Beauty Laid Bare review – the ugly secrets in your makeup bag

The cosmetics industry is booming, but - as four young people discover in this unsettling series - beneath its glossy surface is a world of waste, hazards and questionable morals

Kenneth Senegal, a beauty vlogger, is rubbing his hands gleefully, eyes sparkling beneath bright red eyeshadow. He's talking money. For a small mention of a cosmetics brand in one of his YouTube videos, he would charge $3,000 (2,260). For a "dedicated video", it would be more like $14,000. Once his subscriber numbers go up, and with them the number of views on his videos, "I could get, like, $20,000." Good for him, I suppose. But also, isn't this extraordinary?

In the first of this three-part BBC Three documentary, four young people are investigating the beauty industry, which has seen huge levels of growth in recent years. Beneath the glossy surface, it's pretty grim. Chloe, a makeup artist and influencer from Belfast, and Casey, who thinks men are under-represented in the beauty business, seem the most invested and impressed with this world. Resh, 23, from Manchester, is more sceptical but understands the power of makeup to transform one's confidence - she is the survivor of a horrific acid attack. ("Makeup, to me, is a defence," she says). And then there's Queenie, 21, the bewildered one many of us will identify with. Pretty much all she has packed for the trip to California is some shampoo and deodorant. The beauty industry, she says, exists "to make people feel insecure and sell products". I like Queenie. At the Beautycon event, where brands gather and 30,000 visitors hope to pose in selfies with one of the 300 "influencers", she seems genuinely shocked. "But who is he?" she says of one of the biggest beauty stars, Bretman Rock. "What does he represent? What does he stand for?"