"Paid with labor", when it's your labor, is what makes it INCOME FROM WORK. You worked (your labor), you got paid.
That is how the IRS will see it, 100% of the time.
What you're saying here will prove to any auditor that it's income, not an expense. It is just that simple. You performed a service and you were compensated for that service with the items you received. That's the end of the story.
If you need something in order to properly test a product - say the ingredients for bread to test your bread pan, you can deduct a reasonable amount of that (like the cost to make one loaf for testing or such). You could deduct miles to pick packages up at the post office, if that applies to you, and maybe a home office deduction. The cost of anything you use to produce your reviews - editing software or something like that - could be used but using the items in another business and calling those an expense won't work if audited.
All you'll do if you try to explain that you paid with your labor is strengthen the position that it's self-employment income. Becauset that is what it is. Income for your work.
