If you have been anywhere near social media recently, you have seen the massive uproar of beauty brands and their constant releases of new products. Influencers around the world are paid to promote and review these new products and with the rise of TikTok, beauty brands are seemingly going head to head to see who can do the best.
Lip products in particular have seen a huge growth in production with almost every brand releasing a lip tint, lip oil, or lip mask etc. A very popular lip product for the past few years has been from Rhode, Hailey Bieber’s brand. She’s transitioning her trendy “clean girl” aesthetic and “simplistic” style amongst the teen to mid 20’s age group. I’m personally a huge fan of the Rhode’s lip peptide treatment. It is the only product that I have tried that actually hydrates my lips for a long period of time and stands at a decent price point of $16. I don’t personally consider this overpriced especially with beauty prices skyrocketing nowadays. Where Rhode lost me personally was with the release of this new phone case. It is customized to specifically fit the Rhode lip products perfectly in the back pocket of the case so you can have it with you all day, which in theory, sounds amazing, especially to someone like me who loses about five things a day.
As a communications girl, I think I’ve trained myself to look at some advertising and campaigns as if I was a part of them, and this one from Rhode truly seems like a bad move for several reasons. First, this item can only fit Rhode products comfortably. If you were to want to use a different lip product that day, your new $35 case would be rendered completely useless. I have seen a few videos trying to fit other products in the compartment, but they all look a bit clunky and just don’t give off the same vibe.
Second, the purchase of the phone case does not include the lip product. I completely understand not giving away a product for free, but there is no discounted price at all for purchasing both items together. The phone case and a lip treatment are cost around $51, not including tax or shipping, which is completely insane to me and simply not worth it.
Lastly, the Rhode “lip case” is a silky silicone case that has no structure to truly protect your phone from any damages. All in all, it does not seem like a justifiable purchase no matter how cute it is. Taking off my hater hat for a minute, Rhode did have the right idea by introducing a product that the other brands aren’t doing. Because all these products are so similar and marketing the same benefits, ingredients, and shades, there needs to be a way to stand out and Rhode did that. Though, in my opinion, it is not a sustainable product that will last the test of time. Even with my theories, I do think the lip case will see a huge growth in popularity, despite the lack of functionality in it.
This is because the current society we live in is plagued with overconsumption. With so many people on the internet telling us what we “need to run and go get” and things like Apple Pay and shopping tabs within the app, make it so easy to convince ourselves we don’t need something. This is me telling you that you definitely can live without it and that $50 can be put to something way more useful than a squishy phone case you’ll use twice. Save that coin! Sorry Hailey.