Best products from r/BeautyGuruChatter

Pulled it from the video's closed captions then just tried to make it easier to read with grammar but nothing else changed. Also included John's links in the body.
Edit: spacing.

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Good Morning, Hank, it's Tuesday.

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This video is an open letter to professional YouTubers but it's also for anyone who wants to understand the challenges of the fraught career of professional influencing.

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Hi! I'm John Green. I write books and I've been making YouTube videos for more than 12 years now. Also, I'm somewhat repulsed by the word influencer it makes me feel like one of the baddies in a dystopian novel which to be fair maybe I am. But the nice thing about influencer is that it's accurate. If you have an audience, you help shape their worldview both when it comes to, like which goods and services to purchase and when it comes to what to believe and value. That's a weird job, and today I want to share with you some things I've learned about it.

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First, being a professional person of the internet is not like being a doctor or a lawyer or whatever. It's more like being a professional athlete. Online careers are unpredictable and they're often short. Which isn't necessarily bad news by the way, like it can be wonderful to do many things in your professional life, but Ido think it's worth trying to learn about stuff while you are a professional influencer that can help you down the road when you are professionally something else. Whether that's social media marketing or post-production or as in my case, writing.

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Secondly, many of us get absolutely no financial education in school and professional influencers tend to be young and inexperienced with money. Which one, can make it difficult to figure out how to prioritize financial stuff and two, leaves people vulnerable to exploitation. Even if like me you're aggressively bad at math, I really recommend trying to learn more about personal finance by reading books like Gabby Dunn's Bad WITH Money, listening to podcasts like Planet Money and watching YouTube shows like Two Cents and The Financial Diet. As for the people who make you money agents and managers can be wonderful advocates but remember they have no lifelong investment in you. If you cease to be a lucrative relationship for them, they can find it different you, a younger and hipper and more influential influencer. But you are your only you and ultimately that means you have to be the person to balance short-term interest and long-term interest when it comes to issues like when to turn down unsavory sponsorships.

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Speaking of which, third, when it comes to money opportunities Hank always asks me two questions “Is this in line with our goals for our community?” and “Are we adding more value than we're capturing?” We've made lots of mistakes along the way. But from what kind of shirts to sell to whether to promote loot boxes, I do think we benefit a lot from asking those questions.

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Okay, fourth, this did not happen because you work harder than anyone else or because you are more talented. You are talented and you do work hard but you have also been fortunate. You're fortunate to have high-speed Internet and access to editing software and you've also gotten lucky along the way in innumerable ways. Luck does not nullify hard work but hard work also does not nullify luck.

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Fifth, you are a person. Those who love your work will naturally be inclined to think of you as more than a person. Which can be intoxicating. It's nice to hear that you're a literal God or the best fortnight or vlogger or whatever noun is currently being personalized, but there will also be people who think you're less than human who say that your literal trash. We don't talk about this much because it can seem like ingratitude but receiving online hate can be really scary and painful and I'm sorry if you have to live with it. In my experience it's really important to find places where you can be a person. Whether that's an anonymous Reddit account or, god forbid, offline because otherwise you can start to believe both those who think you're more than a person and those who think you're less than one.

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Lastly, as my brother likes to say diversify your identity. In this world, so much of your life can become your job. Your friends and family can be involved in your job. When you take a walk, you're doing your job if you Instagram it. Your life and work can become so completely intertwined that you stop thinking of yourself as, for instance, John Green, person, husband, father, AFC Wimbledon Sponsor, a valid Hufflepuff, etc and begin to think of yourself as just John Green, YouTuber. No career can healthfully carry all your identity let alone one as weird and unpredictable as this. And so, dear influencer, I wish you the algorithms wind in your sails and a flood of new followers but most of all I wish you a long and varied life of making helpful things with nice people.

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Hank, I'll see you on Friday.

So I actually emailed Halo Beauty Support and here is a copy/paste of our interaction:

"Hello!

I am interested in this product but I am wondering why it has copied exact images and graphs from an ingredient called ceramide-pcd?

Halo beauty is saying they are for Ceramide- RX but that is obviously not the case. I have included a link to the actual supplement where the images and graphs originated from.

This seems really bad... please explain


http://ceramide-pcd.com/moisturizing.html

Yours"

Their first reply came really quickly

"Support Team - HaloBeauty (HaloBeauty)
Mar 2, 14:49 PST

Hi [My name removed], We have an extract of ceramides from Japan. The ceramide-pcd is a similar trade name for the product and the supplier of the raw material is the same - Oryza in Japan.

I hope this clarifies your questions. Please let us know if there is anything else we can provide to you.

Sincerely,
Halo Beauty Support
Halo Beauty"

I replied and asked them if this was not a unique ingredient then they responded again very quickly within 10 minutes.

"Support Team - HaloBeauty (HaloBeauty)
Mar 2, 14:58 PST

It's actually a very unique ingredient as it's extraordinarily rare, expensive, and difficult to source. We trademarked the name Ceramides-RX, as part of a distribution agreement from the manufacturer Oryza in Japan. Instead of renaming it something obscure and calling it proprietary, we were transparent about what was actually inside. Hope this helps!
Halo Beauty"

I wanted to know if they could justify the price so I responded

"Thank you so much for your speedy and polite reply!

I have one more question as you touched on it in your answer. I know the item price was attributed to the very expensive nature of Ceramide Rx, which you have now indicated is just another trade name of the Ceramide PCD.

If that is true I can buy a 30 day supply of (vegetarian capsules) Ceramide PCD for $9.00, with 100 mg of Ceramide PCD per capsule while Halo Beauty’s HSN only had 40 mg per 2 capsules and is $39.95 per 30 day supply. Why the drastically higher price?

Here is the product I am talking about: https://www.amazon.com/Phytoceramides-Ceramide-PCD-Derived-Gluten-Supplement/dp/B01B06Z7M8/ref=lp_13204985011_1_6_a_it

I am not trying to be difficult, I am just legitimately trying to understand both the ingredients (which you have been very kind to explain) and now the price.

Yours"

This time it took them a few hours to respond and I got this:

"Support Team - HaloBeauty (HaloBeauty)
Mar 2, 18:48 PST

I have no idea about that product, but from the surface, I guess it's only $9 because that's their only hero ingredient and their packaging is so inexpensive. We have premium packaging that's produced in a dust-free facility, and a formula that is filled in a lab in the USA under sterile conditions. The employees all wear, lab coats, gloves, hair nets and surgical masks. Regardless, I'm sorry that you're unhappy with our pricing strategy, we did the best we could do.
Halo Beauty"


TLDR: I emailed Halo Beauty to see wtf was up. Apparently Ceramide PCD and Ceramide RX are trade names of the same product form Japan. I then emailed and asked why a bottle of Ceramid PCD was 9.00 for more mg/ capsule and the same one month supply and theirs had less and was more expensive. Their response: Our Packaging is pretty and people in our labs wear PPE.

I just wanted to add in some context of what may have precipitated his reaction at the large percent of profit share when he kind of started spazzing at the $12 figure.

He is a partner with Amazon through the Merch By Amazon POD collab program.

How do I know this? I do Merch By Amazon as a side hustle so I can recognize a MBA product from a mile away.

(Second edit: also, it says on the Collab page. But in my defense, he was in the merch program before Collab launched and a bunch of people didn't know who he was and tried to copy his shirt designs, which was kind of hilarious).

The designers of some of his shirts? Probably the one that got pulled for copyright infringement? Most likely came through one of the designers selected for the Collab program. This is all 100% controlled by Amazon although I'm sure Shane has veto ability. And when I say controlled, I mean Amazon acts as the printer, fulfillment, payment processing, and customer service. Shane probably just approves designs.

Margins for selected high impact sellers like Shane may be different from your normal run of the mill "designer" in the MBA program. But if we were to go off the royalty breakdown of this shirt, it might be:

• Sale price: 19.99
  
• Shane's Take home: $5.23 (Amazon pockets rest) per shirt
  
• Current BSR: 5,151 in clothing
  
• Estimated sales: 1500-1900 per month (pulled from JungleScout)
  
• Est. Monthly take-home for this one shirt: $7,845-$9,937
  
• Est. Amazon cut: $22,140-$28,044
  
  (Edit: poking around at his other products, the shirt linked above is definitely his biggest seller. Almost everything else has a BSR of 100k-400k. This means that those items probably sell about 10-50 per month).
  
  One thing to note about BSR is that there is no surefire way of saying how many units someone has sold—it's a sales rank number. If sales are depressed sitewide on Amazon, then even with a high BSR, he could maybe only be selling 500 units of this particular shirt in a month. That's still a lot, especially when you factor in his other items.
  
  Another thing to note is that this doesn't include returns. I'm not sure how returns are factored into BSR in terms of impact. But if 50 shirts are returned, Amazon claws back that profit from the royalty check.
  
  He could easily be pulling in about $50,000 - $100,000 per month in profit depending how much of that goes into advertising. But Shane might not be doing a lot of advertisement since he has his own large audience he can drive to Amazon.
  
  That's a lot to someone like you or me, and considering Shane's background, that's probably a good chunk to someone like him as well. He's not making J* level of monthly profit but he's certainly making enough to afford that nice house he purchased.
  
  If you watch the part of the video where they're talking about profit share, I'm going to guess that he's probably thinking about his partnership with Amazon. Whatever he's making through Amazon, he could easily make double, have much more creative control along with more latitude in the types of products he can make. MBA is pretty limited to apparel and popsockets. The apparel is also limited in where you can print as well. For example, you're not able to print on sleeves and you have to just go with whatever blanks Amazon is wanting to use.
  
  If you were in a business meeting with someone you could 100% trust and were told you could double your potential earnings, have more creative control and sell whatever products you wanted, you'd probably hyperventilate a little bit too. And also have a giant wtf moment of how naive you were.
  
  I'm super interested to see where this goes.

I’ve had my industrial for almost 10 years now and it hurt for the first few. Honestly couldn’t sleep on that side for 2 years.

HIGHLY recommend H2Ocean Spray. Game changer for me back then! I was very very concerned about scar tissue/keloids after my friend experienced that.

I use to sit with my ear in glass Tupperware to soak it like 10 min twice a day but this spray is awesome. And amazon still shows that I last purchased this in 2010. I think you can also find it at hot topic.

Good luck!!!

idk what your tastes are.

but if you need something pretty sweet and delightful, pushing daisies is a weird but great show. https://www.amazon.com/Pie-lette/dp/B07HDV9TZV/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1R5VQX9OLSRSQ&keywords=pushing+daisies&qid=1557634443&s=instant-video&sprefix=pushing+da%2Cinstant-video%2C282&sr=1-1-catcorr

Gosh, I remember when I received Bobbi Brown's Teenage Beauty Book: Everything You Need to Know to Look Pretty, Natural, Sexy and Awesome as a gift. It was probably in 2000, when I was 18 or 19(*EDIT: I can't math, I was probably 14-15). I loved how natural the makeup applications were and the book itself was pretty empowering and had a very appropriate tone for the audience. It was also the very first time I thought about makeup application beyond: full coverage foundation goes all over face, black liner goes all over eyes, plus 7 coats of drugstore mascara = ta-da!; and I remember it totally was inspiring and fit right in with my Teen Vogue aspirations.

Kind of unrelated, but I guess before YouTube and Instagram we had... books?

Natural Vitality Natural Calm Magnesium Anti Stress, Original, 16 oz https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000OQ2DL4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_-Yc6BbD9XSW3J

Seriously, it is an absolute lifesaver for constipation, and works as a gentle muscle relaxant and sleep aid as well. It’s amazing. I got it because it was recommended to me for pain from TMJ disorder, but I use it more frequently for constipation than anything else! I take medication that causes chronic constipation, so this is a lifesaver. Mix two teaspoons in a bit of warm water, then add as much cold water or other drink as you want (it has just a mild acidic effervescent taste, kinda like club soda but much more mild- you can also get flavored versions but I prefer unflavored). Do this before bed and you should wake up ready to go!

(Rarely it will take two doses to get things moving, if things are really backed up- sometimes I’ll double the dose at once if I know it’s kinda severe but if it’s your first time just start with two teaspoons and see how you feel. If it’s been more than 8-10 hours you may want to take another dose, either right then or that next evening).

You can also find it at GNC and some drug stores, but I’ve found it cheapest at Wegmans. It’s in their vitamin section.

I originally ordered these but I found the band was super tight and left an indent in my hair line so I switched over to these. However these aren't tight enough and slip off sometimes. ha ha. I'll find the perfect one shortly but in the meantime I'm wearing the first or tighter one.

I'm hesitant to recommend because I feel like everyone is so different, and "oily skin" means different things to everyone. HGs of other oily gals can be disastrous for me! Anyway, I will share what works for me!

The Cane & Austin Mattifying primer. It's expensive but you need very little. I googled the ingredients once and this dupe came up. I have used it and it's exactly the same.

I use Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation, LA Girl HD Proconceal, and set my entire face with IT Cosmetics Bye Bye Pores Pressed Powder. I use a damp sponge to press powder into my skin. I use as little as I can get away with. It's honestly the only powder that works for me and does not make me cakey. Then I use UD All Nighter Setting Spray.

Seems like a lot but keeps my oils at bay all day and my makeup doesn't budge!! Sometimes I'll be like, ok this is overkill, surely I don't need all these steps, but if I switch it up or eliminate something, I see a huge difference. I'll try other primers that oily gals swear by and use the rest of my routine, and boom - oil slick by 10am.

This karaoke bluetooth microphone, compliments of rawbeautykristi: https://www.amazon.com/BONAOK-Wireless-Bluetooth-Microphone-Controllable/dp/B074X56N95

I cant wait to wake up/come home every day and screech my heart out to every single song I have ever sang along to in my car ... and actually hear how terrible I sound! Lol but I'm getting better....or more delusional, who knows. But this thing has been the best therapy I have given myself. My boyfriend works a lot so being home alone is fun for me now, and I can look up karaoke versions of pretty much any song to sing to. (I apologize to the Cranberries for butchering Doris' vocals.)

Makeup Brushes 15 Piece ZOREYA High End Real Hard Walnut Handle Makeup Brush Set with Dark Brown Leather Brush Case Bag Holder Contains Contour Lip EyeShadow Powder Blending Fan Kit https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N9RJ4D7/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_aFvCzbYD2HJH7

I went with those because it had a fan brush which I've been looking for plus some smaller shader brushes for eyes. Those are great. The bigger bushy brushes aren't stiff so I was concerned but I did my contour with the chisler type brush and thought it worked better than my current options (probably the shape). They did have quite a smell to them when I opened them but it went away and they don't smell at all now. They said it was the stuff they used on the wood handles. The wood is really smooth and feels good in hand. I've got mostly real technique and elf brushes, so that's what I'm comparing them to.

I feel you sis. A few things that helps me keep grounded and not get lost in the spiral are:

a) washing my face and/or hands. It really puts me back in my body

b) keeping something smooth or cold like a stone in my pocket and just touching it

c) buying a shitton of those cheap squishies like [these] (https://www.amazon.com/Winpromise-Squishies-Squishy-Reliever-Rabbit-Random/dp/B07FMWYLH5/ref=asc_df_B07FMWYLH5/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=286906387438&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10703798375270603769&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9004336&hvtargid=pla-492033981500&psc=1) and just crushing the hell out of it when I start getting anxious

d) turning on the AC/ Fan to the highest setting and letting my body cool down

e) breathe in for 8 seconds, hold for 7, breathe out of 8

Good luck to both of us! Hopefully it gets better soon :)

They sell 3-packs of plush microfiber makeup removing cloths for less than USD 3.00 at both Walmart & Amazon. These aren't the same as the $10 50-packs cloths used for cleaning your house/car/stuff; they are thicker & softer. In case anyone is interested, I've tried these personally & they work great. I'm all for supporting people's business ventures but save your cash for something else my friends!

I agree with you, but I think it's interesting that since the beauty community started using it as a blender cleaner, Amazon is now marketing them as brush cleaners: https://www.amazon.com/TTbuy-Simulation-Automatic-Cleaning-Cosmetics/dp/B07RWG566K/ref=pd_rhf_cr_p_img_4?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=1Y25AGPMZQ4G0JNNH7SR

unfortunately I think casket ready is always a thing with mineral sunscreens since zinc and titanium dioxide are white. Even in the more micronized/small particle size versions its still detectable. If it is invisible on the skin not enough is applied or it's ... like this product ...that was overnight popular but turned out to be a lie: https://www.amazon.com/Look-At-Me-Hyaluronic-Moisturizer/dp/B011YJICXW . unfortunately, if it's too good to be true it probably is with physical sunscreens. It also sucks that this category of mineral only sunscreen excludes demographics but there is only so transparent zinc and titanium are going to get. Does putting foundation on top of ( the least white paste ) counteract the corpse effect for deeper skin tones? Or would it be better to use a tinted sunscreen? I feel like foundation over the top probably ends up looking better.

Art major here, fixative is a really good idea!

That fixative you linked is resin based, and the shadow would still be a little workable/moveable under that fixative. An acrylic-based fixative spray would work better as a final sealant as it would create an almost plastic-like protective finish on the page: https://www.amazon.com/Krylon-K01303A-Crystal-Acrylic-Coating/dp/B001K65K26 is one example.

No matter what fixative you're using, it's important to do a patch test first because fixatives can darken/alter the color of certain mediums. It's also important to work in light layers in a very well ventilated area!

Yes they’re great! They’re bendy, but sturdy, durable and dishwasher safe. I have a pack of silicone straws and they’re perfect for cold drinks. They tend to make coffee taste weird though; I can kind of taste the hot silicone and coffee discolors them. I use metal straws for coffee and silicone for basically everything else.

silicone straws I have

Kiss me heroine liquid eyeliner! It's a japanese brand that make super water-proof mascara. I went through probably 10 of those eyeliners. It's my holy-grail eyeliner. It's about 14$ on Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Kiss-Me-Heroine-Smooth-Liquid/dp/B005F751WK

Yay! I feel like I have to specify lash-type anytime mascara comes up because it's so very dependent on length, thickness, etc. Mascara reviews are pretty useless to me if they don't include that... As for lash curler, I've been using this Tweezerman LTD Deluxe Metal Eyelash Curler (https://www.amazon.com/Tweezerman-Deluxe-Metal-Eyelash-Curler/dp/B007SA3CD2/ref=pd_sbs_194_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B007SA3CD2&pd_rd_r=CGN068Y8TX7JYFR5WM77&pd_rd_w=WXlXW&pd_rd_wg=MP6uV&psc=1&refRID=CGN068Y8TX7JYFR5WM77) for a while (~9 months) and while I like it, there's probably something better for me out there that I just haven't found/ wanted to spend on. I have quite large, round, slightly downturned and slightly hooded eyes so it takes some maneuvering to get my inner/outer corner lashes (and I almost never get both) :( I've tried the shu uemura curler and didn't feel it was worth the hype or $$

what about you?? I'm down to try a new one. I hate when my lashes come out with more of a dent/fold/crease than a real curl, if that makes sense. and what are some other mascaras that have worked for you?

ETA: Oh look the before and after images too http://ceramide-pcd.com/moisturizing.html. Inb4 explaining it away as demonstrating the benefits of ceramide.

I did some reverse google image searching and found that one of their "scientific" chart type images appears to be ripped from another vitamin. If this was a stock photo that they purchased the rights to, then surely it wouldn't be in such a poor resolution.

Fucking wow.

https://www.ebay.com/i/162905269018

https://www.amazon.com/Phytoceramides-Ceramide-PCD-Derived-Gluten-Supplement/dp/B01B06Z7M8/ref=lp_13204985011_1_6_a_it

It's as if she never heard of books, either. Bobbi Brown books were my lifesaver.

Just adding this here. Ceramide PCD study was using 350mg Tati's vitamins have 20mg x2 dosage.

Hot and flashy took phytoceramides for a while using 350 mg dosage. Not sure if she is still taking those but you can check her results.
http://www.hotandflashy50.com/phytoceramides-face-lift-bottle/

This bottle has a 100mg dosage and a money back guarantee. I am sure ceramides can help retain moisture but you can try supplements at much cheaper cost. Also we don't know any negatives from the study since it's one study and been done 18 years ago.
https://www.amazon.com/Phytoceramides-Ceramide-PCD-Derived-Gluten-Supplement/dp/B01B06Z7M8/ref=sr_1_4_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1520322726&sr=8-4&keywords=ceramide+pcd


Edit: I don't think her product is bad but it is priced high unlike claims it is not. Her launch and explanations are bullshit. Her marketing them as magic and not just citing study for what is it, causes misinformation. The idea was bad and the execution worse. Sadly as a viewer I would hv liked if she informed me what her ingredients are along with the goods and the bads and why she chose to create abrand when there are already so many in the market.

Edit 2: 350 mg is for wheat based phytoceramides and not rice based.

Edit 3: hotandflashy confirmed she's still taking phytoceramides for 6 months a year in winters, from September - March. She said that they help her skin stay more hydrated in the winters.