Happy weekend friends! First – a few announcements:

One, I am sorry for the delay in my posting. When I started my blog, I originally planned on doing a post twice a week but then went for every weekend once the semester started. I ended up missing last weekend, though, because of a family emergency. I am once again going to plan on doing a post once a weekend, as well as a second post during the middle of the week as well, most likely posted on Wednesdays!

Two, this post is long awaited for me because I have been referencing how I would like to discuss this topic in many previous blog posts, and also because I would like to start doing product mini reviews and tutorials on my instagram (spookylipsandfathips), and full length reviews on my blog – starting with “The Palette Series”! The Palette Series is an idea I had for an ongoing blog post series where I look at popular eyeshadow palette collections, for example Urban Decay’s Naked collection, Too Faced’s Chocolate Bar collection, Tarte’s Tartelette collection etc, and compare each palette against the other in the individual set and see which is the best, most unique, most worth it etc, and help you decide which might be best for you. I  hope I’m explaining this right: like one post I would do just all the Naked palettes against each other and another post the Chocolate Bars etc. I would include swatches, reviews, possible dupes or alternatives, maybe even mini tutorials/looks. Anyway, more to come on that later. Also if you have suggestions for palette collections you would want reviews of, please let me know (because I most likely own them – I have a serious palette addiction).

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Anyway, in THIS post I am going to be talking about what to look for in a makeup/product review. This is a subject that is super important to me because this is a super weird and tricky thing to navigate. There are so many “gurus” out there in the world that make reviewing products and telling people what to buy an actual job, and this can be easily influenced by the desire to make money and earn a living. If you are new to the online makeup world it can be very easy to get wrapped up in product hype and sponsorship madness, and therefore be difficult to find reviews that are truly honest and reliable. I’m just going to share some things I tend to look for which help me, and maybe they will help you too.

Buzzwords to Look For:

• Color Payoff – How opaque the product is, how many swipes or dips into a product you have to go into before you see it, how vivid or noticeable it is etc.
• Blending – How the product applies/blends, how it mixes with other products, is it patchy or glides on nice? etc. Especially important for eyeshadows.
• Application – How the product applies, if it needs a special tool or technique to use, is it easy or difficult etc.
• Wear – How does a product wear? Will it last all day? Do you need a primer or setting spray? Does it break apart, wear away, or fade gracefully throughout the day?
• Opaqueness vs Sheerness – Can you see the true color of this product in one swipe or brush, or does it need to be built up to be seen?
• Coverage – Important for foundations: Does one layer achieve the kind of coverage you are looking for?
• Price – Affordable, available, or a splurge? Is it worth the price?
• Kick-up – For powder products: When you apply your brush to the product, does extra product move around or kick-up?
• Fallout – For Powder products: when applying the product, does excess fall off your brush and onto your face?
• Finish – All kinds of products have different finishes: matte, shimmery, satin etc. I plan on doing a separate blog post all about finishes later on.
• Shade Range – Is this product available in multiple shades? Will it look good on a variety of skin tones?
• Skin Type – For things like foundation or skincare, what skin type does the reviewer have vs what type is it best for? (dry, normal, combo, oily, acne prone etc)
• “Wearable” – I’ve said in the past I hate this word (wear whatever you want!), but to others it is obviously going to be very important to know if a color would be acceptable to wear to work or school or if it might make them look like an alien. Similarly, is something best suited for every day wear or is it best for a special event or going out?
• Dupes/Similarity To Other Products – Just for me, I like when a reviewer can compare a product (especially an expensive one) to other products in texture, color, or performance just so the consumer knows there are options out there, and maybe even BETTER options.
• Smell/Taste – self explanatory!
• Limited Edition – Is a product limited edition? This could increase hype on products that might not actually be that awesome.
• Availability – Where can you get this item? Did the reviewer buy it but then wait weeks for the company to send it out? Or can I go run to Target and get it today?
• PR – Was this product sent to the reviewer as part of public relations? Brands often send products to influencers in hope that they will talk about it (more to come).
• Sponsored – is a person being paid to talk about this product? (more to come).

Beware a reviewer who is spending way, WAY too much time on one or two of the above mentioned topics. One thing I’ve noticed reviewers like to do is focus a very long time describing color or texture and often exclaiming about these things, rather then going really in-depth about the product. This can be a sign of either a bad reviewer, or someone trying to make money (more later).

Format of the Review

The main thing I tend to look for in a review is how the person is reviewing the product or brand. For instance, are they just holding up the product and talking about it? Posting a photo of it and a photo of some swatches? Or are they using the product on camera and showing you how it performs?

I love watching a reviewer use the product I am interested in knowing about. You can see instantly how a product looks, how it performs, and their initial first thoughts on this. Also, I love “wear tests”, where reviewers update you throughout the day or after several days of using a product so you can get a real feel of how the item performs.

I also love seeing a product worn in a completed look, as well as how the product looks on various skin tones for reference.

How is the Product Being Swatched or Shown?

A swatch is basically when you rub or apply a product onto your hand or arm to see how it looks. Swatches of a product, specially powder products like eyeshadows, can actually be INCREDIBLY misleading! First, most swatches are done with a finger, when in reality you would be applying the product with a brush or sponge – so this alone can alter how a product performs, and actually make it look more opaque or better looking in general just swatching a product with a finger. Also, often the beautiful swatches you see online are heavily manipulated to make the product look as incredible as possible. This means a swatch might be applied over primer, might be applied over and over to build up product, a brush could have been wetted first etc. See if the reviewer is disclosing how they are swatching a product to see if it is being manipulated in anyway to give a false representation of how the product actually looks or performs. Also, if you are watching a person swatch from pan to skin, how hard are they digging into the product or how many swirls into the product are they doing before applying to their hand or arm? These are all tricks to get a product to look its best.

Also, another tricky thing is lighty. Pretty much any influencer who works in the beauty community as a profession will have invested in elaborate lighting to make products and themselves look good. This type of lighting can blur out imperfects kind-of like a filter on instagram. See if you can find product reviews done in different types of lighting. If a reviewer is using a ring  light or some kind of stand light, see if they also show the product in natural light or in flash photography, for example, just so you can get a good idea of how the product will look in the real world. The better an influencer looks as well as how good they can get a product to look is all going to affect their popularity in the long-run.

How is the Person Speaking About the Product?

This touches on the buzzwords I mentioned first: what is an influencer actually saying about the product they are reviewing? Are they talking to you about availability, price, shade range, how it wears etc? Or are they just kind of talking about how amazing the color is the whole time? This is a trick to avoid discussing the performance of a product; if an infleuncer is just praising or overly describing a color you can see with your own eyes, it might be a sign the product isn’t so great and they are just looking for something positive to talk about to make that brand happy. When listening to or reading a review, ask yourself if you really have a good sense of the product now or if you still have questions. Just hearing how incredible or amazing a product is doesn’t actually tell you anything – you want to know about the gritty details.

Reputation of the Reviewer

This one is tricky, but also kind of self-explanatory. It might take you watching the same reviewer over and over to get a real feel for the type of reputation they have. Do not be fooled by follower counts alone, just because a person has thousands or millions of people watching them does not mean they are trustworthy. Like I’ve said already, to many people being a beauty influencer is a full time job, and often decisions can be made that will benefit them financially. It is best to “shop around”, watch multiple reviews, and multiple videos from someone if you think you like them or can relate to them. How you feel about them is ultimately going to be most important – do you trust this person to give you advice that is going to result in you spending money?

Also, is this person representing you in any way? I not only like to follow people with similar styles to my own, but also similar skin concerns (for instance, I have pasty-white pale skin, so it makes sense to watch a foundation review from someone who is also my level of pale), and personalities that I vibe with. After a while you really will start to get a sense of who a person is by watching a lot of their videos. Do they seem honest or money grubbing? Do they make videos or instagram posts in a way that is appealing to you? Do they invest into their channel/page and into their fans? Are they consistent with their posting? Or does it seem like they are totally bought? You can tell which influencers really care about you as a fan as well as how passionate they are about the beauty world and how they will show in their reviews and tutorials. Try clicking on their instagram – do they seem to constantly be showing off which parties they are at or are they frequently uploading content and keeping you informed as to when they are going to be uploading content and what kind of content it will be? Also, are they including their audience in the content they make? Do they ask for your opinions on what you would like to see them review, or does it always just seem like they are chasing whatever hot new item launch is out or are copying what everyone else is doing?

Also, in their reviews, do they talk about things they do not like about the product or are honest when they don’t like a product at all, or does it all seem like praise no matter what?

When in doubt – run a google search. Not everyone is going to love every influencer, but if a beauty guru is scandal city, it might be best to stay away. Your views are supporting them financially, so make sure the person you are supporting is someone who you would want to contribute to.

At the end of the day, though, form your own opinions and make up your own minds before fully trusting someone or fully blowing someone off.

Did the Reviewer Purchase the Item, or Was it Send to Them?

I’ve touched on this a little both in this post and past posts, and I’ll really discuss it more in the next blurb, but how a person acquired the item being reviewed can sway what they will say about it. If a person is being sent products by a company, even if they are not being sent them in exchange for a review, it will still benefit them if they do review them and if they do so positively. This is often why you might see big-deal beauty gurus talking about all the PR they get on things like instagram or snapchat, because if they can show a company they are showing off their products, they will most likely continue to be sent products for free. When a company sends products to someone popular, the goal is free publicity. It’s sort of like one hand washing the other  – free publicity for the companies, and things to talk about that interests the viewers as well as free stuff (or even elaborate free trips???) to the influencer.

That being said, there are many, MANY influencers that will disclose not only when a product has been sent to them, but also that it is not going to influence their thoughts on anything. This is greatly in the interest in the influencer, because if they can’t be trusted then they will lose their fan base, their fame, and then their profits. Because we, the fans and viewers, are what is giving them their money (through ads and sponsorships), then in theory they owe it to us to be as honest and trustworthy as possible so we keep tuning in.

Either way, this is why many people prefer when reviewers have purchased the item with their own money: to avoid all this potential shifty crap. If a person’s own money is being spent, then you can almost guarantee an honest review because they haven’t gained anything other than your views. For me, I don’t tend to care either way, as long as the person is disclosing if the product was sent to them or not. Like I said, you tend to pick up on which influencers are trustworthy after a while, and which seem to honestly care about the people watching them.

Beware the Sponsored Post and The Affiliate Link/Code

Being sent a product for free is not the same as a sponsorship or affiliate link. A sponsorship is when a company is actually paying for an influencer to discuss or use their product on camera. By law, an influencer has to disclose a sponsorship. This is also true for affiliate links and codes. Affiliate links are often used in product reviews but unfortunately are not always disclosed to the viewer. It kind of looks like this: a person will discuss a product, maybe even hype it up as being life changing or tell you that you have to have it, and then tell you they are leaving a link for it in the description of the video. Many times, if this is not just a generic sephora or ulta link, these can be affiliate links that actually give the influencer money if you click on them and buy through their unique links. This also goes for affiliate codes – an influencer might hype up a product, tell you to go buy it, but they tell you they have a “special” promo code that you can use for some money off, which sounds great right? Except that often they are not disclosing (even though they have to, BY LAW) that the money you are saving is actually a commission that is then going to go into their pocket. Many gurus and influencers kind-of bypass this law by posting some generic “some links may be affiliate links” in their descriptions just to cover their own butts.

As you can imagine, this obviously gives someone a motive to speak positively about a product that might not be so great, because they are trying to make money off of your purchase. Remember – the beauty industry is a multi-billion dollar a year industry, and they are just trying to get a piece of it. As I said in my How To Build Your High-End Makeup Collection post though, affiliate codes are still is a way to save you money, and the best way to go about using one is to pick your favorite influencer and use their codes so you can continue to support them and their youtube channels or instagrams.

Just Some General Tips to Wrap-Up

If you are curious about a product or brand, seek out multiple sources for reviews. Find swatches on multiple skin tones. Research brands and see if their ethics line up with your own. See if a product has lasted through time and is constantly being talked about, or if it’s only briefly hyped about then eventually disappears and is replaced by something new and exciting in the beauty world. Most importantly, don’t let an influencer’s word be law – try products out for yourself, and be sure to save your receipts!

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I feel like this post might have been uncleared or jumbled, but this is a huge topic and I could do a separate post alone just about how the thirst for money is ruining the credibility of many beauty bloggers or gurus. I just kind-of wanted to give a general overview on what to look for in makeup reviews, since I know when I first started googling things like “best contouring products” I was getting all kinds of sponsored crap that I was taking seriously rather than honest and well-thought-out reviews, just because I didn’t know any of this stuff. Like I said, I would like to start doing product reviews very soon and I hope if anything you can find me reliable! And as always, I hoped this helped even if only a little. Have a great weekend guys! Like I said, be sure to leave some comments on palettes you want me to review for you!

-Lacie ❤︎❤︎❤︎