Is it worth it

19 articles on Is it worth it, written honestly and updated as things change.

Fashion

What Corteiz Got Right That The Big Retailers Didn't

No shops. No wholesale. No ASOS, no JD, no Selfridges. Corteiz built one of the most wanted streetwear brands in the world out of London by making itself deliberately hard to buy. Here is what that got right, and what it costs the person standing outside the drop.

By Dripscan·26 September 2026·6 min read

a white table topped with lots of skin care products

Beauty

Is The Dyson Airwrap Actually Worth The Hype?

£330 for a hairdryer. £480 for a styler. £400 for cordless straighteners. Dyson built a hair empire on engineering credibility and queues outside its Oxford Street demo store. Ten years in, is the price tag still earning its keep?

By Dripscan·10 May 2026·8 min read

a bottle of lotion sitting next to a tube of lotion

Beauty

Is Cetaphil Actually Worth It Anymore?

£17 for the Gentle Skin Cleanser. £11.50 for the Rich Night Cream. £30 for the Healthy Radiance Brightening Serum. Founded 1947 in Texas by a pharmacist. The original cleanser uses the same formula 78 years later. Now owned (since 2019) by a Swiss prescription-dermatology company backed by Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. Is the brand still the sensitive-skin standard?

By Dripscan·10 May 2026·9 min read

Beauty

Is Fenty Hair Actually Worth The Hype?

£25 for the Flashy One Treatment Oil. £29 for the Rich One Repair Conditioner. £22 for the Controlling Type Edge Control. Launched June 2024 by Rihanna's Fenty empire (LVMH-backed Kendo Brands), built around the proprietary Replenicore-5 complex. The inclusivity is real. Is the rest?

By Dripscan·9 May 2026·9 min read

Young woman with hands in her curly brown hair

Beauty

Is GISOU Actually Worth The Hype?

£22 to £55 for a Honey Infused Hair Oil. £53 for a lip oil. £37 for a scalp treatment. Founded by Instagram-era influencer Negin Mirsalehi, built on her family's six-generation beekeeping legacy in the Netherlands. The story is real. Is the price?

By Dripscan·9 May 2026·8 min read

a woman holding a bottle of medicine and a magnifying glass

Beauty

Is Eucerin Actually Worth It Anymore?

£17 for the UreaRepair Plus 10% Body Lotion. £35 for the Hyaluron-Filler Day Cream. £25 for the Sun Hydro Protect SPF50+. Founded on a 1898 chemistry patent by Dr. Isaac Lifschütz, owned by Beiersdorf (the publicly-traded German parent of NIVEA) since 1911. One of the few skincare brands with 100+ years of stable corporate ownership. Is the science still leading?

By Dripscan·8 May 2026·9 min read

Beauty

Is Olaplex Actually Worth The Hype?

£28 for a hair mask, £49 for a shampoo, £84 for a kit. Olaplex built an empire on bond-repair science and a viral TikTok moment. After a 2023 lawsuit and a flood of cheaper imitators, is it still the gold standard, or just very good marketing?

By Dripscan·8 May 2026·7 min read

Beauty

Is Augustinus Bader Actually Worth £290 For A Serum?

£80 for The Cream entry size. £170 for The Rich Eye Cream. £290 for The Vitamin C Serum. £450 for the Discovery Duo. Founded in 2018 by Professor Augustinus Bader (Director of Cell Techniques at University of Leipzig) and investor Charles Rosier. The science is real. Is the price?

By Dripscan·8 May 2026·11 min read

Skincare serums and leaves on a neutral background

Beauty

Is Color Wow Actually Worth The Hype?

£48 for a 500ml Dream Coat. £35 for the Money Mask. £43 for the Color Security shampoo and conditioner pair. Founded in 2013 by Gail Federici (who built Frizz Ease and sold it to Kao for $450M in 2002), now being acquired by L'Oréal at a reported $1B valuation. The founder is the real article. Is the brand?

By Dripscan·8 May 2026·8 min read

a black chair with three green bottles and a vase

Beauty

Is Sol de Janeiro Worth The Hype For Hair?

£25 for a Hair & Body Mist. £33 for a Glossy Nourishing Hair Mist. Founded in New York in 2015 by an ex-Clinique marketer who lived in Brazil. Acquired by L'Occitane in 2021 at a $450M valuation. The Bum Bum Cream is iconic. The hair side is something else entirely.

By Dripscan·8 May 2026·8 min read

Skincare products displayed in different shades and textures

Beauty

Is Kérastase Actually Worth It Or Just Very Good At Salons?

£44 for a shampoo. £52 for a hair mask. £36 for a 100ml hair oil. 163 products in one range. Kérastase is where a lot of British women trade up from drugstore haircare. Sixty years into that pitch, is the salon-grade story still earning the money?

By Dripscan·8 May 2026·8 min read

a small bottle of liquid sitting on top of a table

Beauty

Is Drunk Elephant Actually Worth The Hype?

£71 for the C-Firma vitamin C serum. £72 for the T.L.C. Sukari Babyfacial. £49 for the Amino Razzi serum. £19 for the Lala Retro mini. Founded 2012 by a Houston stay-at-home mom, sold to Shiseido 2019 for $845 million. The 'Suspicious Six' philosophy is real. The premium pricing is steeper than ever.

By Dripscan·8 May 2026·10 min read

Beauty

Is Glow Recipe Actually Worth The Hype?

£18 for the Watermelon Glow Niacinamide Dew Drops. £15.95 for the Watermelon Glow PHA+BHA Toner. £40 for the Avocado Ceramide Recovery Serum. Founded 2014 by Sarah Lee and Christine Chang (both ex-L'Oréal Korea), $50,000 in savings, still independently held a decade later. Genuinely one of the few founder-led beauty brands in this magazine without a corporate parent.

By Dripscan·6 May 2026·10 min read

Wet dark hair with blurred colorful lights

Beauty

Is K18 Actually Worth The Hype?

£30 for the iconic Leave-in Molecular Repair Hair Mask. £39 for shampoo. £24 for heat protectant. Founded 2020 by Britta Cox and Suveen Sahib, built on a patented peptide developed at the University of Minho. Acquired by Unilever in December 2023 in a top-5% beauty deal. The science is real. Is the brand?

By Dripscan·6 May 2026·8 min read

Beauty

Is Moroccanoil Actually Worth £38 For A Bottle Of Argan Oil?

£38.50 for a 100ml bottle of argan oil. 98 products built around one ingredient. A founding story that has launched a thousand salon visits. Moroccanoil is the British shopper's first introduction to luxury haircare for a reason. Eighteen years on, is the cult bottle still earning the price?

By Dripscan·5 May 2026·7 min read

a couple of brown bottles sitting on top of a table

Beauty

Is rhode Actually Worth The Hype?

£20 for the Peptide Lip Treatment. £20 for the Peptide Glazing Fluid. £22 for the Barrier Butter Moisture Balm. Founded May 2022 by Hailey Rhode Bieber with co-founders Michael and Lauren Ratner. Acquired by e.l.f. Beauty in May 2025 for $1 billion. The brand is three years old and has already had a billion-pound exit. Is it earning the cult?

By Dripscan·5 May 2026·10 min read

a woman with red hair and sunglasses sitting on the ground

Beauty

Is ghd Actually Worth It Anymore?

£149 for the Original. £309 for the Chronos. £350 for the Duet. ghd was founded by three Yorkshire hairdressers in 2001 and genuinely changed how British women styled their hair at home. Twenty-five years on, with limited-edition pastels and consumer-survey science, is the brand still earning its keep?

By Dripscan·5 May 2026·8 min read

Amber glass dropper bottle with blank label on concrete block

Beauty

Is The Ordinary Actually Worth It Anymore?

£5 for Niacinamide 10%. £8.80 for Hyaluronic Acid. £29.90 for Multi-Peptide + Copper Peptides. Founded 2013 by the late Brandon Truaxe, now wholly owned by Estée Lauder since May 2024 in a $1.7 billion deal across three tranches. The disruption was real. Is the disruptor still disrupting?

By Dripscan·4 May 2026·10 min read

Young man with curly hair against green background

Beauty

Is OUAI Actually Worth The Hype?

£24 for a Wave Spray. £30 for a hair oil. £28 for a shampoo. Founded by Jen Atkin in 2016 and quietly sold to Procter & Gamble in 2022. The hero products are real; the indie-founder story is now mostly marketing. Is the cult bottle still worth your money?

By Dripscan·4 May 2026·8 min read