How I Learned to Read Online Reviews

There is no replacement for an in-person consultation from an experienced/qualified professional. You’ll occasionally find sales assistants that are downright unhelpful or don’t know their stuff, but the best way to figure out how helpful they are is to at least get some background on the products you’re seeking more information on. That’s where the internet comes in. It may not be able to make my final buying decision for me, but it DID help with narrowing my in-store search to just three or four products rather than flying blind and not knowing if what the sales assistant is telling me is accurate or not.

I mainly haunt two beauty sites: MakeupGeek, which was mentioned in a previous post, and BeautyHeaven, an Australian site that I mainly visit for the supportive and informed community that powers it. The latter I initially joined because it had the lowdown on what products were available in Australia (versus the US), which meant I was more likely to find affordable, locally available alternatives to some other, more ludicrously priced options coming in from overseas. I do visit and use plenty of other sites, but these two are the ones that I check several times a week for updates.

I didn’t start using BeautyHeaven until well after I started doing what I’m doing, mainly because I hadn’t actually heard of it until partway through my search for locally available, reasonably priced products.

What BeautyHeaven offers that MakeupGeek does not is a searchable database of various beauty products and user reviews for each. And as I browsed BeautyHeaven, I realized that while these reviews (and those from other sites) are useful and informative, I do have to know how to use them properly, because, well, it’s information coming from people on the internet, and it may or may not be trustworthy, let alone relevant.

At one point, I was looking at a review for a foundation. There were about fifteen reviews, some singing praises and others bitching about it. I automatically ignored any review that didn’t demonstrate that the person has actually used the product and has attempted to use it PROPERLY (i.e. “it sucks, doesn’t work at all, skip it” or “great product, very effective!”). Then I got t to the wordier reviews.

The negative reviews complained that it slid all over their faces, didn’t have great coverage, left their skin feeling greasy, causes breakouts, etc. But I found that this isn’t always the fault of the product. For instance: maybe one person has really oily skin and is using a cream foundation. Maybe she’s not using a primer or any kind of setting powder or spray, so her skin’s natural oils are punching through during the day. Maybe she also has sensitive skin or she doesn’t actually use face wash. Maybe she doesn’t remove her foundation before going to bed at night, resulting in breakouts!

I found that this was the case across MANY products; I lacked the context. I didn’t know why this particular primer or moisturizer caused breakouts. Maybe it’s the product itself (i.e., the ingredients), but maybe this person’s skin was also really sensitive! Maybe, as I myself admitted in a previous post, I broke out in zits not because of anything the product was doing, but because of what it WASN’T doing (i.e., my skin is simply too oily to be manageable with a gentle face wash).

For many other things I’ve investigated on the internet (video games, electronics, etc), I go with recommendations from known and respected sources. I do much the same for makeup, but I have fewer sources to which to turn. Why? Because while I can easily listen to a gorgeous redhead with respectable tastes in geekery go on and on about why LA Noire is a great game and why she likes it, this redhead is also, well, a redhead. Her hair color is not my own. Her skintype and tone are not the same as mine. Her price range and even geographical location are not the same as mine.

Essentially, I do not have many friends who share my particular needs or preferences when it comes to my skin, so I turn to online reviews to find people who DO share them. The trick is knowing how to do so when a very significant proportion of online reviews lack the context needed to make them useful while also remembering that everyone’s skin and needs are unique.

TIPS AND TRICKS

On MakeupAlley.com, a tiny summary accompanies each user’s review: hair color, eye color, skin type, skin tone. These few things help me filter what reviews I should immediately discount (or at least take with a grain of salt), and while BeautyHeaven doesn’t have this particular feature yet (and I’m pushing for them to add it), you can still check out a user’s profile with a few clicks. Even so, this requires one simple thing: YOU need to know what is relevant to YOU!

Obviously, longer reviews will offer more context and useful information than shorter ones. I read those. I also ignore ratings or how many arbitrary points a product got out of 5, 10, or 100. I hate these ratings; THEY DON’T MEAN ANYTHING. You don’t know what the reviewer’s ideal, “5/5” product is or what their criteria are to drop a product to 4 or 3 or even no stars. So I don’t even bother with numbers; they offer me nothing in my decision-making process.

Figure out what ALTERNATE explanations there could be for a reviewer’s praise or criticism of a product and then see how these may be useful to you. Like, hey, she’s complaining that this foundation makes her look orange… that’s kinda not the foundation’s fault. She matched the shade of her foundation wrong and, from the nature of the problem, you know that this foundation is probably not a good idea for someone with golden or peach undertones in their skin.

And I guess this should be obvious, but if you’re getting a good vibe from a particular user, there’s always the good ol-fashioned “just ask them.” On BeautyHeaven, this option is not available, but on many other sites there are ways to directly message other users. Depending on the site, its users may be more than happy to fill you in on their skincare routines or their skintype, so you can then end up far more informed about the products they use or don’t use and why!