MakeupAlley

It doesn't pay off. It's mostly the forum for a chit-chat. I used to love it, but then realized that I was wasting my time.

Some people write reviews without even trying the product, or they give good rating because the product was advertised by their favorite idol.
For example: No matter if it's a cc cream that makes your face look like you washed it with pure oil, they will still compliment it how cool it is because (enter famous person's name here) also uses that. "It gives a natural glow". Lol.

I think it's more useful if you check google or youtube for reviews. More trustworthy and you can see how does the product looks on a person. On makeupalley noone really posts pictures, just anonymous reviews.

This site is great resource as far as the user reviews go, but if you are looking for a pleasant, non-judgmental group of people to come to with beauty and fashion questions, you may want to skip the boards. The site insists that posts regarding religion, politics, and a slew of other things are a no-no; however, it does nothing to prevent people from posting off-topic rants against whatever segment of society they are currently hating. I was hoping for a less partisan atmosphere (for example, a thread about atheism containing some very inflammatory remarks about a certain mainstream religion is allowed to stay up, whereas a thread regarding anything positive about said mainstream religion is removed. Why wouldn't both be taken down? They are both potentially antagonistic, and both have to do with personal beliefs that are not germane to anything intended to be discussed on those boards. I don't care what you do or don't believe, or how you vote, or whether or not you work outside the home, or what your race is, or how you raise your children, or where you take your pet to the vet, and I don't care to be flamed because I do something different. But I've seen that happen a hundred times to other people on quite a few different boards), so I am done with the forums. I am not referring to the Café board, where anything goes-I am referring to some of the others, where anything is NOT supposed to go, such as the over 40 board, the fashion board, the work and money board, and the pet board. I don't understand why people have such a problem keeping on topic, as the "rules" are clearly stated at the top of the page on each forum.
Now, the product reviews are fairly useful, though I wish the mods would do a better job of weeding out reviews people leave for products they haven't actually used. A feature I especially like is that if you find a particularly succinct review, you can follow the reviewer and read what they have to say about other things as well, which is a good way to avoid the people who leave one-liners that tell you nothing. So, all in all, this site is useful if you just need to know what a few people thought of something you are wondering about buying, but don't come here expecting a friendly atmosphere. And for goodness sake, don't dare ask any questions!