Review Process & Methodology

Since 1991, Allure Magazine has made it one of our top missions to share reliable, authoritative information and product recommendations with our readers. Whether we are testing brand-new beauty products to deem them worthy of our monthly roundups of the latest-and-greatest launches for hair, makeup, and skin care or something higher stakes, like our annual Best of Beauty Awards, our editorial team knows the importance of precision. Here's how that process works.

• How We Test
• Skin Care
• Makeup
• Hair Care
• Tools & Devices
• Supplements & Ingestible Beauty Products
• Allure's Awards and Seals
• Clean Beauty Seal
• Stance on Sustainability
• Why Trust Us?
• Industry & Medical Experts
• Allure Beauty Box
• Affiliate Note

When Allure tests a product, our editors look at it from every angle in an effort to best serve you, the highly discerning beauty lover. We review ingredients, scrutinize brand claims, test shade ranges, and, in many cases, examine FDA approvals and peer-reviewed scientific and medical studies. Here’s how we handle each category, including skin care; makeup; hair care; tools and devices; and supplements and ingestible beauty products.

With its lengthy (and sometimes jargon-heavy) terminology and ever-evolving standards, the world of skin-care products and treatments can be both mysterious and mystifying to many people.

In addition to testing each and every product long before its name ever reaches our pages (web, print, TikTok, or otherwise), we also rely on experts who shape their fields, including dermatology, cosmetic chemistry, and medicine to help us vet the ingredients and formulas. (In fact, what goes into skin-care products is so important to us that we made an entire Ingredient Index to satisfy readers’ curiosities and questions on everything from aloe vera to witch hazel.) Not only does this allow us to check the veracity of our own reporting, we can also confirm the accuracy of any self-reported results or promises made to consumers by brands and companies.

In 2017, we banned the term "anti-aging" from the pages (and webpages) of Allure. Our editors will always review and recommend the top eye creams and retinol serums, as well as offer comprehensive, judgment-free guides to the latest injectables and cosmetic procedures, but we stand firm in our stance that getting older is not something to be fought, dreaded, or mocked (or any other negative verb that’s been applied to aging in the last 100 years).

Before reviewing any makeup, we ask questions on a number of factors: What ingredients are in it? Does the brand offer a wide shade range that’s inclusive of consumers with all skin tones and undertones? Is it safe for readers with sensitive skin and/or contact lenses? Is it on the affordable side or more of a splurge? Is its packaging consciously designed or needlessly wasteful? (More on Allure’s policy toward transparency in our coverage of the beauty industry’s environmental impact below.)

We enlist the help of multiple editors to rate any makeup product, whether it’s a foundation, an eye shadow palette, or a tinted balm. (Visitors to our World Trade Center office can often catch an Allure beauty editor passing out tubes of liquid lipstick and mascara to one another.) This ensures our testing base spans different skin tones, genders, and dermatological conditions. (After all, who better to get eczema product recommendations from than a fellow beauty lover who actually has eczema?)

Once we’ve decided to write about a product, our staff looks critically at any brand-made promises and assesses them accordingly. Is a TikTok-viral glitter insisting that it’s “environmentally friendly”? You can bet we’ll dig into that—and debunk it. Is a brand claiming its blush comes in just one pale-pink shade because, in its own words, “one-size-fits-all”? Yeah, no. If a mascara claims to be waterproof, our beauty team is ready and willing to hit up Barry’s Bootcamp to make damn sure.

While we always enlist a range of testers for our makeup vertical, hair-care products and tools are another story. Yes, there are certainly products that can be used across different hair textures, lengths, curl patterns, thicknesses, colors (natural and unnatural), and needs—in those cases, we do call on several editors to gauge if those items do indeed work for everyone and to make note of the ones that don’t.

Oftentimes, however, hair products are created with specific consumers in mind. Sometimes, this means a product is created in order to address a concern (dandruff, breakage, brittleness) or to work most effectively for a specific hair type (4C curls, wavy hair, gray hair). You wouldn’t want to pick up a purple shampoo that’s only been reviewed by someone with, say, auburn-colored hair, nor a diffuser that’s never been tested by anyone with curls—right? By having testers who are representative of our readers most likely to use that product, we can better evaluate whether to recommend (or skip) it.

When reviewing tools, we also take into account testers’ experience levels. For instance, an innovative new blow-dryer may feature industry-leading technology, but if the only people who find it intuitive to use are professional hairstylists, we have to take that into consideration when determining whether it is worthy of a review or an award. (This is what makes some of our past Breakthroughs winners and other editor-loved products even more impressive.)

We are particularly discerning when writing about skin-care devices—not because we aren’t intent on finding you the best brow spoolies or hair brushes, but because of the increased risks (and the high price points, in many cases) that accompany at-home dermatological tools and devices. Products undergo extensive testing and must be approved by a senior member of our beauty team prior to appearing in Allure. Additionally, our editorial team consults board-certified dermatologists and cosmetic chemists about the science behind product claims and independently reviews any studies cited by brands. (Allure does not cover studies conducted by brands about their products’ effectiveness.)

Oral Supplements

Allure covers oral supplements only if we (or the experts we interview) have reviewed at least one double-blind third-party study that verifies their claims (which is almost never the case, with the exception of Nutrafol).

Diet and Weight Loss

Allure does not cover dieting or diet culture or cover any product that claims to suppress the appetite or aid in weight loss. This includes products that claim to “cleanse,” “detox,” or “debloat.”

CBD

Allure covers products that contain CBD along with other ingredients, as long as they contain less than .03 percent THC (which makes them legally non-psychoactive).

Ubiquitous with the beauty market’s cream of the crop, Allure’s little red Best of Beauty seal is known worldwide as being a trusted indicator of the year’s top products — and we do not take that trust for granted. Each year, we painstakingly test tens of thousands (yes, really) of products across over a dozen categories, including Hair, Skin, Makeup, Nails, Fragrance, Splurges, Steals, Tools, Breakthroughs, and Sensitive.

We employ a large group of testers — including editors, top industry professionals, and other experts — to ensure representation for a wide range of ages, genders, skin tones, and hair textures, as well as dermatological sensitivities and conditions.

The Breakthroughs category is a major part of our annual Best of Beauty Awards. To win a Breakthrough award, a product must be revolutionary and innovative—the kinds of products that’ll change your beauty routine (and maybe even your life) forever.

The most forward-thinking brands push boundaries, bottling scientific advancements—sure, mascara and serum are nothing new, but mascaras and serums build on rocket science, magnetic fields, and predictive technology? Not exactly what you'd expect to find in a beauty routine. The most forward-thinking brands pushed boundaries over the past year, bottling scientific advancements both elegant (personalized skin care that knows you better than your ex) and valiant (a device that could save billions of gallons of water a year).

​​The process to explore whether a beauty product is a Breakthrough is a deep dive. It's a months-long journey that involves poring over clinical data and sending every nominee and its credentials to our independent judges, including cosmetic chemists, hairstylists, makeup artists, dermatologists, and sustainability advocates. They dedicate hours to studying each product to answer one question: Is this really a breakthrough?

While the winners of our annual Readers’ Choice Awards are chosen by and for you, the readers, we thoroughly vet each product to confirm it meets our quality and inclusivity standards before awarding it with a Readers’ Choice seal.

Chosen by over 200,000 readers like you, these are our 2022 Readers’ Choice Awards winners.

Much has been written, rewritten, counterpointed, and reconfigured when it comes to one of the beauty industry’s favorite buzz words: clean. As a brand that values transparency and clarity above just about all else, Allure set out to decode this oft-misused term and create a vettable standard that gave consumers a clearer picture of what, exactly, a “clean beauty product” really looked like — or, more specifically, what it contained.

In the context of beauty, the word “clean” means nothing. So, in 2019, Allure created our own clean standard. At Allure, we only use the word “clean” when a product does not contain the ingredients on our extensive list of every ingredient a potential winner cannot contain in order to be considered. This includes, but is not limited to, well-known chemicals that can be detrimental to both you and the earth, such as aluminum salts and polyethylene and polypropylene (microbeads), as well as ingredients like phthalates and hydroquinone.

Allure has a zero-tolerance policy for greenwashing. In 2021, we stopped using the words “recyclable,” “biodegradable,” “zero-waste,” and “green.” We only use the terms “compostable” and “refillable” with careful qualification. Read our full sustainability pledge for more details.

With one of the industry’s largest beauty editorial teams, Allure boasts unparalleled on-staff expertise. Our writers and editors hail from top publications, including WWD, Cosmopolitan, Essence, Refinery29, Daily Beast, Teen Vogue, Into the Gloss, Byrdie, Marie Claire, and Bustle. You can view our masthead to meet our full staff, including contributors.

In addition to an in-house editorial team, Allure works with top journalists and authors across the United States and abroad to bring you the most up-to-date beauty and wellness coverage from all over the world.

The Allure team independently reviews all products featured on Allure.com, which means we only recommend items that we’ve tried, tested, and absolutely loved. For some products, we use affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission. This helps to support the work we do every day—at no extra cost to you.

We believe in looking before jumping, which is why an integral pillar of Allure’s coverage is science. (Just ask the hosts of our podcast, The Science of Beauty!) We maintain close relationships with experts in dermatology, cosmetic chemistry, dentistry, plastic surgery, gastroenterology, and psychology, among many other fields.

Of course, beauty is an art as much as a science, which is why we have always equally prioritized our relationships with the best makeup artists, hairstylists, colorists, estheticians, perfumers, manicurists, salon owners, and brand founders, as well as our partnerships with top photographers, stylists, content creators, and video producers who help bring our content to life.

The Allure Beauty Box is the only monthly subscription box that is curated by editors. Using our decades of collective experience, we test each and every product to determine whether or not it makes it into an upcoming box. To provide further information to current and prospective subscribers, we also publish reviews of the products in each month’s box, allowing you to see inside and know exactly what you’re getting.

You can learn more or subscribe by going to the Allure Beauty Box website.

Photographer: Jacq Harriet @jacqharriet
Fashion stylist: Herin Choi @herinlikethebird
Hair: Eric R. Williams @ewilliams_hair
Makeup: Mariko Herano @mariko_hirano
Models: Laura at Elite @itsmelauraazevedo