Paula's Choice • Beautypedia.com • Other

Where To Buy?

mel7 on 6/6/2010 3:41:00 PM more reviews by mel7

Age: 30-35   Skin: Acne-prone, Fair-Medium   Hair: Black, Wavy, Fine   Eyes: Black    

I have very sensitive, reactive, acne-prone and oily skin. I'm very grateful for beautypedia.com for educating me on skincare and skin products. Before discovering this website, I had wasted sooo much money on products that either didn't work or aggravated my sensitive skin. Now, for the most part, I just save my money and stick to her recommendations and my skin has been happier for it. I recommend this for sensitive skin types looking for products truly for sensitive skin. This is a good value. Thank you Paula for helping me navigate the seemingly overwelming barrage of skin care products and trends and empowering me as a consumer.

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.     Was this review helpful to you? Yes   No

marjetic on 6/5/2010 7:33:00 PM more reviews by marjetic

Age: 36-43   Skin: Very Dry, Medium, Cool   Hair: Brunette, Straight, Fine   Eyes: Brown    

Personally, I found a great moisturiser, foundation, mascara and lip gloss all from Paula's recommendations, and I am not switching, therefore potentially saving a lot of money and wasted products sitting in my bathroom.
I am just about to renew my subscription at half price.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.     Was this review helpful to you? Yes   No

kittyc on 3/27/2010 10:00:00 PM more reviews by kittyc

Age: 44-55   Skin: Other   Hair: Other   Eyes: Other    

A lot of people have said that MUA reviews have the advantage over Paula's reviews because MUA-ers are people actually using the product. The problem with that is that a reviewer could unknowingly be using a product unsuitable for his/her skin type, or using it in in conjunction with an incompatible product, or using too much. The reader can't know. In those circumstance, it would not be surprising if the product doesn't work, or causes irritation.

So I think there is some point to Paul's reviews, which compare the manufacturers' claims with the ingredients lists. It's always fascinating when she says - 'Yes, such-and-such an ingredient (or skin-care technology) is effective, but you don't have to pay this much for it. The drug store version is just as good.' You don't get that sort of insight so easily on MUA.

Paula is not a dermatologist but aims to translate the science for the every day consumer. Reading her reviews in conjunction with the experienced-based reviews on MUA means that consumers can be far better informed than they were a decade ago.

I also like Paula's general advice that the cosmetic and skin care lines put out some of the high end companies (Chanel, Dior etc) are often not value for money. She seems to be saying that taken as a whole, many of them go for style over substance and you just don't have to pay stratospheric prices to get good products that work for you. Sounds reasonable to me. Note that you can read her brand summaries for free.

8 out of 8 people found this review helpful.     Was this review helpful to you? Yes   No

AKmedic on 3/9/2010 4:50:00 PM more reviews by AKmedic

Age: 30-35   Skin: Acne-prone, Fair-Medium, Warm   Hair: Black, Curly, Medium   Eyes: Hazel    

I also got my Beautypedia subscription at 50% off. I love Paula's expertise, but sometimes her snarky reviews and smugness grate on my nerves. Still, the snark has saved my skin a lot of grief and hassle, as I am able to steer clear of beauty disasters instead of throwing money down the drain like I used to. Her reviews are scientific and I think she's trustworthy. I still read reviews on MUA, but I really like Paula's Beautypedia.

Like many others, I don't like how she has the site set up. I like to open links in a new tab, but the site won't let you do that. It makes the site slow and awkward to navigate.

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.     Was this review helpful to you? Yes   No

taharrell on 1/19/2010 11:28:00 PM more reviews by taharrell

Age: 56 & Over   Skin: Other   Hair: Other   Eyes: Other    

Had a year's subscription for half price. Like many others, I would cross reference products from Paula's lists to MUA usually finding that opinions differed greatly. When it came time to renew this year, I choose not too. I've found that using MUA's filters on age & skin type give me a better idea if a product might work for me than Beautypedia which only filters on skin type.

4 out of 5 people found this review helpful.     Was this review helpful to you? Yes   No

*TOP REVIEWER* Paulygirl21 on 1/4/2010 4:03:00 AM more reviews by Paulygirl21

Age: 19-24   Skin: Combination, Fair-Medium, Warm   Hair: Brown, Straight, Medium   Eyes: Brown    

Used the coupon code and received half-off discount.
I have to credit Paula for really educating me about skin care and makeup. At the age of 15, I checked out her book DGTTCCWOM and my interest in skin care began. Or maybe I should say obsession? I’m always on the lookout for more information and better products. Not to mention, beauty products are real luxury items for me these days. I can no longer afford to throw money away on impulse purchases. I highly recommend using beautypedia.com in conjunction with this site. By checking her review, then the general consensus here, you can be informed before you buy. The only gripe I can muster about Paula’s site is the limited amount of brand reviews. She doesn’t add many new reviews very often, either. For this reason, I can’t justify renewing (though the discounted cost is certainly reasonable), save for reference purposes. As with her book, there are far too many new products to keep up with (it would be impossible to do so). While I do agree with others that she *should* actually test the products, rather than just check ingredient lists, I find MUA more than makes up for that. All in all, beautypedia is a great resource-just don’t see myself “buying again”. Though I will certainly update if I should change my mind.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.     Was this review helpful to you? Yes   No

Shamim81 on 7/26/2009 8:56:00 AM more reviews by Shamim81

Age: 25-29   Skin: Combination, Fair-Medium   Hair: Brunette   Eyes: Brown    

Like others have said here, don't go EXACTLY about what Paula says. Some of her reviews I dont agree with specially for make up. I have some products that I love and she hates. But when it comes to skin care I listen carefully but I never base everything on her opinion only. Thank god for MUA, I love MUA!!! But keep in mind she favours some brands more than others, her own ofcourse, Olay I tink is her fave beause I havent seen a product she gives a sad face. The worst she gives them is Neutral. I mean they must have ONE that's really not good or neutral. Dont get me wrong I LOVE Olay, I use most of their stuff but there are other comparable.
Love MUA more than beautypedia since real people do the reviews because I think if you are reviewing for a living you probably dont use a product for a long time to if at all. I just consult beautypedia for skincare. For makeup i stongnly disagree with some stuff. But both these sites complement eachother and I've saved some money and spent it on some great products otherwise I'd never consider. I will subscribe again and again for the 50% off I get to beautypedia.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.     Was this review helpful to you? Yes   No

Lillapink on 6/25/2009 3:35:00 PM more reviews by Lillapink

Age: 18 & Under   Skin: Acne-prone, Fair-Medium   Hair: Brunette   Eyes: Green    

Ohhh.. beautypedia. What can I say? I have found many inconsistencies in ingredient lists, and very much disagree with some of her ratings on some products, although I do like to check it occasionally. I'm also mad because all her Paula's Picks for the anti acne section contain BP. HELLO?! What about people that can't use it, or are allergic? NO ALTERNATIVES. it just makes me mad :(

    Was this review helpful to you? Yes   No

*TOP REVIEWER* polarpooch on 5/26/2009 9:36:00 PM more reviews by polarpooch

Age: 36-43   Skin: Very Oily, Fair-Medium, Neutral   Hair: Brunette, Fine   Eyes: Brown    

This site has probably saved me hundreds of dollars already. I've been on for less than a year. A lot of the high end stuff that I might be tempted to try (and almost universally hate), I can avoid based on the reviews on Beautypedia. It also gave me a new insight into how skin care and makeup is formulated. I discovered after trying a few of the foundation products that there IS life after Jane Iredale. I found my super favorite Clinique Almost Powder by reading the reviews on Beautypedia and trying it. MUCH better (and less than 1/2 the price) of JI. I found liquid foundations I could tolerate based on the site. Found GREAT, inexpensive skin care products, and makeup products. I used to be supremely snobby in my selections...in my mind $$$ meant better products. Thank you, Paula, for teaching me the error of that way of thinking! And I learned the importance of antioxidants, exfoliation and how other ingredients work on the skin. I love that she footnotes her reviews and cites her research. I'm pleased to see someone willing to bust some of the BS of the beauty industry. She does get a bit zealous at times (she seems hell bent on ripping every new peptide that comes along!) , but that's balanced against the MASS of great information she's compiled. As for how a product works, I do check the user ratings on MUA...but I no longer exclusively use MUA (no offense). My skin looks better, my makeup looks better and I'm spending less, and don't have a pile of unused products that I purchased but hated. Worth the $25 a year. I'll renew when my year is up.

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.     Was this review helpful to you? Yes   No

*TOP REVIEWER* mapn on 5/20/2009 5:25:00 AM more reviews by mapn

Age: 25-29   Skin: Sensitive, Fair, Cool   Hair: Red, Straight, Coarse   Eyes: Green    

Though I really like Paula's general outlook on cosmetics and skincare, I've found that many products she doesn't recommend suit me perfectly, and several products she recommends break me out or cause other problems. So the reviews as such don't offer much value for me. For that purpose I use MUA ;) I think the most important thing I get out of Beautypedia is all the ingredient lists. I can almost always count on finding the ingredient lists that I can't seem to find anywhere else on the internet. And the database is constantly expanding. The database was also renewed recently and now it's much more functional and user-friendly. For that I think I'm willing to invest $25 a year.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.     Was this review helpful to you? Yes   No

*TOP REVIEWER* Jocky80 on 5/9/2009 6:21:00 AM more reviews by Jocky80

Age: 25-29   Skin: Oily, Fair-Medium, Cool   Hair: Brunette, Straight, Fine   Eyes: Green    

I did use Beautypedia for 1 year, and it was ok. nothing life changing but fun to have.
I got the "BP 50" code when I orded the "don't go to the....nr.7" so why not try it.
For the first 6 months I did only use it as fun, The reviews were all the same as in the book. In the end things started to change there, new stuff did come in and it got better.
I havn't had it now for 4 months and do I miss it... Sometimes. I am looking for new stuff and for that it is helpful to some degree.
Not all of her review and Paula's picks have been HG material for me. I did spend around 250€ on new stuff after reading her books and almost non of it worked for me!
Also only a small amount of the products that she talks about you can buy here where I live.
What I do when I buy products is to look at the Inci list and see if it contains good/bad stuff for me. Then go on line to MUA to se what people with my skintype + acne prone say about it. Last I google it and if it is makeup thing I go to Youtube.
What is funny is that sometimes Paula's picks and what people think of it the opposite.
I think the research behind the reviews a great, but in the end people have to like it.
For the price that Beautypedia is today, I'm not going to buy it. If I get a new -50%, then I going to try it once again.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.     Was this review helpful to you? Yes   No

*TOP REVIEWER* lygophilia on 5/9/2009 5:40:00 AM more reviews by lygophilia

Age: 30-35   Skin: Combination, Fair, Neutral   Hair: Red   Eyes: Green    

I have been using both Beautypedia and MUA to compliment each other to help me make wiser and more knowledgeable choices in my m/u and skincare choices. I find Paula has good advice and recommendations, but I always cross reference with MUA as real people have tried the items that I'm interested in and give real life experience and reviews. Beautypedia can be really frustrating at time as I have found a lot of the product information is out dated, either discontinued or reformulated. Also slow to review new products on the scene that I might want to try. I'm sitting on the fence as to whether I want to renew my subscription as I was disappointed there is no forum and the site can be frustrating to navigate through at times. On the positive side she has provided me knowledge and products that have greatly enhanced my skin and choices in products.
UPDATE: I renewed my subscription after I let it lapsed because it was cheaper then with the 50% off coupon available at www.retailmenot.com then the offer her site kept providing me as my subscription was coming to an end. I have found that the last few months she (and her company) are providing more reviews on relevant products that I'm interested in which was a contributing factor in my decision to renew.

UPDATE: I'm still enjoying and using Beautypedia, but love it even more now that it's FREE!!! I have noticed that the product review are more frequent now, plus there is an APP available, and I have been enjoying listening to her radio show on Itunes Podcast.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.     Was this review helpful to you? Yes   No

dpenn on 5/8/2009 3:55:00 PM more reviews by dpenn

Age: 30-35   Skin: Combination, Fair   Hair: Blond   Eyes: Blue    

I love Beautypedia. I initially found the hardcopy verion of this at a used bookstore, and I was hooked...tons of useful information. The online version is all that, plus ingredient lists.

I admit, some of the reviews are outdated, and after cross-checking some of the ingredient lists, there were differences from some of the products I owned, but this could either have been due to the company reformulating, or the products being different here in Canada.

Either way, well worth the investment...coupon codes can often be found online for 50% off, etc.

People are always hatin' on poor Paula...I often find it's when their long-time favourite product got a bad review. She meerly offers information, no one is forcing anyone to switch their products.

Update - now that this is free, I love it even more! I refer to it almost daily.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.     Was this review helpful to you? Yes   No

*TOP REVIEWER* codydan85 on 3/31/2009 9:39:00 AM more reviews by codydan85

Age: 19-24   Skin: Sensitive, Fair, Warm   Hair: Black   Eyes: Green    

I think Beautypedia is really rubbish. I hate the way she slags almost all the other brands off and makes them out them to be awful. She doesn't even try them out, she just goes on by the ingredients lists which I think is very bad indeed.

It seems she makes everything out to bad so she can make her brand to be the best so you buy it. It seems like its just a marketing ploy to get people to buy her products.

I much prefer Makeupalley as people can review the products and write about their experiences of actually using the product and whether they work or not.

    Was this review helpful to you? Yes   No

*TOP REVIEWER* candystripelegs on 3/31/2009 3:12:00 AM more reviews by candystripelegs

Age: 25-29   Skin: Oily, Fair, Neutral   Hair: Red, Wavy, Medium   Eyes: Green    

Used the 50% code for this, regualr price is $25 per year.

Anyway, I am sad to see that she is slow to review new products, many products from the lines she reviews are missing and becuase she has her own line, she is recommending prodcuts that 7 years ago she detested or said they wre not necessary.
I understand that everyone has the right to change thier mind but now that's she seeling her own products I don't trust her opinions as much.

On the plus side, I love her lists of ingredients and what they mean, also the master lists and product line reviews are pretty cool too. IF there is a review of foundation, she will tell you which shades to avoid.

Honestly, I won't renew, I used to read her books and upon joining MUA found about her site and wanted to check it out. I will take what scientific info I can get and test out her Paula's Pick to nail down my skin care routine.

5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.     Was this review helpful to you? Yes   No

*TOP REVIEWER* GulieQ on 3/31/2009 1:43:00 AM more reviews by GulieQ

Age: 44-55   Skin: Very Oily, Fair   Hair: Brown   Eyes: Hazel    

I recently purchased Beautypedia in order to search for some products that would work WITH my very oily, very sensitive skin. I enjoyed her hardback-book version, and was looking forward to learning new pieces of information and learn about some good new products. I was dissappointed to find that MANY of the products I was interested in learning more about were only reviewed with a paragraph stating that they are poor products because 'they have no sunscreen', or, 'the sunscreen content should have been higher.' Speaking for the MANY of us who have SEVERE SKIN ALLERGIES TO ALL THE TYPES OF SUNSCREEN INCORPORATED INTO THE PAULA'S CHOICE PRODUCTS, we'd be interesting in OTHER aspects of the products--NOT just a discarded paragraph which contains no valuable information. This happened with so many products that I requested a refund. It also find it hypocritical for Paula to review her own products as being even for the most sensitive of skin, when she has continually reformulated great products into products that now contain the very irritants I was avoiding with the original versions. I am saddened and disheartened by the number of PC Products that I can now no longer use due to the reformulations and the insensitivity of the PC Line to the many people who must NOT wear the sunscreens that cause serious skin reactions!! Even her information and review sections were shortened and modified into less informational 'pieces'. I used to have the highest regard for all the research she performed and then shared with the public. Just goes to show that the almighty dollar reigns supreme.

26 out of 31 people found this review helpful.     Was this review helpful to you? Yes   No

Jolly_C on 3/14/2009 10:08:00 PM more reviews by Jolly_C

Age: 19-24   Skin: Acne-prone, Fair-Medium, Warm   Hair: Black, Wavy, Medium   Eyes: Brown    

Given the lack of reviewed products on Beautypedia (compared to MUA), at the full price of $25 a year, I wouldn't bother. However, I subscribed at ~$12 for this year using a 50% off subscription coupon (BP50), and I think it's worth the money I paid. Basically, Beautypedia is the expanded, up-dated version of the product review section in Paula's book *Don't Go to The Cosmetics Counter Without Me*. I own the 7th edition, and I noticed a lot of the items featured in the book have gotten a different rating to reflect ingredient changes. I gave the website 4 stars because I think Paula needs more product reviews, and also because design and layout needs improvement. It's definitely not as user-friendly and customizable as MUA. It's also more difficult to read--and you can forget about using the back button. Personally, I think MUA and Beautypedia go hand-in-hand. MUA has the benefit of numerous reviews and customer experiences, while Beautypedia focuses more on the science/ lack of science behind each item. Recommended--but not for the full price. Try it yourself: use the code cityline for a free trial.
UPDATE (4/28/09) : Wow. Paula must be reading MUA because now you can use the back button, and they've changed Beautypedia into a more readable format.

11 out of 11 people found this review helpful.     Was this review helpful to you? Yes   No

barbyng on 12/21/2008 1:07:00 AM more reviews by barbyng

Age: 44-55   Skin: Combination   Hair: Brown   Eyes: Green    

I love Paula..her skincare products cleared up my acne ridden skin that I'd had for decades. I subscribed to the Cosmetics Counter Update and liked the magazine format that I could read in bed before falling asleep (not that it made me sleepy!). When CCU stopped being published, my subscription was rolled over to Beautypedia. Was it a good website? Sure! Could I curl up with it in bed? No. Was it worth $25.00? Sadly, no, mainly because I didn't access it all that often. Is it worth $12.48? Yes. Thank you Rosamarina for the BP50 discount code!

    Was this review helpful to you? Yes   No

rosamarina on 11/13/2008 7:59:00 PM more reviews by rosamarina

Age: 19-24   Skin: Combination, Tan   Hair: Black   Eyes: Black    

Well, I found this website actually informative. I liked how she reviews the products based on the ingridient list, you do learn things from this website and you find out that some really expensive products have the same ingridients as some really cheap drugstore products. Some may dont like this, like my mom who swears by La Praire and when I told her about the reviews on this line by Paula she actually was mad!!! hahaha. I am not so sure it is worth 24.99 a year, but you might like it.

There is a 2 day free trial with the promo code cityline and a 50% discount with the promo code BP50. Check out the 2 day free trial, and then you know what it is all about. I think if you want to suscribe it is better to pay 12.50 than the full 25 dls.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.     Was this review helpful to you? Yes   No

ChristyW on 10/4/2008 11:57:00 AM more reviews by ChristyW

Age: 36-43   Skin: Oily, Medium   Hair: Blond   Eyes: Green    

I was disappointed in this website about 5 minutes after I subscribed. First, many of the brands I was interested in are not included on the website. Second, I think the reviews are inadequate; it appears she scans the list of ingredients, makes a judgement based on them, and then writes a scant review. For example, the review for La Prairie Skin Caviar Foundation (which I use and love) is negative based solely on what she believes to be an ineffective sunscreen. I don't think you can effectively review a product without actually using it; I find the MUA reviews to be much more valuable than those on Beautypedia as they are much more informative and based on RESULTS. Don't waste your money on this website.

    Was this review helpful to you? Yes   No