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| MakeupAlley Facebook, A Fragment of the Mariah Standard Captured by MakeupAlley, 2025. |
Need Real? I Agree. Welcome to My Genuine Beauty Reviews.
Picture this, it is a beautiful Saturday in autumn. Light is seeping through the fluttering yellow leaves, the air is crisp, and the heat from summer sun is still lingering. It is mid-morning, I've already done the dishes, took out the compost, and I have just finished hanging my delicates to line-dry. It feel so good to check chores off my list. Only one more thing to do...update my latest product reviews on the MakeupAlley app.
Wait…That's weird…the app isn't loading. Let's try the website.
Now imagine my horror, when I see this single line on MakeupAlley's website:
Our site has been closed as of September 27, 2025 EDT. Thank you for being part of our community.
The only word that I could use to express how I felt in that moment was devastation. At this point, you may be thinking I am being a bit dramatic. But I'm really not. If you used MakeupAlley, you would definitely relate to how I felt. Let me back up a bit for all you newbies, MakeupAlley can could *sigh* best be described as the most authentic old school beauty review site on the World Wide Web.
Launched in 1999 by web developer Elky Mart and beauty editor Hara Glick, MakeupAlley could be considered an iconic, defining feature of the early beauty community in the aughts. It was a community-driven space that steered clear of brand-affiliated marketing and sponsored reviews. If you wanted to see a product you hated given a low rating by thousands of people—you could find it! If you needed authentic product reviews where not everyone "LOVED!!" the product—you could! And best of all, there was nuance. I found the average rating range of products was about a 2.8 - 3.4 . People went in-depth when it came to why they loved a product and what could be improved.
I know that I am going to miss that community. I'm going to miss all the lovely reviews that other beauty girlies posted from all over the world! So thank you, if you posted on MakeupAlley and you are reading this—I'm truly grateful.
Authentic, high quality, product reviews save both time and money. You don't have to regret purchasing some sunscreen and finding out later that it smells like oven cleaner. You don't have to buy Maybelline New York Great Lash as your first mascara only to find out that it's totally clumpy! The Color Wow graphic at the very top of this page, is the last trace of the dozens of reviews that I left throughout the decade in which I used MakeupAlley. That image was pulled from MakeupAlley's own Facebook page. It was so bittersweet recognizing that a portion of my own review was cited in one of MakeupAlley's own product posts. It felt iconic to be recognized by the giant itself, but also a little melancholic realizing that it would be the last time. After posting skincare, hair care, and makeup reviews on MakeupAlley for over a decade, I am now ready to put my big girl pants on and share my wisdom with the world on my own terms.
I have created The Mariah Standard because I care about speaking the truth when it comes to the beauty products that I use. I document my experience primarily so that I can remember which products I want to repurchase and why I don't want to repurchase others. But aside from my own internal motivations, I also want to share these reviews with you because maybe, just maybe you will end up finding a product for your own hits list.
In honor of the time that I spent on MakeupAlley, I have decided to adopt their five-lippies rating scale. The way it works, is that if a product basically SUCKS, then it gets one lipstick, and if a product is the bomb dot com then it gets all five lipsticks! .png)
I hope that you really get something out of my reviews! Whether it's a laugh, a sigh, or an emphatic yes!! But in all honesty, if you don't share my experience—please say something! I want this site to be for you, me, and every other beauty girly out there. Let's make it happen.
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