It’s getting harder and harder to find out what’s real and what’s not real in the sweetness world. Images are readily photoshopped, selfies are most of the time Facetuned and who hasn’t tried an Instagram filter or five. From the era of printed glossies to the rise of e-commerce web sites, beauty reviews have served an easy yet critical function – to help consumers in making informed buying decisions. Yet two brands, Kylie Skin and Sunday Riley, have recently come under fire for reportedly faking their online customer reviews, making us query their purpose and whether it’s possible to trust these sorts of reviews anymore. Are they still relevant in today’s age?

Beauty reviews give insights into products which might be incredibly helpful for fellow consumers and the broader industry alike. “Broadly speaking, (beauty reviews) might be divided into two: customer reviews and influencer/media reviews. Customer reviews are supposed to be raw, unedited user experiences, but skilled reviews are sometimes sponsored by brands and are inclined to be positive,” says Estee Laundry, the anonymous beauty collective and industry watchdog. “We live in an age where there are millions of influencers recommending products they were paid to advertise, so customers rely heavily on unbiased user reviews on web sites like Sephora to make decisions. These reviews, subsequently, do have a big effect on sales.” 

Customer reviews are inclined to survive the brand’s or a retailer’s website while an influencer/media review is one which appears on social media or via a web based or print publication. Each help people answer questions like: ‘What type of skin types or tones are certain products useful for?’ ‘How will this product impact my skin?’ An effusive review for the foaming face wash on kylieskin.com by Carmella G reads: “This face wash ended up becoming my favorite face wash of all time. I really like how foamy it gets, and while you put it on the face it’s super creamy on the skin. I feel my skin is clean without it feeling stripped. I highly recommend. I actually have sensitive and dry skin.” 

A 2018 Bazaarvoice survey found that “greater than three in 4 US (77 per cent) and French (76 percent) internet buyers read product reviews before purchasing for greater than half the products they buy.” This also includes in-store shoppers, with the corporate saying that 45 per cent of in-store shoppers read reviews before buying (there are surveys that show higher numbers as well). Elizabeth M. Donat, a Latest York and internationally licensed aesthetician says that these reviews boost customer confidence, giving them a platform to share firsthand experiences, product flaws and critiques.

So how are you going to discover a fake one? “Fake reviews are getting hard to identify and experts are usually not necessarily in agreement about what constitutes one. In actual fact, many have opposing views. They have a tendency to be overwhelmingly positive, they usually are sometimes written by latest accounts that don’t produce other reviews,” says Estee Laundry. In Donat’s view, “Tell-tale signs of pretend reviews are lengthy reviews that use industry jargon, reviews that deal with addressing or answering an issue with the product, reviews that contain repetitive buzz words or descriptors, reviews that come from all around the world with consistent spelling errors, and overly negative reviews that attack the brand as an entire as an alternative of points of the product itself.”

“Fake reviews are frequently on the shorter side and include red flags like ‘I don’t normally write reviews’, ‘life-changing’, ‘miracle in a bottle’, ‘definitely worth the price,’ ‘holy grail product’, ‘I’ve tried every thing’, ‘I never write reviews like this’, and ‘trust me’” – Mallory Huron, Fashion Snoops trend forecaster

Beauty editor and Fashion Snoops trend forecaster Mallory Huron believes that fake reviews are frequently on the shorter side and include red flags like “I don’t normally write reviews”, “life-changing”, “miracle in a bottle”, “definitely worth the price,” “holy grail product”, “I’ve tried every thing”, “I never write reviews like this”, and “trust me”. Though not all reviews which have these phrases are fake, Huron says these common phrases are used to ascertain trust and legitimacy with the reader and increase interest within the product. Moreover, she reports that many fake reviews will just give the product five stars and one vague line equivalent to “love this product,” “great product,” or “does what it says.” With skincare, watch out for reviews that claim “immediate” or “overnight” results. A very good hack Huron uses is reading two to four-star reviews for more honest, authentic feedback. 

“While a consumer might pause for a moment to scan reviews before making an impulse buy, lots of of glowing, fake five-star reviews will quickly persuade that consumer to click ‘Complete Order,’” Huron continues. Beauty consumer Meg shares, “I really like a review, but I cross-index across multiple sites if I can, and disrespect probably the most glowing and probably the most critical.” Reading review after review of how a product ‘modified someone’s skin’ or is a ‘must-have lip color’ works in your mind similar to marketing based on the sweetness editor. It gets into your head, convincing you that a product isn’t only the very best but that it would also someway make your life higher. “It’s insidious marketing masked as a real consumer experience,” Huron says.

Kristen says she looks at the entire picture when buying products: “Why people rate something highly or lowly. What do influencers I trust say concerning the product? I’m a sample queen, so I rarely buy anything on reviews alone.” Others look to YouTube: “I truthfully love YouTube for beauty reviews because I can hear their honest opinion on a product and infrequently they are going to disclose in the event that they are sponsored by the corporate,” adds Alexis.

But what concerning the scandals? “While we’ve seen strong social media backlash and brand-shunning for brand image missteps (see: Kat Von D), there hasn’t been much lasting damage for review fakers,” offers Huron. “Even Sunday Riley managed to weather the storm of a flagrant, public, egregious scandal, receiving merely a slap-on-the-wrist punishment and selecting to easily ignore the flood of shaming comments on their social media.” Sunday Riley could have been temporarily hurt by the fake reviews (it was put under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission but has since settled), but fans like Sheila are still using products. She says she loves them, telling us that if she hadn’t tried any of its products before the reports of pretend reviews got here out, she could have decided against it. “I truthfully don’t know why Sunday Riley even needed the boost of pretend reviews. A whole lot of my skincare ladies on IG/YouTube legit used her products.”

Estee Laundry explains that “(Kylie Jenner’s) brand has disrupted the industry due to her strong celebrity status and the incontrovertible fact that she always has tension in her inventory.” The brand’s issue was that they were filtering out negative reviews, they usually stopped doing that after the platform called them out for it. “They never acknowledged it or apologised for it, they usually are hoping it would just blow over.” Huron doesn’t think there will probably be any retribution in any respect. “Each of those brands have massive, hyper-loyal followings (with Kylie’s being a majority of fairly impressionable young teens/tweens and Gen-Zers), and folks who already love their products just aren’t going to stop (buying them).”

“I’m not touching anything with Kylie Jenner’s name on it. I learned my lesson from her lip kit that didn’t actually work on my real full lips,” says Justine. Lauren says she’s all the time been skeptical of Kylie Skin’s reviews, expressing, “I remember reading reviews on (Kylie’s) skincare and was like ‘Pfffft these are either by teens with no actual skin issues or it’s total BS’.” Katherine  believes every brand and product purchases fake reviews, some just get caught, while Lindsay even knows a whole lot of actors that write fake beauty reviews as a side hustle.

Donat believes “consumers see this behavior as a natural results of the culture of online beauty sales and market competition. It’s the brand new normal and it’s here to remain.” Although it seems that we definitely can’t trust beauty reviews anymore, we might be more discerning customers when purchasing products by taking note of signs that indicate a review is likely to be fake.

“Although it seems that we definitely can’t trust beauty reviews anymore, we might be more discerning customers when purchasing products by taking note of signs that indicate a review is likely to be fake” 

For brands that do care about their reviews – including luxury brands attempting to succeed in more educated or informed demographics – and the way customers view them, Huron says it’s vital to be transparent with consumers. “Be open with customers about how reviews are monitored, what terms and conditions they provide to influencers receiving the product at no cost to review, and, most significantly, follow up with all negative reviews.” If a brand takes time to answer one or two stars with an easy: “We’re so sorry it didn’t give you the results you want! Please DM us for a refund and tell us what happened,” it displays trust and accountability, and proves they’re monitoring negative reviews as an alternative of deleting them. “Honesty and sincerity is the very best policy, especially when individuals are deciding what products to placed on their face.”

Moving forward, Meg says, “I’m wondering if there’s a technique to do (fastidiously monitored) video reviews of a product so you may see someone’s enthusiasm for a product in a really possible way, you may tell they’re an actual person and never a bot that’s put up 100 reviews in a day. You may tell if that person’s aesthetic and interests are just like your personal.” One other suggestion is that sites provide the flexibility to filter out the verified purchaser reviews. “I realise Amazon has issues with this, but I’d like to see this as a straightforward filter on Sephora, Ulta, Blue Mercury, etc. It behooves the stores to have real reviews, whether or not they are positive or negative, too,” one beauty consumer concludes. “There must also be a filter to remove reviews of people that got the product at no cost, via Influenster and other programs like that. I actually don’t trust those reviews.”