Rachel Bennett

I test everything for at least four weeks before I'll recommend it — that's how long it actually takes to know if a moisturizer works, or just feels nice for a day.

Rachel has covered beauty and skincare for seven years, the last three of them at She-Approved. Her lane is the stuff people actually put on their face every day: moisturizers, serums, sunscreen, cleansers — the unglamorous routine products where a bad recommendation costs you eight weeks and forty dollars, not just a bad hair day.

Every product she reviews is bought at retail under her own name, used on her own skin for the full recommended cycle (usually 4-8 weeks for actives, longer for anything claiming to change texture or tone), and cross-checked against published dermatology research before it's allowed into a "best of" list. If a brand's marketing claim doesn't hold up to the actual study it cites, she says so in the review.

She does not accept free products for review, does not pre-clear reviews with brands, and will tell you when the $12 drugstore version beats the $80 one — which, it turns out, is often.