Best health and beauty stores revealed

Health and beauty products can be a great treat to pamper a loved one or yourself, but buy a poor product at a high price and you could be left feeling red-faced.

A Which? survey of 7,869 shoppers has revealed which retailers combine excellent products with value for money, as well as the shops that have helpful staff ready to advise on the best options for you. 

Read on to find out which retailers will leave you feeling pampered, and which might leave you frazzled. 

Which are the best health and beauty shops?

You don't want to get caught out with streaky waterproof mascara, lipstick that doesn't last, or a poor quality hair dryer.

The table below shows the top 10 highest-scoring health and beauty retailers from our survey. Links take you to retailers' websites, and the sample sizes are in brackets. 

Results based on a May 2023 survey of 3,463 people who'd bought health and beauty products in the last six months. Customer scores based on satisfaction with the brand and likelihood to recommend. n/a means sample size too small to give a star rating.

• Find out more: best and worst beauty and health stores - the full results

QVC tops the table

TV channel and website QVC stands out for the five-star quality and value of its products, and impressed our experts so much that we've named it a Which? Recommended Provider (WRP). 

One shopper told us that they 'always buy the Elemis Today's Special Value as it contains multiple Elemis products at a great price and for loads cheaper than on the high street'.

Another said that the Today's Special Value deals are 'extremely good value'. 

QVC scored a respectable four stars for product range and availability, the ease of using its website and app, and delivery.  

Liz Earle was the second highest-scoring retailer in the health and beauty category, with customers particularly impressed by the quality of its products. Quality comes at a cost in this instance, though, with shoppers giving it a mediocre three stars for value for money. 

Liz Earle offers a 60-day money-back guarantee if you are unhappy with a product, but we believe that the terms and conditions stated on its website are inconsistent with consumers' rights and are concerned that this could be misleading. Based on this, we decided not to name Liz Earle a Which? Recommended Provider.

John Lewis also impressed customers, scoring four and five stars across the board except for value for money, where it gets three. It's a Which? Recommended Provider for health, beauty and wellbeing products.

• Find out more: best foot spas

Online-only health and beauty shops that impressed

Some online-only retailers particularly impressed shoppers with the quality of their products. 

AllBeauty and LookFantastic's customers told us that the online shops have great branded products for the right price, awarding both five stars for product quality and value for money. 

AllBeauty has a price-matching scheme for a selection of retailers - including John Lewis, Look Fantastic, Boots and Superdrug - so it's worth checking around before you buy. 

Despite their popularity with shoppers, we didn't make AllBeauty or LookFantastic WRPs as we were concerned about clauses on their websites that were inconsistent with consumers' legal rights. 

• Find out more: best waterproof mascaras 

Healthspan popular for vitamins and supplements

Another online-only retailer that shoppers love is Healthspan - an online vitamin and supplement supplier - for the quality of its products and the great customer service on offer. 

It sells a wide range of its own products, including vitamins, supplements, sports nutrition and even pet health supplements. One person told us that the customer care is 'knowledgeable and helpful', and another praised the ease of its subscription service for the supplements they use regularly.  

We haven't made Healthspan a WRP as we're concerned that the terms and conditions on its website could cause customers to believe that they are not due refunds of the delivery costs they are entitled to under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013.

• Find out more: what are my rights for returns?

Which stores came bottom?

The table below reveals the two retailers that received the lowest customer scores in our survey.

The average customer score in this survey was 69%, so both Lloyds Pharmacy and Morrisons fell well below average. 

Morrisons got just two stars for the range and quality of its products, as well as for staff helpfulness and knowledge. 

Shoppers found the staff at Lloyds Pharmacy helpful, giving them four stars, but felt that the range, quality and price of the products deserved a poor two-star rating.