Now that I have your attention, let’s talk about how influencers subconsciously play such an important role in our lives and are convincing us into buying things, especially their branded products. The Kardashian – Jenner family is a great example of it. But for now I want to focus on “Kylie Cosmetics”, a company founded by one of the sisters, Kylie Jenner and a product called “Kylie Lip Kit” which launched in 2015, when she was just 18.
Kylie as a child and teenager had quite thin lips, but after using her lip kit the miraculously got fuller. She tried to convince the internet, her fans and customers that it was because she was using her product, a matching lipstick and lip liner. Many people believed that and bought it, thinking it would give them the same effect as it did Kylie. Maybe they found her trustworthy, because she was chosen as one of the most influential teen of 2015 by Time Magazine, or she was just a pretty girl they saw on the internet. But honestly? We will never know. Obviously there were people that were sceptic about it, like with every other product that a celebrity puts into the market. It might have been a part of their personality, but yeah hey suspected that she might have got a lip filler, but nothing was confirmed until she confessed to it on “Keeping Up With the Kardashians”. And it made some people say “I told you so”.
Okay, let’s stay on track. This post is not about celebrities that have lip filler. I know that it is a really interesting subject so click here if you want to read more about it.
At that time because she was the only one to achieve the effect of full lips with use of her lip kit. With that she made many people feel really insecure about their appearance, specifically the size of their lips. She made the society believe in the power of makeup and that with her 29$ lip kit they can have the effect of a lip filler, and got great money out of it (her business is valued at over 1 bilion! right now). Her influence on the society was remarkable. She influenced many to try to have lips like she, which created a dangerous trend the “Kylie Jenner Lip Challenge”.
Kylie presented unrealistic beauty standard, that normal girls are actually not able to reach, because they are not as wealthy as her. They can try but the result won’t be the same.
Unfortunately she is not the only one in the family doing so, her sisters and her mother also present unrealistic body image standard. Many women all over the world compare themselves to the Kardashian – Jenner family, whose image change every year, because they can afford that. It is almost impossible to look like them, but some women still try to achieve their look with products that the sisters sell, because they told the world these helped them achieve that look. Which is untrue, most of the job does good photo editing expensive clothes and plastic surgeries and their products are just a nice accessory on a picture and revenue from it in the wallet.
This brings an important lesson. You can never trust what you see on the internet, because it is way easier to manipulate the truth online. I know that it is hard not to compare yourself to others, especially the perfectly curated images of people on social media, but we have to try to fight that urge. Yes, I wrote “we” on purpose, because I also compare myself to other people on the Internet. So I know first hand what I am writing about.
So remember we are enough the way we are. Our personalities are amaizing and we look great, and most importantly we do not resemble the Kardashian – Jenners.
I find the amount of belief and trust people have for influencers absurd. Also, the lack of jurisdiction and supervision on such “advertisement” is definitely something that worths discussing. If a regular makeup company were to promote such a tremendous difference in before and after pictures about their product, they would be facing false advertising lawsuits or serious series of customer complaints. However, it is not the case with influencers, people really see them as their online friends who would want the best and offer the best for them.
I find it indeed saddening when famous and influential people on the internet use their fame and power to not only trick people into buying things that they do not need but also create new insecurities within them and make them feel like they look the wrong way (like as if there would be a right way to look). People can often be critical of those who ´fall´ for these unrealistic promises but let’s be honest here. If someone grows up in this society, being constantly reminded how they should look according to the current beauty standards, it is more than understandable that they sometimes believe in these miraculous products solely because they want them to be true. It is not the people who buy these products that need to be called out. It’s the influencers and marketing agencies that need to start caring about something else than money for once and need to think about how their work influences their customers. Thank you for choosing this topic! It is important to talk about this more.
What you say resonates so much with me! I think it is mostly hard not to think these products (such as Kylie’s lip kit, but also Kim’s Skims) will make you look like a member of the Kardashian and Jenner clan since they launch these products around the same time they undergo plastic surgery. It is so weird to me they use their bodies for marketing in such a definitive way!