So I am a skincare influencer......
The word ‘influencer’ is becoming murky. With the rise of the beauty consumption through social media, so came the influencer. People who we have come to accept know better than us about beauty so we ‘trust’ their opinions and rush to buy whatever they have endorsed. The numbers do not lie. Beauty brands do not take lightly their relationships with influencers because they know the power they yield. A digital presence is one of the key factors of the success of any beauty brand right now and the relationship with influencers is a part of this presence.
I know . This blog post has started all ‘serious’ like. But it is serious to me. I am passionate about beauty and I have always found the influencer fascinating. In the beginning , influencers were seen as rather innocent. They were on the ‘side of the consumer’. But we all know the internet hides no secret. Over the last three years, the murky, sometimes even secretive ( and even exploitative...A conversation for another day) relationships between influencers and beauty brands have come out and have left a confusing taste in our mouths. We now know influencers are paid to speak about certain brands. We now know that influencers are desperate to be put on public relation lists ( that’s what PR means by the way) and will do or say near enough anything to appease a brand. We now know that brands deliberately use romantic and lavish tactics such as luxury holidays and dinners to woo influencers. You see, murky. It no longer feels like influencers are on ‘our side’. Just to add, I support the payment of influencers. They create revenue for brands and create advertising content for them. That is a job. Period. As for the lavish PR packages dinners and trips, well, that’s a conversation for another day
This murky relationship is seen predominantly in the makeup side of the beauty industry but it is spilling itself quickly into the rest of the beauty industry. Now let’s talk about the side that I am interested in ( and to be honest, just found myself there, honestly); skincare. Skincare became a trend a few years ago and with that we saw the growth of the skincare influencer. These are the things that I have noted that I believe that are tied to the success of today’s skin influencer
Knowledge about ingredients and how they affect different skin types
Consistent engagement with one's audience
A huge amount of skincare and long winded routines
Our current ideas of what is called ‘good’ skin ( a whole blog post on its own)
One’s gender , race and sexuality ( yes , I said it! Have a look at the top skin influencers and tell me what you see. )
The use of certain brands that are extremely popular in the skincare industry. This popularity is based on many factors such as branding, credible formulations, price points and just sheer luck.
So you can see, even being a skin influencer is just as murky as being a makeup influencer. I write this in the hope that you , my reader, have a glimpse of what it is behind ‘influencing’. To say I want to be an influencer and not offer you a bit of context of what that entails, I feel, is not the best start of this relationship. You, my audience, are one of my partners in this relationship and I take that rather seriously. So what should you expect from our relationship? This is what I , Ijeoma, offer
To constantly stay learning and deliver information to you in language that is simple and relatable. I am in now way saying that you are not capable of handling chemistry jargon but the chemistry jargon can be daunting and I want my teaching to be digestible.
To highlight and celebrate other great skin influencers! I don’t know everything! We all have different skin types and philosophies. We can all learn from each other. Oh, you can trust and believe , before I present someone to you as a source of knowledge, through research on my part will have been done.
I have such a soft spot for independent owned skincare. It takes a lot of guts to start your own brand in an industry that can feel so saturated! So, expect the celebration and highlighting of such brands ( especially African and British Black owned brands!)
Honesty and openness. My skin philosophy is mine and I am proud of it. Your skin philosophy is yours and I look forward to learning from it. The only thing I ask is we keep learning and evolving together!
To change the militant tone that the skincare community uses to make you use skincare out of fear!!! I am all for dispelling outdated or wrong skincare information but some of the words used to vilify ingredients or techniques that no longer suit the cool kids ….( don’t get me started!!!)
To help you figure out a style to your routine that has the important core elements of cleansing, moisturizing and protection while keeping it fluid in respect of your lifestyle, budget and that inevitable friend of ours, ageing
So I am a skin influencer….
Here is to our new relationship.