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Influenster, please go away!

Can Sephora please block all Influenster-related reviews? They are taking over certain products and it's so hard to get to a real review to determine if a product is worth buying. These ladies are only posting a review b/c they got the product for free, and they are making the review positive b/c they want more free stuff. I'm sure some, or even most, are honest, but it's so hard to weed through them. I was looking through the reviews on Becca's Anti-Fatigue Under Eye Primer and every review was from an Influenster. It's irritating!

Re: Influenster, please go away!

My question is how does everyone else get such amazing products to test from Influencer! I did it for quite a while, but never received anything! I do think, for the most part, reviewers for Influencer give their honest opinion in their reviews. I would have doubts about a product review if the product was gifted directly from the Brand in exchange for a review. I never got the impression that Influencer expected positive reviews. They seemed more interested in receiving honest feedback that a Brand could benefit from hearing. It’s really no different than a marketing test group.

Re: Influenster, please go away!

I don't say it's good if it's not. I won't lie

Re: Influenster, please go away!

Influenster culture is unnecessary and harmful to the earth. (There is no reason why beauty companies can’t harvest reviews from people who have actually purchased the product. A product the person Wants and will most likely use completely). Beauty hoarders are receiving many more beauty products than they need, most of which won’t be completely used (save one time for an “unbiased” review). Then straight to the landfill. Even if you use “most” of these products, it’s still insanely wasteful. (Multiply every eyeshadow or body wash you hate and thus toss in the trash by hundreds of thousands and think about that for a bit). Don’t even get me started on the packaging. Meanwhile, the rest of us pay more so you can hoard makeup for free. (These beauty companies don’t absorb the cost of mailing out freebies; it’s passed on to the consumer). This particular type of greed is wasteful, irresponsible, and extremely destructive to our planet. 

Re: Influenster, please go away!

If you get something from Influenster, you HAVE to do the reviews & activities it tells you to if you want more free stuff. You actually DON'T have to make the review positive. Influenster doesn't care at all if the reviews are positive or negative. They just want the reviews to be honest & helpful. I've gotten things from them that I've given glowing 5 star reviews, things that I've given 1 star reviews (& even made it clear that they didn't even deserve that 1 star), & some that are somewhere in between. All reviews I have written are honest (& absolutely no different than the ones I'd leave on an un-incentivized store website, as are the vast majority of Influenster-based reviews. I have noticed that several of the products that were beyond horrible for me had amazing reviews across all platforms & several of the products that do way better for me than any other products have crappy reviews across all platforms. 

Re: Influenster, please go away!

Hello everyone, 

I read all your messages and just to let you know Sephora has free gifts with purchases.  So even here you get free gifts. A free gift is just that. You can review it how ever you want. If you did not know I also do reviews on Amazon and verified purchases there is not what you think. Some people get free gifts from sellers on Amazon and hype up the reviews so in reality you really don’t know if the purchases are really verified! Lol. You all don’t really understand what marketing, advertising is all about when dealing with these corporations. Have a great day ya’ll! 😉

Thank you all for your opinions. 

Honest & True reviewer! Don’t care what anyone think! Lol. 

Re: Influenster, please go away!

@Charity29 so true!! many ppl here regularly get free stuff from sephora (often, sephora's brand items), so, I dont see how thats any different. not to mention there are many avenues to to cultivate reviews, whether giving away free stuff, paying ppl to review things, or, having employees do it - remember the sunday riley scandal? I have also recieved several messages on another site from ppl offering to pay me to review their stuff on amazon. fraud comes in all flavors!!  but, influenster is actually legal, sooo...

Re: Influenster, please go away!

I write honest reviews whether I buy the products or get them for free. I am very bold and honest. If you read my reviews on influenster you would see that. I have written reviews for things I have not agree with.  I wrote a lot more of products that I bought than what I received for free because I have only received free products from them twice. I recently found out that I will be receiving a free Spring VoxBox, making this my third time. People there have received a lot more free products than I have. I am brutally honest so I don’t know if that has any to do with me receiving less #VoxBoxes than others. That will not change me from who I am, I will continue to write truthful reviews!  Thanks for reading. Xoxo �Charity29 

Re: Influenster, please go away!

I am writing an honest review so please let me finish it 🙏🏼

Re: Influenster, please go away!

@DebKaye Sephora now has an option to show only verified purchases. 

Re: Influenster, please go away!

I actually just saw this too! And you can filter by it! 

Re: Influenster, please go away!

This is what we have to do when we get free stuff. I guess where you could think this they should just put the reviews like newest at the top.

Re: Influenster, please go away!

@Kali171 

Or you could just review your free stuff on influenster? 

Re: Influenster, please go away!

@GG84 Part of the mission is to actually review the product on Sephora. Part of the point of the brand giving the product out is to receive reviews on websites, such as Sephora. 

I totally understand how frustrating it can be. 

I wish Sephora would have an option to filter reviews by "received item for free" or not. I think that would help. 

Re: Influenster, please go away!

@rrroxanne 

They do. You can check off “view verified purchases only”. 

Re: Influenster, please go away!

@GG84 I actually just noticed this today! Thanks! I'm glad they added this feature. It's very frustrating trying to read through the reviews.

 

I appreciate receiving Influenster products. I've gotten to try some great products. But, every review I've ever made has been a true review. I know people think writing a positive review is going to somehow make them get chosen more. It is very hard to know which ones to trust. 

Re: Influenster, please go away!

Why rely on reviews? Buy it and return it if the product is no good. There are always glowing reviews for items that are brand new to Sephora and could not have even shipped and received in the time that the product has been available. Volition had a slew of 5 star reviews 24 hours after Sephora began selling their products. The mask I purchased was great, but the shadiness made me less inclined to try their other products. Maybe Sephora will wise up if people return, return, and keep returning products with bogus ratings. If it causes them to lose money, it may get their attention. And don't get me started on reviews of products for mature skin being written by people in their 20s. How do you know that a product addresses loss of elasticity if you have not experienced loss of elasticity?

Re: Influenster, please go away!

I agree... we need a verified purchase symbol on the review or something... I literally never take the review seriously if it says "reviewed because I got free" or something like that.. and unfortunately majority of the reviews are people that got the product for free. I get it that apparently they can leave any review, good or bad, but then sometimes you will look at their account and they have a bunch on reviews that are all 4 or 5 star.... and we all know that even if we don't make the effort to write a review about half of the stuff we get is not something we would leave a five star review for because we are usually comparing to other items that do the same thing, etc. ... so it's very unrealistic to me. 

Re: Influenster, please go away!

@browncourtneya I feel so embarrassed to admit I've left influenster reviews on Sephora because there seems to be so much disdain for them! 

 

But, let me tell you that my reviews have been honest.  The Bobbi Brown palette I received was trash, and I believe I indicated that in my review.  I also reviewed koopari deodorant for influenster, and if I gave it a glowing review, that's because I really liked it!  I actually just went out and purchased it last week during the sale -- so it is a product I would stand by. 

 

I will say, and this applicable for all reviews -- that I think there's a human bias to either write a 1 or 5 star review.  I'm not going to review something I feel ho-hum about.  I'm only reviewing things I hate or things I love.  It's possible that people writing reviews from influenster are just doing cut and paste reviews, however, it's really not that hard to do an honest review.  Influenster doesn't pay you for positive reviews or slap you on the wrist for negative reviews, so there's no incentive to leave a dishonest review, other than being lazy.  It is also possible that people are just so happy to receive free things that they write a glowing review just because they're in a good mood. 

 

I'd be more concerned about the fake reviews than Influenster reviews.

Re: Influenster, please go away!

@itscarin 

 

Agreed.

 

I've left influenster reviews as well and all reviews I've left were honest. 

 

I do understand and share the concern about the influenster reviews though:

 - a lot of them do seem like copy and paste 

- I believe some people feel like they need to leave good reviews in order to receive more products. (not true from my experience either)

- If you receive a high end product and you normally use drugstore products you might have a superior experience with it and based on that rate it highly. 

 

I wish Sephora would offer a way to filter the reviews by (1) verified purchase, (2)receive free product and (3) BIC status. I'd be more inclined to believe the review of active community members like Rookie II and above. Nowadays I mostly turn to BIC when I'm interested in a  new product tbh.

Re: Influenster, please go away!

I know this post is now over a year old, but it seems like the Influenster spam has gotten even worse. Some very pricy products like FRESH - Rose Deep Hydration Sleeping Maskand Glow Recipe Pineapple Vitamin C Serum 1 oz/ 30 mLhave 500-600 reviews, most of which are glowing, most of which are from people who got the product for free, and a good portion of which are very poorly written and uninformative. I get that  it doesn’t technically violate Sephora’s TOS, but what does it benefit them to have literally hundreds of reviews from people who didn’t purchase (or at least get a sample from them)? I wish Sephora took this seriously. So far their responses have been a big nothingburger.

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