What us fashionable beauties like to read! (How to write a good Fashion or Beauty review)

Member Name: angusreid

Product:	How to write a good Fashion or Beauty review
Date:	22/07/06 (258 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: You can help someone make the right buying decision.

Disadvantages: You can make someone buy the wrong product

Hi all you wannabe fashion and beauty writers, welcome to the world of “You can’t please everybody, all of the time!”
That to me sums up how to write a good fashion and beauty review.

Unlike my predecessor, I think Fashion and Beauty are NOT separate categories but are in fact one. Fashion is not just about clothes but hair styles, the “in” scent and jewellery, etc. Beauty is about looking and feeling good about yourself and starts with a “spiritual” or inner feeling of confidence and comfort.

Each and every person here will have their own style, their favourite perfume/aftershave, favourite shirt or top, so why separate when you can combine and create.

Writing a review is all about you.
What you like.
What you use.
What you do.
What you feel.

Like any review, it has to be about the experience and about personal insight. Without that you are describing and not reviewing.

I am not going to drag this out and let it become a “I am better than thou!” rant at how people write reviews, that is what my rate is for, to show how I feel about somebody’s review. This is about what “I” look for in a fashion or beauty review.

Here is the bit where I sell myself;

I co-own Cherish with my wife Sherry and I am the main buyer as well as a wholesaler to three other shops in the area. My skills lie in finding products that people will buy, staying ahead of the fashion and ensuring that our products meet the standards our customer set. With any cosmetic, I need to know what is in them. Without this knowledge I will never buy a product. Also, how they were tested. Animal testing is a big no-no and we will not entertain it. Ethnic products must be fair trade and come from government backed businesses. All these are important issues when it comes to selling a product to a customer and are frequently asked questions. I have never bothered asking any supplier what the packaging is like, never.

I make my own cosmetics such as soap, lip balm, massage bars and other items and have a good understanding about the legislation involved in these processes. We do stock a lot of body jewellery and silk scarves, as well as being opposite one of the best ethnic/gothic clothes shops around, (called Dazzle) and we often have people pick a skirt from Dazzle and come into our shop to match it to the jewellery we have. So all in all I have a very good knowledge of the category I am now guiding.

Right there is my CV back to the subject in hand, (titter ye not!)

I will look for anything that merits a nomination to Dooyoo for a crown even if I only find the review useful. A useful review to me may have all the relevant info but not be of a style I enjoy reading so this will tarnish a good review. Much in the same way as if I read a magazine article about something I liked and it was written in a boring fashion, I would not finish the article so it would not be very useful to me. Harsh? Not really, just my personal choice and opinion. So do not get disheartened if you feel my rate is somewhat different to the core of raters, my personal opinion is not that of Dooyoo’s who award the crowns. I have actually put forward two reviews so far which I did not like. These reviews have a comment from myself about the style and are now in the hands of Dooyoo to decide if they merit a crown. I will do this for all reviews where I feel the effort has been put in and the information is all there so do not change your style for me, change it for you if you do so wish.

To me, providing you cover all the main things in a personal matter, then a review should be worthy of a nomination, regardless of how I feel.

What a review must have is a difficult one as there are so many things but to simplify it here is my thoughts on the core values.

Ingredients (At least the main active ones)
Description (A must)
Small amount of background
Usage (Again, a must.)
Cost
Personal insight

Packaging only if it is an important part of the products image.

Remember, all reviews should be personal, not too long and interesting to read in my opinion so try to structure your review around your own style and personality and make them shine.

*UPDATE*

I have changed my stance on ingredients due to ovewhelming opinion that it should not be a must to include all the ingredients and as long as the main active ibngredeints are mentioned I will not let it affect my rate.

Summary: Just be you and be fun!