15 years as a beauty editor taught me these ten lessons

And you probably won't hear these from many others in the beauty industry...

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I’ve been a magazine journalist and editor for my whole career. Specifically, I’ve been very involved in writing and editing beauty pages for magazines. I still have a beauty column in a national mag currently, as well as doing beauty writing for the most-read print publications in the country. I got my first beauty writing gig at 20 and here I am, at 35, with hundreds of beauty-adjacent hours under my belt, thousands upon thousands of words written and many, many lessons learned.

I’ve interviewed the biggest names in beauty (Charlotte Tilbury, Laura Mercier, Bobbi Brown) and the most educated experts and scientists, and have spent time at more press events than I can count learning about innovations and breakthroughs and ingredients, and the knowledge I’ve come away with… well, it might shock you.

Chatting to Charlotte Tilbury is always a joy | Laura Mercier, what an icon

While always remaining grateful for the wonderful places my job has brought me and the opportunities therein, I have retained a very hardy and (I think) healthy level of skepticism about the whole thing. I firmly believe in being honest about what works, what’s a total swizz and what ‘game-changers’ have actually come close to changing the game. Brutally honest, sometimes. So much so that I think I’ve probably fallen foul of a few of the more aggressive beauty PRs who didn’t like that I ignored the biggest launches in their calendars because I knew full well the products didn’t cut the mustard.