Blurred Of Mouth

Online Reviews Have Become A Bedrock Of The Multi Billion-dollar Beauty Industry. You Really Think Brands Aren’t Getting Involved?

- JESSICA CHIA

It’s Saturday night, you’re somewhere downtown, and the bathroom line is long. Like, 15 people long. Some are staring at their phone, some are glancing out at the dance floor wistfully, like kids in detention watching recess. The woman in front of you is wearing the most incredible red lipstick you have ever seen, a vibrant red that skews orange when the strobe light hits. Not too matte, not too shiny. Is it Dragon Girl? You don’t know, but you have to ask.

So you do. What unfolds is natural: The two of you share a tenuous but palpable bond, right there, in the bathroom line, over that red lipstick. You were looking for something, somebody else discovered it, and you found that person. Chatting about lipstick turns into chatting about life. Maybe you become friends, or maybe you never see each other again. But you got the shade name. And the horizon of your world spreads a bit broader.

Until you find out Dragon Girl wasn’t a girl at all, but an influencer planted there to tug on that thread of beauty curiosity. Or a robot programmed to spew praise at anybody it registers as a human woman age 28 to 40 with an annual income of $50,000 or more in the American Midwest. Or a lipstick brand masquerading as a beauty reviewer on a large retailer’s website. “The perfect red-orange,” she says. “Just the right amount of matte-to shine ratio!”