Most of the buying I do is of newly released products, so I don’t usually see reviews yet, but the one that definitely comes to mind was the Huda Beauty Rose Gold palette, which was released by the brand prior to the release on Sephora. I only saw negative reviews on that one!
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Two off the top of my head are both UD! The Vice 3 palette and the Naked Smoky palette, I love Vice 3 more than Naked Smoky, though, because of all the luscious jewel tones and warm taupey type shades. Other than those, possibly a toss-up between MAC Siahi Fluidline or UD Pandemonium. Pandemonium gave me a HORRIBLE rash on my lips like nothing I’ve ever seen before! It went back. Tried on a newly opened tester for Jawbreaker. Seems like UD may have tweaked it a bit, as it was far better than I was expecting, plus more even coverage and not as dry.
All 3 of the MAC Nutcracker Eye Palettes!
Edited to add: don’t get me wrong, I love them because:
1. PALETTES – I’m on a palette kick and I think I starting to consistently prefer them for the one-and-done factor.
2. For me, primer or a Paint Pot fixes any dusty, sheerness or longevity issues. I use primer or Paint Pots for everyday use anyway and have not had any issues with the palettes.
3. It’s MAC and I’m biased. I’m brand loyal to them, always have been, always will be. The only thing that I was downright horrified by that I can remember were those god-awful Big Bounce things. Save for Guerlain Meteorites and YSL Blur Primer, everything else I need in my stash I could get at MAC and be done.
Pearl, how does the YSL blur primer work? In your makeup routine, do you wear it underneath your foundation?
Hi Tracey! Yes, I wear it under my foundation, but I’ve read where others just wear it alone to even out skin sheen, even tone. I only wear it under foundations that are silicone based or at least have the -cone ingredients (mine are Giorgio Armani Lasting Silk, Shiseido Synchro Skin, Guerlain Lingerie De Peau) because of the silicone compatibility (if I wore it with a water based foundation it would separate and I’d get sheeny). It mattifies without making me look dry or flat, and out of all the primers I have tried, I’ve found it to be the most versatile in that it seems to really blend seamlessly with my foundation(s). I know it has visible sparkle in the bottle, but I don’t see it on the skin. 🙂
Unless the reviews are overwhelming bad I’ll just buy what I like .And review it for myself. That’s why I buy from retailers that have a generous return policy. If I find a product wanting it’s going back.
The Too Faced born this way concealer it was often compared to the Tarte shape tape but not as good I bought the too faced anyways and I loved it, Lavanilla deodorant that reviews claimed that it had no lasting power but I didnt have any problems with it, Colourpop ultra matte lippies people review them as too drying well I find them matte enough and with a wonderful color range
Thanks to you, I don’t usually purchase poorly-reviewed products. ;D <3
2015 Guerlain holiday eye and cheek palette.
I like it and can use 7 of the 8 shades. There are 2 gold shadows.
All the colors are easy to use. The shadows are brown and gold. The blushes are bright and beautiful.
I don’t feel bored when looking at it. And it’s so travel friendly.
Most of people prefer the 2014 palette, not me, it was too “yellow” and the blushes are too dark. When I look at that one, I feel bored.
The Terry lipstick in Cupid Peony, it was on sale at Sephora, the color is a gorgeous bright pink. It had bad review but the color was so pretty that I took it.
Hmm, not much. The new MUFE holiday is the only thing that comes to mid. It’s not a bash of the product but repetitive colors.
1. Maybelline Fit Me Foundation stick. I didn’t want to drop $33 on the ABH one, because i’v never tried a stick foundation before and wasn’t sure If i’d like it. But I have a TON of traveling coming up in 2017/the remainder of 2016. And so far. I dunno!! I love the coverage of the stick, It just covers the redness in my cheeks and evens out my skin. But it’s so so pink, and the shade up is too dark. It cakes/clumps up between my brows when I set it there. But I dunno!!
2. Covergirl Clean Concealer. My grandma had it in Light medium, and it was the perfect light under eye shade for me. Then I finished it, and bought Light. Which is STRAIGHT UP PINK, It looks like a pink colour corrector. So I kinda use it that way? It has about medium coverage, not enough to hide my dark circles. So I do a few dots where my darkness is the darkest, blend that out. Then apply my yellow toned concealer ontop! And it doesn’t feel heavy or anything and my insomniatic under eyes are covered!!
3. QUO Blush/Bronzer/Highlight pallet. This is a Canadian brand, but it’s one of my favourites!! I have two of these cheek pallets. And I’v hit pan on BOTH highlights. And I LIVE for the reddish brown bronzer in the prismatic one!! It’s a shimmery bronzer, so I use it as a blush!! These pallets are totally worth the $20 price tag IMO!
Hrrrrmmm nothing that I can remember! If the overall rating/reviews are bad I’ll just pass, really, have bought too many fails in the past to risk it anymore.
That’s a tough question since I put a lot of faith in reviews from this source – Temptalia – and from Makeupalley. I do find most other beauty blogs to be much less reliable. But I guess the closest I’ve come to buying things with poor reviews would be the ABH Mario palette and the Nars Hardwired eyeshadows and Dual Intensity eyeshadow palette from a few years ago, or maybe the Too Faced holiday palette from 2 or so years back.
Becca Champagne Face Palette: you gave it a good grade but others seemed to absolutely hate it. Now, I don’t reach for it as much as I thought I would, but I definitely like it!
Maybelline SuperStay Better Skin concealer: it’s just okay. I still use it everyday, and I only spent $3 on it, but I definitely don’t think it’s that great.
Revlon The Only One Volume + Length waterproof mascara: horrible, terrible, no-good, very bad mascara. End of!
Revlon Colorstay Foundation. A site gave it like 2 stars (out of five). I don’t remember why. I disagree wholeheartedly bc that foundation is awesome for my oily skin and it is one of my favorite foundations.
YSL Babydoll Mascara. It got another 2 star but I got it to try it bc it is so hyped on social media. I think it is a mediocre mascara at best. It has a very strong scent, a generic brush, it clumps and it is difficult to remove. I agree actually more with the low star review. I’d give it three stars but definitely don’t think it is so great and worth the hype.
I cannot think of a third. I definitely hear more good and bad about products. Some really love the Garnier BB cream and some don’t. I tried it and I found it gritty and gross and the product makes your skin orange (the limited range of colors you can choose from anyway) . I look at reviews but I don’t just look at their rating. Why do you like or don’t like something. I see if that is something I can live w or not. I may be influenced by hype but generally it has to be a type of product I’m interested in trying.
The Anastasia Glow Kit in Ultimate Glow is the only recent one I can think of. That really was bad, I returned it.
I agree with you on that one. I was eyeing it because hello, all the yellow gold highlighters in there! Fortunately, I was able to swatch in store. A couple of the highlighters were nice, but the rest were chunky glitter bombs that were separating from the base, horrible!!
I have to admit that I just won’t purchase anything anymore that gets predominantly poor reviews. I have so much makeup now that something has to be really good for me to be interested. And of course I research the blogs, YouTube and makeup alley exhaustively. I don’t trust reviews on retail sites because I know most of my negative (but polite) ones somehow never get posted but my positive ones are up within minutes. Sorry if this is a little off the topic, but thought it might be relevant?
Hmm, this is hard. I usually steer clear of badly reviewed products unless they only have like a couple of reviews on MUA so far.
1) St Tropez Gradual Tan in Shower Lotion
I don’t know if this is strictly a beauty product but anyway, yup, this had pretty poor reviews on MUA (i just don’t trust most of the beauty bloggers tbh, with the exception of you, Christine!)
Unfortunately, I have to concur with the bad reviews. It’s veeeeeeery gradual, gets streaky and the DHA scent clings to my skin for the next 12 hours. Which defeated the purpose of buying an instant wash off tanner!
2) Surratt Automatique Lip Crayon (Celestine)
This one got a bad review from you, Christine but I bought it anyway b/c I’m a sucker for Surratt. It’s actually not bad in my opinion, def not hydrating but I wouldn’t wear this alone anyway. It’s good under balm or as a base for one of the Lipsliques (Hevyn is a great match).
3) Tom Ford Revolve Around Me lipstick
This got a C- from you and I should have listened! Weird formula (what’s ultra rich about it??) and blah shade. Waste of money.
Only one I can think of is Marc Jacobs highliner in Jazzberry. The topnote purple doesn’t apply smoothly, as reviewed, but I like a lot the pink/purple it becomes after a couple of hours.
Most of the times I resist buying poor reviewed products and this thing made me feel more satisfied 🙂
I suppose it depends on what you consider “poor.” I bought MAC Kling it On and ColourPop Flitter despite C reviews.
MUFE Ultra HD Foundation and NARS All Day Luminous foundation. I know it’s only two, but I do tend to lean to products that get good reviews before buying them. Apparently the NARS one is one of Sephora’s most returned products, but I quite like it.
*Huda Rose Gold palette – was trying to test this, but it’s on hold, as pollen is causing my eyes to water
*Dior Mono Fusion in Olympe -had to return, couldn’t build it without adding tons of texture on my lids, looked like dried out liquid paper (ugh!)
*MAC Kling It On – I think Christine’s press sample was a bad batch, as mine was perfect -very even and shimmery. It’s such a unique and flattering color on me, I even got a backup
Yeesh – looking through the other replies, I realized I omitted UD’s Naked Smokey, which I love and also a Stila palette from last year called Trust in Love, which I also love. And I bought two of the 4 “new” Stila eyeshadow palettes (Eyes Are the Window Spirit and Soul). All of these have been really good purchases.
Good to hear about the Windows palette in Soul. Mine is on its way to me and was thinking it was a gamble but since it was on sale….plus, I’ve always loved the packaging of this line!
I used to skip low rated limited edition products, especially on Temptalia. Over time I learnt that a product may be low rated by others but can work very well for me. So I did purchase some low rated products on this website. Especially Mac ones.
I’m actually a lot more cognizant of what I buy- I have so much makeup all ready that I’m trying to be more discerning. I wait and look at swatches, read reviews and get a general consensus of a product before I do (or do not) purchase.
1) Most recently, the Sephora + Pantone Universe Modern Watercolors Palette. I waited till it came on clearance and use my Sephora VIB coupon code, so I only paid about $15. I would not have paid full price, but for I do like the bright but not overly white-based pastels in it. The muted shimmers work great with my very fair skin. The shadows work fine over primer for me.
2) Urban Decay Ultimate Basics Palette. I needed more mattes, and this has a nice shade range. The shades work well with my skin tone and don’t turn muddy on me. It also gives me one of my favorite smokey eye looks, which surprised me. I’m not blown away by the palette, but it’s good, and it’s serviceable.
3) Urban Decay Alice TTLG Palette. It was a rare item that I bought mainly for the packaging. Overall, I do like it very much. There a few finicky shades, but I can make them work with primer and minimal effort.
I can really only think of one: UD’s All Nighter foundation. I might have a few ColourPop shadows that received less-than-stellar reviews here (no worse than a C, I’m thinking).
I had to think about this one a bit to come up with an answer. I can think of three, but they were all bought prior to review and I get on with them quite well. The Cle de Peau Annes Folles is really pretty on me, but I do understand where the issues were. Being on the paper side of pale has its advantages sometimes. Same goes for NARS Indra Galantes, not the best shadow I’ve ever used, but not unworkable and the burgundy is pretty and that’s what I was drawn to. My last two are Tom Ford; my pink nightbloom powder is fine and I get fine payoff from it, though I seem to be in the minority. I also enjoy my lip duos. The lipsticks have good reviews but not the liners. Mine aren’t dry, nor have they broken. The glitter doesn’t bother me so much, but I apply after the lipstick instead of before, so no disruption on the edges.
I only impulse buy with lip colors. I only buy high end now so reading reviews is a must for me. When they are split reviews I don’t totally discount them as I may be one of the likers. I will see if a friend has it if it’s debatable, to check out but if not, I’ll buy and try. Lipsticks just have to be in my sight and I’m buying.
The reviews weren’t really bad, but they were not great either: The Sephora It Palette in Nudes. The pale vanilla shade was meant to be invisible, it isn’t; and a couple of the darker matte shades were meant to be very patchy – they aren’t. So all in all, I love the palette.
Other than that – I generally only buy makeup products that get a really good rating.
The NARS Narsissist eye shadow palette. I just couldn’t believe a NARS palette that pretty would perform that poorly. It was so disappointing. ?
Cle de Peau Les Annees Folles Collection for Holiday 2016 Eye Palette. It received at least two to three bad reviews and two good reviews. I am very happy with the eye palette and I also purchased one of the lip palettes.
Me too! Glad I’m not the only one and hope you like the lip palette. Did you go for the red or the purple?
Reviews definitely influence my purchases so I can’t remember buying something knowing that a majority of reviews were negative.
I did however buy one of the new Guerlain eyeshadow palettes (Coque d’Or) before there were any reviews available and I personally love it, although now the reviews overall are very critical.
For me is a difficult question to answer I buy on impulse if a color, product, design draws this bee into it I’m buying the flower. To name three I haven’t liked much first one and worst is the Jergens Natural Glow from Target I tried the lighter one it was a joke then I tried the medium shade and nothing! I even developed some weird itching on my legs and stopped as soon as I returned them real bad (and I’m a runner and my legs barely get a hint of tan I’m as white as milk or a ghost. Hate it! Lol! Only dream of getting a tan instead get freckles and wrinkles but I love the sun. Lol!). The other two I’m still keeping they are just pretty and do a bit of work are both the highliters strips from Revlon I bought the pink it barely gives any color I have to pick up some product to show on my cheeks but barely noticeable even on this ghost. I also got the bronzer one it does work better but I would say both colors are rather flat. On the other hand, most other products have worked on me since I’m fair a bit goes a long way and I wear my makeup natural dont really know how any better, would love to do the beautiful cat eye. Attempting to improve a simple smoky eyes is a big challenge as it is. I have tons of products from drugstores that have worked beautifully actually. WetnWild I love their matte lipsticks and have collected them all. Vampy colors even except dark brown which does not suit me they do not dry my lips and last better than Boots 07 those don’t last at all although pretty shades. The blushes are insanely great even the peach and light browns they all work great and their eyeshadows. I love! love! the Milani baked blushes more than the rose design ones which are a bit more dry but still good i have gone nuts over the design and am collecting them all. I would say the rose design are best for the daytime, baked ones best for the evening as they do pack a beautiful punch. High end from Sephora I haven’t dared to enter the store in years but this Christmas I will. Hardly need anything but oh! I love makeup! I’m dying to get the Makeup Revolution highliter highly recommended by Kathleen Lights I would get the pink one and some beautiful sparkly eyeshadow such as Moondust. I try avoiding purchasing high ends but then en up purchasing tons from drugstores but hey! They work for me and I’m happy with the results. For something expensive I would check the previews for sure but even then if I like it is coming home. If something gives a breakout is going back for sure.
I am trying to curb my shopping urges. So, something getting a bad review on Temptalia is a sure way to ensure that the product is out of my shopping basket. The only exception to this that i can think of is:
1. MAC Siahi – I was just too smitten with he shade and wanted it for the longest time. Plus, it was part of Mickey Contractor’s collection – whom i am a big fan off. So, when it relaunched, i had to get it.
2. KVD Monarch palette – I wanted something neutral, something with more than a couple mattes. Plus, i thought a primer anyways would help. So..
3. Can’t think of a third one…
Hourglass Surreal Light Editing Palette – a lot of people hated on this one and I can understand the issue with it only being for fairskinned people but I thought the formulation of the products and the products themselves were great.
and the Becca Champagne pop eyeshadow palette, I didn’t see any difference in formulation from my other Becca rouge eyeshadow palette, but I guess I was one of the lucky ones…
I stick to the same brands just different items so quality remains the same…
the new UD Vice Lipstick those things were hyped to the gawds so I purchased 4 and they all went back for being dry, gritty, or just horrible color payoff.
tarte liquid lipstick, that stuff is like suede for the lips and that’s not a good thing. horrible.
Benefit brow-scara (huge thumbs down)
1. The Chanel quad (purple shades with one gold shade) – I like it!
2. MAC’s Pro Long-wear Waterproof Colour Stick in Copper – it’s so drying on the lids – don’t like it!
Urban Decay Alice Through The Looking Glass palette, Urban Decay Gwen Stefani palette, and Kat Von D Serpentina pallet. None of these received the best reviews, but I love them all. There are some issues with a few of the shades on each, but I’ve found I can make them work. The Alice palette and Serpentina I got because of the unique shades they have. The Gwen palette really didn’t excite me at first, I got it on sale months later. It has turned out to be a great everyday basic palette and I even bought a backup on sale.