The latest TikTok trend could be making your bank account happy.
Over the past month, beauty influencers, a group that generally sings the praises of makeup and skin care brands, have taken an interest in frominfluence. The trend involves TiKTokers urging followers to think twice about impulse buying certain cult favorite products.
Content creators launch All under the bus, including holy grail intangibles like Olaplex shampoos and conditioners and Too Faced Better Than Sex volumizing mascara. They also warn against spending money on very expensive products, such as Dyson’s $599.99 Airwrap hair straightener.
“Here are all the things I will disinfluence from buying, as someone who spends thousands of dollars on health, beauty, hair products, but likes to save a dollar,” says TikToker Alyssa Kromelis in her disinfluence video, which far exceeds 5.4. . millions of views.
In the video, Kromelis suggests knockoffs for more expensive products, which he says aren’t worth the hype. For example, she recommends buying Wet n Wild’s MegaGlo Makeup Stick ($4.99 at your local drugstore) instead of Charlotte Tilbury’s $42 Glowgasm Beauty Glow Stick Illuminator. (“Horrible, hate it, never use it,” the influencer says of the product.)
Kromelis credits the videos with “influencing the recession from the ground up.” When the price of eggs has risen nearly 60% in the past 12 months, most of your followers aren’t looking to buy $30 lip gloss; the content you create must match the times, he said.
“As our American economy has gotten worse, people have less and less disposable income to spend on personal care,” he said. “So by offering more affordable or trendy options, I’m allowing people to still feel like they’re part of the current trends.”
The same day Kromelis’ video took off on TikTok, beauty content creator @katiehub.org went viral on the app for her brutally honest review of Dior makeup.
“Just because you put a pretty wrapper on trash doesn’t mean it’s not trash,” says @katiehub.org in her video, which has garnered 1.8 million views.
In another de-influencer video, beauty influencer Rachel Finley walks the aisles of Sephora, holding up beloved items she says don’t actually work.
“It’s time to leave powder sunscreens behind,” Finley says, citing Supergoop’s Mineral Powder Sunscreen as an example. “You’re getting less than 2% of the protection listed on the label. These are not effective sunscreens.
Even non-makeup content creators are getting involved. In a video, sustainable fashion influencer Hudi Charin (@thethriftythinker) pokes fun at Kim Kardashian’s Skims.
“I don’t know why anyone still buys from Skims when there are so many better, ethical and sustainable alternatives and they’re literally the same price,” she says, recommending brands like The Girlfriend Collective and Gaia Garments instead.
“There are literally so many brands that need your support more than a billionaire who doesn’t pay his employees when they work overtime,” he notes.
The “de-influence” trend coincides with MascaraGate, a TikTok kerfuffle centered around Mikayla Nogueira, a makeup artist accused of wearing eyelash extensions in a L’Oréal mascara video.
MascaraGate sparked a conversation about influencer culture and the overabundance of too-good-to-be-true product reviews on TikTok. Critics say content creators will happily give a dishonest, positive product review as long as they are rewarded with branded deals, sponsorships and a steady stream of giveaways.
Given the backlash against influencer culture, marketing professor Americus Reed II isn’t surprised by the de-influencer trend.
“What we often see in marketing, deeply integrated with pop culture, is a constant pendulum of trends and counter-trends; an ebb and flow, so when a consumer’s sentiment becomes extreme, there is a natural course correction to move in the opposite direction and toward the ‘middle,’” the Wharton School professor told HuffPost.
The influencer movement is self-regulating and course-correcting after years of being branded super clean and inauthentic.
“It’s like the version of TikTok since Dove’s ‘Real Beauty’ campaign dropped [in the early 2000s]Reed said.
Isn’t disinfluence a little hypocritical, say influencers?
Influencers admit that the concept of disinfluence is somewhat ironic: essentially, “buy this, don’t buy that” still influences and drives consumerism.
Also, calling someone something “the worst” won’t be true for everyone, as Kromelis noted.
“I think the de-influence trend is less about how ‘bad’ or ‘good’ a product is and more about convincing people that not everything is worth the crazy hype,” she said.
Anything that helps people track their conspicuous consumption can’t be that bad, said Karen Wu, a beauty content creator who goes by @cakedbybabyk on TikTok.
“We’re constantly fed the rhetoric that everybody needs every viral product, and the public is getting more and more jaded,” she told HuffPost. “I’ve made several videos on my channel talking about a range of products that I hate, as well as viral products that I won’t even try.”
Wu spends several hundred dollars a month on makeup and skin care, while the other products she reviews are sent by brands.
“I know it’s ironic to talk about consumerism from a beauty content creator, but I think there’s a delicate balance that can be found when it’s done right,” she said.
Do influencers like Wu worry that brands might be less inclined to turn to partnerships and giveaways if they’re hypercritical of them?
“I actually think the opposite, to be completely honest,” he said. “There are a lot of brands that value authenticity, and if not, it’s not a brand I want to work with anyway.”
Influencer and brand strategist Madison Potter said savvy brands will see disinfluence as an opportunity for consumer research, something they would typically spend thousands of dollars on.
“As a strategist, this information is a gold mine,” he told HuffPost. “Disinfluence is unique in how creators are directly telling brands that there is a lack of trust. It’s an opportunity for brands to listen to consumers and adjust their marketing efforts.”
Some PR and brand strategists are a little more skeptical.
Alex Paquin, founder of advertising agency Zerotrillion, told Insider.com that brands could be more cautious about vetting the influencers they target.
“Brands have to ask themselves, ‘How likely is this influencer to turn against us if their followers don’t like the content they’re creating for us?'” Paquin told the site. “Influencers need to be careful not to rush to use this trend as a ‘button’ for slightly conscious collaborations.”
Ideally, disinfluencing makes people more educated about the influencer’s culture.
For some content creators, this moment is more about educating what not to buy or what tricks to trade.
Beauty product manager and content creator Monica Ravichandran wants her followers to think about who they’ve let themselves be influenced on TikTok and question whether a cult-loved product is really worth their hard-earned money.
In her flu video, she suggests that people ask themselves questions like: Do I really need to buy this new viral foundation when I already have one that works well for me? And does this influencer have the same skin type or tone as me? (As a person of color, Ravichandran said she was influenced to buy the wrong products by looking at predominantly white content creators early in her makeup journey.)
Ravichandran, who receives a few freebies but spends around $500 a month on beauty products, also talks about the need for “influencer integrity.”
“To me, influencer integrity means a creator who has built trust and honesty in their community by building a brand based on authenticity,” Ravichandran told HuffPost.
Not everything is “amazing” or “terrible”. It’s usually more nuanced than that – experiences with any product may vary.
“I actually don’t believe in a ‘bad product’ and I just think the product wasn’t the right one for your skin tone or our skin type,” Ravichandran said. “That’s why when I review products I don’t like, I always mention who the product might work for.”
Jessica Clifton, a sustainability content creator who manages the TikTok account @impaectforgood_, doesn’t think the trend will necessarily lead to a big change for the app: “The TikTok culture loves product videos too much.”
However, as someone who has spoken out about the evils of binge culture for years, he said it is exciting for the thousands of people who engage in binge drinking. In the words of TikTok’s overly generous reviews, it’s truly “amazing” if people are inspired to buy less, Clifton said.
“Embracing simplicity and learning to settle for less is much better for our health, wallets and environment.”
I am an experienced author and journalist with a passion for lifestyle journalism. I currently work for Buna Times, one of the leading news websites in the world. I specialize in writing stories about health, wellness, fashion, beauty, interior design, and more. My articles have been featured on major publications such as The Guardian and The Huffington Post.