How to Check an Online Beauty Brand Is Legit (Before You Buy)

I recently came across a beauty brand advertising heavily in Australia, with tens of thousands of reviews — and a website only a few months old.

That combination stopped me. Slick ads and big review counts are easy to buy. What's much harder to fake is a real, traceable business. So before you hand over your card details to a brand you've only met through an ad, here are five quick checks. Each takes a minute or two, and none needs any special knowledge.

1. Check how old the website is

A brand that says it's been "loved for years" should have a website to match. Search the domain on a free lookup tool such as ICANN Lookup and look at the registration date. A months-old site isn't proof of anything on its own — every brand starts somewhere — but when the story says "long-established" and the domain says "registered this year", that's worth a second look.

2. Look up the business

In Australia this is easy, and it's public. Search the business name or ABN on ABN Lookup and, for companies, on the ASIC registers. You're looking for a registered business whose name matches the brand, and an entity that's been around about as long as the brand claims.

Then check the "head office". If the address on the website is a made-up suburb, a residential street, or a spot you can't find on a map, take note. A home-based business, virtual office or registered agent address is not automatically suspicious. The important question is whether the business is clear about what the address represents and how customers can reach it.

Here's an example. I looked up the "head office" address of one of these ads-only brands, and it turned out to be a registered agent address in the US state of Delaware — the same street address listed by thousands of unrelated companies. Registered agent addresses are legal, and plenty of genuine businesses use them for paperwork. But they're a mail-handling service, not an office. Nobody works there, and nothing would ever arrive from there. When a brand presents an address like that as its head office, it's usually a way of not saying where the business really is.

A quick way to check: paste the address into a search engine. If the results are full of company filings and registered agent services rather than a shopfront or an office, you've learned something.

3. Check reviews and social media away from the brand's own page

Read customer feedback across more than one source, including independent review platforms, community discussions and the brand's social accounts. On-site testimonials can be useful, but they should not be your only source.

Look for specific details about the product, delivery and customer service. Repeated wording, a sudden cluster of reviews or photos that appear elsewhere online are reasons to investigate further, not conclusive evidence that reviews are fake.

Read recent critical reviews as well as positive ones. Are several customers describing the same delivery or communication problem? Does the business respond helpfully? A few mixed reviews can give you more useful detail than a page of short, identical praise.

Check social media for consistent activity, genuine questions and useful replies. A new or small account can still belong to a legitimate business. Focus on the overall pattern rather than follower numbers alone.

4. Find the people and the policies

A real business is easy to reach. Look for a working email address, a named contact or founder, and clear shipping and returns policies that say where orders are sent from and how long they take. If the only way to get in touch is a form that never answers, or the policies are vague or copied word for word from another site, that tells you something.

For an example of where to start on our website, you can read about erthlash and the people behind the brand, browse our frequently asked questions or contact erthlash with a question.

Look at where orders ship from, too. "Made in Korea" or "formulated overseas" tells you where a product was made, not where your parcel is coming from. A brand that doesn't say where it dispatches from — or whose order tracking doesn't work — may be sending your order from overseas, which can mean weeks of waiting.

Finally, check what the claims rest on. "Clinically tested" or "doctor-approved" only means something if they tell you who did the testing and what they found. A real test can be named.

Shopping for a lash serum? Our guide to prostaglandins and lash growth is a useful starting point for understanding ingredient claims. Comparing mascaras? Read the difference between lengthening, volumising and tubing mascara before choosing a formula.

5. Pay in a way that protects you

Where you can, pay with a method that has buyer protection — a credit card, PayPal or a buy-now-pay-later provider — rather than a direct bank transfer. 

Be cautious if an unfamiliar seller insists on a payment method you cannot readily dispute. Take an extra moment when prices are far below comparable products, countdown timers repeatedly reset or every item appears to be almost sold out. A sale or timer alone does not establish that a business is dishonest, but pressure should never replace your own checks.

The two-minute checklist

• Website registered long enough to match the brand's story
• A registered business with a matching name, found on ABN Lookup or ASIC
• A real, findable address
• Reviews on independent sites that don't all sound the same
• A reachable contact and clear shipping and returns policies
• A payment method with buyer protection

No single check settles it. What you're after is a pattern — and a pattern of "can't find anything" is an answer in itself.

If you've already been caught out

Contact your bank or card provider straight away and ask about a chargeback. You can also report the site to Scamwatch, which helps others avoid it.

A note from me

We're an Australian brand and always happy to answer a question — about our ingredients, how we make things, or who we are. 

You can read our introduction to erthlash or get in touch with us directly.

Christine
Founder, erthlash™