 You look so beautiful. I'm so scared. Oh my gosh! Thank you. Like it? It looks so gorgeous. Do you like it? I love it. Sorry, James. I'm on to another monthly palette but you guys can still use Code James for 10% off this one. I'm the friend that's encouraging you guys to use Code James for 10% off of savings. You can use anybody's code. Use, you know, James's code. I'm wearing my sister's apparel. This is not about the money for me. I'm motivated by success, by growth, by creativity. The money does not motivate me. Sure, I want to make money. Like who doesn't? I would be an idiot if I sat here and filmed and edited and researched and crafted and did everything for a hundred hours a week. If I didn't earn a living from this, I couldn't do this. Hi guys, it's Madison Harnish back in my blue kitchen for another crazy video. Although as you can tell if you saw my Wednesday video I'm still wearing the exact same thing because it's on the exact same day. Yeah. In my Wednesday video I talked about how the beauty community isn't really a community. It's an industry and how the beauty industry takes advantage of the trust and support that influencers have in order to profit. So if you haven't seen that, check it out. But in today's video I'm going to be talking about influencer brands. Before we get into the video, if you enjoy deep dives and like to analyze scams and other crazy things going on on the internet, chances are you'll probably like this channel. So don't forget to subscribe and give this video a thumbs up to boost this video. And well, let's get into it. Over the most recent years, influencers and most notably beauty influencers have begun to develop and create their own brands. But before we get into the video, I want to have a huge disclaimer. I'm not against all influencer brands, but influencer brands definitely have some major drawbacks and I want to talk about those today. I think the biggest issue I have with influencer brands that I see time and time again is that the influencers continually confuse themselves with the brand. The main extra free launch was the biggest launch in e-commerce history of the internet. We're talking, it was all of our subscribers, fans and customers. I've been making videos here on YouTube for seven years. I've done my channel very different. I have denied sponsorships. I haven't done affiliate codes. My big thing with my channel is to earn your trust and my big goal with my channel is to make people feel beautiful. That trust was just thrown to the side so fast. I would not put a product out there with my name on it if I didn't wholeheartedly believe in it. They blur the line between themselves as an influencer and the brand that they've developed. That shouldn't be a thing at all in my opinion. Examples of when that happens, you see an influencer and they're constantly saying things like, I took so long to work on this. This is the longest I have ever worked on any collaboration in my career, which is crazy, right? You would think you collaborate with a brush company and you just made brushes. What's the problem? Why that takes so long? I have actually been working on this collection for over three years. That feels like an emotional play where it's like, you support me. This is something I took so long to work on so support me on this as well. We're coming out with this product as if every single one of their audience and subscribers worked to help create this product. Today we are going to reveal everything. We are expanding. We have so many brand new products. We are unveiling the biggest collection. We get to turn it up, do something different. Something that always branded my gears was him saying, you guys, today we got a sponsor. We. I'm not sure if my check got lost in a mail or what, because I don't remember getting the sponsorship cut. You got a sponsor, dude. You got a sponsor. Of course, who starts the company is 100% an aspect of a company. If a really crummy person starts a company or a brand, you shouldn't support that brand. But if a great person with incredible ethics or someone who just inspires a lot of people starts a company, 100%, that's an aspect or a reason as to why you should support that company. But it shouldn't be the only reason. And just because you follow an influencer or you connect with them, doesn't mean you should ever feel obligated to purchase a product from them or support the brand they develop. It's up to you yourself to decide whether or not you want to buy or purchase a product. Overall, I just really dislike when I feel like influencers use the emotional support people have for them as a way to gain financial support. And there literally could not be a better case of what I'm trying to say in the Shane Dawson, Jeffree Star series. I'm so stupid. AKA the six-part commercial for the palette that Shane Dawson and Jeffree Star were creating. I couldn't help but feel like the entire series was all about building this emotional reason as to why you should support this palette. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. I'm like bawling my ass in on the couch. Celebration. A lot of it was about Shane Dawson's insecurities. I'm scared that people are going to think, oh, Shane's ugly, Shane's fat, Shane's whatever. I'm so fat right now. What if they're like, wow, Jeffree's a fat friend. That's what he's hanging out with that fat girl. I don't think anybody's going to buy mine. I know maybe some people will, but I'm afraid. Why would anybody buy mine? Look at me. He gets over 10 million views a video. And all of his problems, I'm poor. I'm poor. All of those are like relatable things to feel. It was a way to grab up people's emotions and make them feel connected to Shane Dawson. By the end of the series, there was so much emotional, allegedly manipulation going on that by the end of the series, when the palette launched, there was almost like this unspoken obligation to buy the palette to show that you support these two influencers. When we feel emotionally drawn to or emotionally connected with someone, we want to either help or support them. It's the same kind of tactic that MLM reps will use if you follow my other videos. I talk a lot about MLMs and their shady business tactics. And MLM reps will kind of take advantage of a personal connection others have with MLM and their personal lives as a selling point for why you need to support their MLM or why you need to join them. A great example is my Beachbody video I did where they talk about the dirt list. Basically, MLM reps in Beachbody had this training course where they were taught to go to people who support them so much in their life that they would be able to sell dirt to them. This is a real thing. Unfortunately, it's a real selling tactic to find people who feel emotionally connected to you, who want to support you, and to abuse that relationship. And I feel like influencers do a very similar thing, but on a much larger scale with their audience. But the palette itself, in my opinion at least, was awful. I would never even use any of the colors in that palette. And I know a lot of influencers kind of came out talking about how they didn't really like the palette and then received a ton of backlash. I feel like I get so scared reviewing any YouTuber's products because any YouTuber, especially one that is big enough to collaborate with a big name brand like this, you know, they've got their stands, they've got their fans, and I don't want to offend people by saying these things. I'm going to be reviewing the Conspiracy Palette which you've already seen in the title. I'm really so nervous right now, you guys. I absolutely love Shane. I love Jeffrey. This is nothing personal towards any of them. I'm simply reviewing this palette for what it is. It's basically powder. It's a powder makeup product. This is not personal. And I hope we can all be civil about this and be, you know, grown up adults just talking about eyeshadows because this is really all this is. I just feel like the shimmer formula in the Conspiracy Palette is just not what I would like for it to be. I just want more. I want more from both the masks and the shimmers and I don't feel like it's on par with what Jeffrey usually comes out with because it's Shane and Jeffrey and at the time they were big and well liked that aged well, didn't it? And so you should support them because they're so well liked. Well, if the palette isn't good, it's not good. That's the danger of influencer brands. In extreme cases, it kind of causes you to look at the products that they're selling with rose-colored glasses when the products themselves might not be good at all or at least not good for you. I think Jaclyn Hill Cosmetics is an example of when influencer brands go terribly, terribly wrong. If you don't already know, though I'm sure most of you guys do, Jaclyn Hill started her own brand Jaclyn Hill Cosmetics and the first product that they launched was Lipsticks. But these lipsticks had a huge, huge quality control issue and hairs were found in the lipsticks, random holes. Even some people said glass shards or like metal pieces were found in the lipstick. So even though Jaclyn Hill herself was very well regarded for her knowledge and beauty, when it comes to the end-to-end production of beauty, the manufacturing, the quality control, she did not have expertise in that area and a lot of people bought the lipsticks and were really upset. Jeffree Star also has had similar manufacturing issues in the past. No. I should have laughed at it. I found more hair. See how it's like inside the palette? Yeah, that's not glue. Not at all. So, before I start this video, I super love Jeffree and Shane. I'm not a hater. I'm so excited about this palette. I just think this is weird and I'm wondering if anyone else's palette is doing this too. Do you guys have weird fibers like in your palette? But a lot of the people that pointed out these flaws were kind of hated on Loki maybe by the fans because they saw them as like attacking Jeffree Star and his brand. Another good example of that is Kylie Cosmetics has had their manufacturing issues too, yet people have still continued to support those launches that have had issues simply because it's Kylie and it's Kylie Cosmetics and it's her brand and a lot of people felt drawn to support her for some reason. Kylie's lip kit is one of the most successful cosmetic lines in history. Selling out instantly every time the kit is restocked, so much with that demand for a product. It's surprising to hear that many who bought the glosses were super dissatisfied. Beauty YouTubers started as this source where you could go to to learn about makeup and to find unbiased reviews on products. It was a way to kind of create this space where you could know what to buy, what the best product is, how to use it right and it was a genuinely great source of help and there are still some voices in this space who are still that great unbiased source. But influencers have become a brand themselves. Many people watch influencers for their unbiased reviews or because they like them as a person, but when that influencer has a brand, they're kind of able to directly control the message of the brand to the audience. It's like if the Geico Gecko had a YouTube channel. I don't know why I feel drawn to this example, but it's like if the Geico Gecko had a YouTube channel and the audience felt a genuine connection to the Geico Gecko, but the entire time he was just selling insurance to them. I feel like that doesn't make sense at all, but what I'm trying to say is influencers are really the only people out there that are able to build an audience and then directly sell their brand to that audience and directly capitalize off of that. All right, you guys, I'm going to try and get through this without becoming a bucket of tears because I am super emotional and I have been reading your comments and so many of you are leaving comments saying that you're into it no matter what it is and like that is making me just so happy. Like you guys trust me and that's the biggest thing ever to me. Like I thank you for that so much. This is the hair skin and nails booster and this works 100%. It is taught to you approved. I literally have my name on the top of the lid. Everything A to Z in here is my vision, my dream, my hope for what I wanted in the perfect vitamin. Our competitors don't spend as much on their entire formula and bottle as I am spending on one ingredient. This is magic right here, but the kind of magic that isn't just in your head, it actually does work. The reason that I make a big deal about sugar is I really passionately believe that sugar has no business being in any beauty vitamins or any vitamins in general. Sugar really raises your inflammation. It's damaging, you know, if you want sugar because sugar is delicious, just have a piece of cake and enjoy it but don't make it a daily thing with your vitamins. I feel it's unnecessary. Other brands are fighting to get into influencer content. They're fighting to get onto YouTube videos. They're fighting to get into TV shows and movies and they're fighting their way just for a small space. Meanwhile, influencers have an entire audience and they can spend as much time as they want controlling the conversation of their brand and what image they want their brand to have. It's a lot of power that many other brands don't have. And of course, people that are aware of marketing and how it works might be able to tell that this person is biased when they're talking about their brand but I worry about younger people who might not know that they're being marketed to or they're being sold to who might trust this influencer and want to support them maybe even and so they're easily influenced into buying products and being sold to by said influencer. Another thing that I've noticed I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed this let me know if you have but something that concerns me quite a bit is the loyalty influencers have to other influencers and each other's brands and collabs. Hello. I'm so scared. Oh my gosh, thank you. Like it? It looks so worse. Do you like it? I love it. Sorry, James, I'm on to another monthly palette but you guys can still use Code James for 10% off this one. I'm the friend that's encouraging you guys to use Code James for 10% off of saving. You can use anybody's code, use, you know, James's code I'm wearing my sister's apparel. I have to wear the, okay, I forgot to say tail. Hello. I'm going to a really important event later on tonight. My best friend Tati. We are going to a really important event. Yes, this is true. And this is a very important launch to me because it is my best friend Tati. She's launching something new on Halo Beauty. Super proud of her. By the time this video is out it'll already be up so go check it out. Problem for Tati, love you the most. Who doesn't need a little beauty boost every now and then? Two of the following statements are real claims made by the original Halo Beauty booster stuff. Oh! Which are the real ones? Can I just say I love you guys for putting a Halo question in there, right? I love you for that. I just received my package from Halo Beauty. This is Tati's brand new brand. I did not tell Tati that I was buying these but I did pay for these myself because I just wanted to support her and I'm so happy. It almost feels like an unspoken positive review to positive review thing. And it feels like a pyramid scheme to me. It genuinely kind of feels like a pyramid scheme. All the top influencers are reviewing each other's products and giving positive reviews recommending to each other's audiences to buy one another's products. You know? You know? And like I mentioned in my last video because all the top influencers are reviewing each other's products and kind of cross promoting each other it becomes extremely hard for new influencers to break through that and for new brands to break through. A lot of influencers will also stir up drama for publicity for their brand. Everybody's always going to try and improve what once was. So for me with Halo what I am really trying to do is improve something that already existed, yes. I wanted to dial in a formula that would work. I've never sent out PR. I've never bought an ad. I don't do that A because I don't want to. My product is good enough on its own and we're selling like hotcakes like I don't need to at this point. I did not make my video because of vitamins. Or intimidate other influencers so that great reviews of their brands and products always come out because no one wants to cross them. The brand new Jeffree Star Cosmetics Jawbreaker Collection. As you can tell, the packaging is sickening. Welcome to the very first review video on the brand new Shane Dawson ex-Jeffree Star Cosmetics Collection. And lastly, they consistently talk about how much they care about you as an audience member in the same breath that they're trying to sell to you. I have sat back down here time and time again because I care about you guys. I care about what I'm doing and my trust with you is important. I care so much about you and that's why I created this product for you to purchase. Not all influencers use shady tactics but we should be aware of the ones that do. For example, Tati. Oh my God, you tried to trick a straight man into thinking he's gay yet again and somehow you're the victim. We believe that Jeffree and Shane are responsible for so much of the damage that has been caused. Most people know about the by-sister and breaking my silence video and who Tati is, especially I bet if you're watching this video because I'm no one compared to Tati. I'm just kidding, but not really. And if you don't, you can easily find all of this information on the internet. That's not like what this video is about and it would take way too long for me to explain my personal outlook on Tati. Because unfortunately I think Tati is the most manipulative influencer out there. Personally, allegedly, in my opinion. I have a lot to say on the whole subject but for now I'll just say this regarding the by-sister video what basically happened in my opinion, allegedly is Tati made some pretty slanderous and very serious allegations against someone who promoted a competitor's product. Forgetting about who they are as influencers. That's what happened. Oh my god, you tried to trick a straight man into thinking he's gay yet again and somehow you're the victim. So when you pair up with my number one competitor it's embarrassing to me. I'm gonna crush my business, no. But it's embarrassing and you know that. Think about if any other company did that going back to the car insurance thing I don't know why. But imagine if Flow from Progressive posted a video making serious allegations against the Geico Gecko. Okay, that's a ridiculous example. But really imagine if any other brand took rumors and gossip because that's what it was and took it public to the detriment of another brand. It would be A, ridiculous and B, completely unacceptable but because the people involved were influencers somehow it's acceptable and I feel like the really smart influencers who have their own brands know this and consistently take advantage of that. The reality is drama online with influencers isn't just drama these people work with brands and have their own brands and at the end of the day this drama affects those brands bottom line. Like think about sugar bear hair do you think that they gained money from that video by sisters being posted or do you think they lost a lot of money? It's not a palette it's not something that people buy multiples of people are not gonna buy a hair vitamin from over here and one from over here because that would be too much for your system to handle if you don't have my back at least have your subscribers back dude like are you kidding me A you say you don't like this brand at all and it would be embarrassing so like stick with that like stick to what you speak practice what you preach you say that you're the realist you can't be bought well you just were. Do you think Halo Beauty gained money from that video being posted or lost a lot of money? In Gabriel's video something that I thought was really offensive was the insinuation that my relationship with James Charles was transactional and that I would be crazy to think that I had an exclusive with him when it came to my vitamins and for someone that I helped when no one would asking for absolutely nothing in return never asking for a payback Are you nice to people who can't do anything for you anymore? Not exactly you are only picking fights that you know you will win Manium UA there's a mob knocking down his door he's no longer in public favor that's a great time for you to make a video talking about how he didn't support your brand you're getting hate for a shitty review that you made and a small creator with only 160,000 subscribers makes a video about it you decide that's a perfect time for me to turn the tides and turn all of this negative energy and this hate onto this person so I don't have to receive it anymore my guess is that sugar bear hair lost a lot of customers and halo beauty gained a bunch and that feels so manipulative to me and wrong because at the end of the day it was all about rumors and I have similar things to say about tauti's breaking my silence video unfortunately I'm not sure if this is an unpopular opinion or not but in that video she mentions a conspiracy theory about a makeup company and a vitamin company when she herself owns a makeup brand and a vitamin brand it's now my opinion that jeffrey and shane were both bitterly jealous of james charles' success that jeffrey and shane needed james marginalized and out of the way for their november launch of the conspiracy palette along with shane's merch this entire situation opens up a pandora's box of speculation but I'm just not sure anyone counted on this drama spreading like wildfire it's my opinion that everyone involved got scared and their plan changed multiple times as I refused to play along or engage with the drama over the next several months a year later it is now my opinion that james charles was not their only intended target I believe that there are many different people who have unclean hands in all of this and there was a coordinated plan to be quiet and push me out of the way for other business reasons I do not think it's a coincidence that morphe is about to launch their own brand of hair, skin, nail, gummy vitamins I do not think it was just shane and jeffrey that stood to benefit from my being silenced this was just too big I think there were many players it was all I could do to pull myself together for the launch of totty beauty that night helped me so much to everyone that came and I'm just so grateful to my subscribers that showed up for me does anyone else not see how wrong that is? to talk about publicly a conspiracy theory you have against two companies when you are the direct competitor of those two companies and gain the most from those two companies downfall like that's a huge conflict of interest and if you genuinely believe in that conspiracy theory and you think it's true take legal action but to take it public and quite honestly mess with those competitors business by doing so it's a total abuse of your power as an influencer and it's the same thing when jeffrey star talks bad about other makeup brand owners using his influence to take down other brands which has happened countless of times countless someone named jared used to be the owner of two faced he sold his brand to estee lauder said that my brand was clown makeup ok now estee lauder had to ask them to shut the f**k up it just sucks that people that are literally almost twice my age are degrading me so there's a T on that this is the cat von d shady bronzer fitting two summers ago my brand was skyrocketing cat von d was stagnant and she decided to cross out my face and let the internet know a bunch of crazy lies she was always a friend that had the nicer stuff and um the roles reversed my forehead looks like dirt actual dirt this is the last remaining product I have of hers and now it's over it is a total abuse of power I just feel like this type of manipulation should be unacceptable if you're a brand owner if you have a problem with another brand or an influencer even of another brand take it private because when you do it publicly to me it's just an obvious manipulation of trying to put down another brand for the benefit of your own brand it's not just influencer drama I wasn't going to talk about the FTC guidelines regarding influencer marketing too much FTC guidelines shouldn't be the full picture of why an influencer should disclose or shouldn't disclose but it's definitely an aspect and someone commented that they wanted me to cover this part so I definitely will so the best guideline for social media influencer disclosures is the FTC disclosures 101 for social media influencers and this is what they have to say about when to disclose disclose when you have any financial employment personal or family relationship with a brand financial relationships aren't limited to money disclose the relationship if you got anything of value to mention a product if a brand gives you free or discounted products or other perks and then you mention one of its products make a disclosure even if you weren't asked to mention that product the day after my last video went live Tati included this disclaimer and it really got my back up let's keep in mind that in previous videos Tati did not mention anything about an FTC disclaimer but if you go through her videos now magically not only has this disclaimer been removed and replaced with a less salty version but she's also amended and removed our style links which I know are there prior to this whole thing because 1. I planned on including her in a video and 2. she admitted to using them in this disclaimer in an effort to recoup money spent on products to review for her subscribers it reads FTC disclaimer this video is not sponsored I claim that I have nothing to disclaim other than sometimes when linking products I'll use an affiliate link in an attempt to recoup some of the money I invest on products to review for you guys but what it does not mean is that I have a relationship with the brands mentioned nor are my opinions swayed by the fact that a link exists in fact I only look for them when writing the description in brackets after the video has been shot edited and uploaded click my links or don't click my links they are there for your convenience on the product reviewed what I care about most is that you guys enjoy my videos and remain positive and uplifting to one another personally, I feel like if an influencer owns a brand they should consistently differentiate themselves from the brand making it clear that them and their brand are not one in the same of course influencers can talk about the hard work they put into making something but it shouldn't be used as a selling point for their product they buy products because they're good not just because someone worked hard on them you know and influencers should always make it clear that you do not have to buy a product from them in order to be a supporter of them I just had to say this and put it out there because I'm becoming more and more concerned with the manipulation tactics that I'm seeing lately with influencer brands and wanted to just make a video collectively about it and put it out there I'd love to know what influencer brands you love and why because once again not all influencer brands are bad I think influencer brands collectively are a very good thing and can really change up a lot of industries in a great way but influencers themselves have a lot of power and should use that responsibly and not use it for their own personal gain and for the gain of their company just like MLMs and other shady business practices that I cover on this channel just like Jake Paul when he oversells his merch or Tai Lopez when he tries to get people to sign up for his business courses influencers too can take advantage of vulnerable people and sell to their vulnerable audience in very shady and wrong ways I'm looking forward to supporting the great influencers who don't do that and genuinely create amazing products and don't try and sell them or show them in shady ways and yup, that's all I gotta say for this one