She holds a favourite serum up to the camera and squeezes a pea-sized drop onto the back of her terribly smooth hand. Rubs it into her skin in circular strokes, then sniffs it like she’s taking a hit. All the while enumerating, in a British accent, its many regenerating properties.
I don’t remember when the skinfluencer first showed up on my feed. What made me click on one of her YouTube videos, brought me to her glowing face smiling on my laptop screen. The titles of her videos, straightforward and unassuming, offer no clues to the grip they once held on my soul. I look at the thumbnails now—“Fave Fives: Cleansing Balms,” “Acid Toners Part One,” “How I’m Dealing with My Pigmentation”—and I’m baffled. How did this content consume my life for two years? Become the stuff of obsession?
