04 Jan 2012 15 Comments
What I Am I Doing?! Musings about Product Reviews
What am I doing?! This is what ran through my mind the other day as I was reviewing an eyeshadow kit. I then looked over at all the products and boxes by my bedside, call it my ‘waiting-to-be-reviewed’ pile if you will, and felt anxious. What am I saying that hasn’t been said on a countless number of blogs or on Youtube already? What makes me qualified to review?!
When I am writing a review, I often cringe at the words I start to choose. You know them all too well. It’s phrases like ‘blends like a dream’ or ‘excellent pigmentation.’ What the heck do those words even mean? And when I try to find other words to describe the product or experience, more often than not, I’m at a loss.
Press releases are helpful for pricing and ingredient info but terrible for my writing process. I find I can get caught up with what the release says, and less on what I want to say. I end up staying away from reading the release as a result. As a PR person in my former life, this is an interesting predicament to be in as I used to write releases myself.
So what’s my point? I guess it’s about finding my review style. Reviews are a fundamental part of my blog and I love doing them. I just need to find a way to provide new perspectives that offer you something you haven’t read before. Know what I mean? While I think I’m okay when I ramble on, I think I still have work to do.That is one of my goals this year as I inch closer to my 3rd blog-a-versary.
I’d love to get your thoughts on writing reviews. Does it come easy or is it hard for you? How do you approach it?
Jan 04, 2012 @ 15:43:26
Hey, are you in my head? LOL! I always think like this and I get so anxious of the things that I have yet to review ack! I don’t have a style (obviously
) I just kind of write how I speak as if I’m telling a friend about it 
Jan 05, 2012 @ 16:24:46
Yes Elaine – I’m in your head. LOL. I try to do the same and talk as if I’m talking to a friend — good point!
Jan 04, 2012 @ 16:12:34
I just try to capture my thoughts and feelings whilst using the product – it’s the only way I know how!
Jan 04, 2012 @ 16:25:46
Gahhh I often feel the same way too, especially about the “what makers me qualified to write this stuff?!” At the end of the day, what matters is that you are offering your honest experience. I’m still trying to find my review style myself.
Jan 05, 2012 @ 16:25:05
Very true Angela!
Jan 04, 2012 @ 16:29:41
I tend to form a mental checklist of the things that the product claims to do, and measure it against that list, as well as my observations on the product. I’m prone to writing loooooong reviews, which I don’t thing is necessarily a bad thing- I’d rather read through a long review than one that’s a couple of sentences like ‘I liked this product, it was good’. I want to know why someone liked it/disliked it, why it worked/didn’t work for them, if they like it do they like it enough to repurchase again or in different shades?
Just a couple of thoughts
really, I think you do reviews well.
Jan 05, 2012 @ 16:25:38
Thanks RaeRae. I wish I could do more of what you do.
Jan 04, 2012 @ 17:53:42
I purposely do not read other reviews before writing my own because I always get really deflated and think, what else can I add since these were already written so well? I might as well give up!
So I don’t. I just do exactly what is probably a “no-no” in the elite blogging word – I ramble on. I write what comes to mind whether it’s a popular catch phrase like “blends like a dream” or one of my own like “it blends like room temperature butter on oh-so-bad-for-you white bread”. This probably won’t make me a professional blogger anytime soon but I remind myself that I started the blog as a way to share my thoughts, readable or not.
I don’t think it’s a bad thing to write a review that just says the same thing as another. It’s the same as positive reviews or even commercials…if I hear it enough, I’ll cave in!
Jan 05, 2012 @ 16:26:30
First of all, Lindsay – I just caught up with all your posts including from way back. I love your blog! Love it. Your points above make total sense to me.
Jan 04, 2012 @ 23:54:43
Lol I have used those empty phrases many times and wondered when I became ‘that person’ but I think it comes with the territory
I like your review style but I know what it’s like to try and pin down a review style that works for you.
I read back over my reviews and they’re so all over the place and full of lots of meaningless points and I keep thinking I need to make everything more stream lined. At the end of the day though, I’m a rambler and I guess if it doesn’t work for people they’ll just go elsewhere.
Jan 05, 2012 @ 16:27:18
Thanks so much Ahalya. You bring up some good points above. I’m a rambler too.
Jan 05, 2012 @ 01:59:08
My reviews tend to be long and rambling. I start out by posting the claims made by the company, and then start to review the product as compared to the claim. I branch out from there to make my own separate observations. I could probably benefit from being more concise! x
Jan 05, 2012 @ 16:28:24
Thanks Esther – this is what makes the blogging community so good. We can get so many perspectives on products from different people with different styles. I think it helps me make better purchases overall.
Jan 05, 2012 @ 02:57:15
I think, after I started trying to teach a friend basic English, I stopped trying to learn any more advanced English for myself.. resulting in having extremely bad English. I’d LOVE to write reviews, but I can’t seem to find the right words to express how I feel – I hate looking through a thesaurus to find synonyms to help me coz it just doesn’t feel right, so I end up avoiding writing reviews and back-logging it until it piles up.
Jan 05, 2012 @ 16:29:07
Hi Jennifer, I think as some people pointed above, it’s writing what you feel and rambling on is okay!