that just landed on a Sephora shelf needs videos now and hasn’t built a PR machine yet.
• Brands with a creator form on their site. A “Creators”, “Ambassadors” or “Collab” page in the footer means someone built a program and checks the inbox. That’s the single best sign; the rest of my signals are here.

Who mostly didn’t send anything: big brands with a PR agency (PR-list territory), and brands whose founder is the face of the account.

Platforms are the other route: Aspire runs product-seeding campaigns you can apply to, and that brought me about five gifted collabs. Everything else came from direct outreach: email, creator forms and Instagram DMs.

My list of 30 beauty brands that take creator applications is free at the bottom of this page: 19 have an open creator form and 11 publish a creator inbox, so you know exactly where to apply. To be clear about what it is: it’s a list of brands with a door, not a list of brands that said yes to me.

How to ask (the message that works)

Where to send it. Creator form first, if they have one. I learned this the embarrassing way: I emailed Tower 28’s partnerships@ address and got an auto-reply saying they don’t answer gifting or PR emails there, only through their creator form. Forms beat PR inboxes. If there’s no form, use the creator or partnerships address the brand publishes on its own site. For the smallest brands, an Instagram DM often gets read faster than any email.

What to say. Don’t ask for “PR” or “free products”. Offer a video. The structure is the same as my cold pitch, which I break down line by line in how to pitch beauty brands: one specific line that proves you’ve used the product, one line on what you make with a portfolio link, one clear offer. Under 120 words. Something like this (copy the structure, not the words):

Hi Maya, I’ve been using the cream blush in Terracotta for two weeks and the way it layers over SPF without sliding is exactly the kind of thing that shows well on camera.

I make UGC for beauty brands in NYC; recent work is at ugctip.com/portfolio.

Would you be open to sending the blush and the new lip oil so I can film a 30-second “no-makeup makeup” GRWM for your channels? Happy to send a short brief first.

Notice what it doesn’t say: nothing about follower counts or “exposure”, no list of everything I could possibly film. One compliment, one proof, one ask. Follow up once, four days later, with two sentences.

What to do when the box arrives

Actually, before it ships. The moment a brand says “sure, send us your address”, reply with four lines that put the deal in writing:

• Deliverable: one video, roughly how long, as a file they can post.
• Deadline: a real date, about two weeks after the box lands.
• Usage: organic use on their own channels. Running it as an ad is paid usage and a separate conversation.
• Portfolio rights: you can show the video in your portfolio and on your own account.

Nobody has ever pushed back on this. Then treat it like a $300 job even though it’s a $40 blush. Use the product for a week so the first impression is real. Film two or three hooks so they can pick. Send clean files, a version without music, two days early. Post it on your own account and tag them; my gifted videos on Instagram are a big part of how brands check me out before replying. And log it in your spreadsheet.

How gifted turns into paid

This is the part that makes the whole thing worth it. When the brand reacts to the video (the good ones do, usually within days), reply the same day: thank them, mention one or two ideas for a next video, and say you’d love to work together on a paid basis, with your rate in the same email. I’ve written up the exact follow-up that turned a gifted supplement collab into a paid client.

Two rules I’d give my month-one self:

1. After three to five gifted videos with real brand names, start quoting a rate to new brands. $100–$150 is where I started. Gifted stays an option for brands you genuinely love, not the default.
2. Say no to gifted-only offers from brands you wouldn’t buy from. Two brands answered my cold emails with product-only offers after I already had the names I needed; I turned both down politely. Of the 150 brands I contacted, 10 replied and 5 became paid deals, and those were easier to close because my portfolio already had gifted brands on it.

Four months in, the split is about 15 gifted and more than 15 paid. The gifted ones came first and made the paid ones possible.

The mistakes that get you ignored

• Asking for free stuff instead of offering a video. “Would you send me PR?” reads as a cost. “Can I film a GRWM with your blush for your channels?” reads as a favor.
• Emailing the PR or press inbox. That’s for journalists and big influencers. The creator form or creator address is for you.
• Only pitching big brands. Their product goes to a list you’re not on. The 10k–200k brands read their own DMs.
• A portfolio with no videos. Brands click the link. Three spec videos are enough to start.
• Going quiet after the box arrives. This is the one that actually burns you. Beauty brands talk to each other and to agencies, and “took the product, never delivered” travels.

The short version

Forget PR lists for now. Pick 20 small, founder-led beauty brands with a creator form or creator inbox, offer each one a specific video for product in under 120 words, put usage and portfolio rights in writing, deliver like you’re being paid, then ask to be paid. That’s the whole method behind my 15 gifted collabs, and the paid ones too.