How Aggressive Influencer Marketing Can Turn Your Skin Sour
In 2025, many social media feeds of both teens and young adults are full of influencers, big and small, promoting products and services to their audiences. Social media has become more than just a place to share memories and see what your favorite creators are up to. The digital space has turned into a new place for businesses to market their products to larger audiences through social media influencers, making purchases just a click away. But how does aggressive influencer marketing affect the people who engage with these posts, especially when it comes to skincare decisions?
Tailored feeds drive what we see — and how we buy
How do businesses know who to market their products to on social media? How do they know if you are actually interested in buying what they’re selling? Social media algorithms help tailor your online feeds to your interests, based on the posts you’ve liked, how much you engage with certain topics, and so many other metrics that use your online history to suggest new creators and their photos/videos in order to keep you scrolling. With social media marketing, businesses can utilize these algorithms to introduce you to new products/services that you might be interested in to generate sales and increase their markets. This means you might see an advertisement for an eye cream after watching videos about the benefits of eye creams or be recommended a video about a highly rated cleanser after seeing an ad about it.
According to “The Influence of Social Media Algorithms on Consumer Buying Behaviour” by S. Prabha Arockia Joans and R. Marie Sheila, these algorithms shape about 72% of consumer purchasing choices. Personalized advertisements that target even the most niche corners of the digital space can have a significant impact on how and why people purchase products.
With the rise of influencer marketing, these ads have become even more tailored to the users interacting with them. Many people look to their favorite creators for product reviews and see them as more “authentic” compared to companies and brands promoting their products through the usual means (commercials, limited-time sales opportunities, etc.). Because of this perceived authenticity, they are more likely to purchase these products when they are promoted through product comparison or #GRWM videos online.
Constant praise of these products, especially when it comes to skincare, can make it difficult for teens and young adults to know what will actually work for them. Many young people are influenced to purchase products by the creators they watch, and many of them don’t look into these products further before buying. Algorithms feed users videos of the same products being praised by content creators, and suddenly, it feels as though everyone on the internet is telling you to buy it. Businesses tailor their posts to align with trending topics and use trending songs in order to “manipulate” algorithms to promote their products, which can lead to young people making poor purchasing decisions and wasting money on products that really aren’t meant for them.
What does this mean in relation to skincare?
Skincare influencers have become popular in the beauty space, with daily skincare routines and skincare treatment vlogs being common among the kinds of videos posted by these influencers. Audiences as young as 8 years old consume this kind of content frequently, seeing videos of creators using serums and creams that promise youthful-looking, blemish-free skin. What many young social media users might not realize though, is that these products aren’t meant for them.
On average, many of the skincare influencers that teens and young adults see online are in their mid-20s to early-30s. This means that a lot of creators have very different skin concerns than that of a young teenager and use products/get treatments done to help them to address those concerns. The products they use often contain ingredients like retinol or AHA/BHA, which might be great for adult skin, but not so great for younger skin. Harsh ingredients like these can actually hurt the skin of teens/young adults instead of helping it.
For example, retinol can help to promote more efficient cell turnover and collagen production in adult skin. Because their skin is older, some adults might need moisturizers and serums that contain retinol to improve slower cell turnover and keep their skin looking healthy. However, the skin of younger people already has good cell turnover and promote enough collagen to keep their skin looking young. Because of this, retinol can actually irritate the skin of teens/young adults and cause damage to the skin barrier. A teen buying products containing retinoids may actually be contributing to the decline in their skin health without knowing because they are unaware of how certain ingredients might interact with their skin!
How do I know what I should/shouldn’t buy?
Doing your own research is the best way to be smart about the products you purchase online! When you see a certain brand or product being promoted to you endlessly, go to the product page and learn more what you are actually buying. Look up ingredients that are foreign to you and factor in your own circumstances in order to make smart purchases. For example, if you see that a product contains ingredients that tend to cause breakouts for you, maybe that isn’t the right product for your skin, even if it seems to work great on your favorite influencer. Being educated about the products that you purchase can help you be smart with your money and combat those aggressive algorithms, that aren’t tailored to what you need, but what they think you want. Knowing what is in the products you see online and how they might interact with your skin can help teens and young adults maintain and improve their overall skin health.