Coverage you can tell apart from the campaign.
At a glance
Editors pick the launches
No brand pays for a story, and none sees one before it runs.
Paid means labelled
Sponsored pages, affiliate links and PR mailers are always disclosed.
Claims get context
A 24-hour wear claim is reported as the brand's, with what backs it up.
Errors get fixed
Wrong shade name, wrong price, wrong date: corrected in the open.
- Editorial independence
- Reporting with care
- Access, gifts and samples
- Partner and sponsored content
- Reviews and recommendations
- Corrections and updates
- Conflicts of interest
- Tools and transparency
Editorial independence
Gloss Report covers a launch because it is worth knowing about, not because it landed on the PR calendar. Our editors decide which founders, formulas and fragrance houses make the magazine. No brand can buy a story, a slot in Just launched or a line in The Launch List, and none can pay to keep a story out. Brands and founders do not see a story, its questions or its headline before it is published.
Advertising and partnerships are handled apart from editorial. The partnerships side can tell a brand what we sell; it cannot sell coverage, and it gets no vote on what the editors write.
- Coverage is never part of a commercial deal.
- Founders and brands do not approve copy, quotes or headlines.
- A brand that advertises with us is covered on the same terms as one that does not.
Reporting with care
Makeup sits on skin and fragrance sits close to it, so we report both with care. We keep what a founder believes apart from what has been shown, and we say which is which. A shade range is described by what it covers and where it stops. Wear claims, from transfer-proof to 24-hour, are reported as the brand's claims, alongside whatever testing the brand has published to support them.
Nothing in Gloss Report is medical advice. Patch test anything new, read the full ingredient list if you have allergies or sensitive skin, and stop using a product that stings, itches or brings you out in a rash. A reaction that lasts belongs with a dermatologist.
- No story says a product treats or prevents a skin condition.
- Clean, non-toxic and hypoallergenic are treated as claims, and we say what sits behind them.
- A founder's own skin story is told as their story, not as proof.
Access, gifts and samples
Beauty runs on PR mailers, launch dinners and press trips. The only thing we accept is product, and it arrives with no promise attached. A mailer does not buy a mention, a swatch or a post, and nothing gets unboxed on our channels as a favour to the brand that sent it.
When a sample, an event or a trip shapes a story, the story says so. We do not trade kind coverage for an exclusive, an early look or a seat at a launch, and an embargo we agree to decides when we publish, never what we say.
- Samples are accepted on the understanding that coverage is not promised.
- Gifts beyond the product itself are declined or sent back.
- Brand-paid travel and events are disclosed in any story they inform.
Partner and sponsored content
Gloss Report runs sponsored features, sponsored kit guides and paid placements in The Launch List. Each is paid for by a brand and says so at the top of the page, before you read a word, with the label "Sponsored" or "In partnership with" and the brand's name. Sponsored pages are kept apart from our editorial coverage and are never dressed up as our reporting.
They follow the rules the rest of the magazine follows: the same care with claims, the same honesty about shade ranges, the same corrections policy. If a sponsor wants a line our editors would not print, it does not run.
- Sponsored work is labelled at the top, not hidden at the foot.
- No sponsor can buy editorial coverage or a place in an editorial kit guide.
- Sponsored copy is held to the same claims rules as editorial.
Reviews and recommendations
The products in Shop the look and on the vanity shelves are picked by editors because they belong to the story: the formula a founder is known for, the shade range a piece is about. Prices and shade counts are the brand's own on the day we publish, and both change. Some links to shops may be affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission if you buy, at no extra cost to you. A commission never decides what we feature or how we describe it.
We describe colour and scent in words we can stand behind, and we say whose words they are. Wear time, payoff and longevity are the brand's claims until someone has shown otherwise. When an editor has worn a product, the story says so; if it does not, read it as a description, not a review. Swatches and shade photographs come from the brand unless the caption says otherwise.
- No brand pays for a place in Shop the look.
- We link to the brand's own shop wherever we can.
- A product description is not a wear test unless the story says it was tested.
Corrections and updates
When we get something wrong, we fix it where everyone can see. The correction goes into the story, with a note at the end saying what changed and when. A mistake is never quietly edited out of existence.
Shade names, prices, restock dates and links change constantly, and we update them without a note. Anything of substance gets one. If you are a founder, an artist or a brand we have written about and something attributed to you is wrong or out of date, tell us. We will correct it, update it or, where that is the fair outcome, take the story down.
- Corrections are dated and noted at the end of the story.
- Typos, dead links and new prices are fixed without a note.
- Requests from people we have covered get an answer from an editor.
Conflicts of interest
No one at Gloss Report writes about, edits or picks a brand they own part of, consult for, are paid by or are close to. Working makeup artists who contribute to the magazine tell us which brands they are contracted to, and they do not cover those brands. When a conflict cannot be avoided, the story says so.
Gloss Report is published by VOL Collective, which also publishes other magazines. A founder can appear in more than one of them, each time from that title's angle. If VOL Collective has a commercial relationship with a brand we cover, the story discloses it.
- Editors declare financial ties to a brand before they work on its story.
- Contributing artists disclose brand contracts and ambassador roles.
- No editor takes paid work from a brand they cover.
Tools and transparency
We show our work. Every story carries a byline and a date, figures are attributed in the text, a note from the editors adds context where a claim needs it, and our kit guides end with their sources. Photographs are credited in the caption.
The tools we check claims against are public, so you can use them too: the ingredient list on the pack; the FDA's list of colour additives approved for cosmetics, some of which are not approved for use around the eyes; the IFRA Standards, which ban some fragrance materials and cap how much of others can be used; and a brand's own shade and ingredient pages.
- Sources are named in the story, and kit guides list theirs in full.
- We do not use before-and-after pictures to sell a result.
- This page is updated whenever our practices change.
Wrong shade, wrong date, wrong price? Tell us.
Spotted an error, a missing credit or a conflict we did not declare? Write to the editors. We read every message, and if we change something, we will tell you what.
