Now Is The Time For You To Know The Truth About Instagram Makeup Artists & Big Cosmetic Companies
The beauty/cosmetic industry has gotten a little fanatical over the past couple of years. Amateur makeup artists are now working closely with big brand cosmetic companies and selling some of their biggest product lines. And they’re selling like they’ve never sold before.
And it’s working in a big way.
The competition between cosmetic companies is fierce. The global cosmetic industry rakes in billions of dollars every year. It’s estimated the global cosmetic industry will reach $675 billion US dollars by 2020. It’s no surprise the competition is fierce! Who wouldn’t want a piece of a $600+ billion dollar pie?
The title “professional makeup artist” was once a respected and highly regarded occupation.
An industry that once held an esteemed reputation among cosmetic brands has as of late become a bit of a laughing stock. There is a sea of young, ambitious “Instagram makeup artists” earning thousands of dollars every month from big brand cosmetic companies. These ‘tricksters’ who claim to know a whole lot about makeup have in reality very little experience other than applying makeup to their own face. These ‘con artists’ now influence how we’re supposed to look, what we should be buying and how we feel about ourselves in general. And the big brands are behind them 100%!
Guess what’s behind door #1. If you guessed money and lots of it, you’d be right.
The more dramatic and ridiculous the makeup technique being publicized the more popular it seems to become. There are actual videos out there of professional makeup artist imposters demonstrating how women should use maxi pads and kitchen utensils along with a variety of makeup products to help contour their face! You want your face to look thinner, try a maxi pad! They’ll teach you how to look ridiculous in 5 simple steps! But don’t worry, it won’t cost you much to get this ‘stunning’ look. Just a few (ahem) hundred dollars!
Applying 6 different foundation shades to your face and claiming it’s ‘natural looking’ shouldn’t be celebrated or encouraged. It should be banned!
Big brand cosmetic companies are riding this new wave of social media. All the while they are raking in the big bucks and ignoring the ill-treated true professional makeup artists who quite frankly don’t deserve what’s come their way.
This issue has become a burning and sometimes intense topic within the ‘real’ makeup artist industry itself. Many major commercial and advertising makeup artists right here in North America have been abandoned by some of the big brand named companies because their social media online presence wasn’t capturing the ‘right target audience.’ Cosmetic companies are instead using young inexperienced ‘con-artists’ to sell their makeup products online and they are at times even encouraging very outrageous application techniques.
In case you’re wondering, you aren’t the right target audience for many of the big brand cosmetic companies if you aren’t in your 20’s to early 30’s and plan on spending half your income a month on beauty products.
This is who the big boys are selling to on social media. Young women and young men. Does this mean if you’re over 40 they assume you aren’t using Instagram or Facebook? Or maybe they know you’re not so easily influenced, so why bother? 😉 Here’s some food for thought… Many of my personal clients are on social media as am I and we ARE paying attention and we aren’t very impressed that we’re being ignored. Even my 80 year old mother uses social media! Imagine the conversations I have with her after she’s seen some scary looking teenager selling her favourite makeup brand online!
[clickToTweet tweet=”Women/men over 40 have more disposable income to spend so how about showing us a little love too? ” quote=”Women/men over 40 have more disposable income to spend so how about showing us a little love too?” theme=”style6″]
Cosmetic companies have had no real ground breaking, eye opening, stunning new makeup products developed in many years.
Creativity within the development of new makeup products has taken a back seat. What is front and centre though is how marketing departments have become so brilliant at re-marketing and re-branding the same makeup product over and over and then having the cheek to call that repetitive product “innovative.” The public has been lied to for years and it’s not OK.
Dying to try a new makeup formulation? What’s the point? There’s nothing new for us to see, nothing new and outstanding for us to try.
It’s true what they say… youth is beauty yet even those of us who aren’t 25 any longer still want to look great, to look current and feel the best we can. Dollar signs have clouded the cosmetic industry’s vision for awhile now but things will change soon.
Before long, big brand cosmetic companies will be forced to change their market direction or be left out in the cold. And we all know that’s never going to happen! It’s a statistical fact that globally we are aging. In most countries around the world we simply aren’t having children at the same rate we did 40 – 50 years ago. It’s estimated that by 2050 our population will have more adults that are 65+ than children and that means the direction of cosmetic companies and how they market will require change.
My prediction?
Within the next couple of years we should start seeing more natural based cosmetics brands that actually work and more big name cosmetic brands catering to the aging population. It will become less about throwing money at the ‘con artist’ and more about seeking out those who have been in the industry longer than a nanosecond.
Shame on all the non-pro ‘con artists’ who think this new wave of social media makeup is here to stay. And who also believe the big bucks will always be there provided they keep pumping botox into their face. Think again. It would appear your 5 minutes of fame is almost up.
Interested to know who the real YouTube and Instagram makeup guru’s are? Here are the makeup artists I follow:
Let me know your thoughts on this subject. Do you agree or disagree and why? Let me know!