What would you want your favorite brand to know if they read this post?
I always get asked “what’s your favorite brand,” which I find impossible to answer now… I just like too much across too many brands, and by the nature of what I do, I flit from product to product. But last year’s brands of the year were Urban Decay and ColourPop. So, to Urban Decay: Please come out with pan-only versions of your eyeshadows! Please bring back Honey eyeliner! What happened to the blushes?? To ColourPop: You put out great products, and I love that you can easily turn around new concepts and shades, but it feels like an onslaught of releases and I can’t keep up!
— Christine
PLEEEEEASE stop selling in China!!!!! No more animal testing!
That is exactly what I would have said. If all the brands stopped selling, they could put an end to it. Skin can be made in a lab and the Chinese have the science savvy to do that.
To: all: please stop using the chemical sunscreens that have been banned in the EU and in Australia as not reef safe. They are ultimately not safe for people, either. Stop artificial sweeteners; if you must sweeten or scent, use stevia. Benzyl Salicylate is under both those categories, as a fragrance modifier and as a chem sunscreen. MUFE: pull a New Coke; go back to the original formula. tf: try more adulting. CP: slow down, make more permanent product. Tarte: a tad more originality, please. You have to change more than the packaging. It all looks the same. MAC: improve reliability and validity, esp in LE releases. Esp tf and Tarte: stop the constant churning out of new releases. FOMO no longer works, when we know it’ll be on sale and dumped shortly. NYX, CP, et al: Influencers may pique interest, but we will know, if the products turn out to be abysmal failures. That’s the slapback of social media. Kat, Jeffree, Laura, etc: think before you react in print. Keep your private lives and feuds private. Do not advertise irresponsible behavior, it will cost you significantly. More cool tones, all, all products. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The industry has become at once overwhelming and dysfunctional.
I would like to disagree about stevia. Please STOP using it in all of your products! It’s the most vile tasting substance one earth! (And yes, I’m looking at you, Eos lip balms. ?)
yeah, it’s gross. cannot stand it and would not knowingly buy anything with it, but Nancy T told us about the cross allergy with saccharine, for those with sulfa drug allergies. Stevia may be disgusting, but it won’t make you sick and allergic… that I know of, yet. probably some are allergic to stevia, but it’s a better choice than saccharine. there’s really no need for any of it. heck, I’m allergic to aloe, but the chem s/s drop my temp to 93 and I would prefer to die. stevia is chump change compared to that.
Amen to that, KJH. Stevia may not be the tastiest of things, but why would my eyelids, cheeks or even lips need to taste sweet anyways? Tasty eyelids? What? Is this in preparation for the zombie apocalypse or something? I think it is absolutely RIDICULOUS to scent, much less *FLAVOR* eye products! Don’t need sweet cheeks or lips really, either. We’re not a pack of 13 year old buying this stuff!
I will second the MUFE comment. I used to LOVE their artist shadows.
To Chanel: Please decrease the fragrance used in your blushes! I like the fragrance but it’s too overpowering, to the point where I can smell the product after I apply it on the face. The formula is lovely though! Please don’t change it!!
To MUFE: Why do you change your eyeshadow formula when it’s perfectly fine? I’m baffled.
To Hourglass: I love your blushes but please come out with more colors!
My favorite brands that have a whole range for the face: MAC, Nars, ColourPop and Milani
MAC: the limited edition collections are hit or miss a lot lately. They need to have consistency especially when it’s an exisiting formula. Please expand the shade ranges for Face and Body foundation, Mineralize Skin Finish Natural, Pro Longwear Concealer. Make Fix + in a larger size. Please stop selling in countries that require animal testing. It’s primitive and unnecessary
Nars: Please expand your shade ranges in your complexion products (base, concealer and powders), consider making eyeshadows in single pan form, make more shades of the multiple sticks. Also please stop selling in countries that require animal testing.
ColourPop: the amount of new releases is insane and the amount of discontinued products is nuts. Please bring back the ultra blotted and blotted lip products
Milani: please expand your shade ranges in your base complexion products, make your blush and powder packaging not so bulky, make more shades and finishes in the color statement lipstick line, make single shadows
I’m equally disappointed with Colourpop as well, they discontinued some of their single eyeshadows that haven’t even been in their makeup line for 6 months. I totally forgot to mention Milani, but I feel they need to make 2 types of foundations, a more lightweight one to be exact and make more of their baked blushes but in a matte formula just like they did with Terra Sole once, but sadly discontinued as well.
Nars has one of the better shade ranges in foundation… not saying that there is no room for improvement, but for that to be the first complaint astounds me.
It’s not a complaint but there is room for improvement. Sheer Glow, All Day Luminous and Velvet stick comes in 20 shades but Natura Radiant comes in 33. The tinted moisturizer, velvet skin tint and powder foundation only come in 12 shades. I do think that the shades they do offer are realistic skin tones. There are way way worse offenders but Nars is/was a personal favorite brand of mine.
Ally, you are quite right about Milani’s foundation range – I would love to see them put out a whole range of shades to rival L’Oreal’s True Match.
Urban Decay – with ultra violet as color of the year, why haven’t you put out an Ultra Violet Underground palette??
Colourpop – I love you, but please put more variation in your palettes. Most of them feel like redundant releases, and I’d love to see you do less warm neutrals and more greens, blues, and purples.
Pantone doesn’t work with most brands to tell them the color of the year and brands are working 18-24 months in advance (production etc takes a long time). I wish hey could turn around like a colourpop who is also their own manufacturer bc that’s a good idea! 🙂
I want all brands to know that unless they are cruelty-free, they will lose my business. I’m in particular looking at you, NARS.
Charlotte Tilbury: please please please make some of the limited edition eye palettes permanent! Exagger-Eyes and Pillow Talk namely! Urban Decay, ColourPop and Tarte: please make cool toned palettes, not more of the same old same old warm browns and orangey shades!
Chanel: Please make Empreinte du Desert permanent.
MAC: Less releases, less collaborations, more quality put into seasonal and holiday launches. Also please bring back other than nude paint pot colors and more MOAR extra dimension everything, particularly eyeshadows.
Tom Ford: Another quad or 3 in the Nude Dip or Honeymoon formula and make it a yearly release, please, so I can look forward to it. And bring back Illicit and Guilt eye color creams.
Pat McGrath: THANK YOU.
Viseart: What happened? It’s like you ran out of steam and quality has dipped. ?
EVERYTHING you just said, Pearl! Especially for Chanel to make Empriente du Desert a permanent quad, a huge THANK YOU to PMG, and also smdh at whatever is happening with Viseart.
On Viseart — oh yes, agreed. Good one. I love Viseart, and am anxious about how they’ve been close to loosing quality footing while trying to figure out to respond to their growing popularity.
Concur on the quality, I bought one palette a year or so ago and was disappointed.
One of my top favorite brands is also Colourpop, I personally would love for them to come out with colored brow gels that contain fibers in them and mascaras since I believe those may be only things missing from their line at the moment I don’t have and not available for purchase. I have to agree that I can barely keep up with all the new releases which seem to be every other week, but I have actually stopped driving myself insane thinking I need everything they offer/sell and I have skipped on several items due to some of your reviews/dupes provided. My other favorite is Wet N Wild and they’re another brand I can barely keep up with these days because they do a lot of limited edition products which in most cases I prefer purchasing online instead of hunting them down at drugstores, but I’d love for them to revamp the packaging of the photo focus foundation, bring back heather silk blush, loose setting powders and add new makeup brush styles to the pro line.
I have to agree with several of the other comments here:
– all brands, please stop testing on animals and make all products cruelty-free! Science gives us options these days, consumers will appreciate when you take advantage
– all brands – wider shade selection, especially in base products! consumers come in all shades you know!
– all brands – more vegan products please
To Pat McGrath – Foundation. Please, foundation. And maybe blush, too.
Ooo, I could see her doing blush next!
Sugarpill: Please come out with blushes! A couple of your eyeshadows work well for that purpose, so it makes me want to see more!
To all brands: Please remove all microplastics from your products!
Excellent point! And rarely mentioned.
To Pat McGrath: Thank you for bringing creativity and innovation back to an oversaturated and stale market! As a one time MUA, I greatly appreciate your brand. However, I would love to see your lovely 10 pan Mothership Palettes housed and packaged like your 6 pan MTHRSHP palettes for convenience sake, ie; being less heavy. And to retain your splendid artwork on the outer packaging to the palette itself, making it also easily identifiable amongst one’s other Mothership Palettes.
To Too Faced: Oh how I *want* to love your brand! You have no idea. Problem is this; your addition of an artificial sweetener, namely sodium saccharin, is highly problematic for me and others like me. You see, I have an allergy to Sulfa. Sodium Saccharin IS a sulfa. This is not an uncommon allergy, either. My reactions are of the sort that gradually builds up over several uses until it suddenly goes severe. Others, however? They could go into anaphylaxis. Would you please, for the love of all things beautiful, inside as well as out, stop using this potentially dangerous ingredient in your very lovely products? Beauty should be inclusive of everyone. Including those with serious, even life-threatening allergies, wouldn’t you agree?
To Urban Decay: What Christine said; please make your eyeshadows available as pan only. I know many people would be buying so many more if offered in that format! Myself included.
Pat McGrath: Please use an Asian eye to demonstrate use of your eyeshadow palettes in your videos. You haven’t even done one token Asian eye yet in the demo vids.
To everybody who makes beautiful reds and oranges
PLEASE find some other way to make these colors without using carmine!! I’m allergic to it and find most of the colors I love the best are made using carmine so I can’t buy them.
Pat McGrath- love you! Can’t wait for the day you launch complexion products- foundation please! But now that your sales volume is higher can you please negotiate with suppliers and save us some coin? $125 for one palette hurts my heart….and my bank account.
She’s my second favorite and I’d want singles of her shadows (because you’re right those prices with shipping hurts, which is why I haven’t hurt myself more between ND and her).
PLEAAASE stop putting crushed up bugs (carmine) in your products!! Stop selling in China. Animals and makeup are a bad mix!!!
To all the DS brands that come to Australia (Maybelline, NYX, Milani et al) – please send out ALL of your products to our country, not just a selected few because the shades you send out don’t always suit me.
Even Sephora has a limited array of their own products to see here. And Sephora, can we please have same kinds of sales here as you do in the States?
To all the brands that sell in China – stop and think about those animals. It is unnecessay and the laws won’t change there until you refuse to sell your products.
Colour Pop – please come to Australia.
Ditto on the sales like in the States for France! We have sales, but not like there’s (and please acquire the lines in the States sooner or at all).
All brands, please be allergy aware. I don’t have allergies but I know people who do. Be cruelty free, this is 2018, it’s not that hard! Stop with the onslaught of new releases, enough already, I’m on overload, I hardly pay attention anymore, I’m losing interest really fast. A really good thought out release is better than an onslaught of subpar releases. LE is almost a total turnoff, it inflates prices and puts undue stress on my part. I hardly care anymore. Pat McGrath, I’m in love with you, I don’t like your prices, but your products are a dream, please come out with some more face products. Kudos to all the brands that are inclusive to all skin shades what took so long? Using technology is a plus, bring it on. I’m looking forward to what the future brings.
All — What Seraphine and Lesley said about animal testing. To all of you who have strong, perfume or floral scents/tastes in your lipsticks: Just stop. It’s gross. I won’t buy any of it. Expand your foundation lines for us pale people and our siblings on the darker end of the spectrum (who need the choices even more than I do). Equality is a good thing. Put out some cooler-toned palettes. Plenty of people are asking for them.
All small indie companies — I love you. Most of you are fantastic, and have such creativity and good ethics. But as I research more, I find so many I can’t guy or write articles about because of shady practices such as lying, mocking or harassing customers or bloggers on social media, stealing or not crediting pictures, showing pictures of products that aren’t yours, using the word *g*psy* in product names, etc. Most of indies doing these things actually make many great products. Why do they shoot themselves in the feet this way?
Urban Decay — I’m very fond of you, but you have some issues. Get rid of the Naked highlighters; they suck. Stick with the amazing Afterglow HLs and expand into those into some edgier colors. Get your edge back, period. Stop riding the Naked line to death. I loved the Moondust, Beached, Basquiat, and Born to Run items. I’d love to see more stuff like that. I hate that you discontinued the Electric Palette, it was unique, amazing quality, and iconic. ( Well…I could have been happy if you’d updated it by getting rid of that one awful silver glitter shade and putting in a true red or yellow.) Bring back the Revolution lipglosses, even if you have to rename them Vice lipglosses. I’m really not impressed with the new glosses.
MUFE — You really screwed up reformulating the eyeshadows. Why fix what wasn’t broken? You’re no longer my favorite brand for eyeshadows, and instead of occasionally splurging on them, I’m putting that money toward CF brands.
Too Faced — Thank you for staying CF after the sale to Estee Lauder. Good job getting closer to back on track with the last few releases. Stop with the false hype and scarcity B.S. Please learn to make a decent purple eyeshadow. Stop repeating and renaming colors in your palettes: Everyone is on to that. At least put a warning about the sodium saccharin on your products, to keep customers with sulfa allergies safe.
Kat von D Beauty — I love most of your products, Kat’s artwork/packaging, and how much of herself Kat puts into the products. I like how supportive the brand is of smaller, but talented YouTubers, such as Drac Makens when she started out.
HOWEVER, Kat needs to learn some science. She drives me nuts. I think she means well, but her behavior and some of the things she says/does often causes me to stop supporting the brand for long stretches of time. Oh, and get a good vegan formula for the Studded Kiss Lipsticks. Plenty of companies do it.
Wet n Wild — You pulled a MUFE with your eyeshadow reformulations. I like the fun LE collection boxes you’ve been doing, such as Goth-o-Graphic, Midnight Mermaid, and Fire & Ice.
ColourPop — Thank you for listening to customers and adding new brights to SSS. You discontinued so many of my favorite ultra-bright SSS shades that originally made me fall in love with you. In general, you discontinue so much after such short period of time that it drives me nuts. I’m loving the pressed shadows, but you’re leaning too heavily on warm neutrals for palettes. Mix it up a bit more, please.
(Sorry Christine, I wrote another book. I have opinions. lol)
– Urban Decay — yes, sell some of your palette-only eyeshadow shades in singles! Also, stop with the retailer specific exclusives; it’s not fun going to Macy’s for this and then to Sephora for that.
– MUFE — bring back the old eyeshadows. Make them smaller, square or whatever, but bring back the old formula. Make your new ‘artist pencils’ longer lasting; love the range of colors, but as an eyeliner it’s faded by mid-day. Stop being Sephora exclusive; you’re not getting enough shelf space there and I only buy products I can try in person.
– Marc Jacobs — specific request: a highliner in a lighter-to-medium warm brown; Brown Out is too dark. Like a medium cinnamon or amber. I love love these eyeliners, and I’d wear this shade nearly every day.
– ABH — fix your fulfillment system. Like, don’t list products that are in fact sold out, and then send the customer repeatedly the wrong item.
Yes to the MUFE shadows! When I saw the new shadows I had assumed they were the Artist Shadows in a new pan shape but was so disappointed when they weren’t. Why would they mess with such a great formula?
Wow, I have so few “favorite” brands, but Natasha Denona is one and I’d beg for my winter blue frost palette (again, as I written them twice about it I think). Also I’d ask for singles for her top colors like the purples, as I won’t purchase the Lila palette simply because I feel I have enough browns from her and so many others, so I just have too many dupes (even though I still think here colors are ever so unique).
You know, I hope they read these because they are REALLY excellent and pertinent comments to help improve things in the makeup industry.
I’m with you Christine, it’s hard to pick one favorite brand, but the two I use the most are Make Up For Ever and Mac.
MUFE: PLEASE GIVE YOUR PRODUCTS ACTUAL NAMES. My mind can not remember the slew of numbers for shadows, foundation and lipsticks. Also, I love that they HD foundation comes in 40 shades, but I would love to see their Water Blend & Liquid Lift expand their shade range as well. And their online musings can go array (i.e. shading Rihanna, sending out email with the headline “Tans Fade”)
MAC: PLEASE REVAMP YOUR EYESHADOW FORMULA. There’s better (and often cheaper) shadows out there. Also, the constant releases wouldn’t annoy me as much if they were very distinct from one another.
To Charlotte Tilbury- you have a wonderful brand! It would be fantastic to see limited editions come back permanently. I would also like to see some more shade extensions in base products, there has been improvement but more could still be done especially with your powders.
Your recent transfromeyes and exaggereyes palettes would be welcome additions to the regular line up. Rose gold and star gold eyes to mesmerise are beautiful and again deserve their place in The lineup.
Thinking further back- 1975 red from the Norman parkinson collection. And the lengendary muse palette.
The pillow talk blush and shadows too!
This is a classy brand and I would prefer to see them focus on having a regular set of quality products which is gradually added to than limited editions. Perhaps consider making your top selling 5 LEs each year permanent as online exclusives ? I was thrilled that you bought back confession, miss Kensington and between the sheets singles as online exclusives.
I don’t really have a favorite brand either, but I would beg MAC to bring back the Matte2 formula! It was my absolute favorite matte formula and I was so upset they discontinued it.
TooFaced- please add some pink-based shades to your Born This Way Foundation line. I love that formula but there isn’t a shade that works for me, unfortunately. Tarte- please add some different colors to your eyeshadow lineup. We have plenty of neutrals. I dearly love your palettes but want to see something new. Lorac- please start selling at Sephora too! Same for Laura Geller; I love both of these brands.
All brands to carry light/medium/heavy coverage foundation for us to choose. I go for light. Minimal coverage. Please be aware of toxic things in products and remove them. Leave animals alone! Make shades for every skin color! And don’t charge so dam much on even drugstores. Even Pixie which I like the shades being light and correct for my cool skin tone well, they are just lousy no color payoff whatsoever. Don’t last. Nyx you too! You make pretty awesome stuff but you are nuts on the prices lately. I’d rather have a delicious filet mignon! Sparagus and wine included. Lol!
Enough nonsense. Great comments I agree with everything.