Paula's Choice Beautypedia.com

Personally, Beautypedia has been a life saver for my ultra sensitive skin. And I have to say, while I don’t like every PC product I’ve tried (I don’t expect to like every product in any skincare line) every Paula’s Choice moisturizer I’ve purchased has given me stellar results and never causes irritation or breakouts. Like, never, and that’s a miracle for me.

There has been some misunderstanding and serious lack of logic from people writing negative reviews. I am going to respond to these absurdic comments and head on to describing my personal experience:
1. Her reviews became biased since she runs her own skincare now:
Well, it does have some logic in it, however you need to understand that the principles she used for reviewing the product has been described in her books long before she runned her skincare. Also, she is the only person who runs her skincare line and recommend using other products from other skincare brands. She recommends different products and you can choose the best one for you by simply trying out best rated. Also, what if she decided to run her own company because she knows she can help people struggling with skin concerns. How about she just wants to help others
2. Companies who have great reviews on this website paid her to get good rating.
If you know Estee Lauder group includes Clinique, Bobbi Brown, Smashbox and so forth. Well, why then most of Bobbi Brown skin care products are rated awfully while many Clinique ones are good rated? Would not it be better for Estee Lauder to pay her to get good reviews on all products made by their companies?
3. I tried her products and they did not work for me, im allergic to some components of her products and so forth.
Excuse me, just because they did not work for you does not mean they are useless. If you are allergic to nuts will you be eating them everytime you read an article stating that nuts are healthy? NO. Well, why the fock would you use her products if you are allergic to their components omg dont be so focking stupid
4. Products rated poorly worked well for me.
If you did not have any issues on your skin and you bought a cream and it is ok for you, why would you recommend it to others. Nothing changed. Your skin was good it is still good now. Maybe this is the reason the product rated poorly. Or you had some issues, and the product rated poorly helped. If you got rid off the problem go to this website write your own review, tell people that they might consider it.

Why do i like this website? Well i was having some concerns with my skin. And 'amazing' and 'popular' bobbi brown products did not help me at all, only made it worse. I had combination skin, terribly oily forehead, super dry cheeks and constantly oily t-zone. Plus i hadgreat amount of bumps and redness on my cheeks. So altogether not really impressive. And i was trying and buying many different products. And one evening i got tired of all this pointless endless search. I decided to google in order to find a website where dermatologists would review their products. I found beautypedia but unfortunately i could not buy products best rated there because of their location. Except for one, Clinique. I purchased highly recommended by Beautypedia Clinique stuff and my skin turned into a fantasy within a week. From now one i am only purchasing products rated by Beautypedia with at least 3 stars. This website, her tips, her explanation on why some ingredients are problematic helped me out so much. She is perhaps the only person who is really trying to help people all around the world. She brought so much research. She basically collected all well known facts about skin care and brought it to people. Even if you do not like this website go and try collecting all these articles by yourself. Go and help others fighting with bumps acne and other concerns. And then you can judge. Before that keep your mouths shut

This website is a mixed bag of pros and cons, which I'll go into in a moment. I used to be in love with this site and never bought any items that weren't highly recommended by Paula Begoun. My acne was pretty bad, and I purchased all her products because supposedly they were unlike anything on the market and were chock full of the best ingredients known to man. After a year of applying them diligently to my face with no results, I came to the conclusion that there is no be all end all in skin-care. Everyone's skin is different and reacts differently to products. There are a couple ingredients that are scientifically proven to be bad for just about everyone, such as denatured alcohol (not fatty alcohols) but beyond that, it varies from person to person. In my case, I found out that the simpler my routine is, the better it is for my skin. Loads of antioxidants and skin-replenishing ingredients did nothing for my skin; in some cases it irritated it, yet a simple application of Ponds cold cream and a basic moisturizer cleared my skin up. Many skin types can not tolerate complex formulas and do better with gentler, plainer products. Another thing I have come to not like about her website is how biased she is toward her own products. In one of the older editions of her Don't Go to The Cosmetics Counter Without Me books, she doesn't rate her own products, because she said that would be overly biased. However, she does so now, and it comes across as very tacky. The one truly helpful thing about her website is the well-researched Cosmetic Ingredient Dictionary. She rates ingredients on how good they are for the skin, so when you're trying to decipher a cosmetic label, you have a general idea that a product with alcohol and menthol as the top ingredients won't be doing your skin any favors. A couple of ingredients she rates as poor, such as lavender and witch hazel, have conflicting reports on them. She says they're bad; other studies say they're great. Take what she says with a grain of salt, do your own research, play around with products to see what works with your own unique skin-type, and you should be on your way to having better skin. :)

Paula Begoun no longer writes for Beautypedia. There is a staff that writes "expert" reviews, but it's unclear as to what makes them experts. They aren't cosmetics chemists, manufacturers, dermatologists, estheticians, or nurses. They ARE marketers for Paula's Choice cosmetics. Paula Begoun sold her private Paula's Choice company to Bertram Capital a few years ago. At that time Marketing got Beautypedia, and Paula became the "face" of the brand. The products have risen a great deal in price since then, but they are more widely sold. Paula Begoun is one of the most brilliant cosmetics marketers of the 20th and 21st century. Her powerful inverse marketing has caused legions of fans, who have absolutely no idea what they're talking about, to quote Paula's "reviews" as if they are White Papers. Paula Begoun is a marketing genius: first advancing her beauty "bibles", then her privately owned brands for private label cosmetics. By contrasting her label with ubiquitous brands like Murad and Perricone, people believed her less expensive products were better because they contained ingredients Paula praised in her reviews. I love the fact that Paula Begoun taught women how to research ingredients, how to look out for what might be personally harmful, and not to believe expensive means great.

Beautypedia has begun allowing users to write reviews, which may be an attempt to get people to use the site again.(Which, in turn, directs them to Paula's Choice, of course.) Many, many of the reviewers disagree with the "expert" reviews, which proves the entirely subjective nature of cosmetics usage, regardless of whether or not evil cosmetics fiends package face creams in jars, or put drops of lavender oil in their concoctions.

Beautypedia's references should be taken with a grain of salt; they often cite in vitro tests, tests on cell cultures (not skin), tests done from product consumption not use on skin, etc.

However, if you have any skin diseases, disorders, sensitivities, allergies...this is definitely the place to go before you buy something that may hurt you. It's easy for people like me, with resistant, genetically strong skin, to think some of the reviews are ridiculous. Without having experienced the constant worry of skin damage and/or irritation, I can say something like "I love Noxzema", and "witch hazel is one of my favorite skin care ingredients." Many people could damage their skin if they think my reviews apply to everyone, so Beautypedia a safe resource for those with sensitive skin.

Like the previous reviewer, I am a huge fan of Cosdna.com! :-)

While Beautypedia is a massive resource, I do not have 100% faith in their reviews due to their obvious conflict of interest. Even though Beautypedia claims it's no longer affiliated with Paula's Choice, it's very suspicious that all the Paula's Choice products are rated 4 stars or higher. Especially when several of these products have received less than stellar reviews both here and elsewhere on the internet.

I'll stick with CosDNA for ingredient analysis, and MakeupAlley for honest reviews.

Paula uses outdated science which has been proven false. She makes statements about the "harm" some ingredients may cause, that are debatable at best. If you would like it broken down for you, just google "Robert Tisserand" and "lavender oil", he breaks it down while still citing references to every claim. Take all information from Beautypedia with a large grain of salt.

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beautypedia is pretty helpful if you're willing to look past some of the bias and overly-critical comments Paula makes in favor of her own products. while i do happen to really like a lot of paula's choice products, there are plenty of other great products at the department/drug store that perform similarly. Paula seems to be very reluctant to give some products that seem just fine a satisfactory review due to one little ingredient or formulation defect that really doesn't effect its integrity (which i find annoying) she can be pretty helpful though in pointing out really irritating ingredients in certain products

Paulas choice uses science to create Their products . I buy the. Acne toner from her line bc it's the only one on the market that does not contain alcohol or witch hazel, birth known to be not god for your skin. I like that fragrance is always mentioned to be a problem. These companies put fragrance in their products to mask chemical odour and to make the products more appealing. Yes hert products are expensive if you live in Canada but that's only bc of the exchange rate. Years ago it would have been the other way around. Arbonne is rated as bad for the most part, well sure those products are jam packed with irritants. As an example the genius pads. Primarily all alcohol and at that price ??? It's bc the company keeps. Giving Mercedes Benz"'s away so they need to charge a big premium for their products . They do have a few products I do like though ffrom their makeup line, calm moisturizer and eye cream . I've tried their protein shakes but again way overpriced.

The review by Babs81 just shows that it isn't advisable to trust ANYONE over your own experience. I have extremely picky, sensitive skin. I've used Paula's products for years; some are HG for me (the Skin Recovery Replenishing Moisturizer saved my eyes), some are meh, some my skin won't tolerate...though that's my goofy skin, not necessarily the product. I've been having issues with some seb derm patches the last couple of years, apparently related to menopause (and perhaps overenthusiastic chin plucking). With that, I've had to seek out and use alternative products; when it's irritated and peeling, I must use very bland products; most of Paula's contain too many actives during those periods. Note that despite having great local access, I must order most of these products online (after hours of research and MANY that don't work).

I do get annoyed with some of Paula's hobbyhorses, especially the whole sunscreen thing; I'm violently allergic to all chemical sunscreen, and if I used physical sunscreen daily, I'd be broken out all the time (fortunately, I live in Seattle). But I appreciate her attitude about fragrance in products; I can't even use perfume, so...

So, this is just to say, if your skin isn't doing well, maybe change it up. I know how hard it can be to figure out what's working and what isn't; let's just say, if your eyes swelled shut when you made an error about cosmetics, wouldn't you be cautious?

I learned my lesson early, from allowing people to mess with my face (makeup), and having violent allergic reactions that would then mess up my skin for weeks if not months. I will say, I do love Makeup Alley, spend way too much time here, but it's time well spent! And though it's encouraged my makeup addiction, it's also saved me a lot of money not buying things that sound better than they are.

Sigh...where do I start? Ive put off reviewing this for a long time because I didn't want my bitterness to cloud my judgement...its still painful-lol. I discovered one of Paulas "Don't go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me" books and also her Beauty Bible a few years ago. Which quickly led to of course Beautypedia. I was OBSESSED and became a skin care fanatic....started following all her rules to the letter...threw out all my products that didn't receive a GOOD or BEST rating from her-which were almost all of them and as a product hoarder that was a lot of loot wasted. I stopped buying creams in jars. I avoided anything with alcohol in it. I avoided anything without sunscreen included-even make up. I stopped using anything with lavender or even lavender scented even though its one of my favourite smells in the world. I stopped using anything with fragrance even bodywash...which didn't even make sense since I was still wearing perfume on my skin which has fragrance and alcohol (perhaps even lavender lol). Yikes. Anyway...
I started making lists of all the things she approved of...which didn't leave me with much to choose from...especially since I live in a very small town with limited places to shop (I pretty much have Shoppers and Walmart). The products she recommended were either her own, expensive or hard to find brands, or maybe a couple Olay products. So I tried Olay...unbeknownst to me at the time-Im allergic to niacinamide which is in all Olay products and most of Paulas. So my skin broke out in a rash which I mistook for pimples. Even more frustrated with my skin care, and out of any other options since she vetoed most products by Neutrogena, Aveeno, Marcelle-my regular brands which actually do work for me-I caved and started ordering her stuff. I spent A LOT of money...especially to have it shipped to Canada and having it converted into US dollars. Her products did not agree with me-at all! Probably due to the niacinamide-I was using her Hydralight line...my face developed hard, painful bumps under the skin, welts you might say, and very hideous redness! May I add this is the summer I got married? With completely ruined skin!
Anyhow so perfectly good products thrown out, money wasted on her products, wrecked skin and redness which lasted about a year...this is what I received for my faithful following...
However. Why give her site a 3 instead of a one? Because I did learn some very useful information from her site. I learned how to read ingredients lists and what most ingredients actually are, I learned to avoid menthol or menthyl lactate like the damn plague because my skin is allergic to that also but I never made the connection until I read about it being an irritant from her advice. That in itself was priceless, so many face washes contain it and I would always break out in a rash and think it was acne up to that point.
So anyway, I check her site from time to time now, mostly out of curiosity...even though I find theyre getting slower and slower adding product reviews-by the time theyre finally reviewed Ive already had the product for months. I went back to using whatever the hell I want, jar packaging, fragrance, lavender, some alcohol...but I always keep her advice in the back of my mind. And now I prefer reading reviews on THIS lovely site!!!