Influencer Sessions: Get To Know @michaelgrullon_

We caught up with skincare influencer and licensed esthetician, @michaelgrullon_, to talk all things skin, social media, and self-belief. Read on to discover how this creator strikes a healthy balance between his online and offline lives!

Where does your knowledge on and love for skincare come from? 

My knowledge of skincare comes from reading scientific articles about ingredients, and after this I went to pursue my esthetician license. However my love for skincare comes from I am always trying to improve my acne. I’ve always dealt with acne and about 5 years ago I decided to improve this myself after so many failed attempts with prescription products.

@michaelgrullon_

Found my sweet spot on tretinoin 🫣 #skincare #beauty

♬ Rain On Me – Ashanti

How has the over-saturation of the skincare/beauty industry impacted the content you make? What do you do in order to stand out? 

The over saturation of the beauty/skin industry hasn’t impacted my content because I do not go out to get the “new product”. I always get or test products that stand out for me, and in order to stand out in the space I’ve had to share more of my personality which can be a lot, but I don’t share this, but in the recent months I have been able to express myself more as I am. 

Which platforms do you predominantly use? Which do you prefer for posting, and for community building? 

In the beginning I was more into the TikTok platform, however the algorithm here is constantly changing and in the past months is not how it used to be. The platform is not crediting the creators and giving them enough reach, therefore I moved over to Instagram which is actually helping small creators. These are my 2 main platforms and I share equally on both of them, but because TikTok is not helping creators I have noticed Instagram is becoming more predominant again. 

@michaelgrullon_

Things that can worsen forehead acne and tips for forehead acne #skincare #beauty

♬ original sound – Michael Grullon

How does community engagement vary on your chosen platforms? 

Instagram shares your video to the community you have built, TikTok has never been about community, if you built this on TikTok, TikTok still would not always show this to your audience first. 

What is your favourite type of content to create, and which works best for your audience? Is there a juxtaposition? 

My favorite content to create is short format and then reply to someone’s comment with long type format. I do also enjoy giving reviews which typically involves a longer format. My audience loves short format and is precise all the time. 

In your own words and experience, how would you define “influencer marketing”? 

Influencer marketing is about expressing our personality on social media, not about sharing the next product. An influencer is someone who influences you unintentionally to do something, whether that be a healthy diet, your skincare, or new things just because the influencer does this.

Why do you think influencer marketing is so powerful in today’s society? 

I think influencer marketing is so powerful because everything nowadays is related to social media and marketing, and we spend an insane amount of time on our phone, and what we are watching most of the time is someone else’s life, which will affect our life eventually.

Do you have experience working with brands? How do you decide which brands you would like to work with? 

I do have experience working with brands, I have worked with some of the biggest brands, and I only decide to work with them if I have previously used their products and I enjoy them, if the product they want to share works on my skin, have great and interesting formulations, mix well with other products, and I see actual results from it and if I see myself using this product on a daily basis. 

@michaelgrullon_

The only Korean skincare I needed on amazon prime day #amazonmusthaves #skincare #beauty

♬ original sound – Michael Grullon

How do you foresee the influencer marketing space changing within your niche in the next 12 months? 

My niche is skincare and I feel this was huge in the pandemic, however I am noticing it is shifting back to beauty products, not so much skincare products, unless it is a hybrid. With that being said, customers are also so much smarter when they purchase something and I feel to be able to grow in this space you have to share products with crazy formulations that can do multiple things at the same time, not only a one-ingredient product. 

Based on your experience, what assumptions about skin care would you like to dispel? 

Skincare should be simple and with ingredients that your skin enjoys, we don’t need to cleanse our face twice a day, with double cleansing our skin at night we are doing more than enough to our skin. We don’t need to dry out our skin in order to make it better, and we need to stop trying to achieve a glass see through skin. This glass skin that we see on social media the majority of time if people spend thousands of dollars to achieve this with procedures, the results are not only skincare alone, it is a lot of money invested in this effect and is hard to maintain and not sustainable because our skin changes daily. 

How do you balance your online and offline lives? 

I do not spend a lot of time on social media, I normally try to record a lot of videos in one day and share this throughout the week. Recently I am doing Lives which requires more attention, but I set myself a time limit on this. But when I am out I do not share or see social media, I try to be present in anything I do and to be able to do this you have to let your online presence go and know that is ok and everything will be fine. 

Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years? 

The next 5 years I see myself building a MED SPA or Store in the greatest skincare in the Dominican Republic. I am from here and there’s not much access to good skincare in my country. We can find the major brands, but not the most interesting ones. 

In terms of social media, I do have hopes that I keep growing. Social media is not going away anytime soon, it will just get more and more personal. I am planning to stay and try to adapt to every scenario. With the greedy way that TikTok is treating creators lately, I do see them being on downfall and Instagram coming back. Unfortunately for the USA trying to ban this app, TikTok might win the case, but they will be losing relevance because they are really treating creators at the bare minimum and influencers are getting tired of not being rewarded as they used to be.

What is a piece of advice you would give to your younger self when starting out as a content creator? 

You should have started sooner dumb a**, and stop doubting what someone would think of you. There’s never the right time to start, never… You have the passion for it, just do the video and build your taste from there, but put yourself out there in any capacity.

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