Affiliate Disclosure

Short version: When you click an outbound link to a product on this site and buy it, we may earn a commission from the retailer (typically Sephora, Amazon, or the brand’s own site). That commission does not change the price you pay and it does not influence our rankings.

This page spells out exactly how that works, what it means for you, and how we handle the conflicts of interest that affiliate models create.

How the commission works

When a reviewer recommends a product, we include a link to one of the retailers that sells it. If you click that link and make a purchase within the retailer’s attribution window (usually 24 hours to 30 days depending on the retailer), we receive a small percentage of the sale. The commission is paid by the retailer, not by you.

Typical commission rates in beauty are 5–15%. They vary by retailer, product, and customer type.

How we prevent commission bias

The obvious risk with an affiliate-supported site is that writers start recommending whichever product pays the most. We handle this three ways:

Reviewers write their rankings before affiliate links are added. The stylist submits their list with a 1–10 rating and a written review for each product. Affiliate links are added afterwards by the editorial team. The order doesn’t change.
We include products that pay zero commission. If the stylist’s #1 pick doesn’t have an affiliate program, we still rank it #1 and link to the brand’s site without a commission. You’ll see examples of this throughout the site.
We disclose relationships that go beyond affiliate. If a reviewer has a paid ambassador, educator, consultant, or brand-endorsement relationship with a company whose product is reviewed, that relationship is disclosed on the reviewer’s bio page and on every review of that brand’s products.

Brand relationships currently disclosed

Barb Thompson is a paid global cutting educator for R+Co. R+Co products that appear in her reviews are flagged with this disclosure.

As we add more reviewers, we’ll add their disclosures here and on their bio pages.

What we don’t accept

Paid placements (a brand paying to appear in a review or on a list)
Sponsored content (a brand paying us to write a post)
Gifted-for-review arrangements where the gift is conditional on a positive review
“Earn a bigger commission for a higher ranking” retail partner deals

FTC compliance

This site complies with the Federal Trade Commission’s Endorsement Guides. Every review page, list page, and outbound product link is labeled with “Independent review. Supported by affiliate commissions,” and every affiliate link carries rel="sponsored nofollow" per Google’s guidance.

Questions? Email hello@hairstylistapproved.com.