IF YOU ARE an Instagram enthusiast, chances are you follow someone who could be categorised as an ‘influencer’.
It’s also pretty likely that you would have seen them, on occasion, receive something cool in the post from a brand, be it with the hopes of them reviewing said product or even just to get them to post about it on their story. Influencers often strive to get on PR lists with the hopes of being the first to access new products so as to review them for their followers.
However, PR unboxing has practically become its only genre on YouTube. Case in point – beauty YouTuber Tati Westbrook films herself unboxing her PR deliveries with her husband, James.
Can’t see the video? Click here.
In a bid to capture the recipients’ attention and ensure a post on their socials, PR firms are going above and beyond to make their packages as snazzy as possible – often, with little or no thought for sustainability and the environment. As mentioned above, Tati often highlights when the deliveries she receives are excessively packaged, as does our own Louise McSharry.
However, one beauty influencer is attempting to go one step further by rejecting all future PR packages from brands.
Makeup artist Samantha Ravndahl has over 2 million followers on Instagram and 890k subscribers on YouTube.
Having found herself on over 40 PR lists for different brands, varying from clothing to perfume to makeup, she made the decision to start rejecting future PR packages for several reasons – the main one being the waste they generated.
While acknowledging that she has been very lucky to receive so much free product, she explains in her most recent video that she has been overwhelmed by what she has been sent recently.
Can’t see the video? Click here.
“I probably donate or give away close to 80% of what I receive in PR,” she says. “The other 20%, a large portion of that I use once, or I don’t ever end up using in and I end up putting in my collection and it sits there and goes bad.
“I just find all of this PR incredibly wasteful. On a not slow week, I receive anywhere from like 20 to 30 packages,” she continues.
The product waste aside, the packaging waste is exorbitant.”
She goes on to show a few examples, including a perfume that was sent to her which was boxed three times.
“I alone create more waste than the entire household put together,” she says. (Samantha lives in a house with eight people in total.)
Brands are starting to cotton on though. Smashbox Canada recently sent out PR packages which we were moderately packaged, with all of it being recyclable and sustainably sourced.
This could be the start of an important movement towards sustainability within the beauty community and beyond.
