Beauty Reviews: Who can you trust?

Jun 22, 2009 Author: Jen Hill | Filed under: Skincare

With all the various beauty sites and blogs, how do you know which reviewsÂ you can trust and which you cannot?Â I wish there was an easy answer, but the complexity that surrounds beauty reviews is quite extensive.Â Â To help answer this question, TheÂ Beauty Brains wrote a very well thought out article titled, “Are Beauty Product Reviews Reliable?”

Being a self-appointed beauty product reviewer, I spend a great deal of time reading other beauty reviews.Â In reading so many reviews, I have become somewhat of an expert on the “BS” reviews and the valid ones.Â The Beauty Brains mentioned six points to consider when assessing the validity of a beauty product review, they include:

Is it real? – don’t trust any single review on the Internet
Easily Fooled – beautiful packaging and big price tags don’t always equal a good product
Polarized Opinions – reviews that are extremely positive or negative, but rarely in the middle
People are different – what I love you may hate and visa versa
Scores are relative -Â uncalibrated ratings may or may not be equally weighedÂ (read my comment below)
Fallacy of cause and effect – just because one person had that experience, doesn’t mean it will happen to you

One of the primary reasons I created Mythbuster Beauty was because of my frustration finding reviews that I could trust, many reviews are “planted” by paid employees of the company, or will lead into aÂ sales pitchÂ of their particular product.

I have also wondered aboutÂ the relativeÂ rating issue, a 10 point scale (like the one on the Total Beauty site)Â is probably better than a smaller ranged one, but still, I might base my score on a school grade percentage ideology, and anything under 6 stars (or 60%) would be considered a FAIL. Others, might abuse the use of the 10, which I would probably never use, just because product perfection is almost impossible to come by.

As aÂ rule of thumb when judging beauty reviews, get to know the reviewer (by reading through several of their reviews) and see if their preferences are similar to yours. Feel free to email them (mine is jen hill at mythbusterbeauty dot com)Â if you have any questions, and realize that their review is their best attempt to share their experience with a particular product.Â Say you read aÂ positive review at my site, write down the name and continue with your research.Â Follow up by going to another site like Makeup Alley, Total Beauty, or one that has a large number of reviewers. I believe the truth comes out with the numbers, and if a product has 20+ reviews, they will probably make some valid points that will either persuade or dissuade you to purchase the product.

And most importantly, be smart and skeptical when reading beauty reviews.Â Particularly when a beauty review has claims that seem too good to be true, whenÂ the reviewerÂ isÂ sellingÂ their own product line, or when you have to open a new line of credit to purchase it.

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13 Responses for "Beauty Reviews: Who can you trust?"

Michelle H. June 22nd, 2009 at 7:30 pm 1

I agree with your article and I just want to vent about one thing that has bothered me recently regarding product reviews. I love to enter contests. But, I was frustrated recently because a site I like to go to for reviews had a contest where you could get an entry each time you posted a review on a product. They gave people the chance to enter without actually posting a review by copying and pasting a number into the subject line of the review, but some people obviously thought that to be too time consuming and posted reviews on products they obviously had not tried. For example, for one mascara, someone gave it 1 star and claimed that it had been years since they wore “bat goo”. So, here I going to the site looking up info. on products I was considering purchasing, and I had to wade through junk reviews.
Decorative Diva June 22nd, 2009 at 7:57 pm 2

I totally agree with your post. I always look at multiple reviews and then check sites that I trust to make a decision on a product.
Jami June 23rd, 2009 at 7:49 am 3

As always, a very well laid out article. It frustrates me to no end to see some blogs and websites with everything 10 stars! Or “I don’t write negative reviews”. How in the world will your readers know the pros and cons of items if you only review the things you adore???

And for further discussion… have you heard about the proposed FTC guidelines for reviews and bloggers? I’d love to pick your brain on that.

Thanks again for a wonderful website, Jen. You ROCK!
Shannon-A Girl's Gotta Spa June 23rd, 2009 at 8:01 am 4

I completely agree with you Jen. I always read multiple reviews on the same product to get a feel for if it is for me. Plus I tend to read blogs where the blogger is very similar to myself. It’s also about trust. I have to say I rarely if ever go to MakeupAlley because I am aware of several brands that post reviews of their products under an alias. I much prefer to read reviews from people I already know, have a relationship with and trust.
Mo June 23rd, 2009 at 11:58 am 5

It’s hard to write reviews sometimes. I try not to totally rip something I don’t like because it’s so based on my personal preference and results that I just can’t rule it out for everyone. I try to suggest skin types or personality types that might prefer it, or point out reasons I like it but others might not.
There are certain reviewers I know like similar things to myself and I try to read them the most when considering something new. You can usually tell when someone’s getting something extra from companies for good reviews. I usually gush about Urban Decay but I’m not afraid to say that I’m not in love with something from them (Primer potion isn’t my favorite, sorry loves), and I think that type of honesty shows.
As for the FTC, I think the concept is great, but we can’t save everyone from everything, so people need to take everything with a grain of salt. Beauty bloggers obviously receive samples from companies, so disclosing every last product seems kind of silly, but if you’re getting cruises and other excessive gifts and feel like you need to hide that info, then that’s probably a good sign that your review isn’t an honest one.
Laura June 23rd, 2009 at 2:08 pm 6

Great post I had the same problem for a long time. My blog is independent but we can’t review everything! Multiple reviews are absolutely the way to go, particularly if you can find them on several sites that you trust. Deciding who to trust…there’s the rub.
And, like you said, what one reviewer of a product experiences may not be my experience but I do like to hear if something’s worth even trying.
There’s just so much out there and all of the site/review hopping can be exhausting. I want one-stop shopping!
Kimberly Kolodziejski June 23rd, 2009 at 4:28 pm 7

This was a most impressive article. As I am reading it from the other side of the street (full disclosure, I am co-owner of Chella Skin Care and provider of products to be reviewed), I appreciate the honesty and fairness of unbiased reviews, although we can’t always guarantee that the reviewer will agree with us on the fabulosity of our skin care! We fully guarantee our products and believe them to be among the best out there.
As we are a new company and living with a limited marketing budget (have you any idea how expensive it is to buy even the smallest ad in STYLE magazine?) we are learning the benefits of social networking for the newbie and truly feel beauty bloggers reviews are even more respected and trusted than paid advertising. Thanks Mythbuster Beauty for providing that platform, and I hope that you may find our products worthy of your recommendation (no yacht trips attached!). Have a beautiful day, all!
GreenGoddess June 24th, 2009 at 2:06 pm 8

I too, like to see what the review sees as the pros and cons of a particular product. The problem with writing negative reviews will be apparent at some point in the not to distant future, I suspect. Already there has been one perfume review blogger attacked by a major (huge conglomerate) company for comparing one of their fragrane bottles to a similarly designed one by another company. I hesitate to name names here, so as as not to draw attention to this site. Unfortunately any type of negativite review might be construed as defamation.
Obviously this is going to have HUGE ramifications for bloggers everywhere and freedom of speech (if we still have that)

(In law, defamation (from Wiki= also called calumny, libel (for written words), slander (for spoken words), and vilification) is the communication of a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, business, product, group, government or nation a negative image).
Katie June 28th, 2009 at 6:21 pm 9

I agree Jen – there are some BAD reviews out there! But I think really reading them is most important also. Much of the time, the person writing may have really used the product..but just saying “it broke me out” is a terrible review. People that take the time to write about ingredients, their own skin type, etc. know what they’re talking about. It is easy to write paragraph after paragraph about nothing!
NYCEsthy June 29th, 2009 at 9:39 pm 10

I love that beauty bloggers are even willing to tackle this sticky subject. When I was a bty editor, the ad dollars usually bought the product mentions. I try not to blog about the lines I work with and retail, and if I do there’s full disclosure (tho I retail and work w/ the lines b/c I love them).

Thanks for bringing this up, Jen! It’s an important subject!
Jen Hill June 30th, 2009 at 3:00 pm 11

Thanks for your incredible perspective! Yay!
About all those product reviews… « BeautyOlogy June 30th, 2009 at 9:48 pm 12

[...] 1, 2009 in Weblogs Jen over at Mythbuster Beauty has a great post about beauty product reviews. I really love her site–it’s informative, entertaining, and I think she has good [...]
papel tpv January 8th, 2012 at 6:43 pm 13

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