What brand do you want to love but can't seem to?
Melt Cosmetics–feels like a brand I should dig but their inconsistency throws me.
— Christine
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First one that I though of is Charlotte Tilbury. Looks lovely but IMO not worth the price and would never repurchase.
There are a few others, namely Violet Voss and Ofra. I have tried both brands repeatedly and have been disappointed every single time. It finally dawned on me that I do not like either formulas and they do not work for me. I completely decluttered VV long ago, and I have only a few items from Ofra that I’m giving one last chance.
Colourpop. Their price is right. Their themes, color schemes and QUALITY is just not there. I’ve decluttered so many “affordable” palettes from them bc I am just not satisfied with them. I don’t get why everyone raves about them when they are so mediocre at best lol
Honestly, ColourPop. It always feel so hard to get the things I’m looking for and it’s frustrating to see their frequent new releases when your looking for a specific item to restock.
Sydney Grace. Great color selection but I don’t get along with their shimmers
Same. Feels like Sydney Grace shadows would be great on me – rates well here. But there’s something odd about the formula and it just doesn’t look good on the lids. I think you have to be under a certain age, oh well.
Sydney Grace imo has a rather thick formula. It swatches nice for social media but it isn’t always what I want to work with on my eye. I have resisted buying any of their palettes bc of it. I have a few singles from them and that will be it for me
I think any product has a small % of users who have issues with the formula. MJB liners were non-starters for me….dreadful from the beginning.
Same!!! I’ve tried so many Sydney Grace shadows but I just end up never using them!
Natasha Denona just doesn’t click for me.
I wanted to keep loving Urban Decay, but after they discontinued Naked Smokey, they changed to formula of the original Naked foundation and they had those odd launches with zillion sub-par brow products, I just fell out of love.
Not makeup wise, but I wanted so much to love Briogeo and Olaplex, since so many people absolutely swear on those products. For me they do nothing, even plain L’Oreal or Tresemme products work better.
Skincare and bodycare wise I wanted to love Drunk Elephant… but Paula’s Choice products are somewhat cheaper and much more efficient.
There are several brands that have this effect on me, but each for different reasons. Byredo packaging looks cool and artsy, but their curation of shades always looks jarring and “off” to me. Charlotte Tilbury has an occasional item that I want enough to buy or at least put up on my WL, but I am so turned off with the Pillow Talk ad nauseum and “Darlings!”. Getting to feel the same towards the newer PML stuff with the pink, pink, pink everything! Oh, and the obligatory gold! Same with Nars Orgasm, but I now just ignore the dumb name, and choose for whether or not I love the color story and quality.
I know there’s others…
I really hate how brands use sexually explicit terms in their products. It’s so low class.
Oh yes, yes, 100 times yes to this. It really is so trashy!
Huda Beauty. I had a couple of her lip strobes and found the texture gross. Not impressed with her eyeshadow palettes, either. The brand is nothing special, just overpriced and overhyped IMO.
Melt is definitely at the top of the list. Most of what they put out I love the look of but then the reviews are always all over the place for every product. The one thing of theirs I have tried myself because they had them on sale for $5 each and I always loved the look of the colors are their previous bullet lipsticks. The formula is truly mediocre but I LOVE the colors so much I’m willing to make them work and I’m pretty desperate to find dupes for them. It’s a shame their new formula doesnt seem to have really improved much and that they did not carry over a lot of their best shades. They also made the one palette I truly regret not purchasing and that is Muerte. My excitement over their new products/collections is always momentary at best.
Honorable mention would be Natasha Denona. She just hasnt put anything out that I just have to have the way many other brands do(even though that doesnt mean I actually purchase).
ColourPop and Urban Decay, both. I feel that ColourPop is a shade of its former self; yes, they are churning out releases like nobody’s business, but years ago when they first launched, and for a little bit after that, I feel like they were more dependable? But now they just strike me as greedy, and I can’t click with that.
UD would have been a brand I would have loved in the 90’s, but alas, I wasn’t allowed to wear makeup in the 90’s and the UD of today doesn’t match my aesthetic. Which is a shame, because aren’t they not the ultimate grunge brand? Well, they were…
Honestly? Pat McGrath. I love everything about the brand except that I can’t get any of her products to work for me. I have eye palettes, lip sticks, and lip glosses galore and sadly none of them are easy to work with and the end results look nothing like I expected they would, which is compounded by the high cost for them. However there is a silver lining to all of this, I’m no longer tempted by her new collections and I enjoy finding ways to dupe the looks with what I already have in my stash.
Nabla palettes look so pretty but the looks I get are lack luster. I have 3 Nabla palettes that I never use. Violet Voss palettes have great color stories but me and her eye shadow formula don’t get along. Still haven’t brought makeup from Wayne Goss but I hope to get something from the brand in the future.
Thank you for that! I love the look of Nabla’s palettes and color stories, but it doesn’t exist in store anywhere around me. Early reviews had raves all around, but I think the initial paid push of Nabla in to social media salespeople territory has faded and the real test to me is the opinion of the people who spent THEIR OWN MONEY on Nabla. And that general consensus is “ok.” I’ve got a collection of “ok” already, don’t need to bring anything else in to my house that isn’t awesome or unique. My “palette basket” is overflowing as it is and I refuse to make more room!
I have one Nabla palette, Denise. And I’m glad that it is only one! The “Latex” shades all dried out, and now are next to IMPOSSIBLE to pick up with my brush. When I first got it, I did get some very soft, but pretty looks out of it, but I probably won’t be buying anything else from them unless it gets an A+ from Christine here!
I do keep waiting for Urban Decay to bring out something truly lovely and worth the money, but they have been so disappointing in the past few years since they changed their formulas. When I see all the beautifully curated products they had in the past I just don’t know why (from a business sense at least) they can’t reinstate their best loved shades.
bareMinerals is another brand that delivered so well with their Ready formula and their stunning eyeshadow quads, duos and 8 pans – but now I just wouldn’t buy them.
Guerlain is another brand that has hit the dust with me too -expensive, but back in the day they were once the really stunning brand to buy from.
Yes, Genevieve, Urban Decay is now a sinking ship in an ocean of new and upcoming brands ready to take their place. It really makes me sad. UD used to knock out so many high quality, interesting products before they began to go downhill a few years ago. Now that they’re vegan, only the lipsticks seem good. But, even then, they axed so many truly wonderful shades. They are a shadow of their former self.
Rare Beauty. Seems like decent quality and ok prices, but the colors just don’t appeal to me.
Urban Decay, too much switching up and discontinued products. NARS seems to rely too much on the Orgasm theme (I did love it when everything was Dolce Vita). I want to love even like Gucci Westman but it seems a brand that’s a whim and not solid….that goes for you too RMS.
I find Gucci Westman so overpriced. I was a bit excited when she launched her brand, but with the price I’d expect to like like a young Rita Hayworth after using the products, and that gullible I’m not. 😉
Can I be selfish and go off subject a little and beg and plead for Marc Jacobs to come back !?! PLEASE! I miss you, many do 🥲
I’m on my last tube of At Lash’d mascara and starting to get twitchy!
Agree! I don’t know what I’ll do when I finish the last of my skinny liners (I use them for the upper waterline and I’ve never found anything even nearly as good) and the single Omega Gel shadows were among the best EVER!
I know it’s probably blasphemy but Pat McGrath. I have one of her smaller palettes and it is good but not really any better than a lot of other good eyeshadows I own. And this is personal, I guess, but that whole “Mother” thing irks me. I’m a mother and I resent people who aren’t my mother (or my daughter’s mother) taking that on as though it’s some sort of “title”. FWIW, I always had a really hard time calling my mother in law, whom I adored, “Mom”, though I know it’s what she wanted and felt it was an honour to me and to her and to our relationship that I would call her “Mom”. I never, ever told her because I know it would have hurt her terribly but for 41 years, I never liked it!
Pat McGrath. I do know so many love the brand, but I’m sad to say I don’t. With the fabricated FOMO and the pink with a gold or two themes. Me getting serious fall down using, and wearing the eyeshadows, I just can’t love the brand and I so wanted to!
Whew….I’m not alone! Though I find her shadows (the one small palette I have) to be pretty good and I’ve not experienced the fallout you’ve had, I dislike so much about the brand, including that pink, gold, pink, red “same-ness”. Given her high prices, maybe it’s a good thing we’re both not in love with the brand!
Haha, true, we can save for better more interesting things.
I can add that the fallout isn’t as bad when I use the 6 pan palettes. I actually like them both. (I have two.)
Tom Ford. I love luxury, I love his aesthetic, but I don’t love paying five times as much for the same or lesser quality in the formula of the product itself just to “feel” like I’m having a luxury experience just based on the name. I don’t buy things because of a name attached – that’s a cheap and easy way to make higher profit margins on standard/subpar items. Rich fools throw their money at words; the rest of us need to find what’s good and works with our dollars.
Well said, Z!!! I’ve had inexpensive shadows from Inglot and MAC that perform far better than many of Tom Ford’s outrageously priced shadows.
Definitely Melt-the only thing I’ve actually liked is their eyeliner pencils, everything else I’ve decluttered. Sydney Grace-shimmers done work for me and mattes make my eyes water. Charlotte Tilbury-she annoys me with all the “darlings” crap and her sales are annoying. I got a makeover done with all her products and I looked so greasy and my face felt so gross, I just wanted to scrape it off. Natasha Denona-veeeeeery hit or miss. Pat McGrath-overall not impressive enough for the price.
Oh, and Nabla. I do not get the hype around the highlighters. And the shadows are just ok for me. I actually disliked the palettes I’ve gotten.
Melt. I love their concepts and aesthetic, but the quality is often disappointing.
It’s Milk Makeup for me. I’ve tried their primer (a sticky mess) mascara (a runny mess) and skin tint (a packaging mess). Also their shade range, especially with their bronzers need work!