LIVE CHAT - Can we trust Sephora's new review system?

I'm not so sure about Sephora's new review system they have going on their website. I honestly don't think I can trust them anymore. Let's talk about it.

[babymeow]

I work in sephora and I also get stuff from influencer and buzz agent and I always leave honest reviews. I also specify that in my review. The problem is with the incentivized reviews, they usually don't give you enough time to thoroughly use the product before they want you to leave the review. So I always disclose that as well, like the time frame that I used it. But when I'm leaving reviews as just an employee, I am leaving them like I was a paying customer as well. I don't just review gratis, I review the stuff I actually purchase. And I only take the time out because I get so excited about different products and I want to share the love. My biggest pet peeve is when people leave a bad review or like one or two stars because of something that happened during shipping. Like bro that has nothing to do with the fucking product!

[sydeezy]

i saw a chat that said they pay more attention to the negative reviews! and i completely agree. i filter it out to find similar complaints or issues and make my decision from there.

[bethrichardson]

Have shifted from Sephora to my local Ulta. Like the light, bright store lay out as well as the overall attitude of the people working there. Had a bit of trouble with an online order AND its replacement order arriving broken, (Broken foundations coating everything and glass shards everywhere) BUT the response was awesome. "Toss it all. We are replacing the whole order." Second order arrived in the same shattered mess. Knowing it wasn't the fault of the person I talked to, I was nice, but said they needed to clean house in the shipping dept. Ulta was mortified and shipped again and gave me even a *very* generous gift card. Someone did indeed clean house in shipping because there have been no issues since.

[CiucisTeris]

I kinda like the idea of having some reviews available for a brand new product, but what bothers me more (both incentivized and not) is when people rate a product with certain number of stars, but there’s no comment or one that says “good”, “don’t buy”, etc.

I’ve posted reviews for products that I’ve received through octoly and influenster, and while I received them for free, I always leave an honest review (not all products are 4 or 5 stars, I’ve left 3 and under, and also said I wouldn’t recommend the product).

[robjenstreet]

I completely skip over reviews that say received free product on them.

[Hat-trick]

I have received products from Amazon that came with a coupon saying “if you give a 5 star 🌟 rave view you can exchange this for a $25 Amazon card” I’m like hmmm 🤔…so instead, I go leave and honest review and tell on them for trying to buy me into a 5 star review!!! I do not play that way!

As for the incentivized reviews on Sephora, I agree with you @Jen. They may be good honest reviews but how are we supposed to know? I feel like it’s a shady practice.

I go by word of mouth from my friends and family, and I have a few people online that I do trust their opinions. Like some others have said, I also will go to a brands website also. But…I am not a person that has to have the newest stuff all of the time. If I buy some that is a new product I know I’m taking a risk and read a product description really well before deciding if it really seems like a product suited for my skin color, tone, age and texture. Otherwise I let a product sit on the market for a bit before I make a more educated decision on my purchase. I have some pretty high expectations of stuff I spend my money on.

[SamanthaMarchxo]

lmao when it was mentioned about the irrelevant reviews - once I had review on Amazon come in for a novel of mine and it was a one star and said: "this smelled like smelly cheese" and to this day I can't figure that one out haha

[karencrutchfield]

One of my biggest frustrations is that I prefer to review things after I've had them for a while. Many websites only give you a short window after purchase to leave a review. I had a specific experience with something I bought on Amazon and about two months later, when I had made up my mind on how I liked it and that it stood up after a bit of use, Amazon wouldn't let me review it.

[qunb]

I'm an influenster, I post real reviews on sephora of real experiences and quality as well as anything that relates to the product. I also give bad reviews I mean just because I recieved it free in return for a review doesn't mean I HAVE to be positive. Influenster doesn't care if you leave a bad review, it's HONESTY that I find influenster is great for! I trust SOME of the reviewers from influenster! Just watch out cuz there is people who receive products for a review and they are not always honest!

[mothermakeup]

So I commented this on your WUIM video this morning. But I was also bothered by the reviews before product launch, until I thought of it from another perspective….What’s the difference between average people doing reviews ahead of time and influencers doing it on social media ? Influencers get products ahead of time to share their opinions/reviews/experience. Now brands are giving a few makeup lovers the same chance. ( as long as they are being honest. Incentives reviews mean they received the product for free, no different than PR) But I do see both sides…The potential of those reviews being biased is too high. That’s why I like to come to YouTube, bc I can see the products in action.

[stephanielugo]

i didnt know this was happening, im too busy to follow. i literally depend on only you for the latest news. so i thank you for all your efforts and keeping us informed! I just decided to click on your video because i recently wanted to buy from sephora but i was a little skeptical on the reviews. idk what it was but i was not convinced on the authenticity of the reviews. i think it was the lack of "verified purchase" and the difference i saw in ratings between a verified one and a non-verified. so i decided to go to youtube to see what people thought about it. if i was in person at the store then i would definitely ask an associate to help me and for their review. reviews who say 4 stars but has amazing commentary really irk me, like i need to know why its not a 5!! lol at the end i didnt buy anything because i wasnt convinced the product was good haha

[Ashley-svti]

I have gotten products from Influenster to review on Sephora and I always disclose that in all my reviews, but I do see some other people from Influenster leave a review before they even get the product or let their review be super biased. You do have to take every review with a grain of salt, regardless of if it's purchased/gifted. I always read the 4/5 star reviews and the 1/2 star reviews to get a good sense of a product. It sucks that that burden falls on the consumer, but that's how it's always going to be.

[CandleAshes]

I get things from influenster and I give negative product reviews all the time, they don’t care. I don’t see how my review is any less valid than an employee review. I’ll frequently even say “I’d use this again if I got it as a gift, but I wouldn’t buy it, I prefer something else”

[miro]

I work in online retail and sending out product to gather reviews before launch is standard procedure these days. We do it to make a product more likely to sell when it goes live and it’s not shady - in some cases it’s a loyalty perk for our own top customers to receive things to try before launch and sometimes we use external companies with their own panels of testers. But we always ask people to say in their reviews that they received the product for free to be transparent.

[theeluannesantos]

Mad love for you Jen
If a company is doing something to trick people into buying their products whether they know it or not it IS a shady thing to do. People read reviews to help them decide to buy a product or not. If it’s not honest, it’s wrong! I wrote reviews for things that were sent to me for “my honest opinion”, I gave my honest reviews. Some were good some were bad. I explained why I did or didn’t like a product.

[basicmidwesterner]

It's also the yearly subscribers to fabfitfun. The servers will lock up and then 30 mins later anything we wanted for our box is gone. I think they give the good choices to the influencers only. Makes me sad

[sabrinamoreira]

These reviews before product launch is also huge in skincare. I actually participate in these and I can say I give my honest review, obviously I can't speak for others. But I think this is just the new normal, and being in this space I do see people giving negative reviews as well. When we are "gifted" these products we are give instructions to state these products were received free in our review, so it's on the reviewer to put that, the brand even gives us a copy and paste statement to say we recieved it free at the start of the review incase your not sure how to word it. Not saying this is good or bad but just wanted to give my side as a reviewer

[popcornphilosopher]

Hey Jen it’s interesting you talked about how women are called greedy when they ask for what they’re worth. I’m actually doing a video about that, It’s actually about Jean Harlow who encountered this in her career (even though she made her company so much money)and I’m using it as an example to show about how long it’s been going on. I know that I’ve had it happen to me as well.

Actually, we even did it last week when it came to Keshina of Rare Cosmetics (myself included) most of us assumed she was being greedy when we didn’t even know the whole story. Also, I was actually wondering if you would mind if I used some of what you’d said today in my video.

[misseee]

Jen I do appreciate you saying you help prevent us from buying crap!!!! Anyone know if the Kenzii really works???? I’m struggling to spend so much money on it, if it doesn’t work? Anyone know????

[MoonlitSunflower]

Regarding fabfitfun and the "bait and switch" thing it might be best if they plan for a limited number of boxes. I've seen boxycharm have a wait list in the past. It is doable. I do like your idea of what backup items might be if options run out.