You might spot that some of our reviews come from our dedicated Woman&Home Tester Network, where products are tried and tested by real people. We’ve created a wonderful community of women who get hands-on with products, put them through their paces, and share their honest feedback with you.
Think of it like a written version of a chat with friends over coffee. Wondering if that pricey coffee machine is really worth it? Whether that lipstick will last all day? Or if a cooling mattress can genuinely help during the menopause? We’re here to share our network’s honest answers. It’s real recommendations from real women for real life. And of course, the Woman&Home expert editorial team brings their insights as well.
At its heart, the tester network is about authority, reliability, and relevance. Our goal is to give you the best of both worlds. The expertise of our in-house reviewers, plus the lived experience of women who know exactly what challenges you’re facing. That way, when you read one of our reviews, you can trust that it’s been tested for real life – not just the lab.
Want to join our Tester Network? It couldn’t be easier. All you have to do is email our Ecommerce Editor, Heidi Scrimgeour. Let her know what kind of products you have a genuine need for and why, and she’ll be in touch when a test opportunity comes up that might suit you. You can also leave us a comment at the end of this article, and one of the team will follow up.
How does the Woman&Home Tester Network work?
(Image credit: Future)
The Tester Network is really simple. Our in-house experts put a call-out for testers in different categories, looking for specific niches. We’ve asked for hot sleepers for duvets, menopausal women for fans, women with mature skin for fake tans, and short eyelashes for mascaras.
Once we’ve had our testers write in, we select the people who we think will be the most appropriate for testing a range of the products. Then, each tester received the product to put to test in their own home. We ask each tester to fill out the same detailed brief that we use for our professional review, which means answering lots of questions. This results in pages upon pages of detail, but we like to make sure that no detail is missed.
Each review is completely imperial and measured on the same parameters as competing products, so you can be confident that you’re getting the full picture: the good, the bad, and the “this looked better on Instagram…”
Heidi Scrimgeour – a trusted consumer expert and lifestyle journalist with 20 years of experience – oversees our Tester Network. She specialises in helping readers make confident buying decisions – whether it’s through in-depth product reviews, hands-on testing, or curated gift guides that take the stress out of shopping. Her work has featured in most of the UK’s national newspapers, including The Daily Mail, The Guardian, andThe Telegraph, and in numerous leading lifestyle magazines including Red, Psychologies, Glamour, Grazia and Stylist.
Now part of the Woman&Home team, Heidi runs the Tester Network and leads the Ecommerce team, who share her passion for uncovering products that genuinely make women’s lives easier. She loves discovering game-changing buys she can’t stop raving about (lately, Elemis Pro-Collagen Cleansing Balm and Bose QuietComfort Headphones, if you’re wondering…) or gifting to every friend (The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins and L’Occitane Relaxing Pillow Mist are her current go-tos).
Heidi and the team ensure every recommendation is rooted in real-life experience – tested by real women, in real homes. Their mission is simple: to help readers make smart, savvy decisions about what to buy, where to buy it from, and what’s simply not worth the bother.
Why join the Woman&Home Tester Network work?
(Image credit: Future)
The Tester Network isn’t just about free products landing on your doorstep (though, let’s be honest, it’s a nice perk). It’s about sharing experiences, helping each other, and shaping future reviews. If you have an opinion on anything from mascaras to mattresses, this is your chance to put it to good use. We want honest feedback that helps readers to make an informed decision before they part with their hard-earned cash.
And you can also highlight the things that our in-house experience might sometimes miss, like how a mattress feels during a hot flush, or how well your pillow helps with neck pain. That’s not to say our experts don’t know their stuff (I’ve literally taken a saw to a mattress to see what’s inside), but we also know that real life brings different challenges, so we look for testers who know these difficulties. We want their voices to be heard so that other people can learn from them.
“I’m a red-hot Yorkshirewoman – and not in a good way.”
Carly Hall-Simms
Carly’s application to join the Tester Network captured our attention because she called herself “the sweatiest peri-peri-meno-monster” and pleaded with us to let her test some of the best cooling mattresses out of pure frustration. Dealing with intense night sweats that left her washing her sheets every morning, along with joint pain, she told us: “I’m a red-hot Yorkshirewoman and not in a good way.”
After trying a so-called cooling mattress that only made things worse, Carly was searching for products that genuinely help to easy the many symptoms of menopause. You can read her Silentnight Lift Breathe Mattress review to see what she had to say about its “wizardry” and whether it’s deserving of its reputation as the ‘menopause mattress’.
The Tester Network In Action
Curious to see what our testers have been up to? Here are a few of the latest reviews we’ve been working on over the last few months – with lots more to come.
Homes reviews
(Image credit: Future)
Fashion reviews
(Image credit: @julieplayerfashion)
Beauty reviews
(Image credit: Future/Sennen Prickett)
Health reviews
(Image credit: Grace Walsh)
