When it comes to shopping, I've always preferred hunting for my latest product fix IRL versus online. From the age of 5, I've had a thing for sparkling, lacquer-finished stores like 

target="_blank" target="_blank">Nordstrom and MAC. They were my favorite pit stops to make at the mall, and as I grew older, sleuthing for new and exciting beauty concoctions at other retailers like Sephora, Ulta, and even the drugstore became a kind of tranquility-inducing therapy for me. (Unfortunately, my credit card got the short end of the stick with that one—R.I.P.) 

Not only did I simply enjoy strolling through the aisles filled with tempting vials, jars, and bottles, but I also loved swatching and testing to see how shades would (or wouldn't) flatter my skin tone or how the consistency of a serum or oil would lie with my skin. Hygienic? No. Fun? Very much! That said, even though things have opened up since the pandemic, and I can definitely go back to my former brick-and-mortar shopping M.O., I've still been doing most of my investing online. Which, while convenient, can also be a bit tricky. There's a greater risk of not liking a product, and it's disappointing to have to repack and ship back a formula you had high hopes for. 

I don't know about you, but it's pretty much my prerogative to avoid online returns at all costs, so I did some Nancy Drew–caliber detective work to significantly slim your chances of returning said purchases. To help streamline your shopping process and to help ensure satisfaction almost guaranteed, I reached out to six popular beauty retailers—Violet Grey, Net-a-Porter, Thirteen Lune, Revolve, Dermstore, and Credo, to see which beauty products get returned the least. Kind of brilliant, right? Keep scrolling for 60 holy-grail beauty products with a near-perfect no-return rate.