How to get beauty product reviews/updates if you are off social media

[hoping4onlychild]

I used to follow a lot of beauty influencers. I didn't really buy the stuff they recommended as it didn't fit my budget but I always used it as a way to find out what is out there as I love beauty products. For skincare, I usually use stuff from Superdrug/Korean brands and my makeup is exclusively Beauty Pie ( I have a £5 subscription).

However for mental health reasons, i have deactivated facebook, instragram, twitter, removed the apps from my phone, blocked those sites on my laptop and only kept the facebook app for messaging family members. I was tired of being pressured and made to feel less for thinking that a lot of these products are completely out of sync with responsible spending. I was tired of being subject to a curated version of people's lives at a time when I don't really go out and meet people due to covid 19 and hence am vulnerable to treating facebook like the real world.

However, I would love to find out whats new out there. In the past, people use to read magazines ( i loved doing that in my teen years as a 90s kid even though I never bought any of their recommended products). I feel that the mags never made me feel bad because firstly there was no comments section and secondly, I don't really feel jealous of celebs because the premise is that they aren't ordinary people in the first place. I liked that passive form of consuming beauty content.

I have also deleted all influencer content from my youtube by selecting the not- interested button whenver an influencer vid for handbags/makeup/fashion/consumer product pops up. Does anyone have any tips. :) Thank you.

Would you be okay with blogs? British Beauty Blogger is not an active salesperson, really just reports on what's new and coming next from a beauty enthusiast POV and has the occasional industry chatter in amongst it. She's very critical of influencer culture so it does set her apart.

There's also Reddit but just like MN it's not traditional social media but it does have an overlap and certain subreddits are very consumerist focused whereby new product releases create a culture of want and FOMO (and then there's the rehab ones for when you've burned all your money but those can be very supportive) so you really have to find a good fit with them. I tend to just use them to look up for user reviews rather than actively follow anything.

I do think there's professional sites that churn out all the press releases but not sure if you can access those without paying.

You could always try setting up a thread here, if there's enough posters who follow different sources it would make for interesting content.

@botemp thanks for the suggestion. i don't know about reddit, I often associate it with alt right. i guess the beauty section wouldn't be like that, but I don't like using a site that has such content. Cos it pops up.

maybe MN Beauty and style might be good. I mean, i discover korean products quite organically through yesstyle/stylevana anyway so this might be enough for the western beauty stuff.

Why don't you open a bloglovin account and follow a few bloggers who report on the latest products. As a previous poster mentioned, British Beauty Blogger is great. She is very sensible and honest. I always feel that I can trust her reviews. Really Ree is less critical but she does show all the latest releases and her blog is about the products rather than her.

@Housewife2010 thats a good idea too! Takes me back to my teen years when i used to follow my classmates' blogs!

Honestly those were better simpler times.

Glad I could help. Bloglovin is great. It's like curating your own magazine feed.

Reddit content is very segregated, you only follow one section and the site is not alt right at all. It is predominantly young male and American though (not the beauty areas although there are some men there) which shapes views more than political leanings, the issue with the subreddit format is that while it represents various views it does so in echo chambers, which means there are very conscious spending beauty focused ones but if you're on a spend spend sub you'd never be aware of it nor question the ethos of that sub. Anyhow, it's far from perfect and totally get that it doesn't necessarily appeal but it's good for user reviews if you're looking at something specific you just Google the product name + Reddit.

Yes, I was on the fence about mentioning Really Ree as she's quite uncritical and that does prey on insecurities that encourage buying into a more is more lifestyle IMO. I'm trying to remember another blogger, her name was Hailey and I think she started a 30plus bloggers collective but I'm not sure if she's still active as I remember she was becoming quite disheartened about influencer culture.

@botemp yes searching for reviews manually is probably the best option in a way. I mean women have been buying beauty products for decades without the internet and it all worked out fine. Without all the influencer drama and follower monetisation.

I learnt how to apply makeup in university using YouTube tutorials. At first it was all quite innocent- Lisa Eldridge, Michelle Phan where the focus was on technique and sometimes they would introduce a few faves. Then it became Caroline Hirons and 'if you can carry a £250 bag, you can afford to spend that on a single bottle of goo. Your face, your priorities'. I just want to enjoy makeup and skincare, not be pressured to spend more than I think is reasonable. It's not really about affordability in a way, in theory, many of us do have the money to buy the latest it item. But if you buy it all, you are subscribing into a lifestyle that traditionally would have been dominated by wealthy women and now that lifestyle is 'accessible' to everyone with an internet connection. It's the disconnect with reality I resent and I don't want a lifestyle that is out of sync with my other priorities , and I don't want it to be on a platform where it is 'normal'. cos even though I feel very strongly now that £40 for a serum is a lot of money and not something a woman without a high salary should take lightly, a lot of women on social media don't agree and I am afraid that if I am on it any longer, I would also be influenced. Sorry for the essay.

'If you buy it all, you are subscribing into a lifestyle that traditionally would have been dominated by wealthy women and now that lifestyle is 'accessible' to everyone with an internet connection'

That's not necessarily true, and that's the biggest con of it all. Wealthy women don't spend all that much and certainly not in the same volume and especially not on signposted luxury goods. Market research shows this over and over again, people who buy into this high cost entry luxury goods tier are people who are susceptible to the idea of it (usually stemming in feelings of not feeling worthy) and can only just afford to do so (and tend to accrue huge credit card debts as a result) all in exchange for some form of status.

Wealthy women already have the status so the appeal isn't there, they'll drop a bomb in a dermatologist's office and buy whatever they recommend though. The envisioned lifestyle isn't one anyone is really living, not even the influencers.

Over on the Fantastic Skincare threads on this board we do occasionally talk Asian beauty but the main focus is on sensible skincare with a scientific basis rather than chasing hope in a jar and orgasming over the next miracle ingredient du jour. We occasionally talk makeup too and it's meant to be a no pressure to buy space and we're all rather boring in our routines that barely change and don't compete with expensive handbags for pricetags.

Sorry, I got derailed with an essay too, but I was actually coming back to suggest the Temptalia blog. It's old school, it's a really methodical blog that goes through all the new releases that's very objective. Just informative and somewhat nostalgic of the old blogging days, the comment section is still alive and has a sense of community in there that's about appreciating makeup for makeup's sake.

@botemp Yes i have read research like that too. Some wealthy women i know buy department store makeup and carry expensive handbags simply because that was what was available in airport duty free and they were passing by. The money is such a tiny percentage of outgoings that it doesn't really matter. These women have busy lives so unlike me, don't have time to be hunting for discount codes and perusing multiple websites to get nice but reasonably priced products.

I like the sound of the Fantastic skincare threads. I agree about the credit card debt/aspirational buying. I used to be a concurrent member of facebook skincare groups and first time buyer groups. I remember there was this 1 member who couldn't get a mortgage due to multiple credit card defaults...and she was also an active member of the skincare group. Strange the women on the skincare group always say they can afford it . If they all could, the UK would be a much richer country than the stats show, as based on stats, the average brit wouldn't be able to last 6 months if he lost his job.

@botemp thanks for the suggestion! :)

Temptalia reviews products in such a detailed way. She is definitely a great one to follow. If I am interested in a new product, particularly a palette, her reviews are great for swatches ( which are particularly handy now when there are no testers in Boots!) and a full breakdown of their consistency and performance.
Botemp, I think you're referring to Hayley Hall who used to be London Beauty Queen. I still follow her, but am not that impressed with her recommendations. She seems to do loads of Ads now and preens a lot.

I'm amused this thread has been interrupted by an #ad (have reported it)

Yes, London Beauty Queen, that's her, it's a shame she's become what she so despised once. I'm pretty sure she quit but do you remember who the blogger was who was an expat in Dubai, she was great and always very atuned to her audience. I think there was also someone with Sunday in the blog title but I can't remember if it was an exemplary blogger or one that was absolutely awful with ad disclosure.

Hoping I must admit I am somewhat like that with makeup as it doesn't interest me as much as hair or skincare (probably because my skin and hair isn't easy and needs special care) so I buy expensive stuff when I'm somewhere where I'd be anyway (high end department store, duty free or chuck something random that looks good in a net a porter order) because it tends to be more idiot proof and I buy it really infrequently. Latest purchase was from Westman Atelier, really like it.

Botemp The Dubai blogger was Ex Pat Beauty Addict. She discovered exercise and lost loads of weight over the last couple of years and then seemed to move over to exercise content on Instagram. She was so nice but I'm far more interested in makeup than exercise so stopped following. The Sunday one is Sunday Girl. She still posts.

Ah yes that's her, how disappointing she's now an exercise bore (I mean great that she's enjoying that but I hate the fact I do exercise and I can't see me enjoying talk of more exercise).

Sunday Girl, yes, but I think I'm confusing her with Liberty London Girl which was the first beauty blog I followed back when it was all still anonymous and brands hated the exposure and kept threatening to sue them all. How times have changed.

I still follow Liberty London Girl. She's moved to the country now. Her blog is more lifestyle now.