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What are three brands that deserve the hype they get?
This was a tough one to answer because so few brands really live up to the hype on every product. The first that came to mind was Viseart- I think that their eyeshadows stand out and are great, but then again, I was disappointed by their blush palettes. Maybe Bite Beauty, as they have been fairly consistent… though the Multisticks did not work on eyes at all for me and that was recent! So, I suppose, my answer is really none.
— Christine
Suqqu for the brushes; La Mer for the original face cream; Urban Decay for the original Naked set eyeshadow. Other than that, not every product is consistently superior for that brand.
Stacey, I totally agree with you re: the original La Mer. That stuff was amazing. Estee Lauder claims to have “figured out the original Miracle Broth” recipe, but I don’t agree with that.
Brands? YIKES! Since none of them are *perfect*, I am flying by my pantalones here!
1.) Urban Decay (although most of the time, their LE eyeshadow palettes leave MUCH to be desired!)
2.) MAC, still. Admittedly, they and UD both suffer from many LE epic fails.
3.) A tie! This past year, I bought a few items from both KVD and Chanel. And not ONE of anything from either brand let me down at all! Love my KVD MetalMatte and Mother Studded Kiss Lipstick as well as my Chanel Empriente du Desert quad and Rouge Vie lipstick all very much!
MAC-lipsticks
Viseart- eyesahdows
Nars- blushes
In my mind, a brand doesn’t need to be perfect on every product, but if 90% of their products are consistently great, they live up to the hype
*ColourPop- I think their only miss is their ultra matte liquid lipsticks, but love their top quality products (shadows, blushes, highlighters, lipsticks), unique colors/finishes, at unbelievably affordable prices
*Anastasia – they started with just brow products, then shadows, then liquid lipsticks, highlighters, and launched a thousand copy cats with ABH Modern Renaissance
*BITE -the hype surrounding their lipsticks is real
That’s a tough question, I feel like all brands release a disappointing product at some point… And I’m not buying much based on hype alone, so it’s hard for me to judge brands I haven’t bought much from!
Anastasia Beverly Hills for sure. Their brow products and glow kits are unparalleled.
Colourpop because of the price point, mostly. Their lip products aren’t great but their shadows and highlighters are some of if not the most pigmented I’ve ever owned. Plus you can’t beat the price
I think some of the ones that are mentioned sometimes but not always, yet are always going to have something you can reach for in a bunch of categories at a given time. NARS is a good one, and they have a (fairly) decent shade range of bases as well. They’re blush is fantastic, their lipsticks are great, and their bases are good workhorses. I think the duochrome shadows are overhyped but for all that they offer that’s okay with me.
Another one in that kind of category would probably be MAC, just for the sheer size of their permanent collection. If you need something, they probably have it. Their LE collections are hit or miss, but things like their Paint Pots, foundations, lipsticks and blushes are always good.
I think a brand that’s much less of an all-rounder, but may expand as it’s so far been doing so, is ColourPop. They’re proving that you can have excellent quality products, made ethically and with workers getting decent pay, yet don’t cost an arm and a leg. They’re a wrench in the system in that way, and I am all for that. As they’ve gone from just eyeshadows, to cheek products, liners and now tons of lip products, I’m quite excited to see when they come up with next. I think while online-only models have limitations, it makes having more options possible in terms of shades, which if they ever branched into base products could be really awesome.
My answer is not predicated on rave reviews across the entire product line but rather brands that, on balance, are consistently strong performers (i.e. good investments):
1. Tom Ford – eyeshadows, blushes, lipsticks, mascara, certain brushes
2. Anastasia Beverly Hills – eyeshadows, lipglosses, brow products
3. Wayne Goss – brushes
ColourPop comes to mind for me. And Makeup Geek.
I think you’re right Christine. All have problems so I would have to chose the ones that work for me more often than not. In that case, it’s Nars (powders and concealer but not mascara or eyeshadow), Makeup Forever (foundation, lip liner and shadow, but can’t use the HD stick all the time b/c of the ingredients), and Chanel (foundation only) or Clinique (everything except certain skin care, which seems to be useless on me, sans Dramatically Different lotion, which is simple, yet bomb). OK, that was four:)
First, I would have to say MAC. Sure, many of us here – who are really “into” makeup – get frustrated with their less than stellar LE releases and their self-generated LE frenzy in general but I’m betting that many of us fell in love with makeup in large part via MAC. And they DO make some fabulous products right across the board – foundations, eyeshadows, skincare…I could go on and on (and their Paint Pots are what started me on “cream shadows/colour enhancing bases). Next would probably be NARS….sure they have some lemons (doesn’t every company?) but when they get it right, they really get it right. And then I’d have to say either KvD (which I used to write off as cheap and nasty – how wrong was I?) or Anastasia Beverly Hills which has only fairly recently become available in Canada. Their expanded line of shadows and other products and the increased ease of availability have helped me see what’s great in this line. Oh, and at the sort of “budget” end, SEPHORA’S house brand – they have some really amazing stuff at reasonable prices. Love, love, love!
I can only think of two brands. MAC and Colour Pop.
Urban Decay lives up to the hype. Their lipsticks are nice, eye and lip liners are nice and of course their eye shadows.
Fyrinnae lives up to the hype. Eyeshadows are awesome, blushes are cool and their lip shades are unique.
Anastasia lives up to the hype. The main products are for brows, which are nice. The eyeshadows are not bad either.
I feel like none of the brands I have come to love are as hyped as they should be. I guess that’s the rub when you dig smaller brands like Sugarpill, LunatiCK, etc. Also when you use stage makeup like RCMA and Kryolan! I guess you could say that Sugarpill and RCMA are the most ‘hyped’ of those four, especially RCMA’s No Color Powder. (which deserves the praise it gets!)
I would have to say Decleor. Anyone I’ve ever talked to in the beauty industry who is familiar with skin care knows the quality of this line. It’s a shame it doesn’t get more hype. (I think it does in Europe, but in the USA, it has more of a cult following.) I beat the internet bushes to get my favorites on sale.
I don’t have a #2 and #3.
All brands have their hits and misses in differing balances so it’s tough to pick out three really big winners. I have no specific brand loyalties and go wherever I need to get good products. For this post, I’m trying to pull out the much hyped makeup beauty product and look at winners in different categories.
1. Lilash: lash serum definitely lives up to my high expectation and given their very limited product offerings, it is easy to nominate them in first place.
2. Oribe: a true winner in the hair care department for me. Thick Dry Finishing spray and Dry Texturizing Spray= can’t live without it. Haven’t tried the new Dry Shampoo yet, but it is on my radar.
3. Drunk Elephant: a winner in the skin care department. I vary it up a lot with my skincare and my hoard includes some truly great finds. Drunk Elephant may not be the penultimate, but I find their products to always perform respectably for my skin. I haven’t had experienced a miss yet. I love the clever hygenic packaging.
Drunk Elephant… Big love of mine.
For me the brands that have constantly impressed me are Anastasia Beverly Hills, ColourPop and Lime Crime.
It seems that no matter what I get from them it’s always great and better than I even expected.
Granted I haven’t tried every products from their line like you did but what I have from them I truly love.
Also honorable mention to Lorac!
1) Surratt – not sure how hyped this is but damn the quality of the eyeshadows and blushes are insanely good. I pretty much love everything I’ve tried.
2) Charlotte Tilbury – not a fan of everything but the woman worked her butt off to get where she is and I love her passion about makeup. Her lipsticks are wonderful though – and I think their quality and consistency surpasses tom ford (which has a fair share of misses in my experience)
3) I don’t know if this is strictly a beauty brand (or at least m/u brand) but mason pearson hair brushes are worth every penny. I have the big popular mixture, the Detangler brush and the combs and I think quality is totally in line with price.
i think that shu uemura is a good brands,i love their products. Hourglass has some great products too . I love that they don’t have a lot of releases but what they do have is really awesome.
1.UrbanDecay had amazing products and packaging but there are some misses(their holiday highlight palette)as with most brands.2.lately Tarte has been hyped extremely like the Shape Tape concealer and Tarteist Metallic eyeshadows and everything has be very high quality. 3.Makeup Geek their new Highlighters are beautiful and the duochrome Highlighters are innovative and I love the foiled and duochrome eyeshadows they have.They are they same if not better quality than brands that cost twice as much and they keep adding more products like the lipsticks they have coming out soon.
Just FYI…you might want to wait for C’s reviews. MUG had lipsticks before and they failed. Never got any. I think it was color choice:all were eminently dupable, rather than the quality.
I’m a little surprised it hasn’t been mentioned yet, but Armani is a consistent winner for me. The last product I was disappointed in had to do with the colors not being right for me – the matte eye tints, but the product was fine. I’m going to throw Tom Ford in as well; I’ve had one or two misses, but I think the majority of the line lives up to the hype. Lastly, I’ll go with Sunday Riley. I’ve been pleased with the products I’ve purchased from the line and continue to rebuy – especially Luna and Good Genes. I honestly don’t buy a lot of hyped brands; I tend to prefer the more quietly consistent like Cle de Peau, Chantecaille, byTerry and Armani.
Only NARS meets this criteria for me when it comes to cosmetics: I love their foundations, bronzers, blushes, lipsticks, eye pencils, eyeshadows, and mascara.
For brushes I would say Wayne Goss and Hakuhodo.
Anastasia Beverly Hills – great quality, moderate pricing, fast, flat rate international shipping.
Colourpop – superb range, excellent products overall, very affordable and also innovative.
Zoeva – their makeup range is expanding slowly, eyeshadow palettes are always top notch quality and reasonably priced… I’m looking forward to getting the Plaisir box for Christmas and also trying out the new lip velours!
There’s no one brand where I’ve tried every single product, but there a few brands that I’ve tried quite a bit and are consistent winners for me. No brand is going to have 100% winners.
1) ColourPop — aside from the eyeliner pencils and the Ultra Mattes, everything else I’ve used from them has been very good to outstanding quality. The colors are incredible. I love their glittery and metallic shades eyeshadows — Wow!!! They’re they only cream formula besides Color Tattoos that stays on my oily lids. And they’re affordable.
2) ABH — I have yet to try something from ABH that I don’t like. I really like my older palettes, and the Modern Renaissance earns its name by being a masterpiece. I realize I’m in the minority, but I love their liquid lipsticks (both old and new formula). Everyone knows about the brow products by now. Their glosses I’ve tried are outstanding, and I’m trying to narrow down what colors to buy first.
3) Urban Decay — I love most of what Urban Decay puts out. I think their packaging is beautiful. They make some of the best purples and blues across product types on the market. The permanent eyeshadows, 24/7 eye and lip pencils, Vice lipsticks, Revolution lipglosses, Afterglow blushes and highlighters, setting spray, and Perversion mascara are all huge winners for me. Their new foundation oxidizes and their LE palettes lately have not been stellar, but I still count UD as one of my favorite brands.
Honorable mention: E.l.f. They have consistently affordable, good-quality products, and are always adding more to their product line. They make the only drug-store brand foundations that don’t oxidize on me. They make one of the few concealers that matches my skin tone and stays on my oily skin. The Mad for Mattes palette is one of the best all-matte palettes I’ve tried, regardless of price range. They have great lipsticks, lipglosses, HD Powder (a perfect dupe for MUFE’s IMHO, but without the fragrance), blushes, baked highlighters, brow products, brushes…I could go on. They do have several products I consider not as good, and some outright duds, but overall I’m a huge fan of this brand.
So glad you mentioned something that isn’t high end. We have talked about this, and me being neither pale nor oily, I hate ELF, but I do love lots of ds brands and it does seem like everyone is only naming the High End stuff. I have never tried ColourPop, and I think only one Anastasia product, but I do love Urban Decay. The shade range alone is special with them, and the products are good quality besided.
I think drug store is rapidly catching up with mid-range in terms of quality. We all seem to love our high end, but I know a lot of us appreciate a good drug store find. I’m a huge fan of Nyx, too, for the most part, and Wet n Wild.
yes yes yes to both of those, plus Milani. And Maybelline really has some nice, up-to-date color products, as well as foundations that work for me! I work weekends at Walgreens, so if I can buy there, I do, but I also love Ulta, Sephora, and the good ole World Wide Web.
I love Makeup Forever, I think I own the most number of products from them out of any brand in my collection, and I love every one of them!! I also, personally try my best/do not buy from brands that only have like 3 foundation colours. Because if you’re not going to support my dark skinned sibs. I’m not going to support you. So I DO appreciate that MUFE comes out with a fair bit of shades!!!
I also really like Colourpop, I know it doesn’t work for everyone, But their products work really well for me, personally.
I think that’s it, for me!!
Overall? Bite, Melt & KVD. (Runner up for me is ABH)
Brushwise it’s Hakuhodo/Goss/Smith.
Kevyn Aucoin: the individual eyeshadows I have are old, but still some of the most pigmented blendable I own.
Bite: I am a little biased as a Canuck, but I have to admit Nori has replaced my former fave, Marc Jacobs Blow. And I have pretty much all the Amuse Bouche shades that even slightly suit me. Great finish, conditioning and stay even through my continual coffee-sipping and noshing.
Laura Mercier: I have yet to purchase anything disappointing from this line.
Honourable mention, as it’s not really hyped, but I find everything they do outstanding: Amaterasu (formerly Geisha Ink). Started as a niche eyeliner company and have slightly expanded to pencil eyeliner, liquid eyebrow pencil, mascara and my favourite (my skin, but poreless and soft-focused) powder foundation. Don’t do a huge number of things, but do them all very very well. Canadian co., but imported items from Japan, I believe.
I approached the question completely differently! I thought of three solid, high-performing brands that may not have a lot of buzz but have a really good reputation.
1. Bobbi Brown
2. Estée Lauder
3. Lancôme
These are 3 brands where you can find them at any department store or at Sephora, and you will always find something that works. Skincare, foundations and powders, tools, mascara, lipstick, everything.
Armani beauty, Chantecaille, Sisley
A woman after my own heart
Usually I love a brand for some of their products only, not all their products, so the only brands where I think the hype is justified across the board specialize in just one type of product.
Wayne Goss, who only does brushes. All the brushes that I’ve tried (about half) have been excellent.
I’ve only tried two, but Billy B.’s brushes may also belong here.
After trying just a few, I suspect that Chikuhodo also belongs here; I’ve yet to try Hakuhodo, but it may also qualify.
I wanted to list several other brands that I love for specific things, but there is always something else that I don’t like so much!
Urban Decay, Becca and Mally for me
1. Guerlain – My favorite brand, and with good reason. Every product I’ve tried has exceeded my expectations.
2. Givenchy – Never been disappointed. And, their powders are to die for!
3. Armani – Still haven’t found a miss.
Suqqu brushes (and some Surratt)
Tom Ford lipstick
Dolce & Gabbana blush
ColourPop? I’ve tried nearly all the products they have… if not all… and the only one that’s been a miss for me was their Creme Gel eyeliner.
That’s not three but that’s all I’ve got.
I would say none too – some brands are great at lipsticks (Dior, Guerlain etc) but are terrible at eye shadows.
UD would have been my preference, but the Alice and Full Spectrum palettes have been sub par, but I guess they come the closest.
Milani is a pretty good, consistent brand with their products.
And again, Bareminerals in the recent past was pretty good, but their last few releases have been uninspiring.
Milani is great and woefully underhyped. Surprisingly, they are created/marketed for Women of Color, but here we are loving it.
NARS! Love their foundation and blushes and creamed eyeshadow that comes in a lipgloss like container.
Milani baked blushes. Omg! I love them!
Lots of things from WetnWild unbelievable cheap and surprising great products.
L’Oréal has great products as well.
I’m not to crazy about Maybelline and less Revlon.
Urban Decay–I’ve tried the Naked Basics 2 shadows, three eyeliners, and a lipstick sample. So far, everything is consistent with the raves I’ve heard!
ColourPop–I feel like I could like the eyeshadows with better shades (my first ones got Ds from Christine and they were well-deserved) but the one good one I have, Telepathy, is nearly liquid metal. I live and breathe for their blushes and lippie stix and am currently awaiting an order of eyeliners, highlighters, and satin lips. In my experience, their products are always worth the customer service hassle.
Tarte–I know that there’s not a whole lot of hype around Tarte but what talk is given is absolutely right! So many people talk about their blushes and eyeshadows and they last beautifully on my skin. Their LipSurgence products are ever so wearable. I can’t say enough about Tarte!
I agree it is difficult to answer bc EVERY brand has its hits and misses. I have liked everything I’ve tried from Kat Von D. I’ve also have been impressed with everything I have tried with It Cosmetics and BareMinerals
1)MAC for Lipsticks
2)Make Up Forever for eyeliners
3)Clinique for foundation and blush
Cle de Peau- My HG on everything except eyeshadow. Their products really are perfection.
IT Cosmetics- I stayed away from this brand for a LONG time because of their cheezball Guthy Renker TV promotion ads & link with QVC. After seeing so many rave reviews & I needed a 50 SPF foundation so I finally bought the GR offer. I must say all the makeup (foundation, concealer, blush, bronzer, mascara) & brushes I’ve tried have been really impressive!
Anastasia BH- Everything I’d tried from this company has been fabulous!
Oh it is Hard to say a brand because not every product is great. I love some brands by each category tough, por exemple:
– primer: Benefit
– Foundation: Mary Kay
– Concealer: Mac
– Face powder: Guerlain
– Eyeshadow: Kat Von D, Urban Decay, The Balm and Too Faced.
– Eyeliner: Mac
– Gelliner: Mary Kay
– Mascara: Maybelline, Make Up for ever and Too Faced
– Bronzer: The Balm, Mac and Benefit
– Blush: Benefit
– Highlighter: The Balm
I’m always trying new things but these are my ride or die by brand and category.
Colourpop
Too Faced
Anastasia Beverly Hills
I’m not really into purchasing products based on the hype but more so for how I feel they preform for me, with that being said the brands that products work best for me are Tarte across the board, Nars across the board and lastly it’s a toss up between Bobbi Brown for most of their products, Becca for their entire shimmering skin line, and Mac for their lipsticks!
Anastasia Beverly Hills. I have yet to try a product from them I haven’t liked. Mac, for their foundations, concealers, lipsticks, and Fix +. ColourPop has so many amazing products, and I don’t think they’re overhyped at all.
I know that I just complained about their stocking procedures, but I’d have to say ABH. I haven’t been let down by a purchase yet (knocking on wood & not talking about ordering or shipping issues—just their products). I do have a Rose eyeshadow single that I got from Sephora that definitely doesn’t live up to your rating. I can barely get any pigment from it at all, but I think I just need to scratch off the top layer as it may be old for all I know. I love that color though. They get ahead of the trends & their products have been consistent since I started purchasing from them (a few months after the Maya Mia palette came out). I’m surprised they don’t have a metallic liquid lipstick yet (or maybe they do, I haven’t tried their liquid lippies).
So yeah, ABH lives up to their hype in my experience.
Ohhhh, three… I’ll say Inglot as a second brand. I honestly can’t think of a 3rd that I’ve been completely satisfied with. Although Inglot doesn’t get a lot of hype… They totally should though!
Thought of a 3rd (I have a duochrome package heading my way this week from them & just checked on it’s status) — MUG! How could I forget my trusty shadows & blushes & pigments, & yes, I like their brushes! Have yet to try her highlighters, but I know they’re in my cards. Hype well deserved. To hell w/the sparkler debacle.
To answer this, I asked myself what brand’s new releases am I most excited to see? Answer:
1. Mac
2. NYX
3. Urban Decay
Maybe it’s just shade selection and the edgy packaging, but I love seeing what these three are doing next. But really, I love every brand I’ve tried except two.
I agree, Christine! Bite Beauty is the most consistent with their products.
I think Urban Decay is pretty awesome, too! But there are definitely some duds in their line.
Colourpop’s eyeshadows are really consistent across the board, too, but I wouldn’t say the same for their lips and cheek products,