How Makeup Brands Are Deceiving Us

Written by Maya Brecher. Edited by Cade Arriens.

Technology and You
Jul 27, 2017 · 2 min read
Still from Jaclyn Hill’s “Smokey Cat Eye Tutorial”

Throughout the years, I have noticed more and more beauty influencers on YouTube getting sponsorships from brands. For example, Morphe is a brand that endorses beauty gurus like Patrick Star, Tati Westbrook, and many others. Although the products are not falsely advertised, the YouTubers who are sponsored by brands seem to love the product much more than is believable.

This used to not bother me until one day I ordered one of the lipsticks that I saw my favorite makeup artist, Jaclyn Hill, using in one of her YouTube videos. Her most watched video on YouTube to date is a Smokey Cat Eye tutorial and it got 15,000,000 views. The makeup tutorials that she did always fascinated me because her technique was so accurate and I would try and learn from her videos. Once I got the lipstick I opened it right away and tried it on. I was confused when I tried it on and it did not work at the way it was portrayed in the video I saw.

I thought that maybe I got a defective product, but when I looked at the reviews I saw so many people say that the product was falsely advertised. I was so shocked because I had never seen anything like this before. I felt like I couldn’t trust the opinions of any social media influencers anymore I felt betrayed and hurt.

I feel as though social media influencers are becoming more and more fake as I have observed them over the years and noticed how much more reserved they started acting because brands did not like them to curse or talk about inappropriate things. They show us a product that is either an improved version of the one that the other consumers get or they put numerous coats of it on off camera but makes it seem as though that was the first application.

These things became more apparent when some fans noticed the difference from the product they got from the product that was advertised and started exposing the YouTubers for false advertisement.

Although some people are still voicing their actual opinion, the people that lied caused a majority of the viewers to lose their trust in everyone’s opinion when they are being sponsored.

Innovation and Impact

Student work from the School of the New York Times Summer Academy

Technology and You

Written by

Innovation and Impact

Student work from the School of the New York Times Summer Academy

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