Beauty influencer Mikayla Nogueira called out on ‘lies’ by small business owner

A small business owner alleges influencer cost him $10,000 in product

A small business owner has called out beauty influencer Mikayla Nogueira for her alleged “lies” regarding a product review.

In a video that has received over seven million views, Matthew Stevens (@mvstevens) - the owner of the custom sunless self-tanner brand, Illusion Bronze - accused Nogueira of costing his business $10,000 in a video.

In 2022, Stevens explained that he had asked the influencer if she could review his tanner, a self-tanning product formulated for each person’s eye, hair, and skin colour that celebrities like Taylor Swift reportedly swear by. His video promoting his product went viral in 2022, but because he believed a bigger company was trying to steal his idea, he reached out to influencers like Nogueira to spread the word about his product.

After he posted his video asking her to review the product, Nogueira reviewed the very brand that Stevens believed to be copying his creation. Then, several users in the comment section of Nogueira’s video began to tell the influencer that she should review Stevens’ self-tanner product.

After the influx of comments, Stevens’ said that Nogueira reached out to him and allegedly stated according to a screenshot that she would review his product “ASAP.” Anticipating the influencer’s review, Stevens said that he bought $10,000 worth of his product because the influencer mentioned in a previous video that when she reviews indie brands, they tend to run out of stock quickly.

However, nearly two months after their exchange, Stevens found himself still waiting to see the review. He said he initially considered sending her donuts, but ultimately decided reach out to her about the situation, informing her that he bought $10,000 in stock because he had been anticipating a review.

Stevens shared with viewers screenshots of the following conversation he had with the influencer, showing that Nogueira claimed that she had tried the product, but said that she didn’t want to rush and make a “shitty” review. He noticed that in some of her videos posted after allegedly using his product, she looked “orange.” When asked about it, she claimed that she had slept in his product for twelve hours, when instructions said that the product was only meant to be worn for a few.

The small business owner, however, claimed in his video that the influencer didn’t use his product at all, but instead got a spray tan. Nogueira responded to his claims in her own video, apologising to him for not posting the review, but denying that she got a spray tan.

“He cannot rely on me for the success of his brand,” she added, noting that his decision to spend $10,000 on his product was his own and at the end of the day, she wasn’t contractually obligated to review his product. Stevens posted a follow-up video alleging that he made his first video because she was blocking his followers.

Nogueira rose to TikTok fame during the 2020 pandemic, winning over viewers with her popular tutorials on covering up acne. Since then she has grown her account to amass a 15mil following, but not without her fair share of controversies along the way, including fielding accusations of wearing false eyelashes in an ad promoting L’Oréal’s Telescopic Lift mascara and faking her thick Boston accent.