The full story
I'm Shelzy Perkins, the person (not the brand, not the committee) behind Shelzy's Beauty. I spent a decade in brand marketing watching companies launch beauty products with enormous budgets and absolutely no regard for whether the thing actually worked on real skin. At a certain point I realized my personal bathroom counter had become a graveyard of $60 serums I'd written launch copy for, and I got angry about it.
So in 2024 I started Shelzy's Beauty as the site I wished existed. A place where the person telling you what to buy has actually used it, knows what's in it, and isn't getting a kickback from a brand partnership to say nice things.
My skin story (the short version)
I have combination, reactive skin -- oily through the T-zone, dehydrated on the cheeks, and the kind that will break out in hives if I look at a drugstore fragrance wrong. I've had mild rosacea since my late twenties, which means I've become a very picky judge of what "gentle" actually means.
I'm also in my mid-thirties, so my current routine priorities are: barrier protection, skin quality over aging erasure, and SPF as a non-negotiable daily habit. Roughly half the products I test don't make it to the site because they don't pass my own skin's tolerance test, let alone the rubric.
What I actually use (right now)
The editorial line: No sponsored posts. No brand partnerships. No PR-influenced rankings. If I didn't tell you upfront that I got a product free, I bought it. If a product would have made the list anyway, sample or no sample, it makes the list. If it wouldn't have made it, it doesn't -- even when declining the coverage is more expensive than accepting it.
My review philosophy
Labeled testing
I separate personal testing, tester-panel testing, ingredient review, research-backed guidance, price checks, and safety-sensitive content instead of flattening them into one claim.
Ingredient-first
Every formula gets broken down. If fragrance is in the top 5 ingredients, you'll hear about it.
Skin-type honest
"Best overall" doesn't exist. Every pick is labeled by who it's actually for.
Budget-aware
A $12 drugstore win gets the same coverage as a $95 serum -- if it earns it.
The full process is documented on the How I Review Products page -- scoring rubric, editorial rules, and what I explicitly won't do.
Why Amazon?
Short answer: it's where most people actually shop, it carries almost every brand I recommend, and the return policy means buying a $40 serum on my recommendation isn't a real risk for you. The tradeoff is Amazon's counterfeit problem -- so I stick to brand-direct Amazon storefronts and "Sold by Amazon" listings, and I flag any product that requires caution about seller choice. Over time I'm also expanding into Sephora, Ulta, and brand-direct picks when they're meaningfully better than what Amazon offers.
Not here for the listicles?
The roundups are the bulk of the site, but I also write longer, first-person pieces -- like how your skin barrier actually works, or head-to-head deep dives like CeraVe vs Cetaphil. More of those are on the way, including 30-day experiments and "I tried this for you so you don't have to" pieces.
Get in touch
Product suggestion? Disagreement with a review? Want me to test something specific? The contact page is the fastest way to reach me. I read everything. I don't reply to everything, but I read it all -- and reader requests genuinely shape what I cover next.
-- Shelzy