They have a lot of high-quality product formulas, and with everything at an affordable price point, it is a great brand to reference for anyone on a budget. The downside is that they dupe themselves frequently, so it’s key to learn–and learn quickly!–that it’s not a brand one “collects.” I also wish they would stop including pressed glitters in their eyeshadow palettes.
— Christine
We're here to help you make better beauty purchases that you'll enjoy and love! We recommend signing up to take advantage of personalized features like tracking products you own, viewing dupes that you already have, and more!
Here are some useful resources for you:
Curious how two shades compare to each other? Type in the shades below to get instant side-by-side swatches!
Comments that do not adhere to our comment policy may be removed. Discussion and debate are highly encouraged but we expect community members to participate respectfully. Please keep discussion on-topic, and if you have general feedback, a product review request, an off-topic question, or need technical support, please contact us!
Please help us streamline the comments' section and be more efficient: double-check the post above for more basic information like pricing, availability, and so on to make sure your question wasn't answered already. Comments alerting us to typos or small errors in the post are appreciated (!) but will typically be removed after errors are fixed (unless a response is needed).
We appreciate enthusiasm for new releases but ask readers to please hold questions regarding if/when a review will be posted as we can't commit to or guarantee product reviews. We don't want to set expectations and then disappoint readers as even products that are swatched don't always end up being reviewed due to time constraints and changes in priorities! Thank you for understanding!
We try to approve comments within 24 hours (and reply to them within 72 hours) but can sometimes get behind and appreciate your patience! 🙂 If you have general feedback, product review requests, off-topic questions, or need technical support, please contact us directly. Thank you for your patience!
-I love their prices and products.
-I dislike the high rate of discontinuing nice stuff from the past.
-I dislike how lately (for the past 12 months) the palettes have been mostly boring to me since I like color and rainbow palettes. This dull neutral mauve coconut stuff has REALLY turned me off lately.
-I am the rare creature who enjoys their pressed glitters.
-I had craved rainbow pastel palette, but i feel like their 3 palettes were a miss.
-i understand this is my opinion and i’m fine with others disagreeing with me.
-I want more color, more jelly colors too!
I like their wide range of products, but I don’t like how most of them are sold out whenever I look! On top of that, I don’t like that CP puts pigments that aren’t eye-safe in some of their eyeshadow palettes. The glitters also aren’t environmentally friendly, but neither is the CP business model it seems. Being the “fast fashion of makeup” isn’t something to gloat about, and it makes me wonder what CP is doing to offset how much they impact the environment.
They aren’t off setting anything. Not only are they fast fashion, they have pressed glitters but they now have plastic packaging and mirrors which adds to their negative impact on the environment
I love the creativity of their palettes and the colors they offer as singles are just fantastic. I have not purchased from them in a while because I do not want any palettes that have super shock or pressed glitter. I wish they would go back to just standard pressed powder shades again.
ni_cyn, I agree about super shock and the pressed glitter. I dislike both.
I totally agree — not only do I not want pressed glitter, I REALLY do not like Supershock in a palette either. I totally prefer just pressed powder shades. Besides that I just prefer a powder formula in a palette form, every time they include a Supershock, it’s a pale, glittery gold… ridiculous. AND I find that the SS formula in the palettes crease immediately, which I don’t usually experience with their original SS formula. I wish they’d stop including glitter/SS in palettes….
I love the two SS blushes that I still own. Everything else I ever bought from them was disappointing and I ended up donating what I could and discarding the rest. The eyeliners didn’t hold a point and broke whenever I tried to sharpen them. Sometimes they just broke. The lippie sticks were dry and patchy. I can’t blame CP for this but the palettes I bought always ended up being similar to something I already owned and were of a lesser quality so why keep them.
Like: Inexpensive, well coordinated color stories in their collections.
Dislike (INTENSELY): Those damnable pressed PET glitters in almost every. single. eyeshadow. palette! That while, yes, many of their palettes from a few years ago had very interesting color combos, those have now been regurgitated to DEATH. That CP seems to have abandoned what put them on the beauty map; Super Shock e/s’s and cheek products. That they DC some of their most beautiful, special shades with little to no warning.
Love: prices, good for presents for younger family/friends
Dislike: pressed glitters unsafe for eyes; constant (constant constant) releases
I like their prices, and their products. I really like the super shock shadows/cheek products, and I love their tinted moisturizer and setting spray. I don’t like that they discontinue stuff all the time, and that they are modeling themselves after “fast fashion”, which is unsustainable. I don’t know what is worse, them discontinuing items constantly, or them pushing pressed glitter. Please make the pressed glitters into a separate palette for people that want to buy them!
Love: Most of the products, ability to put together a good color story, quality is usually very high, low cost, quick shipping, how easy it is to customize/reorganize pre made palettes by just popping out individual colors. I have a ton of super shock eye shadows I love, quite a few palettes including a BYOP that I reach for more than most of my other palettes, lux lippies that I enjoy wearing and that last, and some of the OG glosses but sadly they will likely expire soon. Their eye liner in Over Board is my all time favorite… but I’ve been waiting for about 4 months for them to restock and am worried it is a discontinued product and won’t get restocked.
Hate: Constant discontinuing of products, changing lip glosses to brushes and then after complaints getting rid of (it seems like) the original formula that was very good, how warm leaning almost all the products are, how the photos and color descriptions on CP’s site do not match real life in many cases, pressed glitters in so many palettes (they should start doing pressed glitter quads or 9 pans for those who really enjoy pressed glitters and leave them out of the pressed powder palettes), the glitter laden mattes. Oh how I hate hate hate the glittered mattes because they don’t really add anything to the finished eye look. I can always toss some glitter on if I want that look, but when I’m blending I don’t want glitter fall out which usually happens with this type of formula.
It looks like the quality is a bit meh since everything shut down for Covid. Hopefully these are just minor blips and things will run more smoothly soon.
I like their price points and cute collections.
I dislike immensely that they don’t make palettes for POC or darker complexions.
Just call me Ms. Broken Record here but for me, it’s the fact that they’re not available “in store”. Also, they seem to have started really strong with high quality products at great prices but, perhaps in their haste to release “more” and “new”, their quality seems to be falling, from what I’ve seen here. Many of the gorgeous shades of eyeshadow that I’ve seen here over the past few years are quickly discontinued, which is a real shame.
As for loves – the prices and some of the stunning and A quality shadows they’ve released over the years (and discontinued…)
Like: Prices, lol!
Dislike: No sample sizes for foundation and concealers like I’ve seen some influencers receive in PR. I’d like to be able to pick 2-3 samples of a formula and shade instead of having to buy 2 full-sized bottles of a foundation or concealer and find that either they oxidize, or just don’t match at all, and now I’m stuck with a useless product I can’t return or exchange; especially since testers are no longer out at Ulta.
Love their supershock shadows. Hate that they discontinue colors SO often.
Love their prices for the most part, very reasonable.
Hate the scarcity sales tactic of something being “limited edition” and then “selling out” and being brought back again.
Agreed!!
LOVE:
-prices for the value
-high quality across the board of product ranges
-lots of variety in the selection of products, colors, and formulations for each kind
-limited edition items are available for at least several months–which makes it great if you can’t commit right away
-how most pans can be popped out of palettes for easy reorganization/ depotting
DON’T LOVE:
-permanent discontinuation of some specific favorite items
-pressed glitters in palettes
-cyclopentasiloxane or volatile silicones in some products I would otherwise buy
Love the colors, formulations, and price points. Don’t love that I can’t take it back if I don’t like it and can’t swatch. I’ve lost a lot of $$$ on their lips and foundation/TM and now won’t even attempt to buy.
I love the quality of their products, the price point, and that there’s usually something new. What I don’t like is that they’re into putting pressed glitters in eye palettes, how fast they discontinue items, and how often they release either the same super basic palette or do a pop of color palette.
Really love their blush stix, super shock shadows and highlighters (especially for the price point), the fact that all their compacts and pans are magnetic and easily depottable. Like that they are on the pulse of time.
Dislike: obviously the “fast fashion” model, non-biodegradable pressed glitters, their pressed eye-shadow formula (shocker, I know), all their lip products I tried, the fact that the packaging or products themselves often break easily. Also the product colors often look just way off on their web-site.
I hate mixed medium in the same palette: pressed glitters for their gel base and super shock shadows for being cream. I’d rather have an all pressed Shadow palette in a plastic casing.
When they first came our I enjoyed the quality of there single eyeshadows but I feel the quality is gone way down. Too many boring palettes I never buy. I like singles. Haven’t bought much from them in awhile. I think Sydney Grace is so much better!
Also I thought there eyebrow pencils were horrible and colors didn’t match what they showed and the broke right away, cheap and the lids never stayed on the item, really cheap.
Like: the price range and the bold colors (when they’re available).
Dislike: Limited availability. Limited stock on items they know will be huge sellers. How 2/3 of their site is constantly sold out with no restock date, even pre-pandemic. The lack of fun colors in the lip products and eyeliners that made them popular in the first place. Discontinuing top sellers with no warning. Rehashing the same color stories over and over and over. Their joke of a customer service department that is unresponsive at best and rude at the worst. The one and only order I made from them directly was during a big sale in 2015, half of the items smelled expired on delivery, and the CS came back with “you stored them wrong, bye”. Even when I want to give them a second chance, I can’t because nothing I want is ever in stock!
LIKES/PROS:
-Prices are affordable, especially given that they do sales as well.
-Their original supershock shadows. I <3 This is one of my favorite shadows of all time, it has received so many compliments.
-When they do something well, it seems to perform VERY WELL I love multiple single shadows by them, multiple highlighters by them, multiple lip products by them. I even have a bronzer I love by them (and I'm picky about those).
-They don't get talked about any more, but I ADORE their lippie stix. Super comfortable to wear and wonderful neutrals and reds. Their other lip products haven't disappointed me either.
-Love that they historically they haven't been afraid of all the colors (rainbows, pastels, etc).
-I've liked the majority of collaborations they've done
-They make some amazing purples and blues that other higher end brands can fail at
-At one point I felt like they were pretty innovative (the Supershock formula, the Jelly Much formula)
DISLIKES/CONS:
-Customer service has gone down for sure. In my makeup groups, I hear a lot of negatives.
– Pressed glitters in sooo many new palettes. I HATE IT! Also their glitters aren't eco friendly. And they don't always use eye safe formulas.
-I've had horrible horrible experiences with their creme eye liner pencils. They are dry, break off with every attempted use, and they don't show up on my eye without hurting. So I don't just don't use the ones I have because there's better options out there.
-They discontinue products that are great!
-They are following that fast makeup trend and releasing collections and new products all the time and I'm not a fan. The releases/launches lately haven't been executed well either, leaving customers frustrated and unable to buy products within 5 minutes of a release.
Love: I really love the Lux Lipstick range and hope and pray that the brand will add more shades to the line.
Their past singles in shades like Snakebite, I would like to see them bring these back as they are excellent and, needless to say, I missed out….
Dislike: Lots of their recent palettes in the past couple of years have been so-so. They have contained the same sorts of colour stories and the quality has been up and down.
The continual use of glitters that are not eye safe is a major turnoff and disappointment to me (and others).
Like:
color range, capable of duping other brands with moderate success
SSS/pressed powder formula
pricing
magnetic pans are amazing
palette packaging is efficient
Forget Me Not highlighter is a dupe for Benefit’s Tickle, which is my favorite shade
Dislike:
artificial scarcity
many colors are almost dupes for each other and exist in every palette, but colors that are more unique are not always sold as singles (a common tactic in the industry)
lack of presence in most Ulta stores
constant launches and discontinues
glitters in palettes
SSS will dry out even if the cap is nearly airlocked on
eyeliners/mascaras/lipliners are crumbly
once lipliners are uncapped, they won’t stay on anymore
liquid eyeliners drag on my lids
most foundations sold as cool undertone are sometimes actually warm undertone and do not perform at all as advertised
lippie stix has ingredients that’s bad for my oily skin: shea butter, soybean, avocado oil, hydrogenated vegetable oil, and palmitic acid
Super dislike:
palettes starting to arrive with broken pans despite their heavy shipping packaging
recently ordered a new highlighter (Manifest That) and kept getting the other one (You’re A Trip) because the stickers were overlaid (2x) or just wrong (1x). After the third time, I was given a credit with all order discounting deducted, which doesn’t work on sales.
After all of that, I think I may stop supporting the brand simply because the dislikes far outweigh the likes. Most of my collection is their products and I’m due to reassess it soon.
LIKE: Most of their products are really good, and they’re very affordable. They’ve improved their shipping times, and have always done a great job packing orders. They have good customer service. They can be quite innovative.
DISLIKE: They discontinue even “permanent” items very quickly. They get repetitive with their palette color stories. Their LE collections often sell out very quickly and favorites are still hard to get on restock. I don’t care for the brushes on the glosses; I’d prefer a doe foot. The Jelly Much shadows dry out super quickly after opening, no matter how you store them. While I don’t mind pressed glitters, I don’t think they should be included in eye palettes since they’re not eye safe. I think they should be separately as singles or in their own little palettes.
I’ve bought lots of cp in the past but stopped after a while. I must say what has been most disappointing is the quality in general. Their mattes are OK but anything else doesn’t hold up. And they just repeat produce every shadow but call them by a different name. What made me stop buying was the fact that they sensor reviews. Bad or nagative reviews won’t be posted on the site. Several people have encountered the same. If you allow reviews then don’t just make them a marketing tactic. It’s deceitful.
I absolutely LOVE Lippie Stix, my favorite thing about Colour Pop. Their SS eyesbadiwa are good too. I wizh they would stop discontinuing everything after just five minutes though! It’s always the colors I love. Also, I hate their liquid lipsticks, possibly the most drying brand I’ve tried yet. That’s a shame since I love their color range and I’m a fan of liquid lipsticks.
Pro: There super shock eyeshadows is the only eyeshadow formula I’m not allergic to.
Con: They keep discontinuing their super shock eyeshadows!!
their**
Pros: They are affordable and have a pretty extensive range of products.
Cons: They release too much and their collections are so repetitive. They all look the same which turns me off from buying.
Their shipping and customer service kind of sucks. I understand they are indie and they have high volume of sales so it takes awhile to process orders but they could do better to let their customer know what is going on. Other brands do better in that regards imo. Colourpop is too successful to not do better!
Lastly, they have resorted to making their packaging plastic and with mirrors which is so bad for the environment. Their gross capitalism, plastic packaging makes them just as bad as the offenders with bulky packaging. Very sad!
They’re definitely budget friendly and a generally solid choice, quality-wise. For the most part I like the color stories they come up with and have had good luck with their lip products, but I feel like they’re more of a “fun” brand, especially since they continually churn out so much so quickly. By fun I mean something I enjoy but don’t really take seriously, which is sad because I feel there’s a lot of untapped potential with that brand.