What one beauty product do you have that you wish looked better on you? Share!
Basically every cool-toned pink in the vein of MAC Saint Germain!
Thanks to reader Jennifer for today’s question idea Do you have a question idea? Submit yours here.
We're here to help you make better beauty purchases that you'll enjoy and love! We recommend signing up to take advantage of personalized features like tracking products you own, viewing dupes that you already have, and more!
Here are some useful resources for you:
Curious how two shades compare to each other? Type in the shades below to get instant side-by-side swatches!
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!
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!
A contour. I have too much hyperpigmentation on my jaw so contours just emphasize that.
Any coral or orange lipstick.
Preach it.
This is me too, I love the colors but never have been able to wear them well.
Amen I can’t pull off any oranges 🙁
And another one here. I wish I could wear lipsticks like Sweet and Sour and Riot House, but they look sooo unnatural on me:(
Like you, pale or nude lipsticks. My lips are dark and when I put on a lip product lighter than my own coloring I feel kind of silly. My version of nude is basically a pink-mauve neutral.
Same here!
Yup
Pale and nudes makes me look like a zombie. Not a good look for everyday wear 😉
Urban Decay Naked 1! The colors and my complexion just don’t seem to mix well.
Ditto… And I would add most purple/burgundy eyeshadows. They are so beautiful in the pan but hard to apply without looking like I have a black eye :-/
tarte Exposed… It’s sooo perfect in the pan, but when I apply it to my face, it just looks like I crushed up a handful of Pepto Bismol tabs, then smeared them on my face! My skintone just seems to amplify the pink in the blush, while absorbing any of the undertones…
Honorable Mention would have to go to NARS Oasis; another beautiful shade in the pan, and if I’m not careful can make me appear sunburned. I *can* make it work, but it does take some effort, and I prefer blush that just does the work itself.
The Nyx Macaron Lippy in Earl Grey!
It would have to be any bright red lipstick. No matter what the undertone is, it just doesn’t look right on me..
I feel the same way! no matter what, it makes me look like a clown:(
The Viva Glam Niki 2 Lipstick/Lip-glass
I bought it because I’m obsessed with pastel purples but for some reason that one just didn’t work for me 🙁
Urban Decay Book of Shadows IV. For some reason I have yet to find a UD shadow that I feel comfortable wearing. They make me feel like I look like Divine.
Funny I wear whatever I want without caring if it looks good (since it’s fine for me personally anyway), but let’s say really pale peachy lip colors.
hourglass veil mineral primer. Pills on my skin, makes me look washed out and corpsy…merg
Piling happens to me with their Immaculate foundation.
Hourglass veil primer pills on me too!
Pilling can happen to me depending on what foundation I’m using, and I can usually bring that back to my skincare products! I wonder if there’s something in your guys’ routines that’s causing the primer to pill?
You can avoid pilling by using non-silicone primers, eg Bourjois, Laura Mercier, Max Factor, Dior (Skinflash).
theBalm Mary Loumanizer and Hourglass Radiant Light- I wish my skin was less greasy and smoother so I could wear these with less effort and more confidence. Also, even though I think it can be quite flattering on me anyway, I wish I had a darker skin tone so I could pull off a heavier application of MAC Sweet as Cocoa and get a bit more of the lovely shimmer from it.
The Hourglass Ambient Light (I have Dim Light). Prior to purchasing, I’d heard amazing things and seen the difference they can make in a bunch of beauty videos, but, though I knew I had dry skin, I hadn’t yet realized how dehydrated it was and the Ambient Lights don’t work with my skin at all. Even the lightest dusting of it over my foundation made my makeup look cakey. I occasionally wear it on it’s own, but I’m very sad that this product didn’t work out well on me because I know that a lot of people love it.
Oh, man…I wish I could wear nudes and light pinks on my lips, but most look hideous on me. Brights and darks look much better on me than most neutral/natural shades. But mostly, I just wish more false lashes would look better on me. All of the lashes I find the prettiest looking in the package and on other people tend to be OTT on me.
MAC Snob lipstick. It’s so pretty on everyone else but it pulls almost grey on me. I don’t like it at all
There are SO many! MAC Freckletone, MAC Plumful, MAC Syrup so many many!
Eyeliners other than matte black just don’t suit me that well, i think it’s because my eyes are small and closer together 🙁
Also the cool pink lipsticks you speak of Christine, the only one i can wear is Snob & it’s only will certain eyeshadows
Nude or very pale lipsticks. I have pigmented lips and I look weird with lipsticks lighter than my lips..
Shimmery blush. I just can’t afford to wear shimmery blushes with my large pores 🙁
I have the same problem. I like satins or mattes!
Stila Convertible Color in Peony. My complexion just eats up the color and it looks like nothing. Apply more, same result. More, and my face looks dirty. Nude blushes in general don’t work for me, lovely as they are on others.
Cool toned eyeshadows, like lavander, lilac, gray, silver and some purple toned taupes make my eyes look tired and emphasize my dark undereye circles
Also nude, beige or frosty lilac lipsticks and blushes like mac pink swoon make me look like a clown
Any pale lipsticks. I’m about an NC30-35 for reference. I just feel like pale lipsticks accentuate all of my hyperpigmentation and blemishes. Also, bright coral lipsticks. I always look like I have a severe mustache shadow when I wear something like, say, maybelline coral crush. Which is crazy since I’m very warm toned and it should look relatively nice on me, right? But I love lipsticks too much to really care 🙂
Anything teal (eyeshadow/liner)! It’s such a pretty color, but no matter where or how I apply it, I just end up looking really orange because of my peachy undertones.
Guerlain Tenue de Perfection! It’s the only liquid foundation that have worked okay texture wise, but every shade is too dark and yellow! It makes my skin flawless, but jaundiced.
Maybe you’ve already done this, but I really like a handful of colors that don’t flatter me, and I’ve devised a method for them. lol.
I’ve had good results using a natural light brown as a transition color between my face and the unflattering color that I like. In my case, it’s usually light blue or chartreuse on the lid with something soft and only slightly darker than my skin like UD Naked2 applied liberally to the crease and more lightly along the lower lash line to create a buffer zone of more flattering color. I don’t think this method should be crease dependent if a soft enough transition shade is used and it could totally be modified to a soft brown shadow look with only a sweep of colorful liner on the top lash line. But yeah, with all that brown plus an inner corner highlight and a lot of mascara, I find it kind of boxes the tricky color in. 🙂
So interesting. Nearly any shade of brown eye shadow looks like dirt on me, and accentuates my under eye circles, but if I wear pale blue, gray, or any shade of green as a buffer, I can pull off a little brown on the other edge. We could probably trade products that don’t work because what doesn’t work on you works on me and vice versa.
Lipstick Queen Medieval lip balm. It doesn’t look bad, it just doesn’t look that good.
Blue based red lipsticks. They always turn fushia on me.
Too many to list. My skintones do not favour anything too cool or anything too warm.
Taupe Eyeshadow!!! Most palettes are geared towards fair skin consumers and they always contain a taupe-y and cool toned transition color. I’m an NW47, so I always have to pull out Cocoa Bear (Makeup Geek) or Brown Script (MAC) to pair with most of my palettes. The only palettes that I own that can do a full eye makeup look from start to finish are theBalm Nudetude palette and the infamous Amrezy palette (my fave)!
Nudes, cool-toned pinks, and light shades in general.
Any orange-y thing. Warm corals in general… Make me look awful! So I stick to the cooler ones.
Bronzer just doesn’t seem to be for me. I’ve tried several bronzers and I just don’t like the way my face looks with bronzer on. It just looks very obvious that there’s something there rather than it being like a natural sort of sun-kissed area.
Purple eyeshadow tends to pull towards brown. Dark shadows in general tend to turn black-eye-ish pretty quick.
cool-toned lipsticks and blushes.
any cool toned blush! I have just pigmented cheeks that I have to be very careful of the blush I use and I’ve found that over the years cool toned pinks just look awful on me!
True red lipsticks.
Nars Cordura duo (the dark brown is find, though fall-out-prone but I have plenty of other dark brown shadows and the coppery side – blechy on me), contour (I just look like I have a dirty face and, to be honest, I think my rounder face makes me look younger than my alarming 61 years!); winged liner….either I can’t get it right or it’s just not a good look for me (not sure which but I would love to be able to achieve a nice little “wing” – nothing huge – and have it not look peculiar.
I love being cool toned but it means finding a bronzer that doesn’t just look orange is nearly impossible. Companies always make claims that their bronzer suits “all skin tones” or is “universally flattering.” Haha! Lies!
I agree, Dusty! It’s hard to find bronzers that are light enough for NW5-15 skin ranges, too. They all look so muddy if you don’t apply them right. I keep eyeing Guerlain’s Four Seasons bronzer in Nude 00, but it still pulls a smidge warm when I swatch it, which makes me worry that it would still be best suited for my NW15 months. It’s the NW10 months that need some color, haha!
something you can do is instead of buying a powder marketed as a bronzer, just buy a face powder that is a few shades darker than your skin tone. I like the l’oreal true match powders for this because the texture is beautiful and they have a cool toned range.
Preach! The only bronzer I ever really truly liked on me was in a hideously expensive face sculpting palette from a Japanese brand – the bronzer was the size of an eyeshadow but it was perrfeecctttttt.
Warm pinks, beige nudes, and brown lipsticks. They all run just way too warm to be flattering on me – something about the look of them washes me out completely. It’s a shame because I really love those beige-y nudes, and very, very few of them are cooler toned enough to work on me.
Pale lipsticks! I look seriously ill when I have lips the same color as my face (or paler).
Foundations that have some glow on it, like Lancôme Teint Miracle.
I think it´s beautiful and make other people´s skin look flawless, but in me, looks awful.
Mac Myth. I am very pale and it looks orange and just horrible on me. Bought it “blind” because I heard that it’s supposed to be great for fair skin. Nope. Such a shame because I love it on others. Don’t get me wrong, I love my vampire skintone but it can be a pain to find the right products sometimes (esp. foundation!).
I’m obsessed with anything peach/ coral/ orange! That said, anything pastel like pale peach looks particularly awful on my lips and cheeks (Illamasqua cream pigment in Emerge). So peach shades won’t even show up on my cheeks, so I either look bare-faced or ill… I also have a hard time wearing corally/ orange shades on my lips, which is a shame because I’m so drawn to those colours & have lots of them! I always feel like they even make my teeth look so orange. Also copper toned shadows make my eyes look weird. My complexion may be too yellow to really truly get away with anything orange based!
Bronzer makes me look like an oompa loompa. All contours I’ve tried make my face look dirty, no matter how small a brush I use. And shimmery blush make my pores look like craters.
I think orange lip colors look really garish on me (I’m fine with them as eye shadow) and corals and peaches pull very orange. My skin seems to bring out the warm tones as reddish fuschias always look red on me, not pinkish.
Also, olives and old golds. I love the idea of them but they just make my eyes look bruised.
Bright blues and green eyeshadows. They are not particularly flattering for most people, compared to neutrals, but they are such beautiful colours. D:
have pale, cool toned skin and green eyes so I love the idea of burgundy and purple eyeshadows. However, unless they are brights, they always ALWAYS pull brown/grey on my skin. :'( Any suggestions Christine?
Have you tried layering some of the shades that do work for you with maybe a dark brown or black eyeshadow instead?
Cool toned lipsticks for me too…I bought Betty Bright from Archie’s Girls and it’s beautiful but I can’t wear it. Plus all the MAC corals seem to be too cool, Vegas Volt, Coral Bliss..I use Crosswires as my coral. Also, red/pink eyeshadows because Cranberry is gorgeous but it makes me look sick.
Orgasm is actually cool toned on me! What gives?? Cool tones are just not as flattering.
Oh gosh, ANY really light lipstick shades, peachy nude lips, blue eyeshadow, very orange toned coral blush. Honestly, teals and yellowish neon greens like Bitter aren’t especially flattering on me (hazelish green eyes), but I wear them anyway because I like them so much and with a little work and a lot of confidence I can pull them off.
The balm mary louminizer, it emphasizes my pores and irritates my skin. Works on my eyes though.
Haha, I agree with you! I still wear them…rarely, when I got the guts….it’s just that they kinda clash with my undertones, not that they’re too pale(most aren’t cause I’m pale myself). That shouldn’t be a big deal, tho, but I don’t have flawless skin so when the blue-pink makes me look “greener-grayer-yellower” it seems like my blemishes look pinker/purpler by double contrast….Or maybe they actually look less pink by simple contrast, IDK… Your undertones don’t clash with them, tho, it’s just a matter of how pale or dark the shade is.
Blue eyeshadow. I so wish I had brown eyes! Nude lipsticks (make me look like death warmed up). Bright pink lipsticks (olive-toned skin, just doesn’t go!). False eyelashes…I wear glasses and they always end up like vertical windscreen wipers against them!!!
Highlighters. Cream, powder, it doesn’t matter, most of them aren’t light enough for me and just make my cheekbones look sort of dingy, especially if I’m not in direct light. The only one I’ve found that’s worked for me is ELF Essential Shimmering Facial Whip in Spotlight, which is just white.
about 2/3 of the stash of various concealers I’ve tried.
I totally have a hard time finding a concealer I like too gahhh so frustrating!
I’m experimenting today, one concealer under one eye and a different one under the other, sort of like those blind taste-tests they conduct in grocery stores! May the best concealer win!!
Red lipsticks – I love them but I feel I look ridiculous in them.
MAC’s M’Orange lipstick. I thought that it would go great with my skin tone, but I think that the salesperson and my friend who was with me when I bought it are blind. I should have listened to my first mind and passed on it. But, I was hell bent on leaving with an orange lipstick and I chose that because all of the others were sold out. Next time…..
A drugstore foundation that didn’t oxidize on me or make me breakout. I always have to shell out major bucks for high end. I’m the only person in the world who can’t wear Colorstay.
no, you’re not! I’m another. I hate it. It seems to suck the life (and all moisture) out of my skin and ends up looking like a zombie mask after a few hours. I tried it for a couple of days hoping my skin would calm down, but it ended up in the trash bin.
You’re not alone. Almost all drugstore foundations oxidize on me. (The rest are too dark and/or warm.) ColorStay doesn’t work on me.
Liquid eyeliner. It just looks wrong on my eye shape no matter how I draw the line.
Oh me too 🙁 I look like a drunk hooker did my liquid eyeliner when I try and do it 🙁 it sucks
a drunk hooker!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!
Pale pinks like mac snob and nudes like cream d nude I wish they looked better on me 🙁 they make me look too corpse like also I wish I could pull off neon green/ yellow eyeshadow 🙁
Also a lot of purples/ blues and greys don’t work on me 🙁
Lipstick I meant lol a lot of pale purples any blues and any greys don’t work on me at all
Orange lipstick. Peach is fine; coral is fine; red-orange is fine; burnt orange is fine. Plain old secondary orange makes my teeth look soooo yellow, and doesn’t seem the best for my face.
Honorable mentions:
Matte, true nude lipstick. It doesn’t look horrible, but I find I need nudes to have a touch of pink, peach, brown, shimmer…something, or it does nothing for me. It doesn’t seem to matter what other makeup I wear it with, either. I think I’m just too pale.
Blue eye makeup. I have to be very careful what shades I wear. Lighter and frostier blues look awful. I need navy, or a little green or violet to the blue or I can’t wear it.
On a weird note, I got the NYX Macarons yesterday. The orange and the yellow-orange look great on me. Huh????? LOL
Bronzer/Contour.
Hm, I was going to reply into one of the comment chains, but then I realised that there were too many that applied 😉
I’d say nude and orange lipsticks. I love lipsticks, and I’d love to be able to wear ALL THE LISPTICKS, but those two shade ranges are generally beyond me, sadly…
Strong peach colors. Idk if it’s just me, but I often think I just don’t look as nice with peach blushes or lip colors than I do with pinks.
Black Metal Dahlia. I wept.
Lavender lipsticks, or any light lipstick in general. I’m so pale that I can’t wear those lovely nudes everyone’s been obsessing over (good thing I still love bold lips) and I can’t wear gorgeous barbie light pinks or light purples. Meh.
I wish the Sephora lipstick cougar and mac happy go lucky looked better on me:/
Red lipstick (and some coral). I love the way they look on my hand, in the tubes, but once on my lips, they just look off. Maybe it’s my confidence level with them…or maybe the pigmentation in my lips is turning me off them. The ONLY one I actually love on me is very new – Viva Glam Rihanna, red one. It looked super on me @ MAC, I’d say I have found “my red”. i have yet to wear it at home though.
Creamsicle orange lip colors, for sure.
The Nars New Wave Palette– the colors are gorgeous but they somehow are too bold for me. My skin tone is medium pale neutral and my brows are light so something isn’t working.
Nars Exhibit A….The bravest, boldest makeup purchase I have made, and I cannot make this cult classic tomato red blush work. I look like I have hives or an allergic reaction every single time. Sadness. I need to give it to someone who it will work on, but I just keep hoping that some day it will magically work…
Lipstick in Reds and colours like mac sweet and sour, nars lodhi, and revlon creamsicle. They just look awful on me but when I search for swatches on google images they look great on other cool toned, pale toned people. Ugh. I’m going to have to find people to give these three away to. Luckily I mostly stay away from reds. I only own 2, the vib rouge red mini by bite and the candy apple lip butter.