Online Sites to Talk with Cosmetic Consumers
One of the most useful things about the Internet is that you can get free consumer research (if you know where to look). The way you can do this is to peruse various beauty blogs, forums, and opinion sites. Ideally, you’ll participate and can get people to respond to your questions. You might have to do it anonymously if you’re working for a company, but that’s ok, as these sites typically allow for anonymous participants.
Here are some of the top beauty forums where you can interact with consumers who are rabid fans of beauty products.
7 beauty forums to talk to consumers
The Beauty Brains forum - You’ll find a number of smarter, skeptical consumers here. Site has over 6000 members but a few hundred are active.
Top Beauty Care forum - Skin care, hair care and make-up are their top categories. Difficult to say but likely a few hundred active users.
Make-up Talk - If you are looking for some consumer insights related to make-up, this is a pretty good place to go.
Allure forums - Lots of views so there will be plenty of consumer information to be gleaned here.
Make-up alley - One of the best forums for all kinds of beauty products. They talk about almost any product that there is.
The Fashion Spot forums - This site specializes in fashion but they have a huge skin care, makeup and hair care section.
Womens health forum - I wanted to round it out with 7 sites so I included this one. It seems to have good traffic and there are lots of good consumer insights you can glean. Just not sure how active it is.
Communicating with Consumers
To come up with new products and formulations that will set you apart in the cosmetic industry, you need to listen to the consumer. Learn what problems they have and how they have tried to solve them. The Internet makes it easy to get information that years ago could only have been gotten through a big consumer research group.
Good luck and have fun!
