a complaint letter to influencers:
a lesson in deception
we can't blame influencers for everything, but I mean, there used to be morals, honesty, transparency!!! back in the early days of influencers—like, 2020 says me—people were very honest with their reviews. they would show real-time updates of x skincare or makeup product. we were watching the journey unfold! we saw the breakouts, the purging, the flaky foundation. it was raw. it was real.
what happened to that????
capitalism!
jk I don’t even know what that means, but I mean!!! didn’t it?
what has brought this complaint letter from me, a loyal (although sometimes, stupid) consumer to influencers, is the following. in november 2024, I ordered the rhode barrier butter after extensive research on tiktok and beauty blogs, all of which stated that it was an amazing product.
let me find the evidence:
let me say,
liars!
are you asking yourself,
“well, why are you believing influencers?”
um, here are some magazines also praising it, thank you very much. I did my due diligence!
so I get the product. I slather it on like the tiktok girlies instructed.
night and day.
this is my new it product, my newest holy grail.
it started little by little. I truly never thought it was the cream doing this to my face.
a month passes and I start getting these awful pimples, like cysts. I have literal balls on my face. painful and hard pimples.
so much so, this was so out of character for my skin that I made an appointment with my trusted facialist. she told me maybe it was a new product I was using but it's been two months now and I also started using a new sunscreen and my husband was getting a lot of pimples too so we thought maybe it was the shower’s water.
I stopped using the spf. nothing happened.
I went to the dermatologist, he told me it looked hormonal and so he sent me to the endocrinologist. $500 in tests later and I'm completely healthy—can you fucking believe that???
of course you can.
anyway!
he gives me folic acid.
I go on a trip to which I do not take the rhode barrier butter because of sizing issues.
oh can you believe it!!!!
my skin got completely clear.
this isn’t just about rhode barrier butter. this is about the bigger picture. the erosion of honesty in influencer marketing. the algorithm rewarding viral hype over real, useful feedback. the fact that every "review" sounds suspiciously like an ad, and I now have trust issues because of it.
this is a call to action. influencers, content creators, girlies with the links in bio—remember the power you wield. bring back the integrity!!! the transparency!!! the cautionary tales of this burned my face off but in a fun way!!! we miss that.
shame!!!
i will forgive but i’ll never forget.