I have been meaning to do a post for a while now with a comprehensive list of all the great online beauty resources that are available to the beauty enthusiast who wants to dig a bit deeper. I still have that one on my list. To get started I had a look at my browser history to see where I had been lately. As is the way with these things, what you think you look at and what you actually look at turn out to be rather different. So here are the places I actually go, as opposed to the places I suggest other people should go.
Colin’s Beauty Pages – there is a weird effect whereby if you write something it sucks the information out of your brain and onto the page. As a result, I find I often need to look up something I have written myself. There is also the fact that there is nobody else whose content so closely matches my particular interests as myself, so I do tend to find myself in google searches from time to time. And yes, I have clicked on links to my own stuff without realising I was doing so.
Makeup Alley Product Reviews – these are a good way to get a feel for what consumers actually think of products. The good thing is that there are usually plenty of them so you can read through them and get an idea of the general impression the product is making. Other websites that have tried to go big on reviews have never really impressed me. I find Amazon reviews rarely give much insight.
Cosmetic Design Europe – this is basically a must read for a general overview of what is happening in trends, regulations and big business news.
The Beauty Brains – the guys at the brains are doing much the same as I do on here, only more of it and better. Basically this is a running tutorial for me on how to write a beauty science blog. (If P or R are reading this, thanks for the help.)
Personal Care Truth – I read this mainly for the comments. There are some interesting people out there.
British Beauty Blogger – I read a lot of beauty blogs but mainly simply dipping in. BBB is the only one that consistently pops up in my timeline.
Photo credit: Nick Kenrick. via photopin cc
You’re welcome! You do an excellent job too and I often read your stuff for reference material & post inspiration.
What about Paula’s Choice? The US version website has reviews of popular products from big and small(ish) brands based on the ingredients listed and how they interact, ie the PH environment for certain acids etc. I rely on it.
I don’t really follow Paula’s Choice. It all seemed a bit obvious to me when I had a look a few years back, but I don’t think I am the target audience.
Paula’s Choice doesn’t sit right with me – perhaps in her old days of ‘cosmetic cop’, but now I struggle to see how she can objectively review products that are direct competitors of her own! She can also be quite cynical/snarky about other products, in particular the big name brands like Estee Lauder. But with her huge product range now, she doesn’t seem to be far off that Big Brand entity herself.
Even the people who leave reviews on her site must somewhat biased towards her views and products to even be on there in the first place.
I agree that Makeup Alley and Beauty Brains are great resources. Objective and science/research or at least personal experience base – without underlying motives!