Elevated Classics

Every few weeks a new video circulates warning viewers to “beware of influencers.” The tone is always the same. Influencers are paid to lie. They push products for profit. They cannot be trusted.

My reaction is usually one word. Girl.

If you genuinely believe anyone creating content for an audience is not being compensated in some way, you have not watched television, read a fashion magazine or opened a newspaper. Media has always operated on influence. The difference is that today the people doing it are individuals, not institutions. Their income is visible and therefore triggers a kind of moral panic disguised as righteous outrage.

Let us be honest. The fragrance reviewers, unboxers and micro critics on social platforms are doing what everyone else in media has done for decades. They are trying to make a living. Unless you, as a viewer, are paying their mortgage or funding their camera equipment, what exactly is your standing to accuse them of corruption?

If they are liars, then so are the journalists who host branded content pages, the beauty editors whose desks are piled with PR boxes, the news anchors reading advertorial scripts, and the celebrities whose wardrobes arrive courtesy of stylists and brand partnerships. Influence is influence. The transactions are simply more visible now.

The real issue is not whether someone is paid. It is whether you, as a consumer, know how to navigate taste.

The work is not to hunt for saints. It is to identify people whose sensibility aligns with yours and treat their observations as one data point, not gospel. If you are buying everything strangers tell you to buy, the problem is not them. It is your own appetite for outsourcing judgment.

For transparency’s sake, I do not get paid to write endorsements, publish interviews or profile perfume houses. I am grateful that founders give me their time. That is a form of value for me, and yes, the more thoughtful and generous they are with their time, the more warmth inevitably colors my coverage. Humans respond to kindness. That is not corruption. It is humanity.

Now, to be fair, there are people who genuinely struggle with impulse control, addiction or compulsive behavior. Mental health plays a role and not everyone has the same level of agency. This commentary is not about them. This is for the regular Jane and Joe with functioning judgment who blame influencers when they overspend. Accountability matters.

Here is the part nobody wants to say out loud. Over consumption is not an influencer’s fault. It is yours. Blind buying, chasing hauls, piling debt to “keep up” are not acts of manipulation. They are choices. If you are not a critic, collector or someone documenting fragrance seriously, you do not need more than a small wardrobe of scents. A dozen perfumes is plenty. The rest is compulsion dressed up as sophistication.

Use the money you have, not the money you wish you had. Use your nose, not someone else’s opinion. Cross check information. Build relationships with creators whose voice resonates with you. And most of all, grow up. Media is biased. Always has been. The smart consumer does not demand purity. They learn to read between the lines.

That is how you become discerning, not disillusioned.

What do you think?