How We Review Beauty Products

Product recommendations are only useful if you can tell how they were reached. This page sets out the criteria we use, the limits of what a review can tell you, and the things we deliberately avoid claiming. It is deliberately unglamorous, because a methodology you can inspect is worth more than a confident opinion you cannot.

What we assess

Those criteria are applied in the same order to every product, whether it costs five pounds or fifty. Price is assessed as value — cost per use, concentration of the active and how long the product realistically lasts — rather than as a proxy for quality in either direction.

How we structure a comparison

Comparisons are most useful when they focus on decisions rather than winners. For each product we look at what it is best for, its key features or ingredients, its texture or type, the skin or hair types it suits, available sizes, the general price band, main advantages and potential drawbacks — then give a clear recommendation rather than a vague "it depends".

We also say when two products are close enough that the decision should come down to texture preference or budget. A comparison that manufactures a winner for the sake of a tidy conclusion is not doing its job.

What we do not do

• We do not invent prices, discounts or "was/now" figures.
• We do not publish star ratings we have not genuinely assigned.
• We do not fabricate verified purchases, testimonials or user statistics.
• We do not claim medical treatment, cure or guaranteed results.
• We do not accept payment in exchange for a positive recommendation.
• We do not present cosmetics information as clinical advice.

The limits of a product review

It is worth being honest about what a review cannot do. Skincare and haircare are highly individual: a product that suits one person comfortably can irritate another with apparently similar skin. Most visible changes take weeks to appear, and they are easy to confuse with seasonal variation, changes in sleep or stress, or the simple fact of using a product consistently for the first time.

A review can tell you what a product is formulated to do, how it feels to use, who it is aimed at and where the trade-offs are. It cannot tell you how your skin will respond. That is why we emphasise suitability and patch testing over promises — and why the most useful reviews are the ones that tell you who should skip a product, not just who should buy it.

Corrections and updates

Formulations, packaging, sizes and availability change. We review and date-stamp our content, showing both a published and an updated date on every article, and we welcome corrections. If you spot something inaccurate, please contact us through the contact page — we would rather fix it than defend it.

How to use our reviews

How we handle samples and gifting

Brands send products to publications as a matter of routine, and it is worth being explicit about what that means. Receiving a product lets us assess texture, scent, packaging and how it behaves in a routine. It does not oblige us to write about it, it does not guarantee a positive verdict, and it never buys a recommendation. Products we receive and do not cover are the majority rather than the exception.

• Gifted products are assessed against the same criteria as anything we buy.
• We do not accept payment for coverage or for a favourable verdict.
• If we have not used a product personally, we say the profile is based on formulation analysis.
• Where a brand asks for copy approval before publication, we decline.

That last point matters more than it sounds. Editorial independence is not a policy statement on a page — it is the willingness to publish a verdict a brand disagrees with, and to lose the relationship rather than soften the conclusion.

How we handle mistakes

We get things wrong occasionally, and how a publication handles that tells you more than any methodology page. When we find or are sent an error, we correct the article, note the correction where the change is material, and update the modified date so readers can see that something changed. We do not quietly edit a substantive claim without a trace, because a correction that disappears is not a correction.

If you spot something inaccurate — a formulation detail, a changed product name, a claim we should have qualified — please tell us. Reader corrections have fixed more on this site than any internal review, and they are genuinely welcome rather than tolerated.

Finally, a note on what we are not. We are not clinicians, and nothing here is dermatological or medical advice. We are editors and researchers writing about cosmetics: what is in them, how they feel to use, who they are likely to suit and what they are unlikely to do. Where a concern needs diagnosis or treatment, the right move is a qualified professional, and no review — including a detailed, honest one — changes that.

Read the suitability and drawbacks sections before the verdict. Check the ingredient list against your own sensitivities. Compare the product against one alternative rather than reading it in isolation. Then, if it still looks right for you, buy the smallest size available and give it a genuine trial before committing to a larger one. That approach will save you more money than any review, including ours.