Unexpected and Useful Makeup & Beauty Websites

I love the multitude of beauty bloggers and youtubers that fill the internet with reviews and tutorials, but this post isn’t about them. That would be a never-ending list. This is a more finite type of post that showcases pages and websites that answer those questions you don’t remember to ask but have always been curious to know. Beyond opinions and “How to apply ___” magazine articles.

Most of them have a more science-y side of beauty and cosmetics (I’m a geek). Here they are, by category:

LET’S DESTROY SOME MAKEUP! And learn something while we do it…

Guerlain Meteorites. Wouldn’t you like to know what they look like all ground up?

How old are your makeup products?

All of the above are websites that tell you the manufactured date of a product by inserting their batch number. I knew of these due to a video of the Beauty News channel mentioned prior.

Every makeup product has a batch number. The websites indicate where you can find them. They then tell you the date in which the product was produced and how old it is.

Batch number and Period After Opening (PAO) on the back of a powder highlighter. In this case the PAO is 24 months.

Time for a little rant: If you’re like me, you don’t follow the expiration dates on makeup. The little tub that’s usually at the bottom of a product with the number of months after which you should throw the product away can’t tell me what to do. 12 months after “opening” a blush? A regular, not sealed, blush compact. That was never air tight to begin with. You tell me that after one magical use that powder blush, a product that’s mostly finely milled rock, starts a terrible count down of one year from safe to unusable. Bullshit.

I get that regulators require brands to act on the safe side, (and that brands themselves will profit more with a regular replacement of products) but you can’t deny a blush that’s worn everyday after a year is not the same that one that’s only been used once. The first has been a lot more exposed to skin oils and potencial bacteria. To me, a product going bad depends on how long it’s been since it was produced (and not how long since it’s open), and how frequently it was used. And I always go by change of smell, colour or efficacy to detect an “expired” product. Also, like the Check Cosmetic website suggests, “Most of such products should not be harmful even after the expiration”. Do with this info as you will. I won’t be trashing my collection anytime soon.

Big Fat Information on my Skin-y Products

  • SkinCarisma: This website allows you to search for a cosmetic product and gives you its ingredients classified by risk to the skin, notable effects, and detailed information on the full ingredient list. The feature I like the most is that it allows you to copy and paste a full ingredient list for a product that is not on their database and receive that same information.
  • Beautypedia: a website that contains reviews from a team of experts about an insane amount of products, mainly skincare. The website was created by Paula Begoun, creator of Paula’s Choice products that are pushed through that website, so take their reviews with a grain of salt – but I still find it a well worth it source of information.
  • Lab Muffin: is actually a blogger and youtuber with a chemistry PhD. Alongside reviews and regular beauty guru stuff, she has a “Science” tab on her blog with myth-busting posts and some articles that explain beauty products on a molecular level.

At The Heart of Shopping

  • Good Shopping Guide: in its Health and Beauty section, the Good Shopping guide contains a list of brands and scores them on an ethical basis. It rates them in four categories: environment, animals, people, and other.

What Everyone is Really Thinking

  • MakeupAlley: a big online community, the website is filled with reviews from the users. I’ve written a few myself. I remember it being a must-consult-before-buying for everyone into beauty a few years ago. I hear less people using it now, but it’s still an amazing resource. And I trust their reviews way more than the ones on Sephora/Ulta/whatever online store that’s trying to sell you the product. It also has a range of beauty boards you might find fun to peruse through.

Perfume Encyclopedia

  • Fragrantica: notes, duration, reviews based on reader input, reader choice awards. A website with basically every perfume on it’s database and a huge community that keeps building on it. This thing has everything you want to know but have no ideia you want to know until you know, about perfumes.

If you like makeup or have ever searched for a makeup product review, you probably already visited Temptalia. Although very well known, I still want to give a shout-out to three features of the website that are very useful and pretty self explanatory:

This list might be updated in the future, if I come across other unconventional, insightful websites. I’m also taking suggestions, so don’t be shy đŸ™‚

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