We take claims at their word, then check them.
At a glance
No paid verdicts
Brands cannot buy coverage or review a story before it runs.
Sponsored, said plainly
Paid pages, affiliate links and samples are disclosed, never implied.
Claims meet evidence
We say what a study shows, and what it does not.
Corrections on record
Errors are corrected in the story, and the change is dated.
- 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
Face Value decides what to cover on editorial grounds alone: a claim worth checking, a founder who can name a concentration and a sample size, a question our readers keep asking. No payment buys a story, an evidence guide or a mention in The Fine Print, and no payment keeps a brand out of them. Brands and founders see a story at the same moment our readers do.
Partnerships are run at arm's length from editorial. They can explain the formats we sell, but they cannot promise a story or influence a verdict.
- Coverage is not something a brand can contract for.
- No brand reviews a draft, a quote or a headline.
- Advertisers get no softer reading than anyone else.
Reporting with care
We quote the claim, show what supports it and note what would make it stronger. A result in cells or on skin samples in a lab is reported as a lab result, not a result on a face. A consumer perception study, where testers say how their skin felt, is reported as a survey, not a clinical finding. We give the concentration, the vehicle and the length of a study wherever they are known, and when we do not know, we say so.
Face Value is not medical advice, and a study summary is not a diagnosis. See a board-certified dermatologist about anything that persists, spreads or hurts, and patch test anything new.
- No story says a product treats, cures or prevents a skin condition.
- Before-and-after photos are not treated as evidence.
- Non-comedogenic, hypoallergenic and clean have no legal definition in the United States, and we say so when a brand leans on them.
Access, gifts and samples
Brands send samples, study summaries and invitations to labs and clinics. We take product samples and study documents, never anything with conditions attached. A sample buys neither a story nor a kinder verdict.
When a sample, a clinic visit, an event or a trip informs a story, the story says so. We do not trade favourable coverage for access, an exclusive or an early look at unpublished data, and we ask for the full study rather than the figure in the press release.
- A sample is accepted with no promise of a story.
- Gifts beyond the product are declined or returned.
- Complimentary treatments and brand-paid travel are disclosed in the stories they inform.
Partner and sponsored content
Face Value sells three kinds of space: sponsored features, sponsored evidence guides and placements in The Fine Print. Each opens with a plain label, "Sponsored" or "In partnership with", and the paying brand's name. They sit outside our reporting, and we never let them pass for it.
Sponsored pages are held to the same evidence standard as editorial: claims matched to what the studies show, no treatment language, the same corrections policy. A claim the studies cannot carry is cut, whoever is paying.
- The word "Sponsored" is never in small print.
- A sponsor cannot commission an editorial evidence guide.
- Evidence rules do not relax for paying brands.
Reviews and recommendations
Editors choose what goes in Shop the formulas and on the formulary shelves by its relevance to the story: the formula a founder's reasoning rests on, the active an interview turns on. Prices and sizes are recorded from the brand on the day we publish and may have changed since. Links to shops may be affiliate links, meaning a purchase may earn us a commission; it costs you nothing extra. It has no bearing on what we feature or what we conclude.
We describe a formula by its actives, their concentrations where disclosed and the evidence behind them, and we attribute every claim to whoever made it. Personal use is stated when it happened; otherwise, what you are reading is an analysis of the formula and the evidence, not a test on our own skin.
- Places in Shop the formulas are editorial picks, never paid placements.
- Where we can work it out, we give the price per millilitre of the active.
- Undisclosed concentrations are reported as undisclosed.
Corrections and updates
An error corrected quietly is still an error, so ours are corrected on the record. The story is fixed, and a dated note at the end explains the change. We do not tidy mistakes away.
Prices, links and stock are kept current without a note. A reformulation, a retracted study or new evidence that changes the picture is noted. Practitioners, founders and brands: if a statement we attributed to you is wrong or stale, send the source, and we will correct it, update it or, if that is fairer, take the piece down.
- Every correction is dated and says what changed.
- Typos and dead links are fixed without comment.
- Practitioners and founders we have written about get a reply from an editor.
Conflicts of interest
Editors at Face Value do not cover brands they own a stake in, advise, work for or are close to, and an unavoidable conflict is disclosed in the story. The same goes for the experts we quote: when a dermatologist or researcher has ties to a brand in the story, we say so.
Face Value belongs to VOL Collective, a publisher of several magazines, and a founder may be covered in more than one of them, each with its own angle. Where VOL Collective has a commercial relationship with a brand we cover, the story discloses it.
- Editors put any financial tie on record before working on a story.
- Practitioners we quote disclose paid ties to the brands in question.
- Paid consulting for a skincare brand rules an editor out of covering it.
Tools and transparency
We point you to our sources. Stories are signed and dated, studies are named where they are cited, an editors' note adds context when a finding needs it, and evidence guides end with their references. Photo credits sit in the captions.
Our references are public, so you can check them yourself: PubMed for the original papers; Cochrane reviews, which pool the trials on a question; ClinicalTrials.gov for registered trials; the European Commission's CosIng database for ingredients; and the FDA's rules for sunscreens, which in the United States are regulated as over-the-counter drugs.
- Evidence guides end with full references.
- We say we do not know when we do not know.
- If our methods change, this page will say so.
Show us the study we missed.
Have a better study, a correction or a conflict we missed? Send it to the editors with the reference. Each message gets read, and any change we make is reported back to you.
