Author Spotlight
Emmerson Winfrey
“Get ready with me to hang out with my friends!”
I hear a girl rant about her life, while decked out in Van Cleef Alhambras on every piece of jewelry with piles of Charlotte Tilbury makeup behind her as I open my TikTok daily.
“Let’s start with a primer!” she says next before opening a drawer filled with at least 30 primers ranging from Elf to Dior — half of which aren’t even open.
She repeats this with every step in her routine. Piles of barely touched products flood my screen one after the other. Halfway through I start to stop caring about how her foundation looks so smooth and start wondering why she feels the need to own every mascara that ever graced the Earth.
Social Media influencers glamorize overconsumption on a daily basis with their excessive “get ready with me’” and “day in the life”-style videos.
Overconsumption can lead to serious effects on our planet. We’re currently overusing the Earth’s natural resources by 70%, according to The World Counts. Every person being influenced by TikTok to buy that “must have” makeup product is using up more of these resources.
These products will just end up in landfills when they expire or their owners simply need to declutter. In fact, plastic packaging waste from the beauty industry alone reaches over 120 billion units of packaging waste annually, according to Banuba. Influencers making an aesthetic out of having loads of products only adds to this number.
Don’t get me wrong, just because an influencer has a long routine doesn’t mean they’re overconsuming. Influencers who have a lot of products but actually use them regularly aren’t the problem. The problem is influencers who make TikToks about reorganizing their skincare then proceeding to showcase 20 different unused Drunk Elephant products they’ve had for a year on their shelf to make it seem trendy.
Influencers need to start pushing their favorite products rather than overconsuming what’s trending that month and then keeping it in storage.
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