r/beauty: rules, karma requirements and posting culture

Who posts here

Posts are everyday questions from people with no training: how to stop eyeliner smudging, which lotion sinks in fast, what to do about a bad brow wax. Replies are kind, practical and name drugstore products. There is no floor for knowledge, but there is one for effort. A question that is vague or really about self-esteem gets removed, not answered.

• Teenagers and people in their twenties starting a first skincare or makeup routine.
• Adults with one specific problem: peeling nails, a greasy scalp, a self-tan gone wrong before an event.
• Men asking about body hair, long hair or basic grooming.
• Long-time product users in the comments, who answer with what they have bought and rebought for years.
• An international crowd asking what is available where they live.

Karma and account requirements

What it takes to get a post through in r/beauty.

What you can post

What happens to a new post

Where the most recent posts ended up. Sample size: 400.

• Stayed up53%
• Removed by Reddit's filters38%
• Held by AutoModerator1%
• Removed by moderators9%
• Deleted by the author<1%

Reddit counts a removal by the subreddit's own AutoModerator rules as a moderator removal, so that share is not all human. Held by AutoModerator means the post is waiting in the mod queue.

The rules, in the mods' words

1. 1

   High quality on-topic posts ONLY.

   High-quality posts help solve specific beauty-related problems. Low-quality posts clutter the subreddit and tend to be repetitive. Examples of low-quality posts: “What is my [face shape, eye shape, skintone]?”, glow up requests, compliment fishing, non-beauty advice, sympathy farming, attention seeking, rage-bait, "pretty privilege", and vague-titled posts. For more examples of low quality/off-topic posts, please visit the /r/beauty wiki.

2. 2

   NO SPAM.

   NO spam allowed. No surveys. No links to your own blog posts or social media accounts. No YouTube videos. No promotional websites. No link codes. No porn. NO SELF PROMOTIONS! NO SPAM ACCOUNTS. (Yes, some brand accounts and porn accounts count as spam too.) No AI/ChatGPT.

3. 3

   Self posts, pictures, and videos are allowed as long as they're your own content.

   Self posts, pictures, and videos are acceptable, but should be your own content (or give credit to the source) and be useful to the community. Pictures and videos can directly be uploaded to Reddit. Links to YouTube and TikTok videos are not permitted.

4. 4

   NO PORN.

   We are not an 18+ subreddit. We're counting porn (and similar posts) as spam and instant-ban worthy. Posts or comments with porn, nudity, toplessness, privates showing, only fans promotions, and the like will be removed. Commenters/posters that violate this rule will be banned. Please report any porn-related content that you see.

5. 5

   Harassment of other users and mods can get you banned. Permanently.

   We enforce Reddit’s site-wide rules. Rude, offensive, judgmental, sexualized/thirsty, and generally mean comments or posts will be removed and the user risks being banned at the mods' discretion. Please report any comments or posts that fit this description so we can act accordingly. Any harassment outside of comments/posts will be treated on a case-by-case basis. Do not attempt to contact mods through any means other than official modmail. Any misuse of modmail will be considered harassment.

6. 6

   Moderator discretion.

   Moderators reserve the right to make decisions in the best interests of the sub and its users. Attempting to evade the sub's rules or filters is a bannable offense.

These are the rules as archived in January 2025. Rules change. Check the sidebar before you post.

The culture

r/beauty has close to 1.9 million members and behaves like a help desk. Someone describes a problem in a few lines, and a handful of strangers reply with the product or habit that worked for them. Almost 99% of posts are text, the median post is about 60 words, and nearly half of titles are questions.

The topics are practical and physical: hair first, then skin, brows, lashes, lips, nails and body care. Recommendation threads do best when the ask is narrow, such as a body lotion that hydrates but disappears fast, or a nail finish that survives more than a day. Comment sections are warm and brand-heavy, full of people naming the drugstore item they swear by.

The tension is between what people want to ask and what the mods will host. The wiki has a long list of banned subjects, including glow ups, face shape, colour analysis, am I pretty, pretty privilege and anything that needs a doctor or a therapist. The mods say that list changes without warning as trends come and go. Posts get removed for it every day, and the removal message tells you to come back with a specific question.

What lands

• A narrow product ask with your constraints stated: skin or hair type, what you have tried, budget, country.
• A relatable everyday observation phrased as a question, like makeup feeling heavy by evening or looking worse as the day goes on.
• A salon or service problem with enough detail for people to judge, such as how to get a brow waxer to follow instructions.
• Is this brand worth the money questions about a named mid-range or luxury line. They pull a lot of replies.
• A fix-it question after something went wrong, with a clear photo uploaded to Reddit.

What gets removed or ignored

• Titles that say nothing, like a bare request for advice or suggestions. Several mod removals in the sample were exactly this.
• Broad engagement prompts, such as asking everyone for the one product they always rebuy or an opinion they changed. They read as farming and get pulled even under the Discussion flair.
• Photo posts asking about someone else's look, or a face photo with a loose question attached.
• Link posts and listicle-style titles, plus anything that looks like a product plug or a single-product post from a fresh account.
• Questions that are really medical, including acne emergencies and chronic conditions. The wiki says the subreddit is not qualified to handle them.

The unwritten rules

• Being upvoted is rare. Outside the top handful, most posts sit at a few points and a few comments. Judge a post by whether you got answers.
• Write like a person asking a friend. The rules ban AI text, and the posts that stay up are casual, short and a bit messy.
• Do not say you are an esthetician, stylist or brand owner. The wiki lists any mention of your beauty profession under spam.
• Naming products in a comment is normal, and a small share of comments carry a link. A comment that pushes one brand in every thread gets noticed.
• If a post is removed, do not repost it reworded to get round the filter. The rules call that evasion and it is bannable.

Self-promotion

The rule is as flat as it gets: no self-promotion, no links to your own blog or social accounts, no promotional sites, no codes, no surveys, and brand accounts can be treated as spam accounts. The wiki goes further and lists products, services and any mention of your beauty-related profession as spam, and says most bans are spam related. In practice there is no tolerated way to promote here. The only thing that works is answering questions as an ordinary user, and product names only fly when they come across as a personal recommendation among others.

How people write here

Typical post length

62 words

Typical title length

6 words

Titles phrased as a question

47%

Typical comment length

21 words

Comments that include a link

6%

Posts that carry a flair

68%

The regulars

The accounts that showed up most in our sample. Worth reading before you post: they set the tone, and they are usually the first to reply.

Top keywords

The words and phrases that show up far more often here than in other communities, from recent posts in r/beauty.

• hair 64 posts
• lashes 16 posts
• skin 45 posts
• makeup 23 posts
• eyebrows 17 posts
• face 38 posts
• lotion 15 posts
• beauty 19 posts
• look 52 posts
• lash 11 posts
• natural 23 posts
• thick 17 posts
• hairs 11 posts
• body 29 posts
• serum 15 posts
• brows 11 posts
• blonde 9 posts
• lip 16 posts
• eyebrow 11 posts
• curly 8 posts
• shaving 10 posts
• recommendations 29 posts
• eyelashes 8 posts
• dye 8 posts
• dark 19 posts
• products 29 posts
• waxing 8 posts
• wash 14 posts
• dry 17 posts
• dyed 7 posts
• routine 19 posts
• brush 10 posts
• eyelash 6 posts
• conditioner 7 posts
• wax 8 posts
• shampoo 8 posts
• lips 10 posts
• straightening 5 posts
• curly hair 5 posts
• wear 16 posts

Recurring topics: brows, hair, body, lash, skin, lip, makeup, eyebrows, looking, product.

Posts that did well

• Progressively looking bad as time passes throughout the day.233 upvotes · 67 comments · Seeking Advice
• Anyone else feel the “heaviness” of makeup after wearing it all day?93 upvotes · 32 comments
• Strongest lip stain to last all night 😉53 upvotes · 31 comments · Seeking Advice
• What can I use on my nails that actually stays looking nice for more than a day?51 upvotes · 83 comments · Nailcare
• How do I get brow waxers to listen to me?44 upvotes · 36 comments · Seeking Advice
• Got my eyebrows done for the first time and i hate them Need a second opinion/advice?29 upvotes · 73 comments · Seeking Advice
• Are L'occitane products really worth it ?27 upvotes · 66 comments · Seeking Advice
• How to blend sun bleached hair after it’s grown out without hair dye13 upvotes · 9 comments

Growth

1. 20126.7k
2. 201315k
3. 201420k
4. 201524k
5. 201630k
6. 201739k
7. 2018104k
8. 2019166k
9. 2020259k
10. 2023754k
11. 20241M
12. 20251.8M
13. 20261.9M

Related subreddits

• r/IndianBeautyTalks
• r/Rosacea
• r/AsianBeauty
• r/EuroSkincare
• r/Sephora
• r/KoreanBeauty
• r/NaturalBeauty
• r/curlyhair
• r/kbeauty
• r/cleanbeauty

Common questions