Caroline Hirons

Plus she seems to recommend 99% of very expensive products.

I agree with your comments duality, ethelide and pretty princess.
Ch was a huge start for me and got me interested in skin more. I learnt a lot from her but these days I believe it’s not so great advice. I still respect her and follow her blog but I think saying I like something just because is not good enough. These days her saying I like it will generate alot of sales automatically.
She has made it clear she’s doing more sponsorship but it’s Still not great.
I don’t like the idea of acid toning every day. I really couldn’t manage it in the end.

She’s on equal par with Paula Begoun for me, started out promising with good ideas and philosophy but when the cash and popularity increased they became the polar opposites of what made them popular to begin with. They are almost like twins, both have said similar (and misguided) things about KBeauty and been forced to eat their words. Just my 2 bits 🙂

I had noticed that CH was previously referring to Kbeauty as a fad, and had initially said she wouldn’t review any Korean/Asian/Eastern beauty products either.
I feel as her readers/subscribers have increased the quality has decreased, I started reading her blog a few years ago, more as Caroline was sharing her wealth of knowledge about skincare routines, I do think some of her cheat sheets etc are quite resourceful, however I’ve found her (mostly on IG) to be coming across as too ranty, and when people do point out discrepancies or oversights, like you mention Ethelinde, she is pretty quick to try and shut them down, like the double cleanse post, when people pointed out it’s been around way before she coined the phrase, her responses could be interpreted as bullying.

I was prompted last night to think about Caroline Hirons on a separate thread and was informed this thread existed.

Apologies for the long rant to come but I want to get this off my chest. I’ve had recent beef with Ms Hirons on a separate matter but what I’m about to cover is also concerning about her blog content from someone who claims to be a skincare guru.

When I first started developing my interest in skincare, I came across her blog, which at the time I found interesting to read, at least about Western skincare – there was scant coverage of anything from other cultures. Lately, I’ve noticed she has tried sampling e.g. Korean brand Dr Jart+, but her reviews are below par. She does not know what she is talking about. She has reduced her reviews to the basic format of “yes, I liked this”. Even her suggestions of the availability of Dr Jart+ is ignorant as she directs readers to buy directly from the brand site or Sephora USA. You’re ill-informed if you are purchasing from those avenues as they are not affordable – she calls it “affordable”.

She also appears to have no knowledge of how Asian product labelling works. Ingredients are not listed in terms of highest quantity. Although ingredients are listed in descending order, ingredients that don’t exceed 1% flavouring and colouring agents can be listed in any order after ingredients with concentrations exceeding 1%. Any compounds consisting of multiple ingredients have to be individualised as lone ingredients and listed separately. Granted, if you source your e.g. Dr. Jart+ item from e.g. a US source, you would expect the labelling to be US FDA-approved, i.e. like in most Western countries, compound ingredients are listed in the order of quantity predominance in the formulation. Whereas if you sourced it from an Asian country, that will not be the case.

tl;dr Her content is very dubious on Asian skincare products.

So I live under a rock and have no idea who Caroline Hirons is. Yup….

So as we know I’m a huge fan of ch but…
I followed her routine for three months… Cleansing balms then acid toning and I have to say it didn’t really do much for me.. I actually don’t agree with acid toning every day especially twice a day. My skin actually got duller and it brought out a lot more of my pigmentation.. Ekkk.
I now only do it once every second- third day. Also my skin doesn’t seem to really like cream cleansers much/ balms….
Unless anyone can recommend a good balm for skin prone to pimples..
I’ve also read that using acid toners before vitamins c and e/ antixiodants makes them less active etc so that’s intetesting.
I like a lot of the products she recommends but they can be expensive +++ so its hard…

I also don’t get her anti- strobing/ highlighting lol

If you’re a fan of Caroline Hirons you might be interested in two videos called Sali Hughes: In The Bathroom with Caroline Hirons Part One and Sali Hughes: In the Bathroom with Caroline Hirons Part Two. The first video is about Caroline’s career before blogging. The second video is a peek in her beauty stash – products that she’s testing and products for personal use. Many of the products aren’t available in Australia, and the videos are a bit long, but there are still some interesting bits and pieces.

I’m going to have to check out her site. It’ll be interesting to read reviews based on performance AND ingredients.

there was actually a brief glitch and the box price dropped to 116 pounds!
I stayed strong and still didn’t purchase it!