Who’s Really Influencing the Way You Shop for Beauty?

30.06.2026, 15:28 allure.com

“Everyone’s an influencer these days.” I’ve heard it a hundred times, including directed at myself since I started a humble content-creation journey over the last year. (Let me live!) But while lots of us casually prop up our front-facing cameras to film hot takes that maybe 30 people will actually watch all the way through, beauty product recommendations that actually click and convert are still professional influencer territory, right?

Yes and no.

When Allure analyzed responses from more than 142,000 readers who participated in a survey conducted alongside the 2026 Readers' Choice Awards, we learned a lot. For example, readers who are most concerned about aging skin outnumber those who are most concerned about acne by more than double, and nearly a quarter of you are partaking in neuromodulators these days. But one finding stood out: Customer reviews appeared to hold slightly more sway over beauty purchases than influencers did.

Many of you are influenced by… well… influencers: A sturdy 41% of people surveyed said video reviews from influencers and celebrities are a factor in your decision-making when you’re buying a beauty product online. But what really surprised Allure editors is not that so many of you let content creators shape your shopping. It’s that regular customer reviews and comments—what you’d find at the bottom of a Sephora product page and have probably written a few of yourself—seem to have a slightly stronger influence than videos, with 42 percent of respondents naming them as a factor in purchasing decisions. (That’s up three points from last year’s survey.)

It’s not that the age of the influencer is over. It’s just that, for a lot of beauty shoppers, the content creator and the everyday opinion are working in tandem: The majority of people lurking in the reviews section said they’re also watching creator videos, and vice versa.

No one needs to tell you that social platforms have become saturated with paid partnerships featuring familiar faces. And while you may not mind seeing a few ads and even find your interest sparked by them, most people understand that even reviews not marked as #sponsored might have been the result of an incentive, like a free product. The creators who maintain strong trust with their audiences are also known to receive artfully packaged mailers for meticulously marketed launches, so perceived credibility is inevitably skewed.

The result of this ad ennui seems to be shoppers placing more trust in their fellow consumers. True, non-incentivized customer reviews are lower-stakes, typically with no motivation to please a brand. A shopper describing how a blush faded after an hour or how a mousse really defined their curls is doing so because they were just that annoyed or impressed.

Content creators have become scouts, and customer reviews serve as fact-checkers. Influencers establish awareness and offer some product education, but it’s customer reviews that inspire the confidence to click “add to cart.”

“I’ve been able to try thousands of products over the years, compare formulas side by side, and see how they perform in different situations, so I can usually explain not just whether I like something, but why it works the way it does and who it might work best for,” says Rose Siard, winner of the 2026 Readers’ Choice Award for Favorite Beauty Content Creator. “That said, I don’t represent everyone, and I don’t think any one voice should. Beauty is really personal. Sometimes a shopper connects more with another customer’s experience because it feels closer to their own reality, and that makes sense to me.”

Even the more universally applicable products have found their once influencer-established popularity sustained by the rubber stamp of customer reviews. Take Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask: It started popping up on TikTok in the early 2020s, really reaching a very visible head in 2023. But while content creators aren’t gushing about it quite as often as they once did, the lip balm—which has thousands of five-star reviews across a variety of retail websites (it has 22,000 reviews on Sephora, 8,000 of which are indicated as incentivized)—has maintained its popularity, continuing to win Readers’ Choice Awards each year without a content creator megaphone at full volume.

Influencer content remains highly effective at discovery—even I’ve learned about new products via TikTok before receiving a PR pitch—as well as demonstrating application techniques, and generating excitement. But discovery and conversion are not the same thing.

“I think both matter. Creators can offer education and context, and customers offer lived experience that might mirror your own,” Siard says. “When you have both of those in front of you, it just makes the decision feel more informed.”

Turns out everyone is an influencer these days.

More on the 2026 Readers' Choice Awards:

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