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Do you feel there are too many beauty brands available?
Do you feel there are too many beauty brands available? Share!
Yes and no! There are times when I’ll receive a pitch for a brand I’ve never heard of, and all I can think of is, “How do ALL of you stay in business?!!?!” No, because it’s not problem if they’re profitable or not, and variety is a good thing – so if it’s someone’s holy grail, I’m happy! It can be overwhelming, though, and you can easily feel like you’ll never be able to try it all.
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There aren’t a lot of high end brands that are paraben free. Need more of that!
No, never. A monopoly would be a terrible thing. Competition motivates brands to drive innovation and ensure the quality is high, and sort of moderates the prices. Researching about different products is fun, but if someone doesn’t want to, they can stick to one brand.
Totally agree with you.
I could easily go without a few brands (like Clinique Clarins Collistar) but then I would also love UD and Too Faced back to the Netherlands. So too many brand? No.
Yes.. sometimes I also feel that I will never be able to try all.. but its that we get so many options to choose from! 🙂
Too many poor quality brands available….whether it is cheap or expensive brands.
Too many items coming out…such as MAC.
Just over loaded…..
Too many indie brands…..you should go to the MUA blog sales….and see how much stuff people buy and now are selling…..
Oh yes! Way too many and they make more or less identical stuff! But we all have our favorites! Chanel and Nars for me!
Not at all. It’s great to have so many options. I don’t feel the necessity to try everything. Except fucshia lipsticks, of course. lol.
I do, but somehow we always see the same ones everywhere. All the same LV, L’Oréal and Lauder brands!
Here in Belgium very few brands are available compared to my native country (Canada). It’s all those expensive french brands like Sisley and Guerlain.
The choice can be overwhelming sometimes for sure, but no, I don’t think that there are too many brands. It’s never a bad thing to have a lot options 🙂
No. There are multiple choices at all price points making products available to everyone without breaking their personal bank. With the amount of competition amongst all the brands it forces them to step up their quality if they want to stay in business.
No! I love having so many brands and products to choose from!
I can see how it’s a major problem for you! For the rest of us, there’s a minor problem scoping out indies, until they hit a reviewer’s radar. As an ancient m/u addict, I have seen some of the major brands Go more than Come. Helena Rubenstein, Germaine Monteil, Charles of the Ritz have all bitten the dust. Other brands have reconfigured dramatically. It’s a fashion + trend driven business. You know more about business cycles than we do….. If you fail to recognize the scope of your business, say think you make eyeshadows + not are in the beauty business + therefore start up liners, masc, + branch into other color products, you’re gone. (This has been true in other industries, notably transportation + documents industries, as well.) The proliferation of new brands is an index of what people/women see as important. Who was it that said that lipstick is recession-proof? And the start-ups, with the exception of the indies, are underwritten by major conglomerates (lookin’ at you, LMVH) with massive market research to back them up. A big advantage to so many brands + products is that there’s something for everyone at all price points.
I hope that you have not discontinued Sunday Link Love. I have enjoyed wading through Kafkaesque (kinda funny, with having no sense of smell), Rikki, Vineetha, Shipra, Judith, and all the others. I would hate to have only their links in the review commentary.
I agree that variety is good but there is definitely too much duplication out there. The good news is you can find good products at all price points.
I can’t smell either – I just had to comment on that!! I had surgery on my eyes when I was small and apparently it affected my ability to smell.
Yes and no. When it comes onto products such as eye shadows, lipsticks, primers and the like, there is a saturation in that market. Too many brands give the same offering. When it comes onto makeup products like foundations for women of color, the answer is no. In fact there are too little brands. I cant tell you how hard it is to find a good foundation without having to mix and match just to get my perfect shade.
I am already overwhelmed walking into Sephora! I love trying new brands but I just can’t keep up with all the smaller brands.
I too love the variety, but yes, sometimes I feel overwhelmed. When I look just at Sephora alone, there are just so many brands that I have never even given a passing thought. I’m grateful there are valuable resources such as Temptalia to help me wade through the all the noise. I try to avoid spontaneous purchases although every once in awhile I will venture out to try a new brand, but again it will usually be the result of hearing positive things first. Good example: BITE. It’s been around for awhile, but I didn’t venture into their offerings until I had heard a lot of good buzz.
On the other hand, I think there are far too many skincare lines and find it just completely and insanely overwhelming and wading through the ridiculous claims very arduous. Skincare is an expensive investment since the products are synergistic and it’s far too easy to go completely wrong, reviews are wickedly subjective and dependent on too many variables which makes it all too easy to be stuck with months of $$$ supply you do not find particularly effective.
No! I love the huge variety! I’m a product junkie though lol. It does get a little overwhelming sometimes because I’d love to try it all but I’d rather have too many than not enough. It encourages competition and innovation
Not in my country. In Argentina, in drugstores, we have Maybelline, Rimmel, Revlon and L’Oreal, that’s all. More highend brands are: Chanel, Dior, Lancome, MAC, Guerlain, Givenchy, but they are really, really, reeeeeally expensive 🙁
There definitely are a lot of brands and it can be overwhelming, but I also love discovering new brands!
Variety is the spice of life! And I believe there should be as many beauty options as there are beauties to wear them. If a brand remains in business, it is obviously meeting someone’s needs and so who am Into say it should be eliminated just because it doesn’t appeal to me? As for wading through a plethora of products, perhaps because I’m so comfortable in my skin, I don’t feel the need or desire to try everything that comes along and, as has already been pointed out, I think most of us quickly develop a short list of preferred brands that consistently meet our needs and fulfill our fantasies. Consequently, it really doesn’t matter if there are thousands of brands if I’m only interested in a dozen. I think it is wonderful that we have such a diversity of products available at a variety of price points that will appeal to a wide range of customers. The more the merrier! 🙂
No, I don’t think there are too many brands out there. And yes, it can be overwhelming. But I enjoy the variety and I love to discover exciting new indie brands. The department store brands fail to excite me after so many years of only knowing about and using them. I have fun grazing the whole field from ds to HE. We have so much to choose from these days. We can even get brands from other countries. Thank goodness for beauty experts like Christine though, for so often pointing us in the right direction. I would be adrift and afloat in a sea of useless cosmetics if it were not for her.
Not sure how many are too many but it is true that I sometimes feel overwhelmed and don’t even try to keep up any more: we have the traditional famous ones, the budget ones, the ones that are re-branding, the little sister brands of established ones,also “exotic” ones that people rave about from time to time in youtube or beautyboxes etc ( great discovery for me I have to say, recently heard about ginvera the marvel gel and only this week I have purchased Astalift by Fuji the film makers! yes.. that one). Also some youtubers are now launching own brands: make up, brushes, nail varnishes. Power to them but really it is becoming almost a full time job just to keep informed on those!
Part of me kind of choked laughing, since the number brands that are readily available here in NZ is *not* large at all, relatively speaking! 😛
If I were to consider all possible brands, however, I would still say the number is fine. One of the key things I like to have as a consumer is choice. While things might get overwhelming at times, there is something rather satisfying about wanting a purple lipstick, say, and being able to hunt down just exactly the right one. it’s also nice to be able to have more cost effective options for staples, like red lipsticks or pink glosses say. Brand competition also helps, as it forces them to try new things, and to keep trying to improve on their colour range, formulae, product types etc.
I agree – yes and no. I have to wonder why any new company would go up against the MAC’s, Chanel’s etc of the world? I can see the need for drugstore brands – I use those sometimes too.
I love having a choice of beauty items but sometimes it gets confusing. I am going to lean more towards ‘yes’.
While I agree that, especially for a beauty “junkie” who enjoys trying to keep up with what’s of-the-moment in the world of cosmetics, it can get overwhelming and bewildering to try to keep up with ALL of the brands.
Since I make it a policy to shop *only* non-animal-testing brands, I can effortlessly ignore any of the known animal-testing brands, which helps me turn down the “noise” somewhat.
All that to say: Variety really is the spice of life, and I don’t think there are “too many” beauty brands. I don’t have to shop them ALL.
What annoys me the most is that a lot of “choice” we think we have is just an illusion, because so many of these brands are owned by the same big company, like Estee Lauder, Unilever, Johnson and Johnson, etc. I want true choice and transparency, not just a tiny label on the back you have to squint to see.
Yes–it’s overwhelming. However, I prefer having too many options over having too few.
I also love variety and that there are products out there for every taste and budget. As a makeup addict that doesn’t like buying makeup on the web (I simply don’t have confidence on my country’s customs service or mail) , I wish I could have more direct access to brands like Cult Nails, OCC (Sephora here does not carry it) or Ilamasqua, to name a few. So yes, there are plenty of brands but when each one has good things to offer, I think it´s good.
Yes, sometimes I do feel that there are too many brands available (especially in skincare) and it is hard to choose. It can be so hard to choose what you like/need. Also how can you be sure that there products are good and safe to use?
Another point is that in Australia we rarely get the brands you do in the States. If we do, they are limited in content eg Bobbi Brown, UD, Lorac etc. and can be very expensive. Even brands that you consider to be drugstore brands, they are very expensive here.
The variety of products and brands is fun. I do avoid certain brands made in third world countries without ingredient standards. IE; mercury, bacteria, lead. Competition is good for all of us.
I do wonder how many corporations there are who produce the brands. That might limit the actual number of brands.
Honestly, I wish there was at least one beauty brand that did it right, one that made quality products instead if gimmicks made just to appeal to the masses. For example, foundation sticks are being refirmulated and marketed as great for oil control, acne-prone skin, sensitive, etc when the ingredients giving them form are thickeners like waxes that can help clog pores more than the unrightfully dreaded oil. The worst part is that they’re great formulas too, just marketed at the wrong groups. At the very least, companies should make sure their ingredients don’t harm or irritate skin. I give brands bonus points if they add a substantial amount of something BENEFICIAL to skin, like mineral broad spectrum SPF or antioxidants. Then, they can start experimenting with products for different skin types: oily, combo, dry, and normal. I know sometimes irritating ingredients like fragrance are needed to make a naturally bad smelling product smell better for comfort, but it would be nice if companies had ultra-gentle lines of products that ACTUALLY worked and had no irritating ingredients made especially for sensitive skin. Also, I hate claims like “oil-free”, “paraben-free”,ect. because, again, it’s misleading the masses into fearing perfetctly good ingredients. Even, “fragrance-free” doesn’t mean they didn’t add fragrance. I feel like their should be more regulations on those things. I wish companies would TALK to their chemist instead of trying to make maximum profit at the consumer’s expense. I also feel that there is way too much of a monopoly in makeup. There are three big names in makeup, and two of them are L’Oreal and Procter & Gambel. They own a bunch of mini little companies so that they can pretend to compete and such and get each and every single consumer, stereotypes and more from the teenager shopping Maybelline, to the woman on a budger shopping L’Oreal Paris, to the eco-people in the Body Shop, to the edgy woman shopping Urban Decay, to the mature woman shopping Giorgio Armani, and on. Then, there are all the indie brands to see and all the iimports from other countries that don’t sell us stuff. I think most major makeup companies are owned by a bigger company to macimize revenue. U think makeup companies should make themselves more available. Again, at least one of them shoukd do it right or at least tery their hardest to do it right. I hate missing out on great fand highly ormulations because a company decided to put menthol or alcohol or something . I care more about taking care iof my skin rather than finding a fancy way to enhance it while damaging it. I would like to be able to love more thab a few producta from a line, selectively picking here and there. Then, they go and discontinue what was holy grail and replace it with ****. I think we need more companies, so at least one gets it right.
I am leaning more towards Yes; I love that brands strive for originality and breakthrough. But to me, it is now “the more you know, the more you don’t know”.
The number of brands doesn’t bother me. I don’t feel compelled to try them all. When a brand has hundreds of items, that is when I get overwhelmed and often end up getting nothing because I can’t figure out how one highlighter is different from the other eight.
Hi! Wow, what a beginning to a week! My thoughts are that there are so many beauty brands that it becomes, or can become, overwhelming! On one hand, it’s wonderful that something is at least available everywhere for people to experiment with, but on the other hand, those same people don’t always have access to a majority if what they read about, which can be so frustrating for the beauty junkies! 🙂 As well, the difference in prices due to location blows my mind! In the USA, we spend a few dollars for items from brands that cost up to $50 elsewhere, and I feel that if so many options are going to exist out there everywhere, that there should be a fair trade market for ALL to be able to access. So, it’s a yes and no. The variety is a beautiful thing, the access is not. Beauty should be available for all to enjoy. I hope that sometime this is remedied.
Never too many – gotta keep the competition stiff!!
I don’t take issue with the amount of actual brands, as each has their own spin on a product. However, I don’t care for the “brand-within-a-brand”, i.e., MAC v. MAC Pro; why not just make everything of the same quality/availability…?
No but there are too many that still test on animals.