Influenster, please go away!

[DebKaye]

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!

[symone80]

You can sign up too. No need to be jelly. Id say the majority of people who get the products are genuine. It is 3rd party like many have stated. Also, this is a way companies can get a feel for their product and look for ways they can improve. Im wondering if you got a product you didnt like and blamed it on positive reviews? 

[bc2711]

Sure influencers reviewers may get the product for free but we are asked to give our HONEST opinion on the product. We are not forced to give a positive review. Leaving a positive review or a bad review does not heighten or lower our chance of getting other products or anything. All they ask for is an honest review. If we hate it then we are asked to express that. 

[Leahdon]

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.

[Kolie624]

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

[codeGirl6]

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. 

[PrincessSissy]

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. 

[cj678076]

Yes, I wish more people realized that Influenster does not care if your review is not positive! I actually like Influenster better than a lot of other companies because it’s a third-party which means I can trash a company and I’m still going to get products because they have no idea if it’s going to be coming to me again or not. A perfect example is when I got an Estée Lauder product and I left a terrible low star rating because the ingredients were horrible for your skin and Estée Lauder was arguing with people on their reviews saying their breakouts and reactions were “unusual”. So in my review I pointed out every single ingredient that is comedogenic and would be the cause for these other reviewers having issues so it’s not unusual and shouldn’t be marketed to acne prone people. Estée Lauder tried to fight me on the review and didn’t want to post it but they eventually had to. A couple months later influenster sent me something else from Estée Lauder once again and again I left a negative review lol. So it’s not the companies that are getting to choose us which means there’s 0 benefit if we lie in our reviews. I regularly leave honest reviews from Influenster good and bad. I wish people didn’t dismiss all reviews from someone who got to test something because a lot of the time you can tell those of us who are being honest and those who aren’t. All of my reviews are very detailed and I provide as much information as I possibly can especially because I am pretty educated in ingredients in beauty products and I like to share that with people. The reality is plenty of people are actually getting paid outside of Influenster to leave positive reviews and those people are the problem. I think Influenster reviews should be treated just like every other review, if they’re leaving short one or two sentences that don’t really tell you anything then don’t trust them. If the review is thorough and it’s pointing out positives and negatives whether it’s free or not I would trust it more than the review that gives you very little information even if they didn’t get the product for free.

[Charity29]

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. 

[treestar86]

@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...

[Charity29]

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 

[Charity29]

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

[makeitup305]

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

[rrroxanne]

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

[Kali171]

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.

[GG84]

@Kali171 

Or you could just review your free stuff on influenster? 

[rrroxanne]

@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. 

[GG84]

@rrroxanne 

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

[rrroxanne]

@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. 

[melanieceleste]

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?

[browncourtneya]

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.