For me, I don’t research my beauty purchases so much since I primarily review them, but I have found that research and reading reviews in non-beauty categories has typically led to better purchases!
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Absolutely!!! Especially using this website for reviews and dupes!! I do not live in the US, and I split a colourpop order with a friend, so it was of great help to be able to look at dupes to make sure I’m not just basing my purchases on images from the colourpop website and actually think about what I’m getting. (I won’t lie, it did take me about 2 days properly ‘researching’ on and off to finalise what I was going to get, so maybe that’s the case Xtreme example!) But yes I’m absolutely thankful for reviews and Temptalia specifically in how everything is layed out!
OMG, yes!! Before learning about Makeup Alley, and then a few years later, this site and Allura from my daughter, half of my purchases would be disasters or fails. Now, my success rate for satisfactory purchases is around 95%, with “fails” being mainly a skintone thing; some items just don’t look quite right on my medium olive complexion.
I also remember discovering Makeup Alley many years ago and filtering reviews based on my skin tone. 😅 That really got me into researching my purchases, along with watching people on YouTube swatching their entire MAC lipstick collection, so I can decide what shade next to buy.
No, not really. I haven’t found anybody with my undertone that reviews makeup (cool yellow) so the undertones on swatches is off. Lip swatches are off also, my lips are brown/purple and not very pigmented, but they do change the color of the lipstick. For example, Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk pulls brown on me. Most reviewers on YT seem to have dry skin and don’t have issues with shadow creasing so again, their opinion doesn’t help at all. Trial and error is the only thing that seems to work for me.
Yep.
I’d done a massive declutter several years ago and realized most of what I threw out were “cheap” cosmetics like crummy drugstore eye palettes in flimsy packaging, colors that weren’t for me, formulas that were garbage but i purchased on a whim. Since then I’ve put a lot of effort in getting to know what works with my skin, coloring, and aesthetic preferences. Combined with your reviews and the ability to find almost everything swatched online I rarely purchase a dud. That’s a very satisfying feeling.
Researching definitely helped me a lot to make better purchases, no matter if it’s a temptalia review for makeup, beautypedia review for skincare, product review online from regular users or YouTube video.
The most important aspect for me was learning how to interpret reviews, even negative one, and put them in the context of my skin and preferences, compared to the reviewer.
Reading reviews from this and other similar sites, watching YouTubers reviews looking at dupes and also looking at customer’s reviews definitely has helped me choose wisely.
Yes, though there are a lot of advertisements disguised as reviews out there (especially on youtube) so I have to be careful not to fall for those
Absolutely. That’s how I found Temptalia which has really effected my purchases and prevented me from purchasing some truly inferior products. Not to mention the money I saved…..though if truth be told, Temptalia is how I found out about Pat McGrath, soooooo, its probably even, lol.
HAHA!
I don’t know about better, but definitely fewer purchases. Many times my drive to find reviews and feedback leads to feeling overwhelmed with information and I drop the purchase. I might go back later and get it once I’ve had some time to filter through everything but just as often I don’t.
The one way I’d say research has improved my purchases is learning about ingredients and how they affect me. But that’s not necessarily limited to a specific product, more gaining general knowledge.
Thanks to you, 100%!!!!! I “think” I want a palette then I see what all you have to say about it and I feel a sigh of relief when I have saved $$ on what was a “dud”. I always wait to see what your thoughts and experience is, now that I have found this page.
No, no reviewing for me. I work in the makeup industry and I love to form my own opinion about products. Also, I have noticed that people will leave the product 1 or 2 stars because they had to wait to long for their package, or the product they are reviewing isn’t even for their skin type. It’s like giving a cleanser 1 star because it didn’t work for their “oily skin” when the cleanser is meant for drier skin types.
What I really enjoy doing is going to the brand’s website and reading about the products I’m interested in. The key ingredients, skin types, skin concerns. This helps aide me in my purchasing decisions.