Instagram Influencers Are Selling Their Lips
Regulators are struggling to enforce rules around sponsored posts as the market for cosmetic ‘tweakments’ like fillers booms
At the top of Marla’s Instagram profile is page after page of story highlights: her tiny New York apartment, Game of Thrones commentary, dogs, matcha, step-by-step cooking videos.
Marla, 30, has been working on growing her following since she quit her job at an online review company earlier this year. “I’m going to talk about anything that comes up in my life. If you can relate, then that’s great — and that’s why you’d follow me.”
But one question, in particular, comes up regularly from her 4,000-odd followers: “Where did you get your lips done?”
“I get it all the time,” she says. “The other day I was tasting in a cooking video, and someone was like, ‘oh my god, you have the best lips.’”
Though Marla posts openly about her cosmetic procedures — she’s had fillers in her lips and nose, as well as a breast augmentation — she says she is more often asked about them in response to unrelated posts. “Any time I post ‘I’m at Dr. So-and-So’s office,’ I don’t ever get anybody asking. It’s just when I’m like, cooking, you know?”
