Deinfluencing first became a thing on TikTok in January 2023, when creators started posting videos telling their followers what not to buy. It had a moment, racked up a few billion views, and then faded as the same creators quietly went back to sponsored content and affiliate links. Two years later, deinfluencing is back. The hashtag has over 4.8 billion views as of Friday, up from 1.1 billion at the start of 2025. The tone has changed. It is angrier, more specific, and it is naming brands.
What separates this wave from the 2023 version is the data. Tubular Labs released a report Wednesday showing that three beauty brands frequently named in deinfluencing videos have seen notable revenue declines in the first quarter of 2026. One prestige skincare line that charges 95 dollars for a moisturizer that creators have been tearing apart for weeks reported a 14 percent drop in direct to consumer sales compared to Q1 2025. A viral fragrance brand saw its Sephora sell through slow by 22 percent. A cult favorite hair care line that was sold to a private equity firm in 2024 has seen its TikTok Shop conversion rate cut nearly in half.
The deinfluencing videos themselves follow a rough template. A creator sits in front of a ring light, holds up a product, states the price, and then explains in detail why it is not worth the money. Many videos now include dupes, meaning cheaper alternatives from drugstore brands that creators say perform just as well. Some creators have started calling out specific ingredients or the exact rate at which a product runs out, pointing out that a 52 dollar mascara that lasts six weeks costs more per application than a 9 dollar tube that lasts twice as long.
Part of what has fueled the comeback is the broader mood around affordability. With grocery prices still elevated from the 2024 inflation spike and mortgage rates sitting at 6.5 percent, younger consumers have less disposable income and are more resistant to the constant drumbeat of new product recommendations. A Morning Consult survey released in March found that 62 percent of Gen Z respondents said they had stopped buying a product because of a deinfluencing video, up from 41 percent in early 2024. Millennials were close behind at 54 percent.
Beauty brands are starting to react. Several have quietly reduced their influencer seeding programs, cutting back on the practice of sending free products to creators in hopes of generating organic posts. A major mass beauty brand told WWD last week that it is shifting its marketing mix back toward television advertising for the first time in five years, citing declining returns on influencer spend. A prestige skincare founder whose brand has been repeatedly named in deinfluencing videos posted a tearful TikTok response last week that only made the situation worse, generating millions of stitch responses from creators picking her arguments apart.
Not every creator is on board with the trend, and some have started deinfluencing the deinfluencers. A few prominent beauty reviewers have posted videos pointing out that the wave of anti consumerism content is itself a form of content economy, with creators gaining followers by attacking brands that would otherwise be irrelevant to their channels. Others have noted that some deinfluencing creators are paid by competing brands to criticize rivals, a practice that is technically legal as long as it is disclosed but frequently is not.
The legal exposure is starting to become real. A consumer goods company filed a cease and desist letter last week against a creator who it claims made false statements about its hyaluronic acid formulation. The creator removed the video and posted an explanation. Legal experts say the line between protected opinion and defamation in these videos is blurry, and brands are beginning to test where that line falls in court. The Federal Trade Commission issued guidance last summer reminding creators that disclosure rules apply to paid criticism the same way they apply to paid praise.
For brands that built their entire growth model on creator marketing during the 2021 to 2023 boom, the deinfluencing wave represents a genuine threat. The math that made the category work only makes sense if creators are generally positive about the products. When that assumption flips, the cost per acquisition through influencer channels can rise fast, and the only brands that survive are the ones with real product differentiation.