TikTok de-influencers tell you what not to buy

“I bought a lot of things that were complete crap, so I decided to share them,” says Kromelis. “I just wanted to help people save some money because I’m a tight-fisted guy myself.” In her first video, she talked about expensive hair and face products that people shouldn’t buy, but also recommended cheaper alternatives. Critics point out that de-influencers target overconsumption by encouraging other, different types of consumption.

“I mean, I totally agree with that,” Kromolis says, “it’s an awkward paradox of all of this.” While Kromlis understands that it may seem strange for de-influencers to recommend products, she wants to “share knowledge.” Ironically, she says, her de-influencer videos turned her from a “content creator” into an influencer – though she earned her initial 30,000 TikTok followers “by doing random things I’ll post about my life,” she’s now a regular publishes product announcements. instead of.

“I’ve posted [my first de-influencing] video on Wednesday, and by Monday morning I had two parcels at my door,” says Kromelis. “One of them, I don’t know how they found me. Kromelis is willing to get paid to promote products, as long as it’s “a brand I really like and a product I’ve actually used.”

It’s entirely possible that this whole trend is just a flash in the pan (eyeshadow), but Kromlis believes that even when the #deinfluencing hashtag dies, the appetite for authenticity and “hilarious” brutal honesty will remain. Palermino posted on instagram that the tendency to de-influence feeds an appetite for negativity, and that she personally won’t believe that de-influence exists until there are nuances—not overly positive or negative—reviews that thrive.

Influencer destruction has long been a favorite pastime on the Internet, and now netizens are also destroying individual products. However, the beauty industry as a whole is still worth it.

“I don’t think influencers will ever make a significant impact on the beauty industry in terms of reducing consumption levels,” says Jessica DeFino, an anti-product reporter who publishes Newsletter beauty-critical content. “I don’t think this backlash is real at all.”

DeFino explains that claims that beauty products don’t work are nothing new, and in fact, such claims can help companies launch new and “improved” products.

“There are so many beauty products out there precisely because so many of them don’t work,” says DeFino. “This is the essence of innovation and optimization: they require defective and faulty products as a starting point.”

For DeFino, the downward trend in influence is just a trend. “The beauty space has been looking for more and less for years,” she says, noting that 10-step skincare routines have given way to “skipped care” and “skinnimalism.”

“Both cases ended up being an excuse to sell more products, but different products with a more minimalist aesthetic,” says DeFino. “Consumers fall in love with it every time and often feel complacent about it because they have embraced the ‘less’ aesthetic, if not the ideology.”