Welcome to grade it beauty!
- Are you frustrated with beauty product reviews on your favorite websites?
- Are you curious about how beauty products rank against each other?
- Do you long for more details about why people assign a certain rating to a beauty product?
At Grade It Beauty, we provide in-depth reviews on popular beauty products. We ask our Beauty Graders to complete detailed surveys using critical factors for each product type. The result is reliable, trustworthy reviews for you to consider when purchasing your next mascara, dry shampoo, sunscreen, etc.
The Problems with Beauty Reviews
As much as we love reading online reviews for new and exciting beauty products, we know they are also extremely problematic. Here’s a list of the reasons you really can’t trust your favorite site’s reviews, and can breath a sigh of relief knowing that we’re here for you.
Problem #1: Reviews for most products are not well-verified. In fact, according to a recent study by Fakespot, only 27% of reviews for beauty products on Amazon are real. In other words, the grand majority of reviews for beauty products are fake. So who is posting the rest of the content? Many are representatives from companies trying create buzz or promote the product (think the Sunday Riley scandal). Particularly negative reviews are sometimes from competing companies trying to discredit or kill the competition.
Solution #1: All of our Beauty Graders are real people. Many are friends or family, while others have been referred by a trusted source. We vet everyone who signs up to help, asking specific questions about their occupation, and learning about the reasons they enjoy participating in rigorous beauty product reviews.
Problem # 2: Star rating systems are meaningless. Asking people to give an overall impression on a 5 point scale means that consumers aren’t rating products in an objective, systematic way. You may decide to deduct a star for price, but perhaps I deduct one for a strong smell. People also value stars differently. We’ve read numerous 4 star ratings that don’t provide any reason for why they deducted a star. Similarly, we’ve also read reviews where someone rates a product as 5 stars, but mention several draw backs to the product.
Solution #2: All of our Beauty Grades are created with a weighted averages system, meaning that each characteristic is worth the same amount to each reviewer, but some characteristics count for more of the overall score than others. For example, our scale for mascara performance has length and volume worth more than packaging. Our Beauty Grades are also a percentage (out of 100%), so you can clearly see which products outshine the rest. You won’t find 10 mascaras with a 4.5 rating here.
Problem #3: Many reviews directly contradict each other. It drives us crazy when we read one review in which a consumer says a product flaked and smudged, yet the next review claims the product didn’t budge all day. It’s impossible to know why they had different results. Do they have different skin types? Or maybe one person used a primer while the other didn’t? Or maybe, as we mentioned before, they are actually from employees at competing companies? Your guess is as good as ours!
Solution #3: Our Beauty Grades go in-depth to find out why a product did or didn’t work for someone. After testing a product for several days, we encourage our Beauty Graders to play with different options to see if they get different results – creating a fantastic wealth of tips and tricks for you to get the most out of your products.
Problem #4: Reviews are written by people with different skill levels. Although we love beauty products, neither of us are makeup artists. There’s no way we will get the same results as a professional. When people post pictures of how they were able to apply a product – with cut-creases or tiny characters painted on their nails, we know their experience with the product is going to be completely different than ours. It’s often impossible to tell if someone if a reviewer is an expert or a typical consumer.
Solution #4: All of our Beauty Graders describe their skill levels with the product before trying it. That way, we can share with you if that eyeliner is easy enough for a beginner to use, or if it should really only be something a professional considers.
Problem #5: Major stores have no incentives to provide a more objective rating system. Let’s face it, all of the big box retailers want you to buy and try it all. They will never support a system that tells you the end-all-be-all product in a given category. This results in a clogged makeup drawer and an empty wallet.
Solution #5: Every product we review is given an overall Beauty Grade, complete with percentage, and is ranked against all other products in the same category. You can explore the product further to see all of the scores it received on different characteristics, and hopefully stop buying products that leave you broke and disappointed.
Problem #6: Influencer reviews are fun, but really aren’t representative of the typical consumer. While we love watching Tati or Kathleen Lights tell us about their favorite products and why, the truth is that they are just two, very very beautiful people. Products work so differently for different skin types, skill levels, and even for people in different parts of the country (ever tried to straighten your hair in humidity?), that in order to know if a product is worth purchasing, it needs to be tested by diverse reviewers in a variety of ways to see if it will also work for you.
Solution #6: Our Beauty Graders live all over the country and are very diverse. We have numerous people of color participate, and look for a variety of characteristics, including those with dry, combination, sensitive, and oily skin types. Some of our Beauty Graders have very short eyelashes, while others have lashes for days. Some are female, others are male, and some are non-binary. You get the idea – we respect and love all types of beauties!
