Archived Post

Have you ever broken a beauty product?

Have you ever broken a beauty product? Share your horror stories!

Yes, I definitely have.  In fact, I just dropped MAC Blue Flame Mineralize Eyeshadow last week.  The entire dome broke off, but luckily it was all in one piece.

Got a question idea? Submit yours here.

107 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.
sam Avatar

i dont know if it counts as breaking it but i have when i accidently hit my products with my nail and it takes out a small chip haha that drives me absolutely nuts!! especially if it’s something like a liner or a paint pot

Kat Avatar

I agree! I’ve stuck my nail into my creme liner multiple times already, and I’ve only had it for under a week. And I broke a MAC eyeshadow, but I don’t know what it’s called. It’s a bit darker and cooler than Espresso, and it’s a satin. Any ideas Christine? It’d be awesome to figure out what it was, the bottom got wet (you can see I treat it well lol) and the name is all smudgey.

Nicole Avatar

I can’t remember breaking a product. But TWICE this week, I have dropped my NARS single eyeshadow in Night Breed on my ceramic tiles in my bathroom. How that eyeshadow did not shatter into a million pieces (both times!) I will never know!! It was scary!

Nichole Avatar

Last week!! I dropped a Sugarpill pressed e/s two days after receiving it in the mail. Chunks broke off, but I was able to press most of it back in the pan. It still looks ‘sickly’. If I order from them again, I’ll probably buy another one. My OCD tendencies will not allow this craziness to continue. 🙂

Jessi Avatar

I dropped Fig. 1 and half of it crumbled. Also the clear plastic part of the lid from my Bi-Tone mineralize blush came off in my purse and the blush got a little scruffed up, so now I’m extra careful. You should see how I tiptoe around when i use a pigment!

Mz. Be Avatar

Weird…I bought Fig. 1 in a pot and put in my purse. By the time I got home, it was crumbled! Brought it back and got a replacement…but made sure I held it carefully in my hand all the way home!

Majda Avatar

I’ve broken my Chanel Mat Lumiere foundation in a public restroom while rushing my make up before heading to work. Not only was it embarassing but it was heart broken. It was so new. 🙁

Bonnie Avatar

Yes… nearly every Illamasqua lipstick I’ve even bought has ended up snapping off. 🙁 And then I end up having to use a lipstick brush to apply them.
It’s my own fault, they’re the only lipsticks I buy online and it’s too hot out here to be having lipstick shipped. I should just wait until it is cooler out before I buy more.

Holly Avatar

I’ve never ordered lipstick online, but I’ll definitely keep this in mind in case I ever do!

What if you put them in the fridge (or freezer?) for a bit after you receive them to ‘re-set’ the lipstick?

Shusheshe Avatar

Yes, sadly. I took a small compact of powder on a plane trip and packed it on my carry-on backpack. Unfortunately when I took it out at my destination it seemed to have broken in to pieces…

Shae Avatar

I actually work at Ulta and a costumer brought in her favorite bronzer that wasnt being made anymore. She wanted me to find a close match to it, so i ran off with it and ended up dropping it. it shattered and crumbled everywhere. =( i felt so horrible especially since its not available anymore!

Diane Avatar

Well anytime I go to a mac counter to see the new releases, I of course knock over the loose pigment because of my excitement. It happened with the lithe at nordstrom the other day! Whoops.

Josiane Avatar

I dropped my first mac product when I just took it out of the packaging and It all broke in tiny pieces. I tried to fix it and it kinda worked . It also happened with My pupa blush and mineralized eyeshadow. It’s so frustrating to break a 20$ product right after you bought it! Mineralize make up is fragile

Celina Avatar

Only once! Thank goodness! But it was years ago and my first MAC eyeshadow and I didn’t know any better…. I dropped it, the container was fine, but the shadow had shattered. I stupidly believed the SA when she told me I should just throw it out….

cmferrets Avatar

i remember when i dropped my 2 mac e/s in crystal and bronze in their pots. i had to go and repurchase them- i got them in the pans this time.

konconsc Avatar

The stuff I have broken in the past were cheap. Like the 1 dollar elf blush(but i love that one!)The other one I broke long long time ago which is a little more expensive was my Anna Sui Shimmer pressed poweder><…

Mary Avatar

I dropped one of my Stila illuminating powders a few days after I got it and broke the dome into a few pieces, but it’s still use-able 🙂 Also, my Stila Kitten eyeshadow has turned more or less into loose powder due to packing it for trips and daily use :/

Miss Kitty Avatar

dropped an inglot pressed pwder and it went ALL OVER the floor! was absolutely devastated, swept it up and did the worst repressing job in the history of the world. i went out the next day to buy it again… but in loose powder form.

Sarah Avatar

I dropped a 3/4 full bottle of Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk foundation, the glass broke and foundation spilled all over the floor, there was still some in the bottom half of the bottle, but I threw it all out, couldn’t risk having glass in my foundation. It was heartbreaking stuff, and an absolute PAIN to clean up.

Chester Avatar

Yes,I broke my Sutdio Fix Powder Plus on a tile floor, on Friday 13th. Never has anything happened to me on a Friday 13th but this year! But it was my fault, I was in a mad rush.

Oh, and I broke some drugstore eye shadows a couple of years ago. Can’t say I was sorry about them. They were of poor quality.

tremorviolet Avatar

Velvet Moss shattered when I was depotting it. 🙁 It’s the perfect matte dark green and discontinued so I’m still using the chunks.

I’ve also broken a lot of lipsticks. I live in Texas and they get soft really easily in the heat and will break off when applying.

Janet Avatar

I’ve mostly taken nicks out of powder eyeshadows with my nails. The only thing I’ve really broken was a blush I got from the Body Shop… I dropped it and it shatterd but stayed in one big chunk, thankfully!

Christine Avatar

Thankfully I haven’t broken any pressed powder products. However I have dropped a NYX lipstick and it broke off it’s base inside the tube. I also broke a Tarina Tarantino lipstick as I was attempting to swatch it.

Diana Avatar

My weimaraner threw a tantrum and bit my Rouge G de Guerlain in Gracia out of shape a couple of months ago. The product inside was untouched, but you couldn’t open the tube properly or twist it up anymore, so I threw it out.

I’ve cracked heaps of NARS eyeshadow duos while depotting, or by dropping the Yaby pan palettes after I’ve depotted them. In the future, I’m planning on leaving them in their original containers.

Margot Avatar

Yes, once an MSF. I dropped it and it was completely smashed. I was so sad. But I know someone who works at MAC and she was nice enough to replace it for me. I was so lucky for that. Though it was a couple of years back now and she doesn’t work for mac anymore 🙁

Dusty Avatar

blushes… for some reason i am a klutz around blushes (but nothing else)! i have dropped them and watched them shatter into a million billion bits and gouged great gaping holes in them while depotting.

cmferrets Avatar

hey christine, this is a random question, but i was looking at your temptalia picture look gallery and i see that u used to do lipstick/lipgloss combinations. i was wondering if u can do the same w/ the new mac collections that come out. that way we can see what lipstick/lipglosses go together and see what they look like on. like when u do the lipstick swatches of all the lipstick and lipglosses in your collection swatch/reviews, that would be a cool addition as well.

Syndroma Avatar

Yes, I’m an expert at droppning things :/ I’ve droped my black eyeshadow after the 3:d use, it broke and the whole floor was black! The funny thing is that I’ve done the exact thing 3 or for times, with the same type of eyeshadow from the exact same label and all of them were droped just after a few uses! Oh how I cursed, everytime!

Eta Avatar

I’ve probably smashed some eyeshadow and nail polish bottle in my beauty career. I do know of more products that broke on their own, however.

Iliana Avatar

Yes, I broke my first (and barely touched) Fleur Power blush on my first depotting attempt using the alcohol/no heat method. It broke my heart! 😀 I know better now, I wait for the alcohol to soak through the adhesive completely before trying to dig the pan out of the plastic. 🙂

Yvonne Avatar

Luckily, just some cheap shadows… oh, and my stick concealer’s cap has multiple cracks… I’m more annoyed by nail chipping my more expensive shadows especialy when I am rearanging Inglot palletes I always chip something

aida Avatar

I dropped a woodwinked eyeshadow, before depotting it and it got destroyed, all fine powder, I like to think of it as my first pigment, but it was my first woodwinked and it was brand new….=(

Rosanna Avatar

My propan MAC Dazzlelight eyeshadow. It has terrible luck. It completely shattered TWICE!

I drop the quad it’s in — and it’ll be the only one out of the four shattered.
I drop the 15 propalette it’s in — and it’ll be the only one completely shattered.

seriously…..>_>

Rita Avatar

I have broken 2-3 eyeshadows when depotting, but I don’t remember dropping and breaking anything, although I’m always dropping things, like my phone.

Cassykins Avatar

I dare you to find something in my makeup box that I HAVEN’T dropped or broken in some way. Usually if I can make it through my morning without dropping more than 5 things, I call it a successful day.

coco72 Avatar

My 8-year-old girl broke my MAC Kello Kitty lipstick, but I found an original, brand new one at ebay

A Mac 4 palette fell down, my Fig.1 and Shadowy Lady eyeshadows were broken, I compacted them with alcohol

A Kryolan pigment

I´ve depotted around 15-18 Mac eyeshadows and no one has been broken

Jayna Avatar

OMG, I can’t count the number I have broken. The worst is when you drop a gooey cream product! Gross. A couple of weeks ago, My Perlier shower cream fell off the ledge in the shower and I guess enough of the cap chiped that it allowed a slow stream to drip down the side of the marble shower. What a mess!

Katie Avatar

I dropped my Coastal Scents 88 Shimmer Palette and completely demolished it. I also dropped my Ulta bag as I was walking from the store to my car and broke two Urban Decay shadows, but I luckily was able to fix them.

Hilary♥ Avatar

The first product I broke was my Kiko blush in 103. It fell right on the floor and broke into a million pieces =( I tried to press it back in the case but it didn’t work, so I’m currently using it as a powdery blush lol. The second product I broke is my Clarins Joli Rouge lipstick in number 5 Papaya. As I was twisting it back into its case, I got distracted by my cat and literally chop half of the lipstick off with my fingers o__O I put the part which came off into a small plastic case so that I can still use it with a lip brush.

Fey Avatar

Oh yeah. I purchased the Sephora 5-in-1 Colorplay collection. Surprisingly, it survived many a trip in my college textbook-stuffed backpack. However, it was bulky and I decided to pop out one of the palettes to carry around in the smaller travel case. Upon popping that one back out, one of the eyeshadows exploded…it happened to be the messiest black mass of powder that I’ve ever attempted to salvage.

Emily Avatar

UGH my blush palette fell out of my locker at work and fleur power broke into a million little pieces – it was soooooo new too!!!

also i cracked my mac apres ski while depotting it so its kinda sickly looking around the edges now.

lastly i didn’t know keeping a cremesheen lipstick in your pocket for about 15 minutes was a huge no-no so my creme d’nude broke off and i had to salvage it with a lipbrush.

the makeup gods dont like me much!

Natasha Avatar

Unfortunately, I have. This past friday I bought my first pigments ever Gold Stroke and Teal. I was so excited that as soon as I got in the car I opened them both at the same time. When i went to close them,some how i lost my grip and spilled them in my car.(all of it) Didn’t even have a chance to use them. Makes me want to cry just thinking about it.

verybecca Avatar

I dropped my MAC MES in By Jupiter (I loved) and it shattered to dust…it’s in a jar but it’s not the same since it was a swirl of light and deep golden brown. I tried to find it again and even offered OA on MUA but alas, it was not to be.

Ana Krum Avatar

I dropped my first MAC product ever – MSF Blonde. It was so sad because it was all over the floor with dust and stuff… I kept it for some time but ended up throwing it out, since it was dirty and all the beautiful degradé was lost.

ilmy Avatar

Oh my!!Last month, I broke my warm soul mineralize blush. Arrrrrrr
I was so mad, but my wonderful boyfriend offered to buy me a new one, so I got a neat new.

Jaime Avatar

In recent memory, I dropped one of my palettes and broke my MAC Fiction eye shadow. Fiction bits everywhere!

Back when Petticoat MSF first came out and everyone went nuts over it, I dropped mine and it shattered. I still have it, though – I just crushed it up and put it into a powder jar – and then I bought another whole one when it got re-released.

Gisele Avatar

On the tile floor, Smashbox glass bottle of primer (ended that phase of primer usage); lipsticks; BE Mineral Veil; BE black-brown eyeshadow. It took a third spill to move on to other makeup brands.

vivian Avatar

i dropped theBalm mary lou-manizer! i was so sad because it was my favorite highlighter and then it was broken ): however breaking it showed me how much product there really was in that compact, i was so surprised. luckily, i was able to take it to a sephora and they just replaced it for me! gotta love sephora’s policies (((:

Melissa Avatar

The Fedex man broke my Hard Candy baked blush when he decided it was a good idea to throw the package on my balcony. But since the stuff is so cheap, I didn’t flip out too much. I just put the pieces in an empty mineral makeup jar.

Shannon Avatar

Rawr! I broke the limited edition MAC MSF Natural with the shimmer strip 🙁 I tried the mash together with alcohol trick and it kinda worked… soooo not pretty to look at anymore though and it is much softer now so I have to have a way lighter hand when swirling my brush in it.

Maria Avatar

I’ve only ever dropped a product once and that was my studio fix powder and it broke but I was already at pan and it was about to run out so I just used the broken product until I got a new one.

Anitacska Avatar

Ouch! :S

I’ve only broken a couple of low value things like a BeautyUK eyeshadow palette (£4 or so) and dropped my Rimmel pressed powder into the sink, so a bit of it broke, but that’s it I think. I’m usually very careful with my expensive LE stuff.

Brynn Avatar

I dropped my refined golden bronzer from the Style Warriors collection.
It sucked but didnt turn out being too bad because I didn’t love the packaging, and refined golden came out in a cool new package in MAC to the beach.

Leah Avatar

I dropped my marine life highlight powder.. I now have it in a little container, and I use it as a loose blush because I liked it so much, but it was so pretty, and I had it for only like three weeks when I dropped it. 🙁

Flo Avatar

I had just bought a NARS Pure Sheer lip treatment, and of course I twisted it up too high and it got stuck and I had to depot it into a bottled water cap. Then I forgot about it and it dried out.

Carrie Ann Avatar

I once dropped a new Smashbox eyeshadow on my bathroom floor and it totally cracked apart. Luckily, the cover was on it, but I still felt very annoyed.

Melissa Avatar

ughhh, my lipsticks always break! my revlon soft nude broke & so did my mac creme d’nude but im thinking maybe it was because its a creamsheen? so i melted it down into an old tendertone jar. :/

CeeBee Avatar

I’ve had a particular brand of lipsticks have about 3 or 4 different shades fall out/snap off because they weren’t properly seated/melted into the tube. I just gently poked them back in and flamed them myself. It seemed to work pretty well.

And I dropped a Stila Kitten e/s once, but it was in the little plastic sleeve thing so it stayed nicely contained. I just gently pressed it back together under a couple of layers of tissue. I am careful with it, because it is still fractured but it is fine to use.

Lucky I guess. If I dropped and shattered any of my Dior or Guerlain I’d be gutted 🙁

Tekoa Avatar

I dropped my powdered MAC foundation on the counter, it bounced off and fell to the floor. It then ricochets off the floor and lands FACE DOWN in the litterbox. Chipped and soiled. Uggg.

Marlin Avatar

My brand new Lorac Spotlight 🙁 I don’t even know how it fell, I just watched it slide across the floor, hit the wall, pop open, turn upside down and crumble to powder. It was like watching it in slow motion, I hadn’t even used it, I did the whole alcohol thing but it looks weird now, I may give it to my cousin and buy a nice shiny new one 🙂

Torrie Avatar

This morning I discovered my NARS Casino was broken and my MAC Arena seems to be crumbling again. Those aren’t my first broken products and I’m sure they aren’t the last lol.

Kelly Avatar

My ‘Lazy Day’ lippie from the To the Beach collection was warm on arrival from UPS and when I tried it on it broke off in the tube. Not a complete loss, but still very upsetting.

Holly Avatar

Eyeshadows or pressed powder/bronzers have broken when travelling, but nothing that couldn’t be salvaged.

My mom dropped my MAC palette and 6 of the 12 shadows broke. 3 were totally ruined, but I was able to save the other 3.

Sarah Avatar

These comments are heartbreaking for me to read haha. Ive never broken anything that I can think of and never want to!
I guess you can just press most things back with alcohol though can’t you? Or even just use shadows loose, or lipsticks with a brush?

Deb Avatar

I dropped a Cargo eyeshadow in the shade Nepal and a chunk of shadow about the size of a thumbtack fell out. I vacuumed and vacuumed, but there is still a big copper smudge in my carpet!!

Margarett Avatar

I did the exact same thing with my Blu Flame and it broke in the same way. I put it in a clear jar to keep using and it has worked out fine. I dropped a fluidline and the glass jar exploded. It totally sucked. There was nothing to do but throw it away. I was not going to risk glass particles that may have gotten stuck in the product.

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!