Blogger Tips: Writing A Good Review

Hello Princesses!

Today I writing the last installment of my Blogger Tips which in which I'm going to be talking about how to write a good review! These are just basic guidelines of my idea of a good review, which is probably going to be different to a lot of other opinions, so you can take some of the things I said and use them and discard things that you don't agree with. I almost always do beauty reviews, so this guideline will be based on beauty reviews!

General Product Reviews

First and foremost, please take good quality pictures of what you're reviewing. When people stumble upon your review randomly from the internet, they are almost always looking for the aesthetic qualities of the product packaging, as well as the colours, coverage, consistency etc of whatever it is that you're reviewing. I am always searching for un popular product reviews, or un popular shade swatches (pale foundation folks, I'm looking at you!) so when I find one solitary review on a product and they have no photos of the product, your review is worthless to me. It sounds harsh, but it's the truth.

Take photos of how the product works. If it's a foundation, we want to see what it looks like on your skin, before and after comparisons are a godsend because we can see the coverage, consistency and colour. If it's a nail polish we want to see what it looks like on the nail. We want to see if that hair serum really truly makes your hair smooth and silky. We are visual creatures and we always want to see how a product works, which is why Youtube reviews is so awesome!

Keep your reviews consistent. I use the Love/Don't Love and Final Thoughts strategy on my blog so that if you want to compare what I thought about foundations you can just scroll down to the end of the post and have a quick recap, because all of my review posts are formulated like that.  Keep the analysis content consistent too, if you always talk about the ingredients of the products, or how many coats of nail polish you need to apply include this on all of your reviews. Consistency helps the reader relate, and understand how this product would work for them.

Beauty Reviews

Product photos. Make sure your product photos are well lit and relatible. If you want to have products behind the photo that you're reviewing that's fine, but please make them look like they're supposed to be together. It's weird seeing a foundation chilling out in front of a box of super tampons and a bottle of shampoo. It just screams "I was prepared and tried super hard!".

Swatch photos. Swatch the products! It's great to see a blush or foundation swatched on a hand or elbow because this is where most of us would test products at the drugstore before we buy them. It's difficult to judge the colour of a foundation or blush when it's already on someone else's face if you don't have the exact same colouring or face shape as them.

Before and After photos. This is one of the deciding factors on products for me. If a blush wears off in an hour I'm probably not going to buy it, the same for if a foundation/BB oxidizes super orange, I'm probably definitely not going to buy it. This is one of the many reasons why people read reviews, so that they can make sure that nothing unexpected is going to happen to them.

Distinctive Features. This product is marketed for oily skin, pale skin, long wear. Make sure your reader knows what you're reviewing and how it relates to them.

Comparisons. Comparisons are great, be it foundation colours, or lipstick dupes. If you can get a couple of comparisons that's just fantastic, say if I was comparing NARS Sheer Glow in Siberia to Missha BB Cream in No.13 a reader may have one of the foundations and decide that the colours were close enough for them to want the other product. Or MAC Saint Germain and Lime Crime Great Pink Planet which are very very similar in colour, but not similar in pricing!

Pro's and Con's of the product. Make sure your readers know why it's good and why it's not so good. I really dislike doing negative/rage reviews, so I choose to list the Love/Don't Love and incorporate the positives and negatives into my review. Don't promote products that are bad or that didn't work for you, it's imoral and could lead to potential embarrassment.  

Skincare Reviews

This one can be super tricky as every ones skin is different! Just make sure to list what the product is supposed to be doing (cleansing, moisturizing, oil controlling etc) and how it worked for you. Having the ingredients list is always amazing and people with allergies will thank you! Honesty is always the best policy, as it is with all reviews!

Store Reviews

Don't bash the stores for things that aren't their fault. Sometimes things get broken in the mail, or they accidentally send you the wrong things, but you have to remember that in some cases (eg, Storenvy or Etsy) these stores are run by one person and sometimes mistakes happen. But be honest with your store reviews, write about what happened without raving about how bad the store is (unless you had super amazing terrible service I guess). Talk about the time it took to send or receive packages, how well it was packaged, if any items were broken, did the store manager send customized notes or are you just part of the many people that order from them?


Above all, be honest in your reviews. Be aware that everyone is different and that everyone has different expectations, be it foundation, lipstick or a store service! Be genuine, be yourself and have fun!