82 Comments

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Laurel Avatar

I’m going to have to say Rimmel because every single product I’ve tried I’ve loved, and their new products lately have been the BOMB. They have a lot of my HG products (Lasting Finish foundation, Fix and Perfect pro primer, and the new scandal eyes eyeliners!!). Granted, I haven’t tried EVERY product they make, but of the ones I’ve tried (and I’ve tried a decent amount), there are none I’ve hated.

Christina Avatar

My experience has been that it depends on the product. For instance, I’ve found the most consistently good lip products from Revlon; the most consistently good eyeliner from Physicians Formula; the most consistently good cream eyeshadow from Maybelline (I’m looking at you, Color Tattoos!), the most consistently good blush from Milani.

Emma Avatar

Revlon is the first brand that pop into my head too! Love all the lip products, they are all fantastic and I adore the packaging as well. Love the ColorBurst lip glosses, lipsticks, lip butter, and the super lustrous lipsticks and lip glosses, love them all! Never fail me! And their Just Bitten Lip Stain is like the best thing ever! Stays on like cray cray and hydrating!

zainab Avatar

Rimmel. It’s the drugstore brand I’ve had the most experience with, and it’s the cheapest of the widel known drugstore brands. I love their mascaras, the Scandal-Eyes eyeliners are great (I think they’re basically Urban Decay 24/7s), they used to have a kohl liner I liked, so far I’m liking their matte liquid foundation and their lipsticks are okay for the price.
I think that there are a lot of good products across a lot of drugstore brands, but eyeshadows are where they all fall a bit flat.

Christina Avatar

Maybelline is the most consistently good brand in my experience! Tons of formulas and options for all categories: foundations (FITme and Age Rewind are my top picks), mascaras (hello Mega Plush and Falsies), and lippies (from Vivid to Color Whisper to Baby Lips). They do trends but they have great mainstays and are on the lower price range compared to L’Oreal and Revlon. I am a fan!

Gen Avatar

I have about 3 lip butters and 1 color whisper but I do prefer the whispers. The formula is a little creamier but the rest is very comparable.

trishna Avatar

i suggest go with color whispers. they’re lighter feeling and also more hydrating throughout the day… its almost a gel like formula lip butters on the other hand are slightly more pigmented and have a wider color range (whispers just look like a lighter or a dark shade of the same color at times) but they are a thicker consistency it would a personal preference as to what texture you prefer. I would recommend picking up one of each and trying it out (pink truffle in revlon and made it mauve in whispers both pink-y neutral everyday shades and are perfect firsts to try) 🙂

Christina Avatar

I find Lip Butters are more pigmented and creamier and Color Whispers are more like intense tinted balms with more slip and shine. For me it’s just about the shade I want as I truly like both formulas equally. And I 2nd Trishna: Revlon Pink Truffle is a great MLBB color! And for me Rose of Attraction Color Whisper is its close sister (I am MAC C4/neutral light tan).

Lisa Avatar

Strange, I would have said the opposite of the other comments. The Color Whispers have more of a traditional lipstick feel, and a cream finish, whereas the Lip Butters are more like a gloss in stick form–slippy, translucent though pigmented, and mostly high shine (though some of the shades do have a creamier consistency/finish). Lip Butters have a much better color selection, though. Color Whispers offer more coverage.

Basema Avatar

Loreal: Superliner, Physicians formula: Eyeliner, Revlon: lipsticks (matt ones) and black pencil liner, Maybelline Mascaras are the best, NYX lipliners are as good as MAC 🙂

Erin Avatar

Milani. From eyshadow, to primer, to nail polish. Everything I’ve tried, I’ve loved. They aren’t the easiest to find, but they are worth the trip!

Lila Avatar

Milani. I adore everything of theirs. The lipstick is fantastic and the eyeshadow sticks are so creamy and pigmented. Hard to find but definitely worth it.

Starfish Avatar

Revlon has amazing face products, lip products, eye products, nail products. Everything is great. I really enjoy Rimmel’s products too.

trishna Avatar

i think for face, lips, and nails its Revlon also but for the eyes its a toss up between L’oreal and Covergirl I love the pigmentation on L’oreal shadows but Covergirl makes the best mascaras! the lashblast line is wonderful!

Jen Avatar

Revlon! I feel like I can find any Mac lipstick Dup in this brand. And I love their photoready foundation. Comes with the pump and all.

xamyx Avatar

L’Oreal; aside from the newly reconfigured eyeshadow quads, as well as some DC’d products (and a few new additions), their products have maintained the same integrity & quality for the past 25+ years I’ve been acquainted with the brand. It seems most of the “mainstream” DS brands have completely changed formulas, most of which were not for the better, in order to “keep up” with the gimmicks of HE brands.

Revlon has also maintained that same integrity when it comes to most products, although the eye products are nowhere near the amazing formulas of 5-10 years ago. Again, I see this as the brand trying to “evolve”, although I’d much rather see them go back to what they were, before the gimmicky nonsense.

Danii Avatar

NYX for me! I haven’t had an issue with a product I’ve bought and used! (My problems tend to be user-error though, haha) Admittedly, their Xtreme gloss smells funky but since they have Butter Gloss now, I don’t have to deal with a funky smell. :3

Xero Avatar

I’d have to say MIlani, and to some extent their sister company Jordana. I’m not aware of any products they have that are bad–even if Milani is on the pricier side of drugstore makeup. Jordana is nice and cheap, though.

Yasmin Avatar

SUPERDRUGS MUA

Seriously one of the best cosmetic brands ive come across. the fact that every item is under ten pounds, means i can splurge without any guilt. My fave items from them have to be, the face powder, 3 in 1 counter liner, eyeshadows in 19 & 16, the eyeshadow primer, 2 brushes that are dupes for mac the mac brushes 188 and 224, Lipsticks, lipgloss.

Jackie Avatar

For me it’s a tie between Rimmel and Milani. Rimmel is all around great but they have some of the best lipstick and I’m loving the new Milani shadow sticks and primer!

NYX is a runner up but I’ve been slightly disappointed in some of their new products and the new palettes I purchased/swatched weren’t as good as their old ones.

Danii Avatar

I think ALL the newer palettes by NYX are bad! Their Glam Eyeshadows are really dry and gritty too, the new palettes are dry as well and can lack in pigment. I haven’t bought a single one because of those issues; I had hopes for the Smokey palette being a close dupe for Urban Decay’s Smoked palette but was disappointed by the lack of pigment. It seems just their new eyeshadows and palettes are bad, because the setting sprays have been reviewed to be pretty good.

Karen Avatar

I find NYX to be way overhyped. I bought two of their eyeshadow palettes recently and they were so bad I returned them. The colors weren’t pretty and had very little pigment. Blah.

Krystina Avatar

I really love Almay products, specifically their foundation (TLC and Clear Complexion). I haven’t strayed because I love that it’s full-coverage and matte.

I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite, but I’ve been very pleasantly surprised by Wet n Wild’s eyeshadow. I have a couple trios and they’re really great – pigmented, nice colors, and they stay on all day with a little primer.

Mariella Avatar

This is a tough one, especially since I don’t even find any high end brands “consistently good”. But I think Maybelline and L’Oreal have really stepped up their game in some ways. Here in Canada, we have a fortunate “out” because Lise Watier is sold in drugstores almost exclusively, so I guess I could say “Lise Watier” (or maybe NYX….or Physician’s Formula….see, this is really difficult!)

Susan Nevling Avatar

L oreal mascara- non waterproof. I like a lot of their brand too for eyes and lips. Used to use the colormatch (?) Foundations but not for years now.

Kalli Avatar

Revlon has awesome lip products and Maybelline is my go-to for mascara, especially the Colossal. I’ve also been trying more products from Walmart’s Hard Candy and it’s really been great! Fun packaging and it’s really good quality product for the price.

Danii Avatar

Hard Candy isn’t *owned* by WalMart, just *exclusively sold* at WalMart. It was initially an underling of Urban Decay and may still be owned by them, not sure.

Dianna Avatar

I personally love Maybelline for mascara (love Falsies and megaplush), Revlon for lipsticks/lip butters (just tried color stay lip suede and am in love!), Nyx for their jumbo pencils–so versatile alone or as a primer (lip and eye) and their lipliners.

I like Covergirl’s line architect retractable eyeliner a for a good on the go inexpensive liner. Though my personally fave eye pencils to use in general are Urban Decay’s 24/7 eye pencil and Rimmel’s eyeliners (love using the pencil for a quick and easy smokey eye–because they are so soft)

Ryou Avatar

Drugstore brands have really stepped up their game in the past year or so. Aside from Asian drugstore brands like Majolica Majorca or Canmake, I’d have to say that Milani and Revlon has been my favorite for the products. For affordability, though, Essence is amazingly good for what you pay for.

Lisa Avatar

If it counts, NYX all the way.
If we’re going for products that are actually sold in drugstores, I generally don’t find drugstore brands to be very consistent, but if I had to choose:
L’Oreal
They have many products that are outstanding (Infallible Eyeshadows, Colour Riche and Colour Caresse Lipsticks, Volumnious Mascara, Lineur Intense), and I’ve never gotten a really terrible product from them. Also, props to the only drugstore brand who decided we might like to know the undertone of our foundation BEFORE we buy it.

Laura Avatar

None of them in my experience. There’s a few good products here and there, but none in my have a line that I think is top to bottom good quality. Where they fall short for me is foundation, concealer and eyeshadow, and blush.

Leticia Avatar

I’d say Revlon – the quality and color range of their lipsticks and glosses is great and I also love their nail polishes. I liked their Custom Eyes eyeshadow palettes too. I’ve tried other products like eyebrow pencils and some foundations, but I think their stellar products are for lips and nails. I also like that every once in a while they throw in a “collection” product, like small lipglosses palettes or “nail stencils” that are simply fun!

amanda Avatar

Maybelline. I love their Color Whispers, 14 hour lipsticks, Vivids, Fit Me powder, etc. Several of their mascaras are also really good. Overall I think they consistently turn out great products.

Ghina Avatar

Maybelline & Revlon. I cannot choose between two of them. Maybelline has great mascaras & I love the gel eye liner. One thing that you cannot miss about Maybellie : The color tattoos.
For revlon, I really like the lip products , foundations, & nail polish. The nail polish come in a huge bottle but just cost me about $3.

Sarah Avatar

I never thought of Nyx as a drugstore product since I can only ever find it in person at Ulta, but I would say that it is probably my favorite, especially their eye products! I have probably fifteen or more of their liners, a bunch of jumbo eye pencils, I think nine of the pigments in the little round canisters and five of the liquid crystal eyeliners.

Still, I do like Maybelline for lipsticks!

Katrina Avatar

I wasn’t able to narrow it down to one, but two: L’Oreal and Maybelline. Between the two, you could get everything you need, unless you’re a makeup addict like myself.

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