Independent buying guides
For UK shoppers choosing between a small bottle and a large one, or a palette and three singles. One buying question per guide, dated sourced figures, and a cost-per-use calculator that shows its formula.
The decisions that actually change what you end up with.
Measurements, sizing systems and how to check before ordering.
What things are made of, and how long that lasts.
What the total comes to once everything is counted.
Each guide answers one buying question and shows the figures behind the answer.
How to choose
The strength word on a fragrance box is trade convention, not law. Compare concentration, sprays per bottle and cost per wear before you decide.
Photo: Santeri Viinamäki · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Budget and prices
Divide the price by the uses, not by the millilitres. Worked cost-per-use sums for fragrance, foundation, mascara and lipstick, plus delivery and VAT.
Photo: Takkk · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Care and repair
The open-jar symbol, the 30-month rule and the minimum durability date, and a storage routine that keeps a fragrance usable for the years you paid for.
Photo: Dino Giordano · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Each calculator shows its formula, units and assumptions. Nothing is estimated for you in secret.
Price divided by the number of wears you realistically expect, with cleaning and repair added.
cost per wear = (price + cleaning cost per year x years + repairs) / (wears per month x 12 x years)
Compares your own measurement against a product's stated measurement and shows the gap.
difference = product measurement - your measurement; ease = difference / your measurement x 100
What a cross-border order really costs once shipping, duty and tax are added.
landed cost = (item price + shipping) + duty + tax, where duty = item price x duty rate, and tax = (item price + shipping + duty) x tax rate
The decisions that actually change what you end up with.
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Photo: Phillip Pessar · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Measurements, sizing systems and how to check before ordering.
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Photo: Evi Michailidou · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
What things are made of, and how long that lasts.
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Photo: Santeri Viinamäki · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
What the total comes to once everything is counted.
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Photo: Takkk · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Keeping it usable for years instead of months.
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Photo: Krishna Chaitanya Velaga · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
What changes with the weather and the shopping calendar.
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Photo: Kandance拍攝 · CC BY-SA 2.0 tw · Wikimedia Commons
Every figure in a guide is taken from a named source, with the date it was checked. Where a number is an assumption or an example, it says so in the same sentence.
We do not run paid product tests, we do not publish reader reviews, and we do not claim to have handled every product mentioned. Where a claim needs a lab or a long-term test we do not have, the guide says that plainly.
Photographs are free-licence images from Wikimedia Commons or Openverse, credited to the photographer with the licence named. Charts are drawn from the figures printed in the same guide.
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