What was the last hyped-up product you were unimpressed with?
Anastasia x Alyssa Edwards Palette — it was fine, not bad but not improving upon neons/brights in a meaningful way.
— Christine
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Probably the ABH Modern Renaissance palette because (given my colouring and my personal preferences), I couldn’t understand why everyone else was practically in hysterics about it but I figured I had to be missing something. So I tried it in-store, even had the sales assistant try a look on me – and NOPE. Then along came Chanel’s Candeur et Experience quad with some similar red tones and I thought “Okay, it’s Chanel – maybe their version will work on me” – again, it was a no-go.
I literally just bought ABH Modern Renaissance about 6 months ago, and I still haven’t used it… I personally love the times, and they work beautifully with my coloring/aesthetic, but I just find myself reaching for WnW Rosé In The Air or MAC Flame-Boyant… My UD Naked Cherry has been neglected, as well…
I never reach for UD Naked Cherry either. I think the shades run together too much and so I end up using exactly the same 3 shades over and over again. But I haven’t parted ways with it yet.. but it’s not in my top tier drawer.
I actually picked up the Lancome Monsieur Big 12 Shades of Love palette, which is a very similar color story to UD Naked Cherry, but there’s more variance between shades, and doesn’t run together. It’s not as “pigmented” as other palettes in the same shade family, but that’s not always a bad thing.
I completely agree, Mariella. I don’t get it. Unfortunately, I bought it. The only shade I do like is the dark brown matte. Otherwise, it remains unused.
It’s okay, but I think Sultry and Soft Glam are much better basic palettes from ABH.
Well, I didn’t buy Modern Renaissance (in case that isn’t clear) but I also love Sultry and, unlike a lot of folks, I still really enjoy using the “Mario” palette (with summer soon over and autumn approaching…maybe by November! – I will be using that one a lot again!)
Although the Viseart Liaison palette came out months ago, I just bought it recently. This is the only product I’ve ever used by this brand and I’m underwhelmed. The mattes are ok, but I didn’t find the formula to be any better than less expensive brands. And I don’t like the shimmers at all. Too much sparkle and fall-out. I’ll use it for the top row mattes, but overall, it’s an expensive purchase I wish I didn’t make.
Aww Seraphine.. that’s sad because I know I’ve raved about at great deal. I love the palette and all the colours work incredibly well on. me. I do not have fall-out issues with the shimmers. I use slightly damp flat brush sprayed with MAC Fix+ But, despite our research and vids and photos, sometimes the shades and our best guess doesn’t work out.
Ok, now you’ve made me want to experiment with it again! I have MAC Fix+, but never use it, so I’ll give that a try. I do love the colors in the palette.
SAME!! I was really excited for the Alyssa Edwards palette because I’m a huuuuge fan of hers and then returned it when I got it. It was fine? I honestly found some decent dupes for the yellow, pink, and blue in the Wet n Wild Pac Man palette.
ABH Riviera. I like about 3 of the shadows; the shimmers.
I actually had a pretty hard time talking myself out of that one, along with the Alyssa Edwards palette… As beautiful as the shades are, I just don’t wear them often enough. With Riviera, that purple was the one calling me the loudest, but when I placed my finger over it in-store, the rest of the shades just didn’t seem like anything special…
You’re right. For me they are not either. And I have a miserable time blending the pressed pigments. There are so many other shadows in my collection where I don’t have to work as hard.
It Cosmetics CC Cream
Loreal Lash Paradise
Juvia’s Place in general
Erica, I loathe It CC Cream with a passion! It made me get acne breakouts at 58-59 years old. Yes, I do run oilier than most my age, but this stuff made my skin go haywire! Plus, it looked in pores no matter what I did.?
I bought the It Cosmetics CC Cream bc I was assured it still worked for oily skin but it didn’t just have a lack of staying power on my skin. It sat horribly on my skin and broke down everything on my face like nothing I have ever tried. And I tried to make it work. I used my fingers, a brush, a sponge. Thinned it out and mixed it w other foundations. Nothing helped. It’s the worse. And it smells like liquid pledge…yuck!
And the Loreal Lash Paradise was a hot mess. Clumpy and it exploded out of the tube. I threw it away after a few uses. No, no, no!!!
Oh, I hate that It Cosmetics CC cream! I’m dry, but it looked just awful on me. The worst in this category I’ve ever tried. Oh, the smell! Eeeek. I did not like Lash Paradise either.
Yes, Lash Paradise! I wound up throwing it out after a few uses.
I have dry skin and IT cosmetics can break down on me. I cannot imagine it on oily skin. Still, I love it. I find if I mix in a bit of longwear foundation (I need to do that to tweak their wonky shades anyway), it works beautifully for a dewier look in summer. I’m wearing it today, the illuminating version mixed with small splooge of TF BTW foundation.
IT CC works fine on my oily skin, but what is up with the scent?? All IT products smell like citrus cleaning products to me, ick.
That is exactly what I tried. I tried mixing it with a longwear foundation and no such luck. It just sits weird on my skin and the shade range straight up sucks. I prefer using my Bobbi Brown BB Cream if I want a lightweight foundation for summer. Better shade match and it doesn’t look horrid on my skin
And I will add that MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural is the same for me. Disappears in areas. Cakey in others. Everyone raves about but I hated how it sat on my skin and it did unspeakable things to my face. I threw it away before finishing it and I never do that esp w my MAC products!
I HATED the Loreal Lash Paradise. It clumped my lashes so bad. I also didn’t think Too Faced BTS was that great either. I like the Juvia’s palettes but their shimmers are so oily they crease on my hooded lids something fierce. Even glitter glue won’t hold those shades on my eyes all day. 🙁
I haven’t tried the IT CC cream, and I do love the L’Oreal Lash Paradise, but I don’t get the hype over Juvia’s.
Is it because the colors look so pretty? I’m overall underwhelmed by these shadows, especially the mattes.
Honestly….Pat McGrath shadows. Specifically, Mothership V. I have SO many regrets on purchasing this palette. I can’t stand it, I’ve tried to use it multiple times with different techniques but I just don’t like her formula. I find the glitter shades (as beautiful as they look!) just don’t work well for me. I am now unfortunately stuck with a $170 palette that will collect dust.
Don’t feel too bad, Taylor, it’s not one of my favorite palettes, either. 2 shades in particular are so fallout prone that they feel cheap and crappy. Glitter Glue primer is the only way I can get those to work. I don’t hate mine, but it does feel over-hyped and overrated, IMHO.
Sell it on Poshmark or Mercari!
That’s a good way to pass along high end things that don’t work for you but let you get a little of your cost back.
I donated my PMG Mothership II to Project Beauty Share. I felt oppressed by this expensive palette that did nothing for me.
Same here. I really like the palette color story, but I wish there were different matte shades and that some shimmer shades weren’t so finicky for the $$. But the topper shades in that palette are gorgeous. I wish I could just buy those and not the whole palette.
Love your name BTW, but I may be a bit biased 😉
Gosh, I can’t even think of any. I pretty much ignore the hype as I don’t believe any of it. I wait to see real (not doctored) swatches and reviews or check out the product myself in store if I can.
UD Naked 1, It CC Cream, and at least a quarter of the Pat McGrath stuff I’ve bought.
Wouldn’t be so terrible if these had not been popular favorites.
UD Naked 1 is great quality, but there is something about many of the shades that look dull against my skintone. And I want it to work because it looks so beautiful on my lighter toned, bluer eyed daughter!
It CC Cream breaks me out horribly. And gets gunky and funky in my pores and deeper expression lines even though set with powder.
Pat McGrath is a bit of a mixed bag. I love about 75-80% of what I own by her. But Mothership V is a fussy one! Only a few shades (Bronze Blaze and Gilty Pleasure, to be exact), but that ought not be an issue in a $125 palette. Lady Stardust Blitztrance looks like an 80’s pink frost unless I use Nyx’s dupe for MAC Half Red lipliner, Mahogany. Pretty, but dated, IMO. Rebel Red looks dark glittery pink on me, and a dated one, yet again. Perhaps they’re *supposed* to be retro or throwback shades? Idk? ?
The very first product that came to mind was the original UD Naked palette… I remember the anticipation of the release, and finally getting the chance to pick it up in-store, and thought it was absolutely beautiful. However, when I actually went to use it later that night, everything seemed to turn into a muddy mess. Even then, I just figured it was because I was in a rush (I had a concert to get to), and had several interruptions/distractions (my daughter was still really young at the time), so it had to be my fault; after all, UD touted it as the “only neutral palette you’ll ever need”, so it had to be “universal”, right…? I tried it a handful of times after that, and got the same results, so I just put it away. That said, I do find it useable when individual shades are used with other palettes, and I do take it along with other Naked palettes when I travel, but I just can’t get it to work by itself.
While I’m on the subject of UD, I just can’t get onboard with the 24/7 eyeliner pencils… I know so many people absolutely swear by them, so I do believe the hype is justified, but they simply don’t work on me… I apply to my waterline, blink once or twice, and they literally disappear…
Amy, that’s what it almost always looks like on me, too. A muddy, nondescript mess. Doesn’t make my eyes look bright or sexy like any of the promo pics, either. But, like you said, using other palettes with it, especially other Naked palettes, I can get a really good look out of it that way.
Same here. Naked just turns muddy if I use it by itself. I have to incorporate some warmer shades, if I even bother with it at all.
They changed the formula of the liners a few years ago and it’s never been the same for me. They used to be bullet proof, now they’re average.
I first tried them with the original Naked palette, and a few more that came with palettes, perks, etc.. , and they were all the same. The only one that didn’t completely disappear was Perversion, but that one just turned into a big, black smudge… I really wanted to love them, because there are several purple/plum shades in the range that I’ve never seen elsewhere…
I just can’t stand the UD 24/7 eyeliner pencils… same goes for the primer potion – I find it expensive and not that good after all…
however, I do love their naked palettes collection
Agree about the UD Naked palette. A muddy mess on me. I returned it.
Yes! I also bought the UD Naked 1 palette and it was a muddy mess on me! The only looks I came away with were brown. Plus it only had 2 mattes.
The Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Flawless Finish Setting Powder… not a very good setting powder from my point of view. Looked good once applied (although not giving an airbrushed or flawless finished), but started looking bad and caking quite early during the day. I tried better drugstore powders, which lasted longer and looked less cakey at the end of day even if they were not as finely milled as the CT one.
For me it’s the ColourPop blush and highlighter Stix. I only use cream products for blush, so I was excited about these. But I don’t like the finish or how the colors subtly cool down and darken over time.
Wasted my money , thank Goodness, not expensive. These cream blushes and highlighter was not good on me. Didn’t even show up on my skin tone. I’m NC 35 right now. And, I bought 2 of the deeper shades, nope. Not good. Not for me anyway.
Holika Holika Water Drop Lip Tint. Goes on extremely patchy, has an awful aftertaste, the colour (Fig) is nothing like the swatch.
Dominique Cosmetics Lemonade Palette. The formula just does not get along with me, and yes, I had the reformulated version. The mattes were super hard to blend, and the shimmers were really sheer. Nancy T. was kind enough to video chat with me when it came out, giving me enough to make it usable, so I’m going to try it again this summer. I was just really, really surprised that everyone else seemed to love the formula so much, and no technique or primer (or lack thereof) seemed to make a difference for me. Dominique’s customer service was fantastic, though, to give them credit.
Juvia’s Place foundation was a huge let down for me. It oxidizes like a mutha, their descriptions don’t match the shades, their social media game around the release continues to be garbage. Their responses are curt, dismissive, and condescending to boot.
The foundation itself doesn’t blend well, sits on top of the skin, breaks up on oily skin, and I’m still salty I can’t find my match. I’m a 280 in Fenty. I have good matches in L’Oreal, It, TooFaced, Nyx, Tarte and more and none of the Juvia’s place shades match. And I’m biracial so it’s not me being salty that a not white girl product doesn’t work for a white girl. It’s their odd undertone choices combined with the oxidation.
I have most of their palettes but the way they’ve interacted with their customers with this release has turned me all the way off.
Good to know about the oxidation issue. I’ll be avoiding it, then. Not a good thing when one has oily skin.
For me it was Hourglass vanish stick foundation, way to fussy and required too much work for a stick foundation.
A lot of the palettes released in the past few years have not really impressed me because their colour tones have been full of reds/pinks/oranges etc. So the latest UD Naked line releases have not done it for me, ditto ABH Mod Ren.
I am not a fan of the neon shades, bright pastels and those that contain glittery elements either.
Le sigh!
For me it’s the Marc Jacobs Air Blush. It doesn’t seem to blend as well as my other powders. I’ll finish it but I won’t repurchase it.
Trixie Mattel and Lady Gaga really disappointed me with their launches. I was also really hyped to buy the Alyssa Edwards ABH palette, but then I watched some YT reviews and saw how poorly it blended :/ I did up duping it with some singles though because I liked the colour story so much.
I cleaned and gifted my barely used ABH Renaissance to someone who has few cosmetics and can wear warm tones. And she complained on Facebook that someone had given her “used makeup.” Oops!
The ND Blue-Purple palette has definitely been under-used. The shades just migrate everywhere. The ND Gold Palette I returned. There were 3 colors that were great and the rest were warm browns. Good choice.
But the most unused palette has got to be the Viseart Neutral Mattes. Those three peachy nudes accentuate my skin’s olive undertones in an unflattering way. The browns go unused. I can use the taupe as a brow powder and that’s about it. The original cool mattes (from Viseart) never reach for. I kind of have to force myself to use it.
Viseart Neutral Mattes is my most used palette. I use it almost every day. I have hit pan on the second from left shade.
I guess it’s the perk of having neutral skintone. almost everything works.
Interesting because we have a very similar skin tone. But the reason is probably because I have a lot of pigmentation in the eye area. I hardly ever wear browns or oranges. And the nudes are too peach-y for me. I wish I could gift mine to you.
It is interesting how very small almost unnoticeable differences can make such an impact when you just add a touch of colour. I have a very hard time with yellows and blues, both tend to make me look sick. I think one of them should work, but no. Greens does work, though.
It is a pity we can’t just exchange palettes with each other. If you have a womens shelter nearby I’m sure they gladly accept palettes.
Oops! No more makeup for them.
If you’re exceedingly nice, you could let them know that you can sanitize eyeshadow with 70% isopropyl alcohol.
I’m so disappointed that I don’t use the Blue-Purple! Gorgeous and great quality but I always want to pair it with another palette and… I have palettes that don’t need that.
I had sanitized it with alcohol, and if she had said something to me, I would have explained. But she said something on FB. Oh well, I pretended I didn’t know and that was better.
Yes, I try to use the blue-purple but it has a lot of brown.
IT CC and bye bye under eye, the latter being worse. Fenty foundation: even the ‘cool side’ waaay too yellow. MJ highliner, gone in a flash, due to oily eyes. Original naked was a muddy mess; kvd Monarch being the only brown toned palette that ever worked for me. They just had a tornado on the Cape with significant damage, and everyone has been afraid of the sharks. Uh, maybe the weather.
The Lisa Eldridge lipstick in Love of My Life, the colour is gorgeous, but it disappears very quickly on my lips, I do press and rub my lips together quite a lot, so it’s probably my own fault. It’s the same with Charlotte Tilbury K.I.S.S.I.S.N.G formula. Other lipsticks in similar formulas lasts a lot longer even with my bad lip-pressing habit.
I actually really like the Alyssa Edwards palette, but more for the rich neutrals than the brights. The brights are fine, just nothing I haven’t seen before.
Obviously the most hyped makeup release and the biggest fail title has to go to Jaclyn Cosmetics. I really wanted that whole vault, and was thinking about paying the $295 to get it. So glad I didn’t take the plunge. I guess it’s not fair to say I was unimpressed…there was definitely an impression made.