Short answer: no. Product recommendations are not sponsored. Brands cannot pay to be in your routine.
How recommendations work
Products in your first recs (and in later swaps, if you have Journey) are picked from:
How well they match your hair profile
How well the ingredient list fits that step
Value at the budget you gave us
Your stated preferences and exclusions
No brand has a paid slot. There is no sponsored tag, because there is no sponsorship.
How Rituala makes money
Journey. Monthly is $10 with a 7-day free trial. Annual is $59/year. That is the paid product (save, tracking, swaps, photo, Ask AI). The quiz, first routine, and first recs are free.
Affiliate links. Some product links may be affiliate links. If you buy through them, we may earn a small commission. That does not change which product we pick. The pick comes from your hair profile and fit first. The link is attached after.
What we don’t do: we don’t take payment from brands to feature their products. We don’t sell a “preferred brand” tier. We don’t sell Expert Review, Ingredient Deep-Dive, Prestige Curation, or other add-ons.
Starter is no longer sold. It is not how we fund the business.
Why this matters
A lot of hair quizzes only recommend what one brand sells. Ours is not limited to one brand’s shelf. We will recommend a cheaper option when it fits.
How to check
Take the quiz with two very different hair stories. The recs should not look like the same brand list.
Look at the mix in your own recs. One brand on every step would be a red flag. It usually isn’t.
If a pick feels off, ask why in Ask AI (Journey) or email [email protected].
If anything in your recs feels off, ask. We’ll explain the reasoning.