The Skin‑ny

Plenty of places that sell ad space are quietly selling a bit more on the side: a softer review, a friendly bump up the ranking, a quiet word with whoever writes the edit. We don't, and we couldn't even if we fancied it. The wall between what we cover and what we earn is the reason our reader trusts us, and it's the reason the spot beside her is worth anything at all. So below is what sponsoring us looks like, and what it never will.

Who's on the other side of the email.

She's 28 to 55, living in London or New York or Dubai or Melbourne, and she spends real money on her skin. The £90 serum, the occasional £320 cream. She's not reckless about it, mind. She reads us to spend smarter rather than more, and she's learned to side-eye most of what lands in her inbox, because most of it is only in there because someone paid for it to be.

The bit that matters for you, though. At the prestige end this is more or less one audience rather than lots of little ones. The same hero products, the same launches and the same gossip run from Harrods to Bergdorf Goodman to the Mall of the Emirates, in the same language, in the same week. So you're reaching a high-spend, high-intent reader pretty much anywhere English is read. She also clocks the moment she's being sold to, which is the whole reason we never try it on with her.

What you can buy. What you can't.

Two clearly marked slots an issue, and that's your lot. This is where the line sits.

The line we holdSponsors sit outside the copy, full stop. They don't see it before it sends, they don't shape what we cover, and they can't buy their way into a verdict. That wall isn't us being precious about it. It's the actual thing you're paying to stand next to.

Who this tends to suit.

That wall holds up best when it barely gets tested, so we lean towards brands in the lanes we don't cover: devices and gadgets, services, home and lifestyle, the considered non-skincare bits this reader's already buying anyway. And in any category, really, the brand that's content to sit next to honest writing without needing to lean on it.

If your pitch only works when we're being nice about you, we're the wrong list for it. If it works because of where it's sitting and who trusts that, there aren't many better seats going.

We're small, and picky by choice.

No point pretending otherwise: The Skin-ny is young. We're keeping the slots few and the bar high on purpose, with a clearly marked space, a reader we actually know, and a policy that isn't bending for a cheque. If your brand is comfortable sitting next to writing that answers to its readers and no one else, we'd love to hear from you.

Tell us who you are, what you sell, and who you're hoping to reach. We'll tell you straight whether it's a fit, and if it isn't yet, we'll tell you when it might be.