Photo Illustration: by The Cut; Photos: Getty Images, Amazon
Just when we thought we’d gotten through the week without some new TikTok beauty drama, one of TikTok’s top beauty influencers, Mikayla Nogueira, has been accused of “lashlighting.” Like gaslighting, but about wearing false eyelashes. And other beauty influencers call her to do the same. Let’s get to the drama.
Two days ago, Nogueira posted on TikTok raving about L’Oréal’s $14.99 telescopic lengthening mascara. She added a layer of mascara in front of the camera and showed off extra length and volume to her lashes. “Okay, I’ll add a second one,” she said, referring to a second coat of mascara. She then cuts to a different angle, revealing much longer and fuller lashes. She claimed that the final look “looked like false lashes,” because many say… they are. TikTok quickly responded with 24.8 million views and countless stitch videos, calling out Nogueira for allegedly lying about the mascara results.
“How did you end up getting so many extra lashes all of a sudden?” asked one commenter. (They claim she applied the mascara in the first part of the video and then added lashes for the video’s finale without making the addition transparent.) However, to our trained eye, we can’t be sure of what it looks like in the final Look has been…improved. (The mascara gave a nice lift on its own, though.) Ashley Gonzalez, an lash artist who sells lash accessories, agreed and made a TikTok video explaining that she thinks she’s wearing extensions, and zoomed in to see to show the supposed disconnect between the natural and false eyelashes.
Even makeup artist Jeffree Star came back from a social media hiatus after being accused of sexual assault to get into the drama: “It looks bizarre,” he said. “The mascara is on and it’s cute and then all of a sudden there’s some shit at the end.” He said there’s nothing wrong with becoming a sponsor, but Nogueira is the respected voice on TikTok and therefore has a responsibility to her followers being honest when accepting money to say a product is good.
Viewers even took to an old video of Nogueira admitting that brands use extensions in their mascara ads: “That’s what brands do, they lie to you about how things work. Did you know these were false eyelashes? Maybe not.”
I’m so into Mikayla Nogueira Lashgate 😭 bestie really thought she was fooling us, I know Ardell Wispies when I see they miss girls pic.twitter.com/nVeV2Ihf13
— jade🫧 (@Iatenightdevil) January 25, 2023
Still, the video has sparked debate about influencer culture and its “honest reviews,” many of which are actually paid for or sponsored. (Although Nogueira tagged the video #lorealpartner, she didn’t actually reveal it was an ad.) This is nothing new; Influencers have spent on everything from belly tea to celery juice and more, promising to cure everything from bloating to cancer. But it comes at a time when a movement called deinfluencing is also making the rounds on TikTok, calling for an end to overconsumption.
Either way, Nogueira is no stranger to controversy. Last September, a video from 2021 resurfaced in which she complained about the difficulty of being an influencer. “Try being an influencer for a day, try. The people who say it’s easy are so crazy.” She immediately received backlash for being unmusical. A few weeks ago, she was accused of editing her body in videos on TikTok. Your answer? Filming a before and after video trying on shapewear.
Could this be the end of the influencer era? Probably not. But it does prompt debate about how many influencers are omitting the truth about the effectiveness of such products. For example, is that what an influencer who has had botox say when reviewing a moisturizer? Usually not. Should you? Probably. The internet could be a healthier place if people (we see you, influencers) just keep it real.
In the meantime, if you want longer lashes without the added fakes and don’t want to listen to influencers like Nogueira, here are some mascaras we love at The Cut.
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