For me, yes, because there were less new releases than I can recall in prior years, so I felt like I had more control over timing of posts and what I was covering, along with the ability to explore some new brands/products.
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 think most brands had a good handle on releases this year, with the exception of a couple (I’m looking at you, Colourpop).
No. I find it absolutely abhorrent and wasteful that Colourpop thinks it’s cute to release a new palette, which they are duping themselves at this point , every other day. I refuse to buy from them and support their “fast fashion “ business model. I find their quality sub par anyway so that helps. Otherwise I have been happy with other brands and their releases this year!
As probably all will say CP is the biggest offender at constant releases on churn and retread. tf also has more than they needed. Tarte scaled back a bit. But that’s their (business) models. UD would do better to resume their former quality, as opposed to buckling to the pressure of a probable quota of new releases. Despite having the concepts long in advance, I am astonished at how most cos released as well as they did, during Covid.
It’s just a bit for Tarte. I check periodically their website just for the fun of seeing how many new products they released and of course no one ever talks about. 😅 They have multiple skincare and body care lines, foundations and concealers I would never knew they existed, they even have teeth whitening products. And that’s without the usual load of holiday releases and pre-packaged items.
Due to our global pandemic, things went more slowly and better curated too, making many new releases far more interesting. So, yes, I actually enjoyed the slower, more decisive pace. It made it easier to take it all in and come to better made decisions when purchasing.
Most companies seemed fine except for ColourPop, which is throwing out collections and dupes by the day, it seems. And guess what, they’re launching a whole ‘nuther collection tomorrow. In the upcoming nine-pan eyeshadow palette, FIVE of the shades have an asterisk as being not safe for the immediate eye area. Who in the world at CP thinks this is even remotely a good idea?!?!?
too much too fast.. Releases seemed dialed back for a very short period of time. I rather enjoyed the nanosecond respite. There seemed to be absolutely no shortage of new contenders despite an already bulging at the seams market. Evidently there is still more room. I find that depressing.
I am because I love seeing the new releases and it gives me ideas on what I can do with my own stuff.
No. I find it overwhelming.
Brands such as Colourpop release new product every 2 days… New brands are popping left and right, if you watch youtube videos, some of them have eye shadow palettes and makeup from obscure brands that came out of nowhere…
Truthfully, I liked it better when makeup was special. Brands released maybe 4 collections a year plus holiday. Products were permanent, now everything is either LE or gets discontinued after a few months to a year. It is too overwhelming to keep up with and if we look at trends, I’m sure we can dupe them with existing stashes, we don’t need to contribute to the consumerism problem.
I’m not one to be very interested in new release. But as an overall view, I am still dissatisfied with the huge amount of new releases (even in a pandemic year), the fast-fashion approach to makeup and the unsustainable consumerism of brands.
I would love to see brands invest more money and efforts in improving a core line of permanent products, rather than releasing things just to have something new out there.
I somehow hoped this year would bring sense to some brands and consumers, but from my perspective it didn’t change anything, maybe just delayed some releases.
I realize that you asked about quantity but I can’t separate the number of new releases and collections from their sameness. Everything seemed to be a retread of earlier releases so obviously for me, the number was unsatisfactory. I suppose there needs to be an exception for multichromes though.
With the exception of CP, yes; it seemed fairly “normal” despite, y’know, 2020. Because I hardly wore makeup this year, it made it much more difficult to justify new purchases, so I’m glad I wasn’t tempted more than usual. (I did cave on occasion, unfortunately, adding to a stash I have no chance of getting through even if I stopped buying eyeshadow for the rest of my life. 😬)
Yes. I liked that there were fewer releases to keep up with this year. Most of them were boring as heck, but that would have been true in any case, I’m sure.
I have totally left social media which made new releases sort of fall off my radar except for checking this excellent blog and a handful of beauty YouTube channels. But even with that said I still feel like there is just an unsustainably high number of releases. Not from everyone, but overall it’s hard to look at the beauty industry and not see a bubble, especially with the fallout from Covid as people’s purchasing power drops, and this next year when companies may be analyzing their sales from product launches that were prepared pre-Covid.
I think 1-2 releases per brand annually would be ideal. I would like to see the entire collection at one time instead of piece-milled over the course of several months. Also, the window from sneak peak to launch should be max two weeks.
Colourpop, Melt, Charlotte Tilbury, Mother Pat and Natasha Denona might actual need to take a gap year in 2021.
Yes I was satisfied with the number of collections this year, given the pandemic situation. I think brands did their best under very difficult conditions.
CP was the only brand that I think was wasteful – bringing out sub standard releases full of their older shades every other week. It was completely unnecessary.
Yep. They could release even less next year and I’d still be fine!
I used to be able to stay on top of releases, now I don’t even pretend to try, there’s no point. I look, if it interests me and reviews well then I pursue, otherwise it’s mind boggling and I don’t even know how you keep on top of it Christine, kudos to you!
No, I think there were still too many, as others mentioned, ColourPop’s releases are superfluous! I don’t knock their possible quality, but I can’t see how different each eyeshadow really is color wise.