Hello, Temptalia 2019!
Quick note for those who visit regularly: we’ve refreshed the look and feel of the site and blog throughout to go along with some of the tightening up we have done over the last six months of various elements! We have focused on ensuring better design consistency across all sections of the site while making other areas more lightweight, especially on mobile based on analytics data of how people access and use various parts of the site from the homepage to specific features.
There have also been some substantial updates and improvements made to various code throughout the site, so if you encounter any misbehaving elements or features of the site, please contact us or leave a comment below–contacting makes it easier for myself or Nick (who handles the development!) to ask follow-up questions if necessary. Thank you!
xo, Christine
Known Errors
Thank you for reporting these errors in – we are working on them!
- Search suggestions not aligned right
Vanity/Wishlist “add details” not holding date changesPagination is not functioning on user vanity/wishlist/archive pagesPrices are not functioning on some product badges
Hi Christine. As a super long time reader, I like the new updates to the site! It’s a lot cleaner and definitely is faster to load on my phone. Plus, change is always good. 🙂 Keep up the good work!
Thank you, Christina! Always happy to hear about faster load times on mobile. 😂 Wanted to refresh while still keeping it familiar 🙂
Very, very stylish and sophisticated look Christine. You and the team are just amazing. Love it.
Thank you, Genevieve!
The changes to the website our great. I also concur with Christina that the website does load faster on the phone. Keep up the great work!
Happy to hear it! 😀 Thanks, Eri!
One thing that bothers me, and has been bothering me before, is the inconsistency among the fonts. Some are Arial, some are times new Roman, and it just comes off messy to me. I am a bit OCD though!
Thanks for the feedback, April! It’s definitely a typography style to use a serif (like Times New Roman) and a sans serif (like Arial) to play off each other but won’t always appeal to everyone. The fonts you should be seeing aren’t actually those two, though, if everything is downloading correctly (Proxima Nova and IvyJournal are what we’re using!) 🙂
I generally like the site refresh, but, as a viewer with less than ideal eyesight, I’m finding the IvyJournal font (I think that’s what is in the body of posts) to be very difficult to read. It’s hard to explain… It seems like it’s too thin/light? Like the font size is fine, but it isn’t bold enough, like it’s too empty, if that makes sense? Anyway, sorry to criticize, and it looks great aesthetically, but the readability is significantly diminished for me.
Could you let me know what device you’re viewing it on?
Viewed on Chrome via a Surface Pro 4. I also checked it on the Microsoft Edge browser, and it looks the same. I’ve also read it on mobile– it’s definitely much, much better there than on my computer! It appears bolder and more condensed on mobile compared to how it looks on my Surface.
It’s actually the same weight but smaller in size on mobile than desktop (desktop is increased for sure) – we will look into it further tomorrow!
Hi Julie,
We darkened the font slightly (from #333 to #222, we had #333 in the previous design – you usually don’t go full black text, which is #000 for reference) – is that easier for you?
I actually just visited, and noticed the improvement! Thank you!
Yay! I hope it is readable for you now!
Absolutely! The new font looks nice, it’s just my OCD automatically compares the ‘distribution’ of fonts and came to realize that there are still differences! I like the new blog entry font, I feel that it matches better with the ‘temptalia’ logo. That was a big pet peeve of mine previously. I had this hard-to-describe feeling that the rest of the fonts looked a lot more restrained (is this the right word?) or conservative compared to the ‘temptalia’ logo. The logo had quite a flair to it and now it seems to be in better harmony with the rest.
That was part of why we changed from Georgia (the previous serif font we used) as I wanted something that was still serif but a little more modern!
I like the more compacted blog previews and fonts! I haven’t browsed on my phone yet, but faster loading times sound exciting (easier to look up reviews in-store!) as an FYI: prices aren’t showing up for me on items. here’s some screenshots:
from vanity: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/476532550584500225/551198714086293530/Screen_Shot_2019-03-01_at_6.26.00_PM.png
from wishlist: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/476532550584500225/551198712903499777/Screen_Shot_2019-03-01_at_6.26.14_PM.png
from swatches: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/476532550584500225/551198710181134366/Screen_Shot_2019-03-01_at_6.25.43_PM.png
This should be fixed now! We will do a manual cache clear after we do a few more changes, so it may or may not show up on your end for 20-60 minutes.
Thank you for letting us know!
I like the updates! I’ve been curious for awhile… when you say “we” how many people do you have on your team? I’ve briefly looked for a page listing names but wasn’t successful. I have no real reason for asking other than nosiness 🤷♀️
My husband works on another site (Temptalia as a company is the parent), so he doesn’t do much day-to-day on Temptalia.com (but in the beginning, he did), and my brother-in-law does all the code. My mom handles HR/payroll stuff as needed (she is a full-time professor). Under About Us, it lists myself, and then Shaun (my husband) and Nick – that’s it really 🙂
I love that it’s a family affair! Thanks! Tell everyone they’re doing great!
They will be happy to hear 🙂
Didn’t you forget Mellan? 🙂
Apparently!
We appreciate all the hard work all of you do Christine. I’m liking everything so far!
Thank you, Brenda!
Hi! I read your blog full post by full post. I click on the most recent post and then use previous button to go to the previous/next buttons. The way the website is now I am
Not seeing an option for this. I have to click back then click on the next post I want to read. Any plans to add previous post buttons?
Hi Sami,
Not at this time but appreciate your feedback (if I hear it from more, I will tally it up), we removed those to streamline the page and take out some buttons (that weren’t be clicked very infrequently based on total user behavior over the last 12 months) and also noted that a lot of blogs/content sites have removed these buttons over time as well (and some don’t have them and I couldn’t tell if you if they ever did).
I love how fast it’s loading on my Note9…thank you Christine and team! when I’m out shopping I constantly review my wish list or other products.
If I can be so bold 😉 One item I would eventually like to see is when filtering through the swatch gallery I would like longevity as one of the options.
Hi!
Unfortunately, that’s not data that is captured, so it would require having to go back through and pulling that information for every single shade so it would be a huge undertaking that I know I don’t have the extra time to allocate (it would be something I would have to do). Thank you for the suggestion – it is written down on one of the possibilities lists.
I love the improved readability. This is much easier on my old eyes, especially when viewing on my phone. Thanks, Temptalia team!
Awesome to hear, Rachel! Thank you!
Hi Christine and Nick!
I’m loving the new layout — especially how the post summaries show the reviewed items in a more compact view. It’s always nice people still iterating on on already good products.
I left some other feedback through the Contact Us option! Hope your team finds it useful 🙂
Thank you, Jay! We will look for your email 🙂
Hey Christine, the site looks amazing. You and the team have done a great job! I’ve just encountered a small issue though – when I go to look at swatches for a product, it’s not sorting correctly when I want to see highest – lowest rating. This was the particular product I was looking at, if it helps: https://www.temptalia.com/swatches/colour-pop-super-shock-cheek/?sorting=rating_desc
If you sort by highest rated, you are getting the highest rating by user review – the letter shown is the editor’s rating, so you’d have to sort by highest editor’s rating! (This didn’t change!)
https://www.temptalia.com/swatches/colour-pop-super-shock-cheek/?sorting=editor_desc
Oh my goodness, I’m such a dork. That makes total sense. Thanks Christine! By the way, I love the look of the new comments section. Makes it so much easier to track replies 🙂
Just means it must be easier to see all the things you can do – and that is a good thing 🙂 Temptalia’s trouble is that we offer “too much” in a way, which ends up being WAY hard to convey (especially since some of what we do isn’t something you see everyone else doing!).
It’s amazing how much you can do on this site, and it’s all free! I can’t imagine shopping for makeup without using Temptalia now. In case I’ve missed it – is there a way to change the order of your wishlist, or is it automatically ranked by how recently the item was added? It’d be cool if you could click and shift wish list items around like on Pinterest, particularly if you want to compare more than two swatches side-by-side or group something by colour, product type, etc.
There’s no click and shift functionality quite like that, but you can prioritize your wish list by clicking “add details,” which will show a pop-up where you can change the priority (lowest to highest) as well as add any notes about the item.
In the “Refine Results” section (lil’ menu hangs at the top on mobile, in the sidebar on most desktops), there is “Sort By,” which lets you sort by newest, oldest, A-Z, and priority. Similarly, you can refine your wishlist results by color, type, finish, brand, availability, and price range.
I’m not sure what custom ordering would entail as far as code/development goes and then how that works (or doesn’t work) across device types, but I can definitely put it on our ideas list for future consideration!
The site looks amazing, Christine! So much better for phone scrolling too!
That’s what I like to hear 🙂
I love Temptalia’s new look! Especially like “Join Discussion” feels welcoming. Great job!
Thank you, Denise!
Hi Christine, I’ve been following you for a loooong time, but (shame on me) I am not active on commenting, but wanted to let you know that I love the new look of the website and it works really nice!
Thank you so much, Odielle! 🙂
I want to echo everyone else, it looks fabulous. Well done, I love it!
Thanks, Jill!
I absolutely do not mean this as a criticism; it’s more an indication of how little I like change and how freaked out I get when any page or site looks “different”. I’m probably one of the older readers here (which is not to say that people in my age group are all set in their ways like I am) but I’m not comfortable with technology at all and just hate it when things change because I always assume I’ve done something wrong! Once my eyes and brain get used to this new look, I will be fine (just as I was with all the earlier changes/redesigns) but my first reaction was “what the heck happened?”
Hopefully, it won’t take too long to get used to! For the most part, things are in the same place, but on some pages, like the homepage, we’ve tightened things a lot to accommodate non-desktop users (but even desktop users have been shrinking in screen sizes, lol). It’s also to address newer users who can see a bit more of “what we do” in a few scrolls instead of only getting past 1-2 posts before. Other areas have had changes so to be consistent in “how to use” the site — but a lot of these you’ll have seen in the last few months (like Swatch Gallery having a sidebar) so it was just bringing that across smaller features/areas of the site.
Keep us posted!
Sleeker! 😍
Woohoo!
Christine the new site looks awesome. Great work by you and your team. Love it!!
Thank you, Lily!
I’m having issues updating the “last used” date in the vanity. After I hit submit, the last used date space goes blank on the page. When I refresh the page, it reverts back to the date that was there before.
Working on it! Thank you!
Hi Christine – lately when I use the foundation matrix it tells me my matches are super dark (I’m NW20 and it suggests colors I would expect someone of color would wear). Has anyone else reported this issue?
Could you clarify what foundations you’re putting in?
NW20 in Studio Fix Fluid is turning up the results I’d expect – https://www.temptalia.com/foundation-matrix/results/mac-cosmetics-studio-fix-fluid-spf-15/nw20/
The new font is beautiful.
Also, I’m not sure this is a new feature, but I didn’t notice it previously — the ability to print your entire vanity is so awesome. Thanks for that!
It’s been there for years 🙂
Ah – sorry, never realized that. Maybe it was the font change that triggered me to look more closely. What an awesome and helpful feature!
Glad you saw it regardless! 🙂
Thank you!
Hi Christine,
The numbers/arrows don’t work on the bottom of the vanity in Safari. It just shows the first page of results over and over again.
This is fixed, but it might be cached locally in your browser still!
Thanks for the quick response 🙂
Let me know if you still encounter it after you’ve refreshed/cleared your cache, though! 🙂
I love the new look, and I’m an anti-change-they-might-ruin-it person. Very clean and engaging, and it loads on my phone much more quickly. Well done!
Thank you, AB! We try to do slightly more incremental changes, LOL. It’s only taken us about 10 years? probably to go from all the reviews exposed (only images behind the “continue reading” button) to pithy thumbnails (+ excerpts on desktop). But our approach is less reinventing the wheel and more dialing everything in based on how people use the site, what they click on (or don’t) to get around, and becoming more mobile-first over the last few years.
I miss seeing the ratings for each product reviewed on the “front page” or snapshots. I’m on an iPhone 7 Plus. Thanks for listening to us and seeking feedback!
Thank you for sharing your feedback!
Just noticed it the other day and thought it was my iPhone using reading mode but didn’t realize it was you and your team who made the changes. I’m so thrilled now that it’s much more visually appealing along with bold wording. Great work as always! You rock!
Haha! That IS a good sign! Thank you!
Ha! I thought there was something wrong with my phone. 😂 I love the new look. Cleaner, more “simple”; all in a good way. I can’t imagine the hard work it took to get to this point. Shout out to Nick!
Thank you so much, Ceci!
You probably know this, but it’s not listed, so:
When I compare 2 swatches, the text “escapes” from the text box now. I’m on a desktop computer (never use Temptalia any other way, as I do all my shopping online, anyway) if that matters.
Not yet reported – thank you – we are working on it!
I love the new look!!
Yay!!
LOve you Christine I visit your blog daily!
Thank you, Alyssa!
Love the new look and speed!
Just one quick thing – as far as I can tell, it now takes going through one extra page to find dupes in my vanity for a product in a post. (Used to go click on the view all dupes, then click on dupes in vanity, now need to go to the product’s page first.) Checking if I have a dupe in my vanity for a product that catches my eye is one of the coolest features on this site imo – if there’d be a way to make it easier to get to from review posts again, that’d be super cool! (But understand if that wasn’t a feature many people were heading to in general…work for a website and definitely get trying to streamline to the most used features haha)
Hi Lia,
I just clicked on “View all dupes” from a review’s Top Dupes list, and there’s a button that says “Check Vanity for Dupes” on that page? Every result page for a product’s dupes has this button! In the product’s review post, there is “Top Dupes” and then two buttons “View Swatches” and “View All Dupes” – and then I click “View All Dupes,” which takes me to all the dupes for the product, and then there’s a button “Check Vanity for Dupes” – it sounds like what it was before?
Here’s a screen shot: https://www.temptalia.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/ss.jpg
Could you screen shot and let me know what device you’re using?
Okay, I see it not showing up on mobile – that’s not as intended – we will get that fixed but likely tomorrow or Monday (it’s not critical enough to get my developer on after-hours). Thank you for letting me know!
Also: you can access all dupes on mobile, still, through “More dupes — click to see the full list!” – which is the last in the bullet list!
Haha whoops, I’d only looked at it on mobile so far. And missed the link at the bottom of the bullet list – that totally works instead in the meantime! Thanks for looking into this! 😊
Yes! I am liking this format a lot. Nice new look from the Temptalia team!
Thank you, Maribeth!
Definitely faster loading on mobile, which is my primary loading. One note- I am very much missing seeing the product rating as I scroll, without having to click onto the post. It is already reducing my click throughs- previously, if a product that I wasn’t that interested in showed up with an A or A+ rating, I’d click the post to read more. Same for Ds and Fs (man, I live for your F- rated reviews). If I don’t see the rating on the main page, I’m significantly less likely to open the full post, particularly on products and brands that weren’t on my radar.
We’re really trying to keep the amount of queries being made on the homepage as light as possible as well as keep everything more compact and faster loading as many users complained about mobile loading speed + page length, but I will definitely note your feedback for when we evaluate all feedback (in totality) in a few weeks.
Christine, thank you so much again for doing what you do! I appreaciate it on a personal level, because you are the source I go to to find out about the stuff coming out, compare the notes with you on the things you reviewed and, usually, your rate significantly affects whether I will buy smth or not (like if you say C, it’s a no buy no matter how much I think it’s cool/cute. etc. MAC Panda collection is the case in point).
Congratulation on the updated website, onwards to the greater things in life and in makeup! I promise I will do my best be there for you on this journey if you need me :)!
Thank you so much, Natalia!! 🙂
I like that the website appears “cleaner,” if that makes sense. I will say that I miss being able to preview the different pictures in a post from the main page without entering that specific post, though.
Thank you for the feedback, Lauren!
I view mainly on mobile and its looking great.
Thank you, Mo!
I also love the new site. And I love this. Thanks for all your hard work !!
Thank you, Louise!