Have you repurchased an item only to discover the formula changed?
Have you repurchased an item only to discover the formula changed? Was it for better or worse? If worse, did you return?
I can’t recall anything specifically, though recent commentary made me wonder about MAC Carbon and whether there have been changes in the formula over time. I am sure there have been a few other color products I’ve had once, bought again, and there are slight differences in colors or pigmentation but nothing specific I can remember!
Thanks to Jade for today’s question! Do you have a question idea? Submit yours here.
i really used to love the revlon powder blushes like 5-6 years ago…they were so silky and pigmented. i recently got the same shade and the formula is horrible! i was so sad because blushing berry was my fav color!
OK, this was years ago but……back when I had problems with acne, I found this foundation from Mary Kay that was just awesome for me. They called it similar to a tinted moisturizer (way back then even) and it just worked for me. The color, the consistency. Everything. Then one day as I go to reorder, my MK lady mentions that they made a “packaging change” but not to worry, “the product is still the same”. Well. Not only was the package yucky (from a pump bottle to a squeeze tube), but that make-up was NOT the same!
It was thicker, the color was off. It was just plain wrong.
I wore it until I finished it because I was shyer in those days but it was the beginning of the end of my love affair with Mary Kay. I was so upset!!! Just don’t lie to me….did they really think nobody would notice?
It makes me sad just remembering….ah well!!!
When Urban Decay first came out, I was a huge fan immediately. My first purchase was Bruise lipstick. It was an awesome purple with a greenish sheen. The next time I bought it, it was a burgandy/red. I was so mad! I called them and they assured me that they hadn’t changed it and it had always been red. I know what I used and it was purple. They denied changing it, but I was livid. I also bought Shattered eyeshadow that first time. I sure miss some of their old colors. Frostbite lipstick was awesome too!!!!
@ Shannon:
You are 100% correct. I first bought UD years ago, when their lipsticks came in that metal-type tube. The colors most DEFINATELY changed. Which is one of the reasons I stopped buying it.
As for the original topic, Ponds Cold Cream: not the same! MAC studio Fix powder in NW20 is now too light and i look orange, never had THAT happen before.. the N5 is a weird color, much different than before. Horrible..
Do you mean Bruise lipstick or nail polish? I was curious and looked up some images but all that’s coming up are nail polishes?
Unfortunately, yes! I fell in love with Clinique’s Turnaround Concentrate about two years ago, and my skin was drinking it up. When it ran out, I held off on repurchasing it, only to do so and find that it’s now a thick, gunky mess that makes me feel claustrophobic in my own face :/ I’m still hoping to figure out a trick to make it work like it used to!
Carbon in it’s individual form (including the pro palette pan) is still a very pigmented/blendable black shadow. However, I find more often than not when MAC releases their pre-made palettes for collections the shadows are almost always inferior to the individual ones. Especially when it’s colors that are permanent, when you compare the pallete version to the single shadow version it’s night and day.
I’m sure it’s from them cheaping out to try to save money on collections. If it’s limited edition wht bother making it as well…. but it’s unfortunate for consumers.
Bottom line, always investigate before you buy your makeup 😉
I think poorer quality happens with quite a few brands’ premade palettes – I honestly don’t understand why.
Yes! I love my carbon eyeshadow which I got in the individual pan. I know a lot of gals dislike it for its lack of pigmentation but I like that actually, because I can go sheer and layer it until I get the effect I wish. If I used the blackest of the black eyeshadow I would make a mess and look as I got punched in the eye LOL
My mineral powder changed shades, not formula, but the new Ivory 2 was darker than it used to be.
Ivory 1 is still too light (and there are even lighter porcelain shades).
Yes…I was obsessed with Sugarpill’s Bulletproof, but after the reformulation there is a crazy amount of fallout. I know some is normal for black eyeshadow, but I’m talking an hour after I’ve done my makeup (doing eyes first, wiping off fallout, then foundation etc), I find speckles of black on the sides of my nose and top of my cheeks. And it gets worse as the day goes on. So disappointing, as I’m a huge fan of sugarpill.
Perhaps you should use a primer and when applying eyeshadow, make sure to knock off the excess shadow.
My question, exciting! I had Lancome’s Hypnose mascara in mind when I asked this, I bought it and loved it, then decided I couldn’t afford to repurchase it when it ran out. Years later I justified purchasing it again and it was nowhere near the amazing product I remembered. It was just like any average mascara!
Teal Pigment, definitley. I bought Teal originally about 4-5years ago and the new formula is off, almost a more sheer texture not as “fluffy”, and the color itself is a bit more mudded, not as bright as the original.
Yes! Recently, too! I’ve used the Boots Botanics eye makeup remover for years as it was the only one that didn’t irritate my sensitive eyes and took even the most stubborn makeup off easily. I repurchased it about 2 weeks ago only to find the brand had been repackaged. “Lovely!” I thought. Used it that night and my eyes were red, itchy, and puffy until the next morning! I emailed Boots and they assured me there had been no change in the ingredients…even though the old formula was green and the new one was rosey pink!! So now I’m on the hunt for another remover suitable for sensitive eyes. It sucks because I used a lot from the range that I’m now nervous to repurchase in case I have another reaction!
D:! I haven’t tried their new eye make up remover – just the exfoliator, which I liked – but that sounds awful. I hope you find something comparable soon!
@Emmie -A lot of people are allergic to red dye. That may be your problem if only the color has changed.
The color of NYX Ultimate Pearl Eyeshadow in Salmon Pearl changed recently. It used to be a beautiful muted pink, now it’s a frosty, overly sparkly pink. 🙁
A lot of people are allergic to red dye. That may be your problem if only the color has changed.
Hmm..I’m struggling to remember if this has happened to me or it was just a matter of me thinking ‘what did I love about this in the first place?’.. I’ve had that happen and maybe it was a formula change that generated the disappointment.
I think they changed the formula of L’oreal true match foundation. I didn’t like it when I first tried it a couple of years ago. It’s much better now with less sparkles. Ponds changed their cold cream formula. I don’t like the new formula, it makes my eyes burn. Now I have to use the generic cold cream.
About three years ago one of my aunts gave me a Dior skin flash foundation that she purchased but didn’t like and I LOVED it! I always have different foundations so I took me a while to finish it up and then purchased a new one last december. The canister was different (larger) but I was told it was the same product. Sadly it is not, it has not the same coverage and amazing finish of the first version. I kindda hate it actually which makes me so mad because it was really expensive but I thought it was totally worth it!!
I would know the difference and many times, I never use the product up or I never repurchase the same product again except for my EL Lucidity Foundation…I do notice that the finish of the color is not always exactly the same. For example, Sin in a single shadow looks slightly different than on the Naked Palette or the Book of Shadows IV when swatched.
Ok, I have noticed that about some of the singles from Urban Decay versus those in the Naked palettes. I’ve also noticed a slight difference between Half Baked between the Naked and Naked 2 palettes. I don’t know if it’s just mine that seem to be a little different though. And the slight difference in Sin in the singles versus what’s in the palette is what kept me from buying it as a single backup.
It happens all the time with hair products. 🙁 Garnier Fructis Triple Nutrition Conditioner was the best thing ever and I repurchased a few months ago, only to discover that the product completely changed. I noticed that the packaging for the entire line had changed, but there was no messaging on the packaging regarding a “new and improved” formula or anything of the sort. After starting my new bottle I immediately saw that the conditioner just made my hair look terrible and the conditioner itself looked and smelled different so I checked the ingredients. They added silicones (boo), rendering it unusable. I have yet to find a conditioner that I like as much as the old Garnier Fructis Triple Nutrition. It really was amazing for curly hair.
I’m a fan of Bare minerals Foundation. I finished 2 full pots in 8 months. Bought my 3rd pot after 2 months. The color I usually get is far different from I have received . The medium beige shade is now redder.
Yes, it happened for the first time recently. I’ve gone through two NYX Black Eyeshadows. Its always been densely pigmented and very smooth, super dark black. I bought it for the third time, and it’s more of a grey, very powdery, lots of fall out. I don’t know what happened =\
Your comment got me thinking…
I wonder about the turnover in some drugstore products and how a product may change over time. It’s possible that your NYX eyeshadow was exposed to water/humidity/non-ideal temperatures, which altered its performance.
Do NYX and other drugstore-type brands print batch codes on their products? Does anyone know how to read these codes?
@Maryla
Checkcosmetic.net now has the batch code “translator” for NYX! It’d be interesting to see if you have a black eyeshadow that’s past it’s shelf life or if NYX did change their Black formula.
My product change was with a hair care product, not makeup. It’s the PhytoSpecific Vital Force Cream Hair Bath and it was amazing for deep conditioning my hair. If I opted to go curly it hydrated my curls and seemed to make the spirals more defined. If I opted to blow dry and flat iron my hair was much easier to work with (cutting the drying time and making my hair so straight that flat ironing was quick…which cut down on the heat I was applying). When I repurchased it I noticed that the color seemed a little different but thought nothing of it…until I actually went to use it. The consistency was different…it’s still thick but more creamy which seems like a good idea since the old one took a learning curve to learn how to use. Something told me to look at the old container of it and I immediately noticed they omitted two ingredients (Jojoba and Seasame oils)and replaced it with “Amino Acid Hairspheres”. It’s not completely horrible but it just doesn’t work as well for my hair as it did.
A couple years ago I repurchased a primer from Clinique (I’d been repurchasing it for a long time, I think it was called “pore perfecter”) to find the formula was different, even though the packaging was the same. I repurchased NYX lip gloss with mega shine in neutral a while back and the scent had changed (not that the original one was great, but the new one was literally nauseating). I’m not sure if NYX changed their formula, of it they just have different suppliers that use different scents. Oh also, this isn’t makeup but it just happened recently, I went to repurchase the Mitchum deoderant I’ve used forever and it’s totally different, like a gooey sticky texture – so strange.
YES!!! This peeves me to no end 🙁
I used to love the Olay Moisturizing Lotion for Sensitive Skin – it was light, yet hydrating and not pore-clogging for me at all.
After I bought a second container of it, I noticed that my skin was getting easily irritated and that it broke out more than usual. Nothing else in my routine had changed, so as much as I wanted to be able to believe otherwise, this was the culprit. I only gave up hope when my face became so red and inflamed that it hurt to touch it 🙁
Since then, niacinamide has worked wonders for my skin and it’s gone a long way towards healing.
If you have sensitive, dry skin like I do, then make sure to steer clear of this lotion!
Olay is EVIL! Me, my mother AND my grandmother are all painfully allergic to Olay, but not as persistent in trying it a you! I don’t know what on earth they put in it, but it burns me- everything in their range burns my skin!
Also, when I was a younger, it was Oil of Ulay. Why did they change it to Olay anyway…?
Where did you grow up? In the US it’s always been Oil of Olay. Oil of Ulay just looks weird!!
The UK 🙂
I looked this up on Wikipedia and it says that the brand started in South Africa as Oil of Olay, but the “Olay” part was modified to sound pleasing in each market. The UK and Ireland got Oil of Ulay, Australia got Oil of Ulan, and Oil of Olaz was used elsewhere in Europe. Also, the word Olay originated from lanolin, which was a key ingredient. Fascinating!
Oooh that is interesting! Yes, I grew up in the UK which is why I was used to Oil of Ulay and it confused me!
They changed the name when Proctor and Gamble bought them
I guess now it’s a universal name worldwide 🙂
I’m curious about what has happened to the MAC formulas lately, Carbon and Retrospeck seem like the biggest change, but sadly I own neither. I’d love it if someone with both could compare the ingredients and see if they changed anything… though they could have just changed ratios.
MAC made a name for themselves with their madly pigmented products, and now the colour pay-off of some of their things is appalling and frankly, I’d expect better from a drugstore brand! If I’m paying as much as they expect (with each price hike I’m not even sure where we are now…?) I expect quality that a make-up artist could use professionally. I don’t think MUAs will be using a lot of MACs new “reformulated” shades.
If anyone can swatch old Carbon vs new Carbon etc etc, with all the ones that have changed, that would be incredibly useful…
I really don’t know what MAC are playing at nowadays. They’re annoying a loyal customer “fanbase” (if you can call it that?!)
Agreed!
This actually happened to me a few times. sometimes they change the color of the product as well or the texture. It’s too bad because it takes alot for me to like something to repurchase. And then they go and reformulate.They do that quite a bit actually, especially when the product is so loved by many and then they change it. Why ???
Yes! Urban Decay’s Asphyxia eyeshadow… I bought it for the first time about ten or eleven years ago and it was a beautiful warm violet with an obvious pink shift. I repurchased it a few years ago and it was a very sheer violet with a blue shift. Now, it looks like the new eyeshadow formulation is back to a violet with a pink shift, although I still don’t think it looks exactly the same as the original formula I owned.
Happened to me with Flash of Flesh from MAC’s recent collection. I don’t recall my tube from the Bohemia collection having such a strong pink pearl. In fact I don’t really recall it being as pink. I have to say I kind of like it better with more pink in it, makes it easier to wear. 😛
Miss Dior Cherie. Nuff said.