When it comes to buying beauty products, I’ve always been a very tactile kind of shopper. From the age of five, sparkling, lacquer-finished stores like Sephora and MAC Cosmetics were my favorite pitstops to make at the mall, and as I grew older, sleuthing for new beauty products at other retailers like department stores, Ulta, and even the drugstore, became a kind of tranquility-inducing therapy for me. (Unfortunately, my wallet got the short end of the stick with that one!)
Not only did I simply enjoy strolling through the aisles filled with tempting vials, jars, and bottles, I also loved swatching and testing my forearm away to see how shades would (or wouldn’t) flatter my skin tone or how the consistency of a serum or oil would lay with my skin. Hygenic? No. Fun? Very much! That said, now that storefronts are closed, and we’re all under strict at-home orders, we’re left with one shopping medium and one shopping medium only—online beauty buying. You might already feel well-versed in shopping for beauty picks online, but for people who aren’t used to the process or prefer to shop in a brick and mortar stores like me, it can feel like a daunting and overwhelming process. There’s a greater risk of not liking a product, and it’s disappointing to have to re-pack and ship back a formula you had high hopes for.
So, I thought I’d do some Nancy Drew-caliber detective work to significantly slim your chances of returning said purchases. I reached out to my dear friends at Dermstore (one of my all-time favorite online beauty retailers) to see which of the products they carry have had the fewest returns. (Kind of brilliant, right?) Below, I’m listing the top seven products Dermstore shoppers have rarely sent back, plus more best-selling formulas from each of the popular brands. Keep scrolling for seven holy-grail beauty products with a near-perfect no-return rate.
Rating: 5/5 stars. Number of reviews: 321. Nearly $100 is a lot of money to fork over for an eye cream, but the masses have spoken, and this special formula is not only a top-seller at Dermstore, but it’s also one of the least frequently returned. A little goes a long way which makes the price tag an easier pill to swallow, and it also tackles a handful of different under-eye woes. Bye, fine lines, wrinkles, and shadows!
Rating: 5/5 stars. Number of reviews: 92
Rating: 5/5 stars. Number of reviews: 105
Rating: 5/5 stars. Number of reviews: 371. My WWW beauty editor P.I.C. Courtney Higgs and I might be biased, but over and over again we deem this cult-loved cleanser as the absolute best face wash on earth. Didn’t think something as basic as a cleanser could be skin-transformingly magical? Think again. Dermstore shoppers agree and hang on tight to this epic mixture of exfoliating white willow bark and skin-healing antioxidants like chamomile and Centella Asiatica.
Rating: 5/5 stars. Number of reviews: 222
Rating: 5/5 stars. Number of reviews: 153
Rating: 5/5 stars. Number of reviews: 406. I don’t know of a fellow beauty editor in this industry who doesn’t sing this popular product’s praises up and down. It’s Sunday Riley’s reigning best-selling product, and not surprisingly, it historically leaves buyers gleeful and highly-satisfied. It’s filled with potent skin-improving ingredients like lactic acid, licorice, and lemongrass, and it can be used as a daily serum or as a mask for a heavier duty treatment type of situation.
Rating: 5/5 stars. Number of reviews: 190
Rating: 5/5 stars. Number of reviews: 70
Rating: 5/5 stars. Number of reviews: 2,322. It’s pretty hard to create a perfect sunscreen formula, but EltaMD’s iconic formula comes pretty damn close. It’s the top choice amongst celebrities, facialists, and dermatologists, doesn’t leave an un-flattering cast, and won’t clog your pores. As someone who’s insanely breakout-prone and picky about SPF, I’m not surprised this highly-rated pick is rarely sent back!
Rating: 5/5 stars. Number of reviews: 1
Rating: 5/5 stars. Number of reviews: 415
Rating: 5/5 stars. Number of reviews: 197 . As far as hyaluronic acid serums are concerned, I dare you to find a cleaner or dreamier option than this fast-selling dropper from Éminence Organic Skin Care. Lush strawberry serves as the hero ingredient here—it surreptitiously works as a cleansing agent and astringent and even contains salicylic acid to aid in exfoliation and pore shrinkage. Then, rhubarb swoops in to pinch-hit as a good source of ascorbic acid and vitamins for lifting and tightening perks.
Rating: 5/5 stars. Number of reviews: 211
Rating: 5/5 stars. Number of reviews: 131
Rating: 5/5 stars. Number of reviews: 454. So, Hailey Bieber loves and swears by this brand, and it’s one of the top formulas of Dermstore’s least-returned list. It is definitely an investment, but a little goes a long way, and it also targets a litany of skin concerns. Here’s the scoop: it two different active formulas that partner-up to iron-out wrinkles and regenerate skin cells; the brand’s signature TNS complex is a protein- and amino acid-rich serum designed to diminish inflammation and other telltale signs of aging, and the APS corrective complex boasts anti-aging ingredients, peptides, and antioxidants to increase the strength and resiliency of aging skin. This serum is as close to youth in a bottle as you can get.
Rating: 5/5 stars. Number of reviews: 256
Rating: 5/5 stars. Number of reviews: 121
Rating: 5/5 stars. Number of reviews: 2140. SkinCeuticals’ C E Ferulic serum might just be THE most famous skincare item in the world. It’s not only a top-selling formula from the brand itself, it also tops the lists at every retailer we’ve spoken to. But, as proven by our data from Dermstore, beauty lovers aren’t just buying it, they’re keeping it as well! The magic lies in the brand’s strategic antioxidant mix of ferulic acid and pure vitamin C and E. The result? Protection against environmental damage, minimized signs of aging, and lots and lots of brightness.
Rating: 5/5 stars. Number of reviews: 631
Rating: 5/5 stars. Number of reviews: 84. Up next, 21 Unexpected Beauty Products That Can Multitask for a Head-to-Toe Glow
