Every few weeks, my “Recommended for You” page will pop up with a ton of influencers talking about the same product. Sometimes, it’s a knockoff of Lenovo earbuds or a Dyson vacuum cleaner. Most of the time it’s skin care products. Due to a strict skin care budget, I successfully resisted most temptations—but for about a year, the algorithm wouldn’t stop chasing me for one product: Medicube Age-R Booster-H.
Age-R Booster-H is a $330 skin-care bar that claims to improve skin-care benefits through electroporation (short pulses of electricity that create temporary channels in the skin to help increase absorption). Basically, you smack your face with this stuff, your various skin care potions become more effective, and hopefully you look like a radiant, pore-free goddess afterwards. Or, at least, that’s what dozens of influencers on My Five-Year Plan said after playing a clip of Hailey Bieber using it in her skin-care routine.
I’m not naive. I did my homework. The Medicube website lists studies conducted on its products as well as a white paper on why electroporation may have advantages in skin care. But I also knew that marketing professionals were selling me a narrative too. If you buy this gadget owned by Hailey Bieber and all these beauty influencers, you too will have radiant skin! I know this leaves out a lot of factors like money, dermatology treatments, filters, and genetics. However, common sense often fails against human vanity and the 40% off Black Friday sales. So I bought one.
I’ve been slapping this thing on my face every day for three months.Sure, my skin looks a little shiny after using it, but the skin always Look radiant after using skin care products. “Am I seeing any improvement?” I ask myself every morning when I look in the mirror and adjust myself.
The lack of dramatic, visible results isn’t why I regret buying this thing, though. What bothers me is that now I can’t escape my social media algorithms trying to sell me more of the same.
Once you hack and splurge on gadgets you don’t need, your algorithm will never be the same again
Once you hack and splurge on gadgets you don’t need, your algorithm will never be the same again.Since purchasing the Age-R Booster-H, all I have seen is more Age-R Booster-H content. In the past three months, I’ve received more ads for LED light therapy masks, microcurrent facial toner devices, and even facial massage guns.I scanned them all frantically and then HoweverThis morning, I received an ad for the Age-R Booster Pro—Medicube’s newest wand, six skin-care gadgets in one, priced at $480.
I won’t get it. If I did, I’m sure my FYP would become more of a skincare QVC than it already is. Look, I know TikTok is working as intended, but I do hate it. It makes me appreciate skin care bars even more.I spent a lot of money on this, so I will Keep using this until it dies. Knowing all this, I get frustrated when I find the same marketing tactics creeping into my brain again. Maybe I didn’t see better results because I didn’t use it with the same Medicube Collagen Cream like the influencer did.I already Just know that results will vary, and over-the-counter skin care products can only do so much. There’s also no incentive for paid influencers to talk about nuance or caveats. Why else don’t I see more people saying the wand is mediocre or disappointing?I have to shout to myself not to fall into the trap again.
I fell in love with skincare TikTok because during the pandemic, using skincare products has been a soothing way to unwind after a stressful day. I love watching nerdy videos about sunscreen filters and listening to cosmetic chemists talk about the power of certain ingredients. I love the funny way people talk about their day while slathering on retinol. The e-commerce aspect has always been there, but there was a time when it felt more like a friend telling you about a product they stumbled across. Somewhere, something changed. Now, I feel like I’m five years old again, sitting on the living room floor watching a lady with shaggy hair sell me a neck cream on the Home Shopping Network.
While I don’t begrudge the influencers, I do wonder how I hit my face with this $330 skin-care stick.