Most of the time, when a beauty brand shows up in the press, it's for a product. When Allure reached out to me, it wasn't about foundation. It was about the law.
I'm an attorney as well as the founder of Solsoller, and Allure wanted my perspective on one of the messiest issues in beauty and wellness right now: the GLP-1 gray market, and the growing accountability of the influencers who promote it. Here's what I told them, and why I think it matters for anyone who buys, sells, or talks about beauty online.
What's Actually Happening
GLP-1 medications — the class that includes Ozempic and Wegovy — have exploded in demand. And wherever demand runs ahead of supply, a gray market follows: telehealth platforms and compounding pharmacies selling these drugs with very little oversight, often promoted heavily on social media.
I wanted to see how easy it really was. So ahead of my interview, a colleague and I signed up to one of these telehealth platforms using deliberately fake information — just to see how far we could get.
"We faked our birthdate, we faked our symptoms, we faked everything, and almost instantly we were at the checkout."
That's the part that stopped me. Not the drug itself, but how frictionless and unregulated the path to a serious medication had become, and how much of that path now runs through influencer content.
The Legal Line I See Being Crossed
This is where my two worlds — law and beauty — collide.
There's a real distinction between someone casually sharing their life online and someone being paid to push a regulated product. I put it this way to Allure:
"This is no longer lifestyle content. This is something completely different. Once a creator is being compensated to direct consumers toward a product, especially a high-risk regulated product like GLP-1, that content starts to look more like commercial speech than personal storytelling."
That phrase — commercial speech — matters more than people realize. Commercial speech gets far less legal protection than personal expression, especially when it's misleading. The telehealth company may carry liability if someone is harmed, but I don't believe the creators driving those sales are automatically off the hook. In many cases, the creator isn't just creating awareness. They're helping drive the transaction.
And the people I worry about most are the young ones — those who don't medically qualify for these drugs, but could still be tempted to lie on a pre-screening survey to get them.
Why This Isn't Hypothetical
I'm not raising alarms about something that might happen someday. Regulators are already moving in exactly this direction.
- The FTC now treats influencers as advertisers. Under its Endorsement Guides, anyone endorsing a product has to clearly disclose a material connection — payment, free product, commission — and creators can be held individually liable for deceptive claims. Health and wellness is a stated priority.
- Enforcement is real, and costly. In 2025 the FTC took action against telehealth firm NextMed over deceptive GLP-1 weight-loss claims and fake testimonials, ending in a $150,000 order and refunds to consumers. The FDA separately issued warning letters to 30 telehealth companies over misleading compounded GLP-1 marketing.
- Europe is tightening too. The EU's Digital Services Act now adds transparency obligations for commercial content on large platforms — part of a global shift toward holding creators and platforms accountable for what they promote.
The "it's just content" defense is closing. That's the shift I wanted to name before more people get hurt by it.
What I'd Tell You as a Consumer
You don't need a law degree to protect yourself. A few simple filters go a long way:
- Disclosure is a trust signal. A creator who clearly marks paid partnerships is following the rules. One who hides them is a red flag.
- Be wary of health promises. Claims that sound like medical guarantees — "melts fat," "cures," "guaranteed results" — are exactly what regulators scrutinize.
- Regulated isn't casual. Anything involving prescription medication deserves a doctor, not a discount code.
Why I Built Solsoller This Way
I'll be honest: it means something to me that Allure called me to be the voice of caution, not the voice of hype.
I built Solsoller as an attorney, on a simple belief — that beauty should be honest. Real ingredients. Transparent claims. Products that respect the person using them. I don't chase trends or make promises I can't keep, because I've spent my career watching what happens when people do.
That's the same instinct that led me to speak up in Allure. And it's the same instinct behind every product I make.
