Keeks Reid

Keeks Reid is Beauty Director at Cosmopolitan UK, specialising in hair-led beauty coverage that treats style as craft, identity and everyday routine. Her work brings a background in hairdressing trade media into service journalism on hair, fragrance, skincare and makeup that is grounded in testing and clear product performance. She centres textured hair and Black beauty experiences while also covering mainstream launches and high-street staples, with an emphasis on how products feel, last and fit real budgets. Across reviews, interviews, awards packages and essays, she focuses on practical detail and lived experience rather than trend for trend’s sake.

Curl Up and textured hair coverage

Hair is the core of Reid’s beat, and much of her work sits within Cosmopolitan’s Curl Up franchise, where she writes for readers with textured and curly hair.

She draws on her early career in beauty journalism at Blackhair and Hair magazines and her time in hairdressing trade media to write with technical precision about cut, texture, care and styling. Features such as the essay on how Black women’s hair is judged regardless of how they wear it, and her own decade-long journey to reconnect with braids, treat hair as a site of cultural pressure and self-definition, not just style. Coverage of celebrity looks, including Olivia Colman’s voluminous grey curls and major length change, shows the same hair-first lens, breaking down shape, texture and impact rather than focusing only on celebrity.

Even fashion-week adjacent pieces, such as guidance on the “Scandi flick” as a flattering way to style a bob across seasons, frame runway moments as practical techniques that can be lifted into everyday hair routines.

Perfume dupes and designer scents

Fragrance is a second pillar of Reid’s coverage, and she writes regularly about perfumes that balance luxury positioning with accessible price points. Her reviews of celebrity-backed lines such as Billie Eilish’s fragrances focus on notes, price and lasting power, answering whether a scent’s story translates on skin.

A run of pieces on Primark perfumes and M&S perfume ranges compares £5 and high-street bottles with established designer fragrances, pointing out which options deliver similar profiles and compliments for a fraction of the cost. In coverage of launches from houses like Chanel or Elizabeth Arden, she writes about sweetness, florals, elegance and wear time in straightforward terms while still signalling the kind of occasion and wearer each scent suits.

Round-ups of seasonal M&S perfumes and Readers’ Choice lists highlight which bottles feel expensive, which ones draw the most compliments, and how they fit into a broader fragrance wardrobe.

Foundations, treatments and long-wear makeup

Reid’s product testing extends across base makeup and skin treatments, with a clear focus on performance, wear and texture on different skin types.

Her Fenty Pro Filt’r Fluid Flex Foundation review tests the launch on three skin types and reports back on finish, shade range and comfort over a full day, mirroring the way readers actually wear foundation. Drugstore foundation round-ups organised around “tried and tested” language compare options starting under £4, making clear which formulas deliver a good base at entry-level prices.

Long-wear is a recurring theme: pieces on making makeup last all day, in partnership with brands like One/Size and artists like Patrick Starrr, combine product recommendations with step-by-step routine changes. She applies a similar method to skincare and tools, using before-and-after testing on undereye polynucleotide treatments and FaceGym devices to show how far they reduce tiredness, crepey texture or sagging skin, supported by photos and clear timeframes.

Short service pieces on lash care mistakes, optometrist-approved mascara swaps and budget serums that match the results of much pricier formulas keep the focus on eye health, irritation and visible plumping rather than hype.

Cosmopolitan Readers’ Choice Beauty Awards and industry ties

Reid’s role includes shaping wider beauty coverage beyond individual reviews, reflected in packages such as the Cosmopolitan Readers’ Choice Beauty Awards. Those pieces pull together category summaries, winners and why they were chosen, connecting reader feedback with her own testing and editorial judgement.

Her author bio notes that she began in beauty journalism in 2013, working up from editorial assistant roles to Acting Editor at a specialist Black hair magazine by the age of 23, before spending much of her career in hairdressing trade media and awards coverage.

That background in salon-facing titles and events such as the British Hairdressing Awards informs a perspective that treats hairdressing as a skilled profession and looks closely at tools and techniques used by stylists. Alongside her work at the magazine, she presents, creates social content and collaborates with beauty brands, salons, magazines and websites, which keeps her close to how products are marketed and received across the wider industry.

Articles highlighting Black beauty experts and their product recommendations show how she uses that network to amplify specialist voices and actionable advice for readers looking for trusted guidance.