Nope - I don’t work for the magazine - I’m on their advisory panel which pays $0/year. Advisory panel sounds a bit official but generally members nominate leaders in the field, vote on Best New Product in Category X for Year 20XX! or whatever. I get no remuneration, whatsoever.
Yes, I write a bad review.
Although to be fair, in the ‘burning’ category, that’s generally a function of my skin type - the company would make a note such as *May not be suitable for more sensitive skin types. If it stinks - well, again that’s sort of a preference. I think that Poison stinks but some ladies seem to like it - that’s really subjective.
If you’re asking if a product would be pulled because of tester reviews - it doesn’t happen very often, but once and a while the release date will be pushed back (sometimes by a lot) so they can tweak the formula, or change the scent or whatever. By the time a product gets to me it’s pretty well ready to go to market though. Occasionally I get something with ‘test packaging’ which they will ask for feedback on as well. Sometimes it’s ONLY the packaging they want feedback on although I don’t find that out until after the test when it’s time to do the review.
No, the bad reviews don’t get published (at least not as far as I’m aware) - they are provided to the manufacturer who then does what they will with the info. Sometimes projects are changed, or released in a different form, or just never released.
Listen, pretty well every cosmetic company USED to test on animals because that was just what was done. Also, even companies that say ‘Not tested on animals!’ are fudging a bit, because while their final product was never tested on an animal, pretty well every ingredient that goes into it was, at some point.
Finally, and most importantly, pretty well NO cosmetic companies currently test either final products or individual ingredients on animals. Instead, new active ingredients are generally swiped from dermatological preparations, or tested by folks like myself.