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Honest or paid? Influencers walk a tightrope of credible product reviews
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BLP's Beauty team believes negativity from being honest can be used to improve their products. (Courtesy of BLP Beauty) (Personal archive/Courtesy of BLP Beauty)
Can influencers stay objective when reviewing products by paying sponsors?
With a fanbase that trusts her views on the latest beauty products, beauty influencer Lifni Sanders has had both paid and unpaid review “collaborations” from brands across the beauty industry.
The 26-year-old beauty influencer, who uses the moniker “livjunkie” online, is one of the country’s rising beauty influencers with 67.4k Instagram followers and 464k YouTube subscribers and counting.
Many of her target audience go to her to hear honest reviews before deciding on which products to buy. Many consider her a credible and fair reviewer, leaving comments that praise the candid quality of her reviews.
She started as many other influencers do - doing things for the “exposure” and visitors. “I used to do unpaid reviews in exchange for getting the products [for free]. When you are just starting out, that kind of collaboration helps a lot because it gives you a chance to be the first one to review a specific product, which then leads traffic to your page,” Lifni shared.
Eventually, she became well-known enough to attract paying advertisers. The brands, she said, want “guaranteed exposure for their products” to her audience.
Although Lifni says that she only accepts paid endorsement from brands that “align with [her] values'”, her increasing fanbase and sponsors means a growing assumption that her positive reviews will skew towards a more positive tone for paying sponsors.
