#InfluencerGoals

I can't even say the word 'influencer' without simultaneously rolling my eyes and smirking.
It brings to mind certain 'internet personalities' (without using the icky word 'influencer' there's not really any other way to describe them as they seem to be devoid of any actual talents other than getting dressed, putting on make-up and taking selfies) who dominate Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube (although I suppose some of them are MUA's) and Twitter, proliferating retouched pictures of garish designer handbags, shoes that I wouldn't expect to see outside of a strip joint, and faces so flawless, poreless and highlighted that they look like human tin foil. It's #makeupgoals this, #couplegoals that. YAWN. Apparently, if you don't own more high-end make-up than a SpaceNK or have a Ken doll-like boyfriend who spends as much time in the mirror as you, you're not #goals.

Or maybe you're not a #gowl, at least that's my opinion.

While I have occasionally used IG filters on the odd post, most of my Instagram #motds (make-up of the day) posts are tagged with #nofilter and/or #nophotoshop. I use the flashlight on my ASUS Zenphone, a bit of natural light if I can find it in these darkening days and my one good angle. It's not that I'm adverse to the odd edited post but my objective on IG, Facebook and the blog is to show you what the make-up ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE and not how fly my editing skills are. We ALL have pores, we ALL have blemishes/dry patches/red bits and other less than perfect skin issues and it would be disingenuous aswell as dishonest to pretend otherwise. Seeing what looks like one of those creepy Japanese human sex dolls posing under 3 filters and talking about how 'Ah-MAZing' the lastest gazillion euro foundation is when her skin looks exactly like it does in EVERY OTHER Snapchat/IG post/Twitter pic (like aforementioned human tinfoil) does not make me want to run out and buy it, as at the age of 29 I've finally gone and found some of the common sense that evaded me throughout my late teens and early twenties. I no longer naively believe that spending my hard-earned cash on a heavily advertised foundation will fix my skin or give me even a hint of the lifestyle of one of these influencers. When in the past I made beauty buys based on what these influencers raved about, now I make them based on what I  like and what suits me. Unfortunately, this isn't the case for everyone and with the internet now being a heavy part of everyone's life, the susceptibility of our younger generation to these vampires #influencers has increased ten-fold. It makes me feel practically ancient when I go through IG and Twitter and see hundreds of young people (mainly women, at an educated guess I'd say ranging from mid teens - early 20's) referring to these influencers as #Mom, #Queen, #Goals. Honestly it makes me want to rip my hair out. It's selling a fantasy, an un-reality to the most vunerable - the young and impressionable, many of whom now aspire to nothing more than bloated lips, vaguely pornographic IG posts where their highlight is so blinding you have to turn the luminosity on your phone down, their skin so filtered that it looks doll-like, their bodies so bronzed they look like they spend their lives on permanent vacation (they probably do tbh). Never mind that half of them are involved in shady business deals with shitty companies like Morphe, use undisclosed affiliate links, are full of botox and fillers and give not one sh@t about the little people who have made them rich. They use filters on their videos ensuring that their flawless skin looks to be a reality (because WHO knew that you could filter a video until about a year ago when Wayne Goss was one of the first to speak about it?) and hawk cheap, bad quality crap like (again) Morphe as they make bank on it. All love for products, beauty and make-up is gone. Integrity has flown the nest. Honesty is now a grey area. Called out on their lies and half-truths, some of them post aggressive Snapchats and Tweets in which their overtly defensive behaviour does little to dispell your suspicions. Take a well-known YouTuber who was recently taken to task by her followers about a situation involving her being very ambiguous on whether a Snapchat of her visiting a huge make-up store and leaving with, in her own words 'thousands of dollars of make-up' 'I bought the whole f@cking store', meant that she actually paid for the products or received them free. What ensued made me unfollow a YouTuber I'd been fond of for a couple of years, who had started off as a seemingly sweet girl who just loved make-up but had morphed into what I can only describe as a super b@tch. She took to Snapchat to patronize and insult those who had questioned her, threatening to block anyone who said anything negative in her comments section. Imagine if companies behaved that way. 'Oh, you didn't like our product? You think the advertisement is offensive? Well why don't you just go f@ck yourself, you're banned from buying from us'. It's unthinkable. If you have nothing to hide, why so angry that you're being questioned? Having been a follower of this online beauty community for a couple of years now I feel like I've seen it all, from the pushing of low quality crap in pursuit of commission, claims of certain products being THE MOST AMAZING EVER and then never seeing them mentioned again, friends reviewing friends products shock horror ALWAYS positively, denials of plastic surgery, half-truths when it comes to what is and what isn't sponsored, and the cussing out of (in the case of 'influencers' who have gone on to produce products) paying customers, and of course the subscribers who have made them filthy rich for simply asking a question or searching for an honest answer. The online beauty community, which should be open, fun, engaging and supportive, has turned into an utter sham where nothing is as it seems and no-one says what they mean - which is an utter shame as there are so many good bloggers/YouTubers/IGers out there but they get only a fraction of the attention and fame this other group get.

 For a lot of us it goes over our heads - we are old enough and sensible enough not to take this bullsh@t at face value and to know a scam/blatant mistruth when faced with it, but I have an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach every time I think of the millions upon millions of young girls out there being preyed on by these con artists. A half-truth is no better than a lie in these cases as the young and gullible (and that is not meant as an insult) more often than not lack the ability to think critically when faced with something they aspire to.  Having a young daughter made me more conscious of this and I wonder how she will experience the beauty world when she inevitably begins to explore it. I remember only too well the feeling of being a teenager/in my early twenties and the self-doubt and insecurity that comes with that period. Skinny enough? Pretty enough? Confident enough? It's bad enough as it is at that age without being constantly faced with evidence that seemingly everyone out there is prettier than you, more confident than you, richer than you, happier than you and on top of that has an absolutely perfect face and body. It's all very shady, and for me quite maddening. We have seen the law being tightened on affliliate links and sponsorships, but this hasn't stopped the flow of false/misleading information/pictures/videos. What's worse is the fact that these people seemingly have no shame. It would be naive to think that they honestly have no idea how deceptive they are being and how unscrupulous their methods of self-promotion are. They must have some kind of internal moral compass unless they are all pathological psychopaths, in which case there is even more reason to blacklist the lot of them...! The mirage that they are selling is completely unrealistic but it doesn't seem to faze them in the least. Personally I would find it hard to sleep at night even if I had just posted a filtered picture without labelling it as filtered, but that seems to be the counter-culture rather than the culture. For me the worst thing would be a younger woman coming across my blog or Instagram and being made to feel like she's somehow less than me in any way, that I don't have flaws because believe me I do, and I try to be as honest as possible about them. I know that we're only talking about make-up and skin here but a lot of women out there, young and old, will agree that these are things that matter - it's not just about how we look to other people but how we look to ourselves. If you're not happy with the person you see when you look in the mirror it's very difficult to be happy with anything else. Self-confidence has a direct effect on self-worth and I think that we need to reassure and educate our girls that self-worth is so much more than a photoshopped picture, 5 zillion followers and a tacky Chanel bag.