Are your favourite beauty influencers lying to you?

To what degree can one trust the content churned out by beauty influencers is the question most consumers are mindful of today 

While it may seem like a torrent of “influencers” gushed into the digital ecosystem out of nowhere in the past couple of years, most of them started out between 2010-2016 as creative individuals, then called bloggers. Before the business of influencer marketing became the million-dollar industry it is today, bloggers hit the sweet spot between posting about celebrities who posed an overload of aspirations and the common public, thanks to the high relatability quotient that was conspicuous despite their comparatively glossier lifestyles. 

Today, the business of influencer marketing is at an all-time peak. Influencer marketing in India is expected to grow by 25 per cent in 2024 from 2023. The industry in India is set to hit an estimate of ₹ 3,375 crores by 2026 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18 per cent, reveals a report by Ernst & Young. Despite this astronomical growth, the consumers’ trust and confidence in influencer marketing have, however, fizzled. While the quantum of paid collaborations has expanded, engagement is dwindling, according to the observations made by US-based influencer marketing software Traackr. While the Indian market still looks at influencers and the beauty industry as a match made in sales heaven, how much one can trust the content they churn out is the question that most consumers are mindful of today. 

The rise and fall of beauty influencers

According to reports, in 2018, approximately 39 per cent of brands (all sectors included) gave influencer marketing a shot, and 92 per cent of the marketers indulged in at least one influencer marketing activation. Today, the figure has gone up considerably. “On average, beauty brands allocate anywhere from 20 to 50 per cent of their marketing budgets towards influencer marketing initiatives,” says Etienne Marques, founder of PR and digital marketing agency, The Catalyst. But here’s a paradox: while influencer marketing is synonymous with a game of numbers, micro-influencers (influencers with a following of 50,000 or less) have cropped up on the radar of every brand, especially beauty.

“Consumers perceive micro- and nano-influencers as more trustworthy, suggesting that brands could benefit from partnering with influencers with smaller but more engaged followings,” says Tanya Rajani, principal beauty and personal care analyst at Mintel India. “A [Mintel] research reveals that 24 per cent of consumers in metropolitan cities view a majority of influencers as untrustworthy due to their financial motives. Additionally, 33 per cent of those who are distrustful of online influencers believe that those with smaller followings are more authentic than those with larger ones,” she adds. 

The constantly evolving algorithms and transparency-promoting metrics also have a role to play in bringing about this metamorphosis. “There’s a growing emphasis on metrics and return on investment (ROI) to ensure the effectiveness of influencer campaigns,” says Shrishti Deb, marketing correspondent at Luxasia, an omnichannel firm responsible for bringing brands like Caudalie, Olaplex, Farmacy, and First Aid Beauty to India.  

At Tira Beauty, influencer marketing is an integral aspect of the awareness funnel for their business. “It serves as a powerful tool for educating consumers, creating discovery to intent, engaging audiences, and nudging them towards purchase,” says a spokesperson from the company. “Alongside numerical criteria, we emphasise brand alignment and audience-influencer match. For example, collaborations for Korean brands specifically target skincare influencers, and young Gen-Z content creators for colour cosmetics.”

Engagement is what every influencer or online creator is chasing today, which is, perhaps, the reason behind its accelerated depreciation of late. While India alone has amassed 516.92 million active Instagram users—which is 74.70 per cent of Internet users in the country—attention spans have been shrinking at disconcerting rates; today the Gen-Z Instagram user’s attention span lasts anywhere from 1-8 seconds only. Hence, what and how you create outweighs how many followers you have, and this is evident in the poor engagement rates that celebrities fetch. There’s a perceptible loss of faith and relatability that viewers are experiencing, seeing frequent endorsements of beauty products on their accounts. Consumers are craving the old-school unfiltered, accessible and useful content delivered by those who could justify their association with beauty, but are influencers, celebrities and, most importantly, brands, listening?

A lack of social responsibility

In 2021, 3.8 million posts worldwide donned the #ad hashtag as compared to the 3 million reported by Instagram in the previous year, a whopping 27 per cent uptick within just a year. If you follow a macro- or mega- influencer (about 5,00,000 to 1 million followers), it is quite likely that every third post they put up is an advertisement.

“If a particular influencer has a reputation of putting out a paid/sponsored piece of content and vouches for a brand in almost every video (especially beauty), they’ve lost a follower’s trust,” says Natasha Patel, a beauty editor-turned-influencer. “Relatability is another factor that has an impact. While, of course, putting out aspirational content is fine, an influencer has to know their audience. With over-saturation, inauthenticity and lack of communication between one another [creator and followers], you can see a decline in trust,” she elaborates.  

If there’s something that every influencer is chasing after engagement, it’s relatability—the key to staying relevant. However, owing to superfluous information from unsubstantiated sources in erratic patterns, this aspect is also questioned. For example, an influencer may promote three different serums in one single month, while claiming that they have been testing them for days before sharing their experience. This can instantly create a disconnect among their followers, suspicion even. “Back when I didn’t know what mass campaigns were, and saw all the influencers talking about a foundation, I went ahead and bought it. It broke me out terribly,” posted a Reddit user. 

The advent of chemical active ingredients in several beauty products has left consumers perplexed. Oftentimes, instead of simplifying the jargon for users, influencers could puzzle them further. “If content creation is a business, then like all industries there is a spectrum of ethics. I don’t think it’s correct to blatantly misrepresent facts. It’s harmful to everyone—brand and creator included, because over time there is a loss of trust,” says actor and social media personality Naina Bhan. Misinformation then prevails as a major predicament of influencer marketing. “Influencers are not qualified, and get their knowledge from either social media or Google. We dermatologists, in spite of pursuing dermatology for years, are constantly upgrading our knowledge by attending conferences, workshops and reading evidence-based articles,” shares Mumbai-based celebrity dermatologist Dr Jaishree Sharad. “What do influencers know about the anatomy and histology of skin? Ask them about the function of cytokines, desmosomes and how these behave with various ingredients applied—they wouldn’t know.” Mumbai-based celebrity dermatologist Dr Madhuri Agarwal adds, “Influencers usually share their personal opinion and experiences—it does not translate to being an authority in beauty.”

False advertising is another peril not so well-informed users fall prey to. When information is shared by beauty influencers, there are several ethical and legal implications, feels Agarwal. “As a dermatologist, my foremost concern is the risk to health. When followers use products endorsed by influencers, it can often cause serious damage to the skin and hair, which can also be long-term. There is a huge loss of trust in these false claims as influencers, due to ulterior motives, don’t share the bad effects with the good. When products don’t perform as hyped by the influencers, the entire brand and, at times, the ingredient, gets demonised,” she says. 

Despite the mandate by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) for social media influencers to observe absolute transparency and disclose to the consumers that the content they are promoting is an advertisement, false advertising is manifested through misleading content. In 2023, 25-year-old Mikayla Nogueira, a US-based TikTok beauty influencer with 15.5 million followers, sparked controversy when she posted a paid partnership video promoting a L’Oreal Paris mascara, only to reveal several days later that she was, in fact, wearing fake eyelashes. To be fair, brands play a key role in controlling the narrative of every 15-60-second Reel that an influencer posts.

“Brands don’t believe that followers are more interested in organic content. There are some brands that want their campaigns to look like advertisements and followers lose interest in the influencer after seeing such posts,” shares model and influencer Carla Ruth-Dennis Kanungo. When a brand isn’t collaborative, it feels quite transactional, expresses Bhan. Patel, too, finds this aspect of the job harrowing. “It’s very rare that a brand will do a campaign or promotion of a product in a very organic and easy way. While, of course, we all understand certain guidelines and points they want to put across to the public via our platform, what they often fail to acknowledge and understand is that we know our audience best; we’re not just a walking-talking advertisement with a great blowout and style.”

Agarwal highlights how a constant exposure to an influencer’s life triggers endless wants in consumers’ minds, ultimately spawning overconsumption. “Some influencers advertise a multi-step, convoluted skincare routine and use several actives each day. Following this may cause adverse effects on your skin,” warns Sharad. “Moreover, stock-piling is another issue. You may never be able to completely finish using the products before another skincare trend comes along. It leads to a waste of money and, sometimes, no results.” Agarwal adds, “The environmental impact of overconsumption of beauty products means exploitation of natural resources, more packaging wastage, pillage and high levels of pollution.” While Kanungo implements the quality-over-quantity creed into her paid content, Bhan thinks that a content creator is responsible for their own self-regulation, asking consumers to think “Where do you fall on the ethics metre?”, “What is your voice?” and “What do you want to stand for?”.

How much should you trust a beauty influencer?

With actors, models, content creators, influencers, singers, doctors, make-up artists, skincare aficionados, and beauty editors all creating paid content for beauty products, you need to define what an “influencer” entails for yourself. Dermatologists aren’t permitted to undertake paid partnerships as per guidelines of the Medical Council of India, shares Sharad. “This council has now changed to the National Medical Council (NMC), which is yet to solidify its guidelines. So dermatologists, who are doing paid partnerships, are taking advantage of this. It is completely unethical as it seems like the dermatologist is selling a product. Besides, the NMC also does not give us permission to prescribe products without a personal consultation with the patient.” Some influencers have been criticised for promoting products or services without disclosing their paid partnerships, adds Marques. “The prevalence of fake followers and bots has undermined influencers’ credibility as brands and audiences become more sceptical of inflated follower counts and artificially-boosted engagement metrics.”

January 2023 marked a switch from #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt to #DeInfluencing; the latter swiftly picked up across social media platforms. But, what may seem like a user-friendly approach at first, could also lead to the promotion of another sponsorship. You can take nothing that you view on social media at face value. “Many influencers edit their pictures and videos by skin smoothing, colour correcting, and feature manipulation using filters. Hence, people have begun perceiving very natural skin features like a little skin texture, a few open pores, sebaceous filaments, and combination skin type, as something totally abnormal. The more susceptible followers of these influencers tend to compare themselves to these digitally enhanced images,” worries Sharad. “When influencers upload filtered beauty images, they often end up promoting unrealistic beauty standards, which leads to psychological strain on followers; their self-esteem is impacted. As a dermatologist, we then see a rise in body dysmorphia,” adds Agarwal.

What do followers then have to keep in mind before subscribing to what an influencer is attempting to sell? “Instead of putting blind faith in influencers, you must conduct your own research from reputable sources like scientific publications and trusted skincare professionals. Make a habit of reading labels and understanding what ingredients do. Add one product at a time and buy smaller sizes so you can see if it’s working for you. Patch-test ingredients before using them. Focus on minimalism, use only what you need. Understand that products that may have worked for a particular influencer may not work for you,” recommends Sharad. 

“A reliable beauty influencer is someone who is authentic, promotes self-acceptance and diversity, and is candid about their beauty experiences. The first step is qualification as a content creator. Certified dermatologists, cosmetic chemists, and make-up artists will be more reliable as they usually offer evidence-based information. Check the transparency of beauty influencers and whether they have disclosed paid partnerships,” shares Agarwal. Along the same lines, Patel points out that the days of having a well-curated, colour-themed feed may just be swapped with those who have bolder images. “Audiences and followers nowadays are drawn to transparency…to content that feels genuine, that evokes emotion and relatability,” she says. Looking for creators who cater to your specific interest areas can also save you both money and time.

“Content creation has become a frenzy—creators, audiences and brands are all complicit. For an audience, doom-scrolling has become the norm. For the brand, it’s not enough to get a shoutout here and there anymore. The algorithm has become ruthless, and the poster child for all of this is the content creator,” says Bhan, concluding that the responsibility doesn’t lie on a single party’s shoulders.

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