Kylie Jenner’s recent expansion into skincare caused a stir. Not specifically for the products themselves—which had mixed reviews, walnut scrub notwithstanding—but for a tutorial during which Jenner demonstrated her use of the Kylie Skin Foaming Face Wash. The short video featured Kylie using the cleanser for lower than 10 seconds on her face before drying off with a towel, only to depart it soiled with heavy foundation stains. To top it off she used a pink floral filter over the video, drawing backlash for the apparent lack of real skin in a skincare demonstration.

Twitter was quick to tug Jenner before mainstream press jumped on the bandwagon, while Kim Kardashian even poked fun at her sister. What was presented as an intimate glimpse into Jenner’s skincare routine backfired for its obvious lack of authenticity, with many happening to say that she doesn’t even use her own products. While Kylie’s massive influence and reach propelled this seemingly insignificant scandal into the stratosphere, the difficulty is just the tip of the iceberg in an industry that’s often tormented by false claims, inauthenticity, and opaque brand partnerships. And while Jenner has graduated to the title of entrepreneur in lieu of influencer, her Kylie Skin blunder is just one in all many similar faux pas committed by beauty influencers today.

The rise of influencers has led to a recent wave of promoting often known as influencer marketing, with the sweetness industry an early adopter. A research report titled Influencing Beauty (IB) was published last yr by Influencer Intelligence, in association with Fashion & Beauty Monitor. Its aim was to look at digital media’s impact on consumer buying decisions and patterns, and ultimately its effect on the sweetness industry at large. Within the report, beauty insiders explain the industry’s predilection for influencer marketing as all the way down to the experiential nature of beauty – whereas fashion might be admired on a magazine page, beauty is a sensory experience that should be felt. Or on the very least demonstrated through videos, be it color swatches, tutorials, or demos. This has evolved into sponsored posts, brand ambassadorship, or luxe instagrammable press trips, in turn redefining the industry.

The success of beauty influencer marketing hinges on an influencer’s ability to reveal products and provides honest reviews as a ‘real person,’ thus pushing an idea of brand name transparency that previously didn’t exist. What’s ironic is that while influencers did once offer a real respite to the contrived celebrity-focused beauty world before, they’re inadvertently now facing an authenticity crisis of their very own.

Starting last yr, blow after blow has hit the community. First, there have been accusations of product-bashing posts paid for by rival brands, arising after an incident where YouTuber Manny MUA filmed a tutorial bashing false lash brand Lashify, just for it to be revealed that he’s on the payroll from competitors Lilly Lashes and Nubounsom Lashes.

Then fellow YouTuber and founding father of brand Makeup Geek, Marlena Stell, posted a damning video disclosing the exponential rise in payment demands by influencers, allegedly coming to anywhere between $20,000–$85,000 USD for a single YouTube or Instagram post. This practice has pushed out smaller independent brands who can’t afford to advertise through influencer marketing, giving a monopoly to a small handful of major brands as an alternative. It’s also created a hostile atmosphere where money is valued above all else, leading viewers to wonder if the products are literally good or if the influencer was simply paid enough.

Things get even murkier relating to ‘stealth shilling,’ which is the failure in properly disclosing paid endorsements – a widespread phenomenon amongst beauty influencers. The difficulty with this practice is it sends a false message to viewers. Fans are led to consider an influencer believes so strongly in a product that they may spend their very own money to buy and market it, of their very own accord. When in actual fact they’re being paid by the brand to post about it, while the viewer is kept at the hours of darkness in regards to the arrangement. It’s so rife that in 2017 america Federal Trade Commission sent warning letters to 90+ influencers across various industries, flagging specific Instagram posts that seemed to be sponsored. This included posts by actress and influencer Shay Mitchell repeatedly plugging Bioré, make-up artist and founding father of cult make-up brand Dose of Colours, Anna Petrosian, pushing Kat Von D Beauty, Victoria Beckham endorsing her dermatologist Dr. Lancer’s skincare line, and Emily Ratajkowski promoting UK skincare brand Nip+Fab, to call a couple of. Supposedly not every post was a paid product placement, however the FTC’s message was clear.

The worst wrongdoer, it could seem, is actress Shay Mitchell, who’s been repeatedly outed for apparently shady ad practices, starting with the FTC’s mention of her Bioré posts (she now discloses her ambassadorship with the brand), her use of stock travel imagery passed off as her own, and most recently a sham tutorial not unlike Kylie Jenner’s. In partnership with Bioré, Mitchell posted a video on Snapchat that appeared to indicate her removing eye make-up with one in all the brand’s cleansing waters. But she was soon called out for allegedly not using the product, as an alternative pretending to remove her make-up with a pre-used cotton pad while a powerful filter (very badly) disguised that she still had make-up on. Viewers’ opinions turned from mockery to anger as they criticised Bioré for allowing such bogus promoting, with some deducing that the product probably doesn’t even work.

By loading their videos with expensive, sponsored products, most of which are usually not even properly disclosed, and a few of which, as we saw with Shay and Kylie, are then demonstrated poorly, the influencer community has alienated its viewership – regular individuals who can’t necessarily afford a full face of high-end make-up, who originally looked to them for honest reviews and inspiration. Consequently, for a lot of viewers, it’s culminated in increased scepticism of influencers and a cultural shift against their trade. Comments on the aforementioned videos by Stell and Manny MUA focus heavily on distrust in the neighborhood, with statements reminiscent of “I don’t consider ONE rattling word beauty gurus/influencers say anymore. They’re all stuffed with shit” and “Take me back to 2008, before beauty channels considered themselves gurus, hauls were products purchased from actual stores not sponsors/PR.” On top of this, within the last half-year, various threads on Reddit’s BeautyGuruChatter subreddit have cropped up discussing viewers’ disdain for influencers and their perceived inauthenticity. These include: ‘YouTubers you can’t relate to anymore’; ‘Beauty tubers are out of touch; and ‘Anyone else bored of the entire beauty community on YouTube.’ All of this isn’t even bearing in mind the racist scandals (Jeffree Star) and public feuds (James Charles) which have plagued many top-tier beauty influencers, collectively sinking the industry into calamity.

Weary of those scandals, consumers are putting pressure on brands to do higher. While the IB report reveals that influencer marketing shows no signs of slowing down – 98% of the industry consider it’s successful while working with digital influencers is now the highest alternative over celebrities (84%) – it also found that 73% of beauty industry professionals are being pushed by Generation Z to turn out to be more transparent and real, which in turn is encouraging them to be more conscious of the influencers they work with. When asked in regards to the challenges they face with influencer partnerships, 52% said it was ensuring a meaningful and authentic collaboration. It’s clear that customers want change, while brands are still attempting to work out how one can deliver that.

Jane Walsh, managing director of SEEN Group UK, backs this up and suggests stricter promoting rules as a possible solution. “I think there may be soon to be fatigue of #sponsored #ad,” she says. “Influencers were the authentic voice and back within the day there was no skew; their content was personal opinion, they usually weren’t accountable to anyone apart from their fans. But now they’re a mainstream type of media, the constraints of promoting have now began to infiltrate.” Which is something that was highlighted in an independent survey conducted by Bazaarvoice. Based on the survey, 49% of consumers consider there is a need for stricter rules for influencer posts. That is actually on the right track to becoming a reality. Within the last yr, the FTC within the US and the Promoting Standards Authority (ASA) within the UK updated their guidelines for influencer marketing, in a bid to raised regulate the industry. These updates include using dedicated post tags that clearly designate when something is an ad.

Nevertheless, there’s a gray area that features gifting of products and other non-monetary compensation reminiscent of brand trips, that don’t clearly fall under promoting. The query then becomes: How will we ensure authenticity within the influencer space while allowing influencers to properly do their job (which inevitably includes receiving products for testing)? Could a multi-level approach to ad labelling be the reply? Alexandra Pinder, director of London-based PR firm Halpern explains: “Brands still need to have the opportunity to supply product for review without it being considered bribery – if influencers can’t try it, they will’t let you recognize what they think. Stricter guidelines on this area will simply make it harder for brands and influencers, particularly those with small budgets to be heard. Regulation is sweet, it would just take some time to search out the brand new normal.”

Based on the IB report, one other way brands need to improve their authenticity is by working with influencers which are an organic fit for his or her brand, valuing an engaged audience over a big following, long-term partnerships over one-off transactional collaborations, and stronger reliance on metrics, with 67% taking a data-led approach. Because of this social media analytics, including audience insights and measures of engagement, are getting used to quantify how an influencer connects with their audience.

Turning to knowledgeable specialists is one other possible route, one which Alexandra Pinder confirms: “We consider that the authenticity required to be a real influencer comes from having a certain level of experience. A qualification or experience rooted in real knowledge of a certain field. You could be a hairdresser talking about hair…or a make-up artist talking about make-up, and even in case your followers aren’t within the tens or a whole bunch of hundreds, the chances are what you’ve got to say might be more relevant.” A way forward for beauty where knowledge and transparency are valued? Feels like what the industry finally needs.