These are the rules we hold ourselves to. If you ever see us fall short, tell us.
Independence
No brand, retailer or platform owns Beauty Product Reviews or has a say in what we publish. Nobody can buy a review, a score, a badge, a ranking or a mention, and we don't publish sponsored posts. We earn affiliate commissions when readers buy through our links; our affiliate disclosure explains how that works and why it never touches a score. Brands can send us corrections and new information like anyone else, and we treat it as one source among many.
Conflicts of interest
- Anyone who writes or edits for us must disclose financial or personal ties to brands we cover, such as a job, an investment, a creator partnership or a close relationship, and must stay out of reviewing those brands' products.
- We don't ask brands for free products or PR packages. If one arrives anyway, it doesn't change the score, and if we write about using it, we say it was free.
- We don't accept gifts, trips, event invitations or payments from companies we cover.
- The same principle applies in our community: brand employees and paid partners must say so, as our community guidelines explain.
How we choose products
We cover what people actually buy and ask about: bestsellers on Amazon and TikTok Shop, products creators are talking about, brands our community recommends, and reader requests. To be listed, a product must be on sale now, have an official product page we can check, and have enough public evidence to score fairly. Prescription-only products are out of scope. We include products we wouldn't recommend, because a low score with reasons is useful. Brands can't pay to be added, and they can't pay to be removed.
Sourcing
Every spec, price, shade count, ingredient list and claim on a product page comes from a page we actually loaded, such as the brand's listing, a retailer, a creator review or a forum thread, and each product page lists those sources. Prices come from the brand or a retailer other than Amazon, with the date we checked. Product photos come from the brands or major retailers. When we can't confirm something, we leave it out rather than guess. Brand claims are labeled as brand claims ("the brand says"), and reviewer experiences as reviewer experiences.
Our articles and ingredient guides cite their sources inline, favoring peer-reviewed studies, dermatology organizations such as the American Academy of Dermatology, and regulators such as the FDA. We say how strong the evidence is, including when it's a single small study, an industry-funded trial or lab work that hasn't been repeated in people.
How we verify videos
- Every YouTube and TikTok video is checked with the platform's official oEmbed endpoint before it appears. That confirms the video is public and embeddable, and supplies the title, creator name and thumbnail we show, copied exactly.
- An editor confirms the video is a review, try-on, wear test or first impressions of that exact product, not just the brand or a similar shade. Titles that don't name the brand or product are flagged for a closer look.
- We prefer independent creators and videos from about the last three years. If only a brand's own video exists, we say so, and paid partnerships are labeled "Sponsored by the brand."
- Each video is labeled Positive, Mixed, Critical or Overview, based on what the creator actually says.
- We re-check videos whenever we refresh the catalog and remove any that go private or disappear.
How we quote people
Quotes come from Reddit, beauty forums, blogs and the press. Every quote is verbatim: copied word for word from a page we fetched, trimmed only with an ellipsis, never paraphrased or tidied up inside quotation marks. Each is 60 words or fewer and links to the original post or comment. We never quote Amazon customer reviews, and we include the complaints that keep coming up, such as breakouts, oxidation, pilling or fading, not just the praise.
If you made a video we feature or wrote a post we quote and would like it removed, ask us and we'll take it down.
No medical claims
Cosmetics are meant to clean, beautify and change appearance; they aren't approved to treat disease. So we:
- describe evidence rather than promise results, for example "a 2019 trial found" or "reviewers report," with a link to the source;
- never say a product treats, cures or prevents a medical condition such as acne, rosacea, eczema, melasma or hair loss, even when a brand does;
- report over-the-counter drug products, such as sunscreens, benzoyl peroxide and adapalene, using their labeled uses and directions;
- note known cautions, such as irritation, sun sensitivity and pregnancy questions around retinoids, in factual terms;
- point readers to a board-certified dermatologist for persistent, painful or worrying skin, scalp, hair or nail concerns, and to a doctor or pharmacist before combining products with prescription treatments.
Nothing on the site is medical advice, as our terms explain.
AI assistance
We use AI research tools. They help us find and organize sources such as ingredient lists, creator videos and forum threads, check that links and videos still work, and prepare first drafts of product summaries. They don't make editorial decisions. An editor checks claims against the sources, reviews every score and decides what gets published. Community posts go through a separate automated safety check, described in our community guidelines.
Corrections
We make mistakes, and we fix them in the open.
- Factual errors, such as a wrong ingredient, percentage, shade count, price per ounce or quote attribution, are corrected as soon as we confirm them, with a dated note on the page saying what changed.
- Score changes caused by an error are always noted, with the old and new score.
- Score updates from new evidence, such as a reformulation, a new shade range or new long-term reports, aren't corrections. They update the page's last-reviewed date.
- Small fixes like typos and broken links are made without a note.
To report an error, use the contact form on our contact page and include the page link and what's wrong. We aim to reply within three business days.