This morning, I glanced over at my desk and the eyeshadow palettes on top
of it. I mentally went over what is in each of them. I got to the palette
containing the Mineralista Skittles Collection and decided that this was a topic
that deserved its own post.
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| The Skittles Collection |
The first time I ever heard of this collection (and also Lime Crime, while
we're at it) was when I still watched xsparkage's videos on YouTube a few years
ago. Leesha posted swatches on her blog from both Mineralista and Lime Crime,
and the colors were really bright and appealing. I loved playing around with
color back then, so I was very interested in the Skittles Collection. I had to
have it, so I immediately went on my merry way to the Mineralista website and
ordered the pigments.
Only recently did I find out, while doing a search for Mineralista to see
if they had released anything else, that these pigments were actually repackaged
TKB micas. And they were being sold at a huge markup. I thought, "Here we go
again. Another Lime Crime."
If you don't already know about Lime Crime's drama, allow me to direct you
here:
It was not lost on me that I discovered both of these companies through
Leesha's blog and videos. I'm not going to place all the blame on her. In
retrospect, I should have looked into Mineralista before purchasing anything
from them. And I have learned my lesson since then. That being said...
As a YouTube "guru," you have a responsibility to your viewers to research
the products you are promoting. These girls have a lot of younger viewers and it
may not occur to them to research these companies. They will blindly trust the
people they're watching. I see it all the time when it comes to another "guru"
(bonus points if you can guess which one it is). You owe it to the
impressionable younger girls who watch you to let them know exactly what it is
they are purchasing.
I no longer watch beauty videos on YouTube. As YouTube has become more of a
business, the quality of the content seems to have gone down. Not only that, but
a lot of these girls are getting greedy and trying to pull things over on their
subscribers. They're being less than honest.
A small disclaimer posted somewhere in the middle of your video's
description is a bit deceitful. There is a reason you are expected to tell your
subscribers when a video is sponsored, because your opinion may be swayed by the
free products given to you. The least you can do is be upfront about it.
Also, that entitled attitude won't get you anywhere. Receiving a commission
by working retail and receiving money off of your order with websites like
HauteLook and Ideeli because you posted an affiliate link and told your
subscribers to click it...Those are two different things. You're not catering to
them in a store, so using that excuse is tacky. It would be less irritating if
you were honest about it from the start.
I'm less than impressed with YouTube's beauty community these days. That is
why I'm making this post.
Before you listen to a self-proclaimed makeup artist (if you don't see
proof that they are a practicing makeup artist and not just someone who applies
makeup in videos, there's probably a reason for it), do your research. It takes
seconds to do a search on Google. The "gurus" aren't looking out for your best
interest, so you need to make sure you are.
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