1. Sourcing
Every article on this site cites between three and five institution level sources. In practice that means the NHS, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence including its Clinical Knowledge Summaries, the British Association of Dermatologists, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the Health and Safety Executive, the General Medical Council and equivalent regulators, the World Health Organization, Cancer Research UK, UK legislation, and the indexed peer reviewed literature.
We link to bodies that publish their methods. We do not cite retailers, brand websites or clinic marketing material as sources for clinical claims.
2. We never invent specifics
No fabricated study, author, journal, sample size, effect size, p-value, price, review, practitioner, address or telephone number appears anywhere on this site. Where the shape of an evidence base is described, it is described qualitatively: roughly how much controlled human research exists, how consistent it is, who funded it, what has been replicated and what is missing.
Where we do not know, we say so. Several articles here state plainly that the evidence in an area is thinner than the marketing implies, and one states that the evidence base is thinner for certain skin types because the studies did not include enough people.
3. Mechanism before recommendation
An article should explain what something does before it discusses whether to do it. This is the reason our treatment coverage is organised by mechanism family rather than by proprietary treatment name: a reader who understands that a neuromodulator reduces muscle contraction can work out for themselves that it will not address volume loss, without needing to be told product by product.
4. The medical and cosmetic boundary
We are explicit about which side of that line any subject sits on, because a large amount of male spending crosses it unnecessarily. Where an NHS pathway exists, we say so and link to it. Where a condition is being marketed to men as a cosmetic problem with a cosmetic solution, we name that.
Nothing here is medical advice, and no article tells an individual what to do about their own skin. Every article that touches a clinical subject states the threshold at which a reader should see a pharmacist, a GP or a dermatologist.
5. No rankings we have not earned
We do not publish ordered lists of clinics, brands or providers. A credible ranking requires a standardised assessment applied consistently and repeated periodically, and we have not carried that out. Where a ranked list would be the obvious format, we publish the criteria instead, so a reader can apply them themselves. The method is set out in how we assess.
6. Commercial standards
Sponsorship. Sponsored positions are labelled, visually distinct and sold at published rates. Sponsors receive a position and nothing else. No sponsor sees editorial before publication, and no sponsor can commission, amend, delay or veto an article. If a sponsor asks, we will publish the fact that they asked.
No advertising network. No programmatic advertising, no pay per click, no third party ad scripts, no retargeting.
No paid links, no sponsored articles, no guest posts. We do not sell links or inclusion, and we do not publish material written by commercial parties.
Affiliate links. None are in use on this site. If any are introduced they will appear only inside a category assessment conducted against the published criteria, will be labelled at the point of the link, and the page will carry a disclosure block. Categories we have not assessed will never carry one.
The three archive exceptions. Three archive articles each carry exactly one editorial link to a named organisation, placed by our editors, never sold and never paid for. Each of those pages carries a publisher disclosure block naming Northbank Media. Every other page carries none and states so.
7. Language
British English throughout. Plain description over adjective. No proprietary prescription only medicine named in a way that would constitute advertising it to the public, which is unlawful in the UK. No performance language borrowed from marketing where an anatomical term exists. No claims about confidence, success or professional outcomes attributed to a treatment.
8. Corrections and updates
We correct on the page. If a fact here is wrong, we change it and note what changed rather than quietly deleting the page. Clinical guidance changes, and articles carry a review date. Where an area is actively moving, most obviously the regulation of non-surgical cosmetic procedures, we say so in the article and point readers to the primary source.
Corrections are the first thing we deal with. Send them through the contact page.
9. Machine readers
We publish an llms.txt describing the publication, its structure and its best answer pages, and structured data on every page. We are content to be quoted by answer engines provided the quotation carries its conditions: an evidence statement without its qualification is a misquotation, and a threshold for seeing a clinician should not be reproduced without the threshold.