As someone who is beauty-obsessed, I spend a relatively large amount of time on FaceBook, Instagram and Twitter hunting down make-up and skincare news, my favourite Bloggers and YouTubers, and inspiration. While my searching sometimes yields excellent results (I've found Caroline Hirons, Sali Hughes, Huda Kattan and Stephanie Nicole all through social) sometimes my findings are at best exasperating and at worst downright enraging.
So here are some of the things that have been exasperating me/enraging me in the social media and beauty world recently, in no particular order -
Waterless Make-up removers / Make-up removing mitts: It's probably been a year, maybe two, since these monstrosities came to my notice. The first was the Make-Up Eraser certain YouTubers/Bloggers started raving about. On their site it claims to:
Remove smear-proof, waterproof makeup and mascara with The Original MakeUp Eraser®. Free of chemicals, this makeup remover gets rid of all types of makeup, including stage, sports, and theatrical makeup. Each cloth will last a thousand washes, and you only need to add water and then remove makeup. This ultra-soft, woven polyester-blend cloth gets rid of tough makeup without leaving behind a residue—just a fresh, healthy feeling.
I mean...GOOD GOD. The LAST thing you want to do if you are wearing waterproof mascara is go rubbing at your eyes with a dry cloth, regardless of it's ability to swipe it off😥 The only way to safely remove waterproof mascara is with a dedicated eye make-up remover (one formulated to deal with waterproof mascaras as they are more difficult to remove) or an oil/balm that you can emulsify to gently cleanse the eyes. Personally I don't wear waterproof mascara as I don't like how hard it is to get off and dislike having to rub at my eyes, but if you're someone who does, an oil based cleanser, like L'Oreal Extraordinary Cleansing Oil or Clinique Take the Day Off Balm is along the lines of what you're looking for. Also, the cost - one is $20 according to their US based site which is as expensive as, or even more expensive than a decent cleanser. Finally, 'fresh, healthy feeling'? I think not. Having a face that looks make-up free after a wipe with one of these is not the equivelant to having cleansed, clear skin. And don't even talk to me about using something like this to 'cleanse' after sport. They will maybe remove make-up, or at least what's visible to the eye, but they won't remove bacteria, sweat, traces of pollution or dead skin cells. I realise that they aren't marketed as a one stop cleanser but nowhere do they say that you should follow up with a cleanser. Go to Primark and buy a pack of 5 facecloths for next to nothing and use with a decent cleanser - your skin will thank you. (I've talked about some budget ones here and my favourite more expensive ones here). Jane Iredale also has a version of this and the description goes (again no mention of a second cleanse)
Knitted micro-fiber cloth that relies only on water and tiny micro-fibers to penetrate and wash away oil and grime
As Matthew McConaughty said in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days 'BullSHIT!'
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| Tell me this is a lie, America. PLEASE |
YouTubers with terrible skin who talk about skincare: I'm not going to name names. And yes, I understand that not all of us, least of all myself, are blessed with perfect skin, but when I see someone with flaky, dull or extremely spotty skin recommending skincare to their followers, whether it be high-end products that were invariably sent to them (and clearly are not what their skin needs) or cheap rubbish like Primark skincare (it took a real effort for me to even type that) something inside me snaps. Learn how to look after your own skin before you make ridiculous recommendations to your followers, many of whom are younger girls who would believe you if you said the sky was green, and many of whom will actually go out and buy the rubbish you recommend and wake up one day wondering why their skin is so bad. Stick with what you know, and if Primark make-up wipes are what you know then keep quiet.
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| My worst nightmare (pic: RSVP Magazine) |
Unicorns, Harry Potter, Mermaids, Disney: I'm a big Harry fan. I read the series all throughout my teens and even to this day occasionally dip into them - they're like an old comfy jumper, comforting and familiar. I also plan to read them to my daughter one day when she's old enough. Same story for unicorns, mermaids and Disney - at certain points in my younger years I was obsessed with all of them. That does not, however, mean that I have any need for Harry Potter make-up brushes, Mermaid themed make-up turorials or Disney themed palettes. I'm 29 years old, people. And while it's great for a younger generation - and I also understand that make-up is a form of expression etc etc - the pure amount of this nonsense is utterly overwhelming. While there are of course people out there who enjoy this type of thing, a lot of us aren't interested in going to work disguised as a unicorn or popping out a powder brush in the shape of a broomstick in a bar toilet. Everyone has their thing but I do wish ridiculous publications like Allure would stop shoving it down our throats.
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| Down with this kind of thing (Pic:Pinterest) |
Instagram being generally annoying: The amount of bloggers, YouTubers, MUA's and posers on IG that have over 25k followers is astonishing, and most of these followers were acquired in the last couple of years. These days though it has become much more difficult to build a presence on IG due to shadow banning (where certain hashtags such as #beautyblogger are hidden - say you post a picture captioned with this hashtag, no-one will see it as it has been 'shadow banned'). This is apparently due to porn pages using the much-searched tag, but in hiding hashtags like these IG are hiding peoples' posts. I'm not sure if #beautyblogger has been reinstated but if anyone can tell me that would be great! I recently exchanged with Angela Tanner on the subject and she lamented at how the platform that had allowed her to build such a presence was being so hard on bloggers, MUA's etc who are just starting out. (If you're into swatches you need to follow her, her page is swatch heaven and she's also super sweet). Another thing that's been happening is IG accounts actually being deleted because of a quick rise in followers, something IG is wary of due to the huge amount of pay-for-likes/followers pages. This recently happened to HotFire Makeup who had her page deleted at more than 96k followers. I mean, just imagine what that would feel like because I can't. I have 450-ish followers on IG and if my account was deleted overnight I'd probably have a break-down, not just at the thought of reacquiring followers but at all the time and effort put into posts. (Follow HotFire Makeup if you're interested in new make-up releases, she has it all and tends to be less shady about where her info comes from than TrendMood who often makes a mess of new releases by posting pictures of in-production or about to be released products. While I do like her I am sometimes bothered by the way business is done there).
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| Pic:Petapixel.com |
Instagram eyebrows/McDonalds eyebrows/Squiggly eyebrows/Crazy nails: For the love of God ENOUGH. We've now seen it all and it's not even funny any more. Most of it is plain creepy (hairy nails, anyone?😷)
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| GOOD GOD. (Yahoo) |
So those are my current pet hates in the social media beauty world at the moment - there are more but I don't have two days to sit and write about them all...!
I'm hesitating a bit as I finish this as I wonder if this is going to upset anyone but I'm always honest, and this is brutally so. (It's also been a trying week work/life-wise and this rant felt good😂)
Anyone else suffering the same rage and exasperation this week?!
*None of the images are my own and I have credited them
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Have a great weekend everyone!
A x
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