Policies

Editorial policy

No brand pays me, and no brand can change what a card says.

• No brand deals. I take no sponsorships, paid placements or paid reviews. There are no sponsored rankings.
• Every product gets a full card. A product is on the site because it is on shelves, not because it earns me anything. A product I earn nothing from gets the same card as one I do.
• Free products. I accept products brands send me. Any card for a product I was sent says so, and it gets the same reading as a product I bought. No brand has sent one yet.
• I read the formula, not the brand. I name the brand on every card. What I examine is the ingredient list and the evidence, never the people who made it.
• I describe, I do not diagnose. The cards say what an ingredient is and what the studies found. They do not tell you what is wrong with your skin. For that, see a dermatologist.
• Claims are shown as claims. “Clinically proven”, awards and retailer badges are labelled with who is saying them and what they do and do not measure (see the glossary).
• My background. I have worked in the beauty industry since 1991 and founded my own skincare and fragrance line, version.O. I say so on my page, and version.O products get the same reading as everyone else's. Their cards carry a “my own brand” note.

Affiliate disclosure

Some Buy links pay me a small commission. You pay the same price either way.

• Where the links are. Only on a card's orange Buy button. Nowhere else on a card is paid.
• What a commission does not do. It does not put a product on the site, move it up, or change a word of its card.
• No link is not a verdict. Many products have no Buy link because the retailer is not in a program I belong to. That says nothing about the product, and those products get full cards.
• Disclosure on every page. The strip at the foot of every page says the same thing in one line.

Corrections

If a card is wrong, tell me and I will check it against its source.

1. Tell me what looks wrong. Email jen@thejenmurphy.com. The card's name and the line you doubt are enough. A link to your source helps.
2. I check it against the source, not against what anyone remembers: the CIR report, the EU listing, the brand's own label.
3. If it is wrong, I fix it. The card changes, and so does every card that drew on the same source. A corrected card shows the date it was corrected.
4. If it is right, I say why, with the page or line it came from.

Brands are welcome to send a current ingredient list. I compare it with the label on shelves; a changed formula gets an updated card.