Editorial Policy

Independence

Our recommendations are editorial and independent. No brand pays to be featured, to rank higher, or to soften a verdict. We accept no free products in exchange for coverage. Affiliate commissions (see how we make money) never influence which cologne we recommend or where it lands in a ranking — a pick that earns us nothing beats a pick that earns us more whenever it’s the better bottle for you. A recommendation on this site can and often does carry a “who should skip this,” including for products we link.

Sourcing standards

We separate fact from opinion, and we label which is which:

• Notes, concentration and launch year come from the official listing or brand pyramid, cited and dated.
• Prices come only from the live price layer, stamped with the date they were fetched. We never type a price into content.
• Reported performance (longevity, projection) and dupe likenesses are attributed to community consensus (Fragrantica, Reddit) and labeled as reported, never as our own test or a lab result.
• Rankings are our editorial judgment, argued in prose. We do not publish numeric scores or star ratings, because we don’t run the tests that would justify them.

If a claim can’t be sourced, it doesn’t ship. We’d rather write “not published” than invent a figure.

No fabrication

We never invent prices, ratings, review counts, longevity numbers, testimonials, or “we tested N bottles” claims. We never present a clone as identical to a designer when it isn’t. The full method is on our how we rank page.

Corrections

We get things wrong sometimes, and when we do we fix them. If you spot a factual error — a mis-stated note, an outdated claim, a broken link — tell usand we’ll check it against the source. If you’re right, we correct it promptly, and for anything material we add a visible note that we did. Getting the facts right matters more to us than looking like we never miss.

Update cadence

Prices stay current automatically via the live layer. Beyond that, we aim to refresh each roundup roughly quarterly — re-checking picks, adding notable new releases, and re-ranking when the evidence has changed. Every page shows a real “last updated” date so you can judge how current it is. We re-rank sooner when there’s a specific trigger: a significant new release, a discontinued pick, a sustained price shift, or a shift in community consensus.

Questions about this policy? Email info@bergamotandbirch.com. Published by Type 5 Marketing LLC.