Have you ever gotten rid of a product and regretted it? Share!
I can’t recall an instance of that in the last five years or so! Even before then, nothing comes to mind. I guess that just says that I keep too much, LOL!
Thanks to Brenda for today’s question! Do you have a question idea? Submit yours here.
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!
No. I do a clean out about 2x a year. A product gets once chance to prove itself useful to me. If I get to the next clean out and realize I’ve forgotten about it again, I pitch it. It’s a system that works well for me 🙂
Regret, no. However I am /sad/ that I have to get rid of my OCC lip tars. They just perform so awfully on me I can’t justify keeping them at $18 each.
I’ve noticed on the packaging of Lip Tars that ot is recommended to use the clear one as a primer of sorts, and to use a brush for optimal results. Perhaps you can try a sample before giving up entirely?
Even using their brush, pencils, and primer, the tars still feather out in 5 minutes, end up smeared on my chin just from drinking coffee, and make me break out on the edges of my lips. Even if I do the “pressed powder dusted through a tissue” trick they don’t set. I ordered 5 tubes after seeing rave reviews everywhere, and all 5 of them are a mess.
I had this very same experience.They are awful.
No way! I occasionally sort through my stuff and purge. If there’s even a remote chance I’ll use something, I keep it. After two or three purges and something is still sitting there and really really doesn’t have any foreseeable use, then it’s gone. Really no room for regrets there!
I gave Candy Yum Yum away. That night I remembered I got it on our honeymoon. Oops.
Yes! It was a dior or lancome palette (Drew Barrymore was the model for the ads) and it was a black smoky eye palette.. It had velvet packaging with black leather straps to close it. I totally wish I kept it! More for nostalgia than use. It was my first high end palette! I tossed it thinking it was ‘bad’
I can’t remember it! I think about it a lot before I get rid of something, so that might be the solution 🙂
Yes but only once as I too keep way too many things lol. I sold my NARS Exhibit A blush a while ago then found myself desperately wanting it back when the matte multiples came out and I fell in love with Siam. The color is virtually the same but I do wish I still held on to it since powders are a little more convenient to me. Ahh well!
No. I hoard for awhile and then purge with abandon and feel much lighter for it. I go through the same process with my wardrobe.
too faced primed and poreless -__- feels like my pores are clogging. i can’t wait until this bottle is empty already
Yeah, I recently gave away a cream shadow stick to a friend and now I kinda regret it, lol.
My Chocolate Bar eye Palette was lost in a purge. I couldn’t stand the smell of it. Now I want to re-purchase it, but don’t have the heart….
I think with most scented palettes (be it face powders or eyeshadow) they can lose their scent fairly quickly if you leave it open for extended periods of time.
So if you ever repurchase it I’d see about leaving it open on a table for a day or two. I noticed that’s also why the testers at Sephora and Ulta never smell as strong as mine does and it’s because they’re left open all day.
I felt kinda weird insisting my sister smell the palette only for her to barely smell chocolate.
Yes, I’ve gotten rid of several lip products only to regret it and repurchase. Now I keep them all!
I don’t think I have. I have done several declutter videos on my YouTube channel and have weeded a ton of products out of my collection but I don’t regret getting rid of any of them. There have been a few things that I NEARLY got rid of, was on the fence over and decided TO keep them and now they’re products I use on the regular. I think almost letting them go made me form a new appreciation for them, but then again, had I gotten rid of them I doubt I would have missed them.
I through out the naked palette in my last move. I purged everything I don’t use and the fallout from that one just couldn’t be justified. Don’t regret it at all. It really makes me stop and look at my sephora cart before I order now….must get rid of everything I don’t really really want and I don’t keep it if I know I won’t use it.
I can’t think of anything, either. I could stand to get rid of some products, actually.
Yes. Just this last week! I probably put about half of my lipsticks in a bag and took them to my mom so that she could have them. I hate clutter but I hoard lipsticks like a crazy person. The moment I gave my mom the bag, I was already regretting it. But I am slowly recovering… 😉
Not in a while…pretty much a hoarder. I think I keep too much too. It’s that fear of getting rid of something and regretting it. So, I must have done it at some point! 🙂
Yes, a bunch of nyx stuff. The cream blushes especially
I only really built up my collection over the last 4 years. So I’ve never really DONT a purge like you see on YouTube until recently. The stuff that goes bad I toss immediately and I tend to only have one or two foundations and mascaras going at a time so I’m not being wasteful.
I have started to do a purge recently. To avoid those feelings of regret I put everything I don’t want anymore aside in a box. I’ve only gone back to get one item out. The rest I have forgotten about. Now I know those are God to go. Gonna give them to my cousins and hopefully they will enjoy.
The only things I tend to regret with makeup is buying things and not using it enough. So that’s why I’ve decided to stop purchasing new color type products (eyeshadow, lip stuff, blush, highlighters, eyeliners) and try to use up my stash. I don’t buy any cream eyeshadow anymore (they go bad too fast and I can’t use them enough). I’ve really learnt a lot about what I really like and my needs have also changed in the last few years. So hopefully I will not repeat previous purchasing impulse mistakes.
I returned the KVD highlight/contouring brush to Sephora after not being too impressed with it and finding storing a double-ended brush a pain, but I sometimes find myself wishing I had kept it for the “highlighting” end of the brush.
(Anyone have any nice dupes/comparable brushes for the highlighting end? :P)
Yes. I can’t even talk about it.
Yes, my The Body Shop Honey Bronzer! I don’t even remember throwing it away, so it’s possible that I just lost it. But now I miss it and I’ll probably end up repurchasing it!
I’ve had little tiny regret pains, but nothing serious. It was mostly just “omg it was so pretty” but then I realize I still wouldn’t have used it, etc etc so ehh.
I do not keep products “forever” and like Carrie and many of the others, I am very good about weeding out products on a regular basis. Past their prime? Toss! Never or seldom used? Toss! With all the beautiful products coming on the market season after season, there is no room for regrets.
I can’t think of anything. I tend to be very careful about what I buy. I throw out stuff that’s gone bad. If I give something away, it wasn’t flattering on me or didn’t work how I wanted, so I’m happy to give it to someone who will use it.
Nothing in recent years, I became a major league hoarder instead! However, when I was younger and didn’t realize that decades would pass between me having HE products in my late teens into mid-late 20’s and these past 4 years, I DID throw out some very nice things back when and regretted it later. Now I truly appreciate what I have. I think this is why now I hang onto stuff. And tightly, LoL!
Benefit’s Powderflage which is now discontinued. I didn’t really get rid of it, more like I lost it and never found it again.
I wish I’d kept some of the make up I used way back in high school, more for sentimentality than anything else. I had an Avon palette/compact with with four eye shadows–including the ever popular bright blue–and a couple of cake mascaras and I wish I’d kept it.
I have been doing my YT videos on inventorying my collection and didn’t part with near as much as I should/could have as I was afraid to regret it. I will feel more comfortable parting with items as I use them for a bit and realize they don’t work….at least that is what I hope lol! Fun question.
The only one I can think of is the free mini Benefit Highbeam I got a few years ago for the birthday gift. At the time, I didn’t wear face makeup yet and didn’t really know much about highlighting, but now that I wear full faces sometimes, I wish I still had it. I’m not planning to pay for a full size. 😛
Generally, I have a hard time getting rid of products, especially if they’re still useable. There’s a bunch of products I still have in my stash that I never wear, but I can’t let go of them for some reason.
I had MAC whisper of guilt powder, ( I hope I am spelling it correct), for about 1 year unopened and I decided to sell it on eBay since I didn’t use it and once it sold and I shipped it I wanted it back.
So I learned my lessons and I just hold on to everything
I can’t think of anything – usually if I throw a product away then it really didn’t work for me.
YES. I once had a bottle of Chanel Cosmic nail polish and gave it away…kicking myself over that one!
Yes, although not that often. I like to swap items I don’t touch in a months time. The pro long wear concealer from MAC is one but I only really started to miss it a year later and picked up one as of late. lol
Some LE palettes as well, but I just DO NOT have the room to hoard like other beauty Vlogger/Bloggers. lol
I feel like such a hoarder compared to everyone else, lol!
It takes a lot for me throw a product away. It either has to irratate my skin/eyes/face… Or just be such a terrible performer and I can’t return it.
I have a few really old products I have kept for sentimental reasons but I won’t wear them.
The UD Anniversary and original Vice palette. I miss them both dearly…
Yes I have. I gave my daughter in law a lovely set of neutrals from either Dior, Lancôme or EL (in a gift pack) before I decided to get into some neutral browns. After I did decide to give these colours a go, I regretted giving this luxurious palette away. Needless to say she loved it.
I bought a rather spendy green creamy concealer for the redness I have on my face. After I used it, I couldn’t get it to blend and cover as nicely as it did when the SA did it. It just looked chalky and uneven. I tried it a few more times, got fed up and threw it away,
Some days later I remembered that she put it on with a foundation brush and I knew that was the dfference between her application and mine! It was already in the city landfill by then!
That’s easy! I got rid of a bottle of Donna Karan Chaos perfume. I remember really well that I bought it at an outlet mall in ’98. I kept it about a year and gave the used bottle to my mom. I loved the perfume but I wore it so frequently to the point that it no longer appealed to me. Now I crave it and it sells for $$$$$$ on Ebay! (Stupid! Stupid! Stupid,)
No, not that I can recall!
Can’t say that I have, cause when I decide to give smth away I will agonize over whether I should do it or not for days, so when I finally do it, it’s a done deal, I’m moving on. One thing I kinda regret I gave away (to my sis) is MAC Cream Colour Base in Pearl. Love the subtle glow it gave! I decided that I will not use it much since I got Lightscapade and Albatross, so she could finish off what is left there. Now I want it again (one cannot be without a cream highlighter, right? 🙂 ), so I guess I’ll be getting it sometime soon.
Not an actual product, as I do a clean out monthly and it’s always quite successful since I only ever buy what I really like and need, after a good research.
But I am very sad I threw out some of my 90s makeup I used to use back then, because I have been collecting empty interesting packaging for the last 6 years, and I would love to still have my older stuff! <3
No, I keep almost everything. I only toss stuff that’s gone bad, or things I really dislike so much it’s almost like hate. 🙂
Last things I got rid of was some nailpolishes I really should have known better than to buy. I sold them, so at least I didn’t lose all the money.
I remember having a feeling of “man, I kinda wish I still had that” when I saw a product in my mom’s stash that I gave her, and once when I saw a blog about a product that I had gotten rid of, but I can’t even remember what they were so regret wouldn’t be the word, just a very short-lasting “kinda wish I had it still” feeling. Overall, getting rid of the stuff is the right decision.
Yes! But not for the product itself…
In a frustrated mood I ended up tossing a pot of MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack because I’m just not good with eyeliner and black is really harsh on me. I know, it’s such a staple in a lot of people’s makeup routine – definitely not in mine.
I don’t regret getting rid of the product itself at all, but I’m still kicking myself for not simply emptying the jar and keeping it for my next Back2Mac move. Duh!
Yes, except everything I wish i would have kept would not have been used on my face, but kept in my established “nostalgic makeup box.” Making one of those was the best thing I ever did because now products that are either old/I don’t like but don’t want to get rid of can go in there for nostalgic purposes.