About — Kohl and Blush

Kohl and Blush started at a cluttered bathroom counter in 2019, somewhere between a half-used tube of the wrong-shade foundation and a receipt for a highlighter that promised "lit from within" and delivered "glitter rash." That counter belonged to Maren Ellison, a former beauty counter consultant turned freelance writer who had spent six years watching customers get talked into products that didn't suit their skin, their budget, or their actual lives. She started Kohl and Blush as a place to write the reviews she wished she'd had: honest, specific, and written by someone who actually wears the product to the grocery store, not just under studio lighting.

Our Story

Maren's first review was for a drugstore concealer that every glossy magazine had declared a "miracle." She wore it for a 14-hour shift, through tears at a friend's wedding, and into a humid July afternoon. It creased. She said so. That review got shared more than she expected, and she realized there was an appetite for beauty writing that didn't read like an advertisement. A year later, she brought on two collaborators: Priya Nathan, a licensed esthetician with a background in cosmetic chemistry coursework, and Dez Okafor, a makeup artist who has worked backstage at regional fashion shows and knows exactly how a product behaves under hot lights and through a full day of touch-ups. Together, the three of them built Kohl and Blush into what it is today: a small, independent team that tests makeup and skincare-adjacent cosmetics the way real people actually use them.

We are not owned by a cosmetics conglomerate, we don't run a pay-to-play review program, and we don't accept products with strings attached. We buy the majority of what we review with our own money, specifically so we never feel obligated to be kind to a product that doesn't deserve it.

How We Choose What to Review

We get dozens of pitches, press samples, and reader requests every month, and we can't test everything, so we prioritize based on a few questions:

Is this product something our readers are actually asking about, whether it's a viral blush or a quietly excellent pharmacy mascara?
Does it fill a real need, like long-wear formulas for hot climates, options for sensitive or acne-prone skin, or genuinely inclusive shade ranges?
Is there enough variety in price point? We review luxury releases, but we spend just as much time on drugstore and mid-range products because most of our readers aren't buying $68 lipstick every month.
Has the brand been transparent about ingredients and claims, or are we going to need to do some digging?

How We Actually Test

Every product that gets a full review on Kohl and Blush goes through the same basic process, regardless of price or brand name:

Minimum wear time. We wear foundations, concealers, and long-wear products for at least a full 8-to-10-hour day before forming an opinion, and often repeat this across multiple days and weather conditions.
Multiple testers, multiple skin types. Our core team spans different skin tones, skin types (oily, dry, combination, sensitive), and ages, so a single review often reflects more than one person's experience, which we note directly in the text.
Real-world conditions. We test setting sprays at the gym, waterproof mascara at the pool, and blush in air conditioning and in summer heat, because packaging claims rarely survive contact with real life.
Ingredient review. Priya looks at ingredient lists for ingredients known to be comedogenic, common irritants, or those that don't match a brand's marketing claims, and flags anything worth knowing before you buy.
Repeat purchase test. If we love something, we buy it again with our own money a few months later to make sure the formula hasn't changed and our enthusiasm holds up.

We score products on wearability, formula performance, value for money, and shade or shelf-life range, and we always tell you who did the testing and on what skin type, because "this worked for me" means something different depending on who "me" is.

What Makes Us Trustworthy

We know the beauty industry has a credibility problem, and we built Kohl and Blush specifically to push back against it. Here's what we commit to:

Clear disclosure. Any time a product was sent to us for free, or a brand relationship exists, it's disclosed at the top of the article, not buried in fine print.
No pay-for-placement. Brands cannot buy a good review, a higher ranking, or inclusion on a "best of" list. Our affiliate links help keep the site running, but they never influence our opinions.
Updated, not static. Formulas change, shade ranges expand, and our opinions evolve. We revisit and update older reviews rather than letting outdated information sit indefinitely.
Named, real testers. Every review is attributed to the person who wrote it, with their skin type and tone noted, so you know exactly whose experience you're reading.
We say when something isn't good. A disappointing number of beauty sites rarely publish a negative review. We do, regularly, because you deserve to know what to skip as much as what to buy.

Who We Are Today

Kohl and Blush is still a small team, now including Maren, Priya, Dez, and a rotating group of guest testers with different skin tones and concerns who help us keep our shade and formula reviews honest and broad. We're based remotely across three time zones, we argue regularly about whether a lip tint counts as "long-wear," and we genuinely love this strange, glittery, occasionally overpriced industry, which is exactly why we hold it to a higher standard.

Thank you for reading our work and trusting us with your beauty bag. If there's a product you want us to test, or a review you think we got wrong, we want to hear about it.