Abstract

This paper investigates how Instagram beauty influencers, focusing on Tasya Farasya, shape beauty standards and consumer behaviour in Indonesia through promoting Western beauty ideals. Using a cultural and media studies lens, the study analyses Tasya Farasya’s Instagram content, audience engagement, and sponsored brand collaborations to understand how digital influence contributes to shifting perceptions of beauty. As Instagram becomes an increasingly powerful platform in everyday life, especially among Indonesian women, beauty influencers play a crucial role in redefining what is considered attractive, often aligning with Eurocentric norms. This phenomenon is significant because it affects self-perception and social identity, fuels consumerism, and creates social pressure to conform to curated beauty ideals. By examining this digital trend, the paper argues for greater awareness of the cultural implications of beauty content and the need for more critical and inclusive approaches to beauty representation in online spaces.

Introduction

The emergence of social media as a digital platform allows people from all over the world to interact online. Social media platforms like Instagram have become part of everyday life, and users can share their photos, videos, and stories in real-time with all their followers. Instagram features a wide range of content, including a significant focus on beauty-related topics. This occurs due to the existence of digital networks that facilitate interaction among individuals for mutual benefit. The large amount of content related to beauty, such as tips and tricks, tutorials and product reviews, is widely spread on Instagram. As a result, the growing number of Instagram users have shifted beauty standards globally, influenced by beauty influencers who play a key role in shaping trends. Although social media allows the spread of various beauty standards, the beauty standards constantly presented through the media can give rise to an ideal of beauty that seems necessary for acceptance by the wider community. Social media has changed how beauty standards are formed, from traditional media to online communities. This is related to the online relationships influencers form with their audiences which can create change. Hampton and Wellman (2018) argue that the existence of social media forms a new community driven by digital interaction that replaces traditional structures. This statement shows how beauty influencers can control online consumer trends and behaviour. Beauty influencers inspire audiences, build consumer trust in brands, and boost product sales through engaging content. However, their influence also has potential negative effects, such as promoting unrealistic beauty standards and encouraging excessive consumerism, which causes social pressure. Indonesia is experiencing rapid growth in the number of social media users, which has directly contributed to the emergence of social media influencers as influential figures in various industries, including beauty. This impacts the increasing number of Instagram beauty influencers appearing in Indonesia. Tasya Farasya is an example of a beauty influencer from Indonesia who plays an important role in changing beauty trends. This paper examines how Instagram beauty influencers, notably Tasya Farasya, shape Indonesian beauty standards and consumer behaviour by promoting Western beauty ideals through sponsored content, leading to increased consumerism and social pressure. 

Instagram’s Popularity and the Formation of Beauty Communities

In early 2024, data shows that the number of Instagram users in Indonesia is 100.9 million people, and 54.5% of these users are female. In addition, Instagram is in second place after WhatsApp based on the category of the most widely used social media in Indonesia, with a percentage of 85.3% (Kemp, 2024). This is because Instagram is a social media platform with many easy-to-use features such as reels, Instagram stories, posts, and IGTV. Beauty influencers can easily and quickly post various existing content through one application. Features like this make it easy to promote beauty advertisements in digital form. If previously they could only be seen on television and in magazines, now beauty influencers can do marketing via Instagram. These beauty influencers unintentionally create their beauty community through interactions and engagement on Instagram with their audience. The role of using hashtags and carrying out various challenges related to beauty indirectly forms the existence of this community. When doing challenges and using hashtags, people with the same interests can easily find content, and without realising it, they have formed an online community. Beauty influencers can easily build personal and authentic relationships with followers and create two-way communication. Tasya Farasya is a beauty influencer from Indonesia who started her career in 2017 and has 7 million followers on Instagram (@tasyafaarsya). She is also the makeup brand “MOP Beauty” founder and CEO. She has received many awards as a beauty influencer and widely known for inspiring beauty content and following the latest trends. As a content creator, she provides many of the latest beauty tips and tutorials presented interestingly. From her content which has received a lot of attention, she has had the opportunity to work with well-known makeup brands to collaborate. Because of her immense influence in the beauty world, she has the famous “Tasya Farasya Approved” stamp, which is considered unique for the trust she places in the quality of a brand. The various makeup tutorials she uploaded, reviews, and promotions of beauty products, became the beginning of changes in beauty standards in Indonesia. Even though the interaction between influencers and audiences occurs online, it can change existing beauty standards, especially after the introduction of Western culture, which has changed these standards.

Westernization of Beauty Ideals Through Instagram Exposure

Instagram allows all posts from various parts of the world to be viewed directly. In this way, people will easily see what and how is happening with beauty standards in other countries. This changes the view of the online beauty community. Beauty standards in Indonesia are basically very diverse because they are influenced by the culture, customs and history of each region. Previously, beauty was only based on local people in Indonesia, such as having exotic skin, a bright smile, and healthy skin. It is starting to change due to exposure to other cultures, especially Western ones. According to Chen et al. (2020), “Eurocentrism is defined by a viewpoint where European culture is looked upon favourably and biased against non-western civilisations” (p.2). Western cultural beauty, which is often used as a reference, often includes white skin, a high nose, and a sharp jawline. This ease of access allows Instagram users to see the beauty culture from the outside so that it influences the beauty community in Indonesia and slowly changes or shifts towards Western culture. In addition, the influence of Western celebrities who promote brands and the latest makeup styles also plays a role in this cultural shift. As a beauty influencer from Indonesia, Tasya Farasya tries to combine several Western cultural beauty trends from Western celebrities to be applied to the appearance of Indonesian women but still provides local touches, for example, by imitating a chic or bold makeup style that is adjusted to the shape of the Indonesian face. However, with the latest makeup trends requiring certain skincare and makeup, as a beauty influencer, Tasya uses, promotes, and endorses brands from outside Indonesia to adjust her appearance. They often become trendsetters by showcasing products and styles that their followers like. This phenomenon has blurred the distinction between celebrities and normal people, as influencers often build an approachable image, even if it is curated (Matthew, 2024). This strengthens the desire of viewers who watch the content to buy the products they use because they feel they have a close relationship with the influencers they watch. Unintentionally, the existence of promoting products from abroad changes beauty standards because of the influence of foreign brands that come in. This indirectly affects the beauty community by making them unconsciously start to adopt and absorb Western beauty standards as beauty standards for themselves. Many of them start to do various ways to buy products, apply or even transform themselves, such as doing nose fillers or operating eye bags, and others to get a look that leads to the West. In addition, using beauty filters and photo editing promotes irrelevant ideals. As an online Instagram content creator, Tasya Farasya posts all her content digitally. The advancement of technology allows editing content and various filters to produce an attractive and perfect content display. This can lead to users discovering flaws in themselves that they would not have noticed without using a photo editing app (Ozimek et al., 2023). This kind of thing provides a new perception among online beauty communities because of dissatisfaction with oneself, lack of self-confidence and high expectations of oneself. In fact, all of that is a strategy by beauty influencers to display a more attractive appearance through Instagram.

The Power of Sponsored Content in Influencing Consumer Behavior

Furthermore, collaborations between skincare and makeup brands with beauty influencers are increasingly being used as a strategy to market products. Sponsored content is defined as paid content uploaded by an influencer but collaborated with a brand to make it look like natural content created by the influencer (Hardy, 2021). Through sponsored content, skincare and makeup companies collaborate with influencers to advertise their products through content designed and shared through Instagram. This provides added value to the audience while subtly promoting the brand. Advertisements delivered through content by these beauty influencers will be better received by the beauty community because they are considered to align with the values ​​brought by the beauty influencers they follow. On the other hand, Tasya Farasya, as a big influencer with millions of followers has a wide reach so that it can increase sales of a product because of the content she creates. For example, when she promotes a viral beauty product and gives a positive review through an Instagram story, she tells her experience using the product. However, as sponsored content, she does not forget to insert an e-commerce link to the sold product. She provides additional discounts so that the audience can immediately click on the link and buy the same product as the one she uses. Collaborations like this change the way audiences see a product previously, only through advertisements on television or in magazines, but with beauty influencers, brands can connect with their consumers.

Luxury Beauty Consumption and the Rise of Social Pressure

In addition, the makeup and beauty styles mixed with Western culture encourage the emergence of luxury makeup and skincare brands in Indonesia. The exchange of content and the latest news freely spread among the world community via the internet influences consumer purchasing behaviour, allowing the spread of new styles and cultures and developing global values ​​for consuming luxury goods (Ajitha & Sivakumar, 2017). With the help of the internet and social media, especially Instagram, it allows individuals and communities worldwide to access beauty content instantly. This creates a global standard in consuming luxury makeup and skincare products, thus influencing purchasing decisions. Besides that, the emergence of beauty content about perfect beauty standards shared by beauty influencers through Instagram can reduce a person’s self-confidence. Excessive consumption of content on Instagram can lead to negative perceptions of oneself which leads to social pressure. Afzal et al. (2024) argue that Influencers can significantly influence consumer purchasing decisions, especially if consumers perceive the influencer as having credibility and values ​​that align with those held by the audience. To follow the beauty standards exhibited by these beauty influencers, the audience will continue to try to follow all the tips the influencers give to get the perfect look as shown on social media. This encourages the audience to buy beauty products that they actually don’t need to imitate the Western-style appearance exhibited by beauty influencers. Individuals may feel compelled to continually purchase beauty products to meet these expectations, which can lead to excessive consumer behaviour. Following the lifestyle of influencers who buy luxury beauty products as promoted and shared through Instagram causes social pressure on the content audience because they are trying to match the beauty level of the beauty influencers.

Algorithmic Amplification of Beauty Standards and Social Comparison

Instagram influencers consistently share their beauty content which is often aided by algorithms due to the high level of interaction from their followers, such as ‘likes’, comments, and re-shares. Social media has become a visual competition arena that forces women to invest emotionally and financially to meet beauty standards dictated by algorithms and capitalist systems (Yens et al., 2025). In the context of Tasya Farasya, content that displays ideal beauty standards tends to get a lot of interaction, so the algorithm will show similar content to other users more often. This strengthens exposure to certain beauty standards and encourages other users to imitate or adopt those standards. Tasya’s personal attributes and content can increase her followers’ interest in buying certain cosmetic products (Oktaviani, 2024). Thus, the social media algorithm that promotes Tasya Farasya’s content contributes to the strengthening of certain beauty standards among her followers. Additionally, the algorithm on social media refers to the cycle of validation and self-comparison. The comments and likes on Instagram make followers compare themselves to the image or life displayed by beauty influencers on social media. Individuals increasingly seek external validation, so they often post content related to physical appearance, hoping to get a positive response from their Instagram followers. In addition, people will increasingly compare their appearance with those seen as more perfect. If they do not get a positive response as they wish, it will cause feelings of inferiority and feel unaccepted in the online community they use.

Strategies for Promoting Realistic Beauty Standards and Healthy Consumerism

The presence of beauty influencers such as Tasya Farasya, who influence beauty standards and consumer behaviour in Indonesia, needs to find a solution so that unrealistic beauty standards and consumer behaviour can be reduced slowly so as not to cause social pressure and consumerism. Participation from beauty influencers, makeup and skincare companies, and online consumers is needed in dealing with this problem. For example, influencers can create transparent sponsored ads to maintain the trust of their Instagram followers. This can help the audience to encourage the right purchasing decisions. Beauty influencers can also explore more deeply about beauty standards in Indonesia so that they do not always follow Western cultural trends. In addition, as consumers, Instagram followers of beauty influencers can also provide education in the form of online seminars or campaigns organised by beauty communities in Indonesia by collaborating with beauty influencers so that they have critical and open thinking about the beauty content that enters and blends into Indonesian culture. By implementing solutions like this, it is hoped that all individuals involved in the online beauty community on Instagram can encourage realistic thinking about beauty standards in Indonesia and reduce excessive consumerism and social pressure so that all online activities on social media, especially those related to beauty, can take place healthily and positively.

Conclusion

To conclude, beauty influencers on Instagram play a very important role in shaping trends and beauty standards in Indonesia. Moreover, Instagram is the second most popular social media in Indonesia. The presence of these beauty influencers provides a lot of education and inspiration regarding beauty tips that always follow the latest trends. However, the presence of these beauty influencers reinforces the existence of unrealistic beauty norms. The increasing number of beauty influencers has resulted in trends in the form of consumerism and social pressure. With conditions like this, it is hoped that in the future beauty influencers will be more responsible in promoting beauty tips and tutorials as well as beauty products to not exacerbate the unrealistic beauty ideal due to the influx of Western cultural influences. In addition, as social media users who are always given easy access without restrictions, the audience must still be critically involved, especially with the increasing number of new beauty content, so that the use of Instagram in a beauty context can be more positive.

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