MakeUp Alley

MakeUp Alley (referred to colloquially as MUA) is a New York based online community for lovers of beauty products all over the world. Features of the site include: Productville is a database of over 700,000 reviews of beauty products by consumers. Products are rated out of five, and other visitors can vote as to whether a review has been helpful to them or not. Products can be sorted in a variety of ways: by most reviewed, most popular or newest. The Message Boards feature discussions on various aspects of beauty. Originally there was three boards: Beauty, Non-Beauty (The MUA Cafe) and a Technical Board for help and requests. Summer 2002 saw the Beauty board split into separate boards: Makeup, Bath & Body, Fragrance and Skincare. A Fashion board was also added. Health & Fitness and Hair boards were added in 2003, Nail, Wedding and Food boards were added in 2006. Swap is one of the most popular parts of the site, and what first attracts many to the site. MUA Swap allows its members from all over the world swap their unwanted beauty products with each other. If a swap goes well you can award a positive swap token to your swapper. MUA Cares is a list of charities that help women in need and accept donations of new and unopened beauty products. Early versions of the site featured magazine style articles. The current version of the site dates from Summer 2001 Background Make Up Alley was launched in February 1999 by Hara Glick who, prior to MakeUp Alley, had no beauty industry experience. Nine months later, in November it was acquired by internet retailer, Beauty.com who set about redesigning MUA and integrating the two sites. Shortly after the acquisition, Beauty.com itself was acquired by Drugstore.com. In March 2001, MakeUp Alley parted company with Drugstore, and the site once again became independent. There were rumours in early 2006 suggest that Vogue publisher, Conde Nast was showing an interest in the site.