faq


general questions

what exactly is blushgarden?

it's the best place to to organize a cosmetic collection and find easy to read reviews on beauty products. we try to cut the clutter and walls of text out of reviews, to make finding new products simple and fun.

 

what is the collection feature? do i need to make one to use the site?

your collection is where you can organize all your beauty products. we hope that they are a lot of fun to make and curate.

use the collection area to search for anything in your collection, filter what you see (you could filter to only look at your nail polish stash, or only look at your wishlist items), and create kits to arrange your collection in any way you want. the possibilities are endless. make a "blue palette" kit to represent where you have depotted your blue eyeshadows, make a "need to try" kit that has all of your untried nail polishes in it, or even make a "helmer drawer 3" kit to virtually represent all the products kept in the third drawer of your helmer.

you don't need to add any products to your collection to use the site, but we think you'll definitely get a lot more out of the site if you do — plus you'll have an awesome collection page filled with all your goodies that you can share (if you want to)!

 

which information is public or private?

good question! by default your collection is private. you have the option under your profile settings to make your collection public. when a collection is public, anyone can see a list of the items(haves and wants) in your collection. the associated notes and collection information (such as location, or date opened, etc.) are always private. the kits you create and how you choose to use them are also private.

all reviews, discussions, pictures and images posted to the site are public and posted under your username.

why does blushgarden differentiate between have want and had?

when brainstorming ways to organize our own collections, being able to separate products that were owned (have) as opposed to products that we wish we owned (want) just made sense. but we needed another option for items that we had tried, tested, sampled, donated, swapped away or just didn't own anymore. this is how we arrived at the three.

*note* if your collection is public, the hads do not show up for other people to see. use the had categorization in any way that works for you.

 

why are some products/brands/categories missing?

we are adding products all the time, but we know we have a lot more to do. if you don't see a particular brand or your product's category listed yet, email us at and we'll try get it added. our goal is to have as extensive a list of products as possible.

 

something is wrong with blushgarden!

hopefully we're already working on it, but it never hurts to let us know at just to be sure. or if it is directly related to your account.

 

favorite ice cream?

definitely chocolate, with cinnamon a close second!

 

is there a mobile version of the site? iphone or android app?

we've worked on making the site responsive to smaller screens and hope to have an app soon! if you find an area less than responsive (oh noes!), send the info and we'll get right on it!

 

blushgarden ratings

figuring out which product to buy is often difficult, extremely time-consuming, and not at all cost effective. the process sometimes resembles kissing an army of frogs to find your prince. this is where we come in.

the blushgarden rating is our unique ranking of products based on user review data. our aim is to be able to easily know at a glance whether a product is any good and exactly why.

 

how is the blushgarden rating formulated?

simply and with math! only sort of kidding, the average rating is computed exactly how it sounds (sum of all of the overall review ratings divided by the number of total reviews), and the rating criteria averages are computed the same way (not that you can add up or divide by "enhances usability" but we correspond the rating to a number and then use this number to compute the average). the broken out criteria, in addition to having averages, allow members to comment on said criteria which makes reading about what members have to say about the packaging (or blendability, or value, or ...) much easier than scanning through long paragraphs of reviews.

are user reviews a factor in ratings?

yes, they are the only factor! we think people who use beauty products are in the best position to say just how good a product is.

 

will a product's rating change over time?

absolutely! as members add more ratings, they will change. if your favorite mascara is not fairing well in the rating department, you can do your part to get the good word out by posting a review!

 
 

learn more about how we structure reviews and tips to writing a great one at reviews 101.

 

how do i ...

how do i join?

you can set up your account anytime. it's fast, free, and easy! we ask for your email and a password. after you are signed up we ask you to pick a unique username.

 

where do i add a picture, url, or bio to my profile?

edit your profile to share any of those things.

 

how do i deactivate my account?

just head over to your profile settings and follow the instructions at the bottom of the account tab. are you sure we can't convince you to stick around, though?

how can i add a product to my collection?

we've placed buttons throughout the site to let you easily add products to your collection. if you can't find the product you are looking for, after searching for it, you can still add it to your collection. at the bottom of the search results, there is an "add product" button which will lead you through the process of adding the product you couldn't find.

 

how do i remove a product from my collection?

anywhere that you see the buttons to add products to your collection, hover over your selection and an orange X will appear. click this to remove the product from your collection.

 

to wrap things up...

if we missed something, let us know at and we'll add relevant questions here as we get them.