TikTok skincare marketing causes sustainability claims to go missing, study finds

30 Jun 2022 --- A study by Jönköping University Sweden flags that some ways skincare products are promoted on the social media platform TikTok can cause environmental sustainability claims to go missing. Speaking to PersonalCareInsights, researcher Chiara Savorelli, a master of science at the university, investigated the role of sustainable influencers in communicating sustainable skincare on TikTok. 

Several videos were analyzed and interviews were conducted with the influencers whose videos have been the object of examination.

TikTok users engage more and more with environmental sustainability issues and create content to talk about these issues on the platform.“TikTok users engage more and more with environmental sustainability issues and create content to talk about these issues on the platform,” Savorelli said. “Skincare-related videos are one of the most popular categories on the app and a sub-category combining sustainability and skincare took shape on TikTok.” 

While this has become a popular method of promotion for environmentally sustainable skincare products, there is evidence to support that sustainability claims are often lost.

Marketing mechanisms and environmental sustainability
Savorelli shares that social media promotion has the potential to be a good tool, but that brands should pay more attention to who they ask to promote their products.

“The influencer marketing concept is not compatible with the word sustainable if you really think about it. Reducing consumption, re-use and recycling are the only ways to be truly sustainable.”

“I think there should be more balance in the sustainable skincare sector. Maybe by integrating videos on how to recycle their products, how to re-use the packaging, and how to waste as little product as possible. That could be a huge improvement.”

“But let’s face it,” she says, “we live in a capitalistic world. Marketing is part of our everyday life, we need to consume as individuals.”

Consumerism as a focal point
When asked why the topic of environmental sustainability often gets lost in social media promotions, Savorelli says that in order to prevent followers from feeling overwhelmed about doing sustainability right and feeling eco-guilt, sustainable skincare online is focused on promoting products instead of practices.An interviewee said that a good way to be sustainable, for many people, is to buy sustainable products.

“Although the products promoted are better than the average skincare product, it still promotes overconsumption of goods, which is [environmentally] unsustainable. Sometimes ‘sustainable influencers’ promote products that they haven’t tested yet.”

Environmental sustainability in the study material is shaped in a not-so-sustainable way: practices of recycling and reuse are barely shown – only in one of the eight videos.

“For many people, a good way to be [environmentally] sustainable is to buy sustainable products,” an interviewee told Savorelli during her study.

Savorelli criticizes the role of social media influencers who promote consumerism instead of environmentally sustainable consumption, especially when the promoted products also feature eco-friendly ingredients. 

Three out of eight displayed a clear contradiction between what was said and what was shown. 

By Mieke Meintjes