How we rate products
Every product on Korea Glow Notes carries a rating that summarizes what Korean shoppers actually say about it. That rating is not our opinion — it is aggregated from public review platforms. This page documents where each number comes from, when we combine sources, and when we don't.
The primary rating
A product's headline rating and review count come from the primary retailer it is sold on:
- Olive Young Global for Olive Young products — the platform Korean shoppers cross-check most often, with the largest per-product review counts.
- Daiso Mall for Daiso products.
We call this the primary source. It is always displayed with the platform name and the review count (e.g., "4.7★ from 3,617 reviews on Olive Young Global") so you can weigh it yourself. A product with 3,000 reviews at 4.6★ is not the same signal as a product with 40 reviews at 4.9★, and we don't want to hide that.
The aggregated rating
Where a product also has a Glowpick page (Glowpick is a Korean review-aggregation platform independent of retailers), we surface Glowpick's rating and review count next to the primary. If both sources agree, that's a stronger signal. If they diverge — for example, a product that rates 4.7★ on Olive Young but 4.0★ on Glowpick — we flag the disagreement in the review body rather than blend it into a single number. Divergence often means the product is polarizing or works well only for certain skin types, and readers deserve to know that.
We compute a review-count-weighted average only when explicitly labeled as such. It is never the headline number.
What we won't do
- We won't invent ratings. If a product has no rating on any of our sources, we don't publish it.
- We won't reproduce individual reviews. We summarize the sentiment across dozens of reviews; we do not quote specific reviewers verbatim.
- We won't smooth away real complaints. If Korean reviewers consistently flag fragrance, stickiness, breakouts, packaging problems, or shade-range gaps, that shows up in the review — even if the overall rating is high.
- We won't rank products against each other on the basis of small differences. If two moisturizers rate 4.72 and 4.68, they are effectively tied and we won't pretend one wins.
- We won't publish medical claims. Skincare can hydrate, soothe, or help make-up sit better; it does not treat, cure, or prevent acne, rosacea, eczema, or any other condition, and we don't imply that it does.
Update cadence
Ratings and prices are refreshed periodically; the last-checked date is on each review page. If a rating shifts meaningfully after publication (e.g., a wave of new reviews changes the picture), we update the review rather than leave a stale number. Retired or discontinued products are marked at the top of the review rather than deleted, so external links don't 404.
Category coverage and gaps
We cover skincare, makeup, sun care, sheet masks, and hair-body across Olive Young Global and Daiso Mall. We do not cover:
- Prescription or medical-device products.
- Products sold only through department stores or direct-brand channels.
- Products with fewer than about 10 reviews on any source — too small a sample to say anything defensible.
- Products where our sources contradict each other so sharply that we can't fairly summarize.
Questions or corrections
If you think a rating on this site is wrong or a summary misrepresents Korean sentiment, please contact us — we correct promptly and note substantive corrections at the bottom of the affected page. See also Editorial standards and About.