Standing in front of the mirror you begin to psychoanalyze every imperfection on your face. From the blemishes to the bumps, your fingers trace against each pore that jumps out at you. It wasn’t until recently that it dawned on you how imperfect you were; it never used to cross your mind when you were a kid and that bothers you. You pick at your face to the point where the blemishes that once were noticeable are no longer visible. Your whole face turns red from the irritation; it doesn’t bother you anymore because you yearn for the results you have seen across your social media platforms. Because of course, if it works for them, it must work for you.
You love the feeling of having products. The packaging, the smells, the look of the container, it all makes you feel good about yourself. Maybe it even distracts you from the real root of your issues for a split second. Toner, retinol, serum, cream, every product you saw those influencers with flawless skin use. You spent hours perfecting your beauty routine to look like them. But what you’ll eventually realize is that this intense skincare routine won’t be able to solve the real issue at hand: insecurity.
This need to fix all of the imperfections whether that be with skincare or makeup has led young people to be a consumerist generation, according to Statista. Especially with Generation Z (those born between 1997 and 2012) being born into social media and technology, the lure of consumerism is high. According to EcoCart, 97% of Gen Z shoppers admitted to being more inclined to buy something if displayed on social media.
It all starts with trends. A huge trend that has surfaced in the media is Korean skincare, otherwise known as “K-Beauty.” Korean beauty originated in the three kingdoms of Goguryeo, Baekje and Shilla. According to OhLolly, a Korean beauty retailer, the idea of “inner beauty” was highly valued in Korean culture since the Josean Dynasty (1392-1897) which advocates for natural beauty. However, the idea of “inner beauty” is still relevant today.
A survey in 2022 conducted by Opensurvey on Statista reported that 45.5% of South Korean women have expectations for their “inner beauty products” to improve their skin elasticity. This led to the widespread ideal of blemish-free skin as it symbolizes good health. Within these Korean kingdoms came the introduction of various scrubs, creams and powders to perceive the skin as nearly perfect. Currently, the Korean beauty industry is estimated to be worth more than $13 billion and highly advanced for its time. According to Shopaland, K-beauty entered the US market in 2011 with the popular Korean brand Dr. Jart+ in Sephora and today dominates the forefront of Generation Z’s minds.
Today, the role of social media is very prevalent when it comes to forming young people’s desire for skincare. According to a Statista study conducted in 2024, Gen Z is annually spending more than $2,000 on beauty products, with almost half saying they were “willing to cut back on other expenses in order to allocate more money for beauty items.”
The rise in overconsumption has been caused by the presence of beauty trends on multiple social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and Youtube. Forbes explains that these platforms have become goldmines for beauty brands and influencers to reach young consumers.
“It’s always onto the next thing without even taking a second for the last. We are so focused on having the newest and the ‘best’ product that is popular. We tend to practice herd mentality a lot and throw the ‘old’ products practically in the garbage,” said Leo Liu, junior. “There is such a high demand for the newest things that people just want to consume more than anything.”
Product reviews, get-ready-with-me’s, makeup tutorials, before and after shots. All of this content has captured Gen Z’s attention, and in turn, has convinced them that they also need more products In fact, according to the same Statista survey, 83% of Gen Z women purchase beauty products online because of a content creator’s recommendation.
With the constant stream of flawless images and videos, influencers are able to promote unrealistic beauty standards and idealized body images, which can be detrimental to mental health, according to a study published in the International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews (IJRAR).
The same study showed how the marketing on these platforms is quite harmful to the younger demographic of girls in Gen Z and Gen Alpha, defined as those born between 2012 and 2024, as they are the most susceptible to the harmful impacts of unrealistic beauty standards constantly propagated by influencers.
This unrealistic beauty standard creates pressure to achieve the same results “as a result of social media influencers showing off their immaculate bodies and advertising products that claim to assist their followers reach the same,” according to the IJRAR study.
Young girls feel the need to buy many skincare products because they “feel like they need to buy these products to keep up with the trends and imitate the influencers they look up to,” according to Forbes.
“I do believe that social media influences a lot because, with influencers who post ads and are getting paid to promote products, especially those with a big following, it makes people want to buy more stuff,” said Jadelynn Hau, freshman.
In reality, most teenagers and kids don’t need these products at all, and it may in fact be damaging their skin instead of helping it, according to Connecticut Children’s Medical Center.
“When young people use products that are generally not meant for them, for example chemical peels or abrasive scrubs, it can create a whole bunch of new problems that they didn’t even have before they started using them, like irritation, redness, burning sensations, intense dryness and even allergic reactions,” said Dr. Michelle Pipitone, dermatologist based in Glen Ellyn, Ill.
Influencers often receive public relations packages, or PR packages, of free products to promote on their platforms, and some even get paid to review these products. As influencers reveal the influx of products they are receiving, this often leaves consumers believing that they need to have more beauty and skincare products to achieve perfect skin and the idealized version of beauty influencers have created.
“When you see so many people around you doing something, it gets normalized. It becomes mainstream, and people are more likely to do it if they see the masses doing it too,” said Sanskruti Patel, sociology teacher. “Somebody’s more likely to do something because there’s so many other people not just willing to do it, but already doing it.”
Along with influencers and product marketing, TikTok trends have contributed to this unattainable beauty trend. The term “glass skin” is a way to describe perfectly clear, glowy skin that is without any imperfections. The hashtag “glass skin” is popular on TikTok, garnering more than 2.6 billion views according to Statista, and more than half a million posts.
“When something becomes viral, it’s herd mentality,” Patel said. “It feeds the idea that it is popular, and then it becomes more popular, and it snowballs from there. But some of it is just the perception of it being popular. Then it feeds that idea that everybody has it, so you want it too… I think social media has definitely become a key pillar of what a person’s reality and perception of that is.”
Because these skincare trends, such as glass skin, promote the unrealistic standard of perfect, flawless skin, which is impossible to get, people are left with disappointment and more stress from false hope, according to The Phillipian. The alluring promise of perfect skin is quickly dismantled when trying to actually get it in practice.
Often, these trends and bombardment of skincare and beauty products, which could just be a harmless trend talking about how helpful a product is, gets into women and girls’ heads that something about them is wrong, and they feel like they’re not enough, and that all that matters is how they look, according to the Medium.
“Kids are watching beauty gurus or influencers, and they’re obtaining these very complex regimens, and they’re using them when they are not the intended audience,” Dr. Pipitone said.
An example of this is how anti-aging products that have been trending on social media have reached an audience of teenagers. Teen Vogue explains how online culture and mass obsession with skincare has made people think that aging is a moral failure, and something that can be easily avoided if you have the right products and enough money.
Even though they are young and their skin has not started to age yet, many girls believe in taking preemptive measures and “adopting strict anti-aging skincare regimes,” according to The Guardian. These young girls seem to be more and more preoccupied with anti-aging, even though they are children.
With this rise of social media trends and the influence to buy products featured comes a market of expensive brands. Within the skincare industry exists medical grade, drugstore and high end brands. According to Prestige Medical Group, medical grade skincare contains higher levels of active ingredients thus making it a good choice for consumers looking to tackle a specific skin concern.
However, they often need a prescription and are hard to access for the average person. These products also penetrate the skin to work at the cellular level and are thoroughly researched and backed by science. While drugstore brands are relatively easy to access, they do not penetrate the skin in the same way medical grade options do, but can still be a good option as they will not harm the skin. Lastly, luxury brands relatively have the same concentration of active ingredients as do drugstore brands however are priced at a much higher price.
Luxury brands can be more appealing to consumers because, according to Medium, consumers buy products for their perceived quality, sophistication and exclusiveness. This is often brought about by the packaging, colors and innovative technologies that these brands claim to have. However, according to the FDA the cosmetics industry does not necessarily have to be approved, meaning there is no way to ensure the ingredients companies are putting into their formulas are as beneficial as they claim to be.
While these luxury products that are promoted by influencers can be appealing, not every consumer is participating in this trend. In some cases, some may even prefer cheaper products as they can perform on the same level as high-end products.
“I think there’s not really a difference between them. Just because something’s more expensive doesn’t mean it works better. In some cases, it does have better quality, but it’s not for every product,” Hau said. “I have realized that I do prefer some things that are cheaper. Especially because you can just buy a drugstore product and slap a name brand on it, and people will automatically think it’s better. It’s more the brands trying to get you to buy their product rather than actually having a good quality product.”
According to Brandingmag, when people see luxury brands the part of the brain that is associated with self interest activates. Not only this, but people tend to judge others based on what they have; specifically, if someone has more money or not, that directly attributes to our view on that person. Luxury items are a symbol of wealth, thus having luxury goods makes people feel superior, according to the Fashion & Law Journal.
However, luxury is not always better. According to Byrdie, drugstore brands such as CeraVe, Cetaphil and La Roche-Posay are known to be highly effective and dermatologist tested.
“Over the counters are usually less than about $30 or $40. Sometimes the more expensive creams do have more expensive ingredients, but they may not have been proven to do much more than drugstore ones,” said Dr. Pipitone. “Sometimes the marketing and packaging and advertising can add to the cost, so they could just be more expensive and not really be more effective.”
However, not all luxury cosmetic brands are keeping to the blueprint. Clean beauty brands are now on the rise. According to ESW, Sephora now carries 80 clean beauty brands such as Ilia, Kosas, Lawless, Saie, Summer Fridays and Merit. Not only is there a significant amount of clean brands within Sephora stores but clean beauty sales are growing 80% faster than the overall market as the overall market saw growth rates in sales of 2% in 2021, while clean beauty products saw growth rates of 8.1%. Likewise, ESW reported that 68% of consumers seek out clean beauty products.
Despite the increase in safer and clean beauty, it is generally recommended for young people to avoid expensive products and complicated, lengthy routines, according to the Children’s Hospital of Orange County.
Dr. Pipitone gave some guidelines for teen skincare routines, intended to be general information and not be taken as medical advice.
“In general, what teens should focus on are three main things: cleansing, moisturizing and using sunscreen,” Dr. Pipitone said. “There are more specific recommendations for teens with eczema and acne. But in general, cleansing at least twice a day, and then also after sports, or after sweating.”
Dr. Pipitone emphasized that treatments will be different for each patient, as skin concerns are different. A recent study from Sermo found that 73% of physicians had safety concerns about cosmetic trends that they had seen on TikTok, while 59% of doctors said social media has been harmful to their efforts to manage patients’ expectations around cosmetic treatments. According to Medical Marketing and Media, students shouldn’t follow all the trends they see on social media and instead seek medical advice, still acknowledging that some treatments are not always effective.
Next time you revisit your bathroom, you’re no longer searching your skin for every imperfection, realizing that having imperfections is human. It was never needed to try those retinol creams, scrub your face, buy unnecessary products and have a 12 step routine. It is evident to you now that overconsumption cannot fix all of your problems, only your mindset can change. After sticking to your few drugstore products for half the price your skin is doing better now. You come to the conclusion that it is time to stop falling for every influenced product you see online; you are finally content with yourself and your basic products.
