On naming companies
We do not name brands, manufacturers, retailers or agencies in editorial. This is a deliberate constraint and it costs us traffic.
The reason is that we make no claim about the practices of any named company. Everything described here is a structural feature of an industry: how contract manufacturing agreements typically allocate ownership, how launch calendars typically work, how seeding programmes typically operate. Those accounts are true across the sector and can be evidenced from public sources and from how the sector describes itself. An account attached to a named company would need evidence about that company, which we do not have and would not publish without.
On figures
We publish no cost of goods percentage, no margin figure, no market share and no unit economics, because there is no public, methodologically transparent dataset behind any of the numbers that circulate. Where a figure matters to an argument, we describe the mechanism and state plainly that the figure is not verifiable.
The same applies to studies. We do not summarise research we have not read, and we do not cite a study we cannot point you to.
On sources
We cite primary sources and institutional ones: legislation, regulators, statutory codes, published rulings and the scientific literature. Specifically, and among others, the retained UK Cosmetics Regulation, the Cosmetic Products Enforcement Regulations 2013, the Office for Product Safety and Standards, MHRA guidance on borderline products, the ASA and the CAP and BCAP codes and published rulings, the CTPA, Trading Standards and Business Companion, the CMA Green Claims Code, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, and the ICO.
Every external link is nofollow. We are not in the business of passing authority to anybody, including regulators.
On our own claims
We apply the standard we describe. If we assert something objective, we hold the source before publishing. If we cannot, we do not assert it. Where a matter is contested or uncertain, we say so rather than picking the version that reads better.
On the separation of commercial and editorial
- No entry in the paid register can be mentioned in an article, because articles name no companies at all.
- No sponsor can influence, delay, remove or preview any article or any translation entry.
- Sponsorship and register sales are handled through a separate contact route from editorial.
- Register entries are alphabetical, labelled paid, and carry disclosed verifiable facts only.
- We publish the criteria, the fees and the limits, so that any departure from them is visible.
Corrections
We correct errors of fact promptly and mark them. A correction note appears at the foot of the affected article, stating what was wrong, what it now says, and the date. Corrections are not quietly edited in. Where an error was material, the correction stays for the life of the article.
To report an error, use the contact page and include the article, the passage and, where possible, the source that shows the error.
On advice
This publication is journalism about an industry. It is not medical, legal or regulatory advice. For a skin condition, see a clinician. For a regulatory obligation, read the instrument and take professional advice. For a consumer complaint, use the routes we describe rather than treating our description as a substitute for them.
On how this is produced
Articles are written and edited by the editorial team, checked against the primary sources cited, and reviewed against the rules on this page before publication. We do not publish invented quotes, invented case studies or invented authors.