Beauty Tips For Body Care
With Drunk Elephant (whoa little Freudian slip there), er Sunday Riley recently being gently scolded by the FTC for fake reviews on Sephora’s website, I’ve seen a lot of confusion and doubt about how to actually find legitimate reviews for products online. I consider myself to be a Jedi Knight in the fine art of Googling and whatever the Jedi equivalent of a Black Belt is in cutting through bullshit, and have honed and crafted my vetting process over many moons of… Googling and cutting through bullshit. Man sometimes a sentence just doesn’t end with that bang you imagined.I thought I’d share my steps here so you can grab and pick out what you will, and hopefully feel a little less overwhelmed by the fact that everything you read is probably a lie!Overview of the steps I'll cover below in far more detail-1) Look at what it's supposed to do and throw ingredients list into Cosdna2) Look only at negative reviews; filter from lowest to highest rated. Ignore 4/5 star reviews3) Use Google to search for reviews from many different sources (i.e. Google " Reviews")4) Get sample if possible; Buy smallest size possiblePhase One: Basic Recon Oh that product has piqued my interest! What fine retailers might I purchase it at?Sometimes I’ll come across a product that has a je ne sais quoi about it. Let’s take a real life example from those naughty little review fakers at Sunday Riley and use their Good Genes as our product to research. Few products have been as mega-hyped as Good Genes because Oprah loved it and she’s still a thing (maybe? Didn't OWN flop?) and it took off from there. So you'd start with knowing a few things about yourself and what you're looking for.Skin Type (I'm Oily-to-normal)Main Concern you're looking to address with this product (I'm looking to combat acne and large pores + even out my skin tone)What you're comfortable spending (I'm Mid-range to High-end: Not super concerned about a price tag if it’s gonna work. But like not Barbara Sturm $300 for freaking Hyaluronic Acid expensive. We'll call that "stupid expensive".)So let's say I’m all starry-eyed over Good Genes because I got a little short changed on legit good genes and if The Secret taught me anything it’s that I bring into my life what I desire. I want good genes so maybe this is the Universe being like- “Hey, I dropped some shit off at Sephora for you.” I first will go to the product's page at Sephora and take a look at two things: the product’s claims and its ingredients.Good Gene's Sephora PageSo for Good Genes we have the following on it's "About Me" section:"What it is: An all-in-one AHA treatment, powered by lactic acid, that clarifies, smooths, and retexturizes the appearance of skin.Skin Type: Normal, Dry, Combination, and OilySkincare Concerns: Fine lines and wrinkles, Pores, Dark spots"Ok, all of that sounds great and just what I’m looking for- so far so good. If that doesn't sound like what you want from a product just bail at this point. Also, please never put any stock in the “Clinical Results” section of the page that a lot of websites have. Go ahead and read the results for Good Genes and you'll see what I mean.Now I move on to the ingredients. I usually do a spot check on how far down any of their key ingredients are depending on the product (i.e. if it’s a serum or a moisturizer), but the most important part here for me is to throw the ingredients into Cosdna and see what pops out. I don’t put huge stock in comedogenic ratings, but I still want to know if there are any potentially acne-causing ingredients right up top. Likewise with irritants. Note on Cosdna: DO NOT TRUST THE PRODUCTS ALREADY IN COSDNA! Ever notice there are like 15 versions of popular products in the Cosdna database and all are like, 1-5 ingredient different from each other? Do NOT trust people to copy + paste properly. Not to mention companies change their formulations preeeetty frequently. No, take the time to copy the ingredients from the store's website (bonus points for hitting both the company’s website and the retailers, because if there is a formulation change it’ll always be live for the company first- retailers can be slow to update) and paste them into Cosdna’s “analyze ingredients” section. http://www.cosdna.com/eng/ingredients.phpSo for Good Genes there is nothing I’m super jazzed about, and there are quite a few possibly comedogenic ingredients + a lot of fancy schmancy extracts (Lady’s Slipper Orchid Extract?! Give me a f-ing break) that I’m sure are like only grown on the Isle of Man and harvested by nubile young women after a milk bath or something bizarre. Given that there are a lot of potential acne triggers I’m going to be on the lookout for this in reviews. And feel free to tag in for my example of "acne" whatever your particular bête noire is. If you have dry skin and a product has ingredients like alcohol and you’re like 'oh hey that’s drying' then you’ll be watching for that in reviews.Phase Two: The Reviews Reading how much people hate things and getting a lesson in how amazingly awful everyone’s spelling and grammar has become!Now the fun part, let’s read some reviews! I am now going to share with you my secret to getting the deets on products, right after I tell you about Skillshare! Ha. Ok my secret: I don’t give two shits, or even one shit, about the positive reviews. I don’t care that someone thinks Good Genes is awesome. I mean frankly Oprah already told us it was awesome so if you think you’re better then Oprah then you’re stupid and wrong. No matter what site I’m on the first thing I do is filter by “Lowest to Highest Rating.” (Side note: Ever wonder how to spot a fake review from a mile away without needing some computer to do the work? Ever notice how the 5 star reviews are always beautiful, ripe, lusciously complete sentences while the 1 stars are like “this waz trash i hat it awful!!!!” If a review sounds polished and put together it most likely was.) In the negative reviews what we are looking for are people with a similar skin type as ours and similar problems they're trying to address. You can pretty easily weed out the people who were hoping for miracles from a product or had an issue with areas outside the formula (company’s customer service, product size, product bottle, etc.) and focus in on those that could apply to you. Let’s snag up a good example for Good Genes from someone that seems to match my skin concerns:"Kind of bummed...I wanted so badly to love this. After all the hype and reading all the articles and reviews, I thought this would be magical. I used this faithfully as directed for two months and never noticed a difference in my skin. Nothing seemed brighter, smoother, tighter, etc. I actually stopped using it entirely after the two months because it really broke me out the whole time. I know some said there’s a “purging” period so I kept using it, but no purging period lasts two months. I usually have decently clear skin and this is the only item I changed in my routine that whole time. I gave the rest away to a friend who wanted to try it and hopefully they have better results.”So honestly Good Genes isn’t sounding too bad after looking through a ton of bad reviews. Mostly people complaining about the smell which like if I can be blunt with you I’d probably put dog poo on my face if I would wake up with perfect skin- call me crazy. A few people reporting breakouts but some sound to me like purging. Ok Sunday, I’m intrigued.Phase Three: Surfing the Web Tubular! Oh shit remember Johnny Tsunami?Alright, the reviews didn’t turn us off and the ingredients are somewhat promising, so now comes what we'll call ‘casting a wider net’ since we're looking further around the internet! Ha. Pro-tip- pretend no website ever has built in searching. I promise you it’s not as good as Google. Take freaking Reddit for example: ever used Reddit’s dumpster fire of a search feature?! Just use Google. First place I go to look for more reviews and info on a product is usually Reddit, so in this case I’d go to Google and type in “Sunday Riley Good Genes Reddit”. I always start more generic and add in words as necessary- like if I needed to add “reviews” on the end to get better results. Now I start picking through it all! As you can see here, there are MANY posts talking about Good Genes already so you’ll find out a lot about it from reading through them.For products that are perhaps newer or just less well known, you might find you’ll need to branch out from Reddit. In this case we’d just amend our previous Google search to read “Sunday Riley Good Genes Review”. There are a fair few review sites out there (i.e. Influenster) as well as personal blogs that might have tried and reviewed the product. On sites like Influenster same rules apply- ignore positive reviews and sort by lowest to highest. Oh also IGNORE AMAZON! To be frank I never buy skin care off of Amazon (or TJ Maxx/Marshalls for that matter), and I would especially never buy something that’s not licensed to be sold on Amazon because the chances of it being a fake/tampered with/expired are around 100%. If you’re ever finding yourself purchasing something and it’s cheaper than retail price just walk away. Therefore Amazon’s reviews are useless, because these are people reviewing what is likely not the real product.“What if my product is brand new or so obscure I can’t find reviews on it?”If it’s brand new I’d suggest looking at similar products from that company if possible to get a feel for them. Unless you KNOW a particular ingredient set is exactly what you’re looking I'd advise waiting it out on new products or at the very least getting a sample. My skin is not something I enjoy being adventurous with (but I also said like 3 paragraphs up something about dog poop on my face? so I think I undercut my point here). If a product is not new, and you still can’t find ANYTHING on it I would: MAKE SURE THE COMPANY IS LEGIT!I have seen a lot of posts recently about people buying 'Provence Beauty' from TJ Maxx. I tried to help someone verify one of their products and couldn’t find ANYTHING on it. The brand themselves seems sketchy at best, and there is not a trace of any of the products that people purchased from TJ Maxx online. If the company seems iffy, DO NOT BUY SKIN CARE FROM THEM! It’s not worth it guys. If the company is legit, but just not very mainstream, you might have to go fishing a bit. I had this experience with Renee Rouleau’s products. This is the only time I actually ask a question in the Skin Care subreddit because you can find so much by just searching old posts. In this case I’d recommend heading to the Daily Questions thread and asking if anyone has ever tried . If you can’t find anyone who has used it, and the company doesn’t do samples, make positively sure they do full refunds (and include return shipping!) because it’s always a gamble.Phase Four: I want that. <�——- Napoleon Dynamite reference! Anyone? WTF that movie came out in 2004 Jesus Christ!Ok so at this point you’ve probably made up your mind one way or another about a product and are ready to move forward. Often I find that my original product search has turned me on to a similar product and I am therefore performing this complex mating ritual with several products simultaneously before selecting the most dominant.Once I have one I’m serious about your first question should be “Can I get a sample?” Ok guys here is the shitty thing with samples of Skin Care- using something for like three days in a row isn’t going to affect you dramatically one way or the other unless you have extreme sensitivities. However it will help you weed out little things like texture, smell (lol god smell again), feel (too greasy? too oily?), and how it plays with your other products (i.e. pilling). I always get a sample before I buy something if at all possible. Now if it’s not possible due to the availability (online only) or the packaging of the product, I’d recommend seeking out a travel size. Funnily enough this is exactly what I did with Good Genes (my take on it? Like basically the skin care equivalent of the shrugging emoji). I found my biggest problem was I’d buy a full-size product since it’s a bEtTeR vAlUe and then never ever finish it because I’d get right past that point of no return (like literally, can’t return it anymore) and then decide it wasn’t doing it and thank you next it (as someone hovering around 30 I can truthfully say I’ve never even heard that song which you can probably tell). So the hierarchy of purchasing goes: Sample —> Travel-size —> Smallest size available from the store with the best return policy!Sephora has a pretty fantastic return policy, so they’re usually my default. Oh Ulta too. I have this weird snobbish thing about Sephora being somehow better than Ulta? If you are buying online be diligent about checking return policies! With skin care you need to find out the following:How long do I have to return?Can I return open and/or used product? Is it unconditional or based on their discretion?Does the company pay for my return or will return shipping be deducted from my refund?Is this site well known and liked?For that last point I’d recommend a similar vetting process as the one you just went through for the product itself. For ‘mainstream’ sites like Sephora, Dermstore, major department stores, etc. (lol Ulta didn’t make the list again! Maybe it’s the orange? Is orange just not classy enough?) you can do a spot check of reviews for their customer service, but on the whole this is going to be far more important for niche sites, smaller companies, and Korean/International beauty sites! Doing a Google search for, say, “Yesstyle reddit reviews” or some combo of that will net you most everything you need to know. Once again if you can’t find anything on a company I’d steer clear. If you find a product that is still being manufactured (like Good Genes) and it’s cheaper on the website you're looking at then it normally retails for then it is cheaper for a reason! Now companies do have sales, so if Neiman Marcus has 15% off skin care or whatever that’s different, but on the whole if some random seller on eBay is selling Good Genes for $30 that’s not a good deal, that’s herpes. Or hepatitis or.. something idk diseases I guess.Note on Product Returns: I mean obviously as with most things in life the 11th commandment of “Don’t be a dick” applies here and you shouldn’t abuse company’s return policies. I frankly don’t really give a shit about a company’s bottom line so much as it’s just a huge waste of time and resources. But that said if you’re on the fence about a product after a week or so RETURN IT! I have done this with many products that I just wasn’t crazy about (lookin at you Protini) and have never regretted and/or repurchased anything yet. You WILL regret keeping around lackluster products.Actives do create another can of worms with regards to purging and how long you should wait it out, and honestly I could write another post just about purging. Despite some controversy in my super important opinion purging is most definitely a Thing. To be super brief about it and distill this down to the key points to ask yourself when you’re thinking “Is this a purge or a breakout?” I would have to say it hinges upon two factors: Where am I breaking out and what do the pimples look like. Ooh I’m going to make a FLOW CHART!Wow look at that FLOW CHART!(Link to said flow chart on Imgur if you want to look at it in Imgur I gues)Ok that’s a lot of info so I’ll stop there. Notice I didn’t ask my friends about products they use because A. I don’t have any friends and B. Unless they have very similar skin it’s not really going to matter, but you could always include a ‘human contact’ portion of the vetting process if that’s your thing. Let me know if you have any questions about any of this as, I know vetting products can be really overwhelming for some people and I’d love to help you feel more secure in your purchases and find products that will actually work for you! Thanks for reading!
Girls Blog 2015
Submitted by MySkinsRedditAcct
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