Archived Post

Have you ever felt like you were in a makeup rut?


Have you ever felt like you were in a makeup rut? How did you get out of it? Share!

Oh, definitely! The easiest way to get out of it is to look for new inspiration online or in magazines – try something avant garde and crazy if only to get the creative juices flowing.

Do you have a question idea? Submit yours here.

24 Comments

Comments that do not adhere to our comment policy may be removed. Discussion and debate are highly encouraged but we expect community members to participate respectfully. Please keep discussion on-topic, and if you have general feedback, a product review request, an off-topic question, or need technical support, please contact us!

Please help us streamline the comments' section and be more efficient: double-check the post above for more basic information like pricing, availability, and so on to make sure your question wasn't answered already. Comments alerting us to typos or small errors in the post are appreciated (!) but will typically be removed after errors are fixed (unless a response is needed).

We appreciate enthusiasm for new releases but ask readers to please hold questions regarding if/when a review will be posted as we can't commit to or guarantee product reviews. We don't want to set expectations and then disappoint readers as even products that are swatched don't always end up being reviewed due to time constraints and changes in priorities! Thank you for understanding!

Comments on this post are closed.
Ryou Avatar

Absolutely! Whenever that happens, I try to either try out new stuff or get into my stash to try and find products that inspire me to play with. Usually my main issue is time, however (injured hand and watery eyes don’t help), and that often pushes me to wear the same look over and over again, solely because it’s quick and easy.

zainab Avatar

Yes, including now. It’s usually a time thing- if I don’t have too much time I’d rather stick with what I know looks good than experiment and end up looking worse than when I started. But when I have time to experiment I love to, and then I can salvage a look if it didn’t look great initially.

Tessa Avatar

I’m in one now, actually. I haven’t bought anything new since Valentine’s Day, I haven’t kept up with my blogs, I haven’t watched a YouTube video in over a month…and on the rare occasions that I have actually felt like putting on makeup it’s been the most basic 2 minute foundation-and-mascara look every single day. I’m hoping once the Spring collections start popping up in my area and it gets warmer and sunnier that y mood will straighten out. I’m pretty sure it’s just the fact that it’s been like 50 degrees and raining for almost two whole months that’s doing me in 🙁

Natalia Avatar

Constantly! If I feel like I the look suits me, I mean a certain way to apply eye shadows or eyeliner, for example, it can take years for me to convince myself to do it differently. My eyeliner routine, for example, has not changed for as long as I remember, just cause I could not be bothered to learn to do it differently 🙂

KaseyCannuck Avatar

Weekends are my time to play with my brighter and bolder colours, but I seem to have too many choices!! Lately I’ve been reaching into my bag of mineral eyeshadows and just picking a colour without looking and making a look with it. I’ll end up searching through my stash for colours to go with it and often find myself using some of my more neglected shades. I think of this as my Weekend Colour Challenge!

Lenore Avatar

I usually pick out one palette from my collection that I “have to” use more. I put it on my table, and I have to use it at least five times before I allow myself to use something else. It really works!

Lisa Avatar

I was just about to comment and say the same thing! It totally does work! It also helps me rediscover old favorites and try new ways of doing things. Like, I’ll decide on a palette and tell myself I have to try a new look from it for five days or something. It really pushes me to be creative and use things I may have forgotten about.

Wednesday Avatar

I usually make time to discover new products or rediscover my older products. I’m not very routine about my makeup, but sure, sometimes I don’t want to think about it and can get into little mini ruts where I wear similar looks. Right now I am in the process of depotting a bunch of products to put into custom palettes to help rediscover older products or at least put them right under my nose so I start using them up!

LU Avatar

Yes! I’m in one now, I’ve been doing what I know looks good with my soft colored matte-satin finishes and avoiding metallics for some reason. It’s also about time for me, I’m really busy most days.

xamyx Avatar

No, not really… I have techniques & shades I know will work, and every once in a while, I’ll switch it up (although I stick to 2-3 techniques/color families I use on a regular basis due to lifestyle). I am adding more blues & greens to my stash, which is fairly new!

Sylirael Avatar

Not in a negative sense – I have an obsessive weakness for purple lipsticks and for peachy pinky corally lipsticks and glosses with golend shimmer in them, and I’m totally happy in this rut 😀

I do like experimenting with mixing lip products and trying unusual eyeshadow combos, though.

In short – I prefer to think of my ‘rut’ as the pleasant status quo, and then experiment on top of that 😀

Lotus Avatar

Oh, my! YES! After meticulously taking wonderful, albeit expensive, care of my skin, hitch was basically perfection from all I did, I suddenly was attacked by the monster of pre-menopause and I never had to wear foundation before nor had I any other skincare agenda to go to.. I was freaking out because I noticed I was aging and didn’t know what to do! (It was overly dramatic but rightfully so in my opinion) I cried and called my mother, googled help, looked up everything I could think of to research and watched endless YouTube tutorials in order to devise ideas and act on them. I’ve always been anti-foundation but suddenly needed it! Or should I use a BB, and what kind? And my eyes were so sensitive as well as sudden rosacea.. How do I do this? Brush? Beautyblender? Fingers? What won’t make it worse? I resolved it by trial and error and am currently continuing to work with the new skincare and products I’ve found while returning or discarding the ones that irritate me and learning to embrace “base.” Everything is alright, I’m not going to die, it happens, it isn’t quite that bad.. Positivity goes a long way when we feel hopeless! I was so set in my ways that I genuinely had no idea what was out there though I was aware of all other beauty categories. Keeping calm however I could was essential to this new stress. Yes, there are many worse things that could happen, but this is my answer about a rut which my life also did not allow time to acclimate more slowly as I would have had it happened years ago. Indeed it is shocking, trust me. But there is always a rhyme and reason. 🙂 Be well! <3

Erin Avatar

All the time! I don’t have a lot of money to spend on “play” makeup. Stuff that I know might not work isn’t usually risked unless it’s drugstore. I know what works for an everyday look and I tend to stick to it because I don’t go out much either!

We try to approve comments within 24 hours (and reply to them within 72 hours) but can sometimes get behind and appreciate your patience! 🙂 If you have general feedback, product review requests, off-topic questions, or need technical support, please contact us directly. Thank you for your patience!