How do you stay excited about beauty?
I use the enthusiasm/excitement of my readers to motivate me, so when they’re interested in a new product, trend, brand, or whatever, that fuels me because what I enjoy most about what I do is helping people make better purchasing decisions and loving what they buy. I also understand that brands often have to put out an answer for whatever is trending, so while collectively, there might seem like too many of the same palette, everyone has their favorite brands, price points, formulas, etc. The other part of that is knowing that there are newcomers all the time, so while something seems redundant to me (as someone who has been buying for 15 years), it might be new and exciting for them – and I don’t want to take away from their excitement!
— Christine
Temptalia! There are some YT videos that I watch, but mostly it’s Temptalia that keeps me excited about beauty. Thank you, Christine. 🙂
Honestly did not think that Temptalia could do that, LOL!
Oh, absolutely! I don’t have friends that love makeup as much as I do, so I come here not only to see the latest releases and reviews, but also to enjoy the comments section. Temptalia is a whole makeup-loving community. 🙂
Yes, Seraphine, exactly! I’m the only makeup lover and enthusiast that has it as a dedicated hobby among my family and friends. I enjoy the comment section as much as the reviews and swatches.
Same here. I have no family into makeup any more. I only have a couple local friends who are into it, but I don’t always get to see them very often. Temptalia and its readers always have thoughtful things to say about beauty.
I often go into the comments section thinking, ‘Hmmm, I wonder what (Rachel R, Pearl, Nancy T, etc.) thought about this product.’ It’s so interesting how Temptalia regulars get to “know” each other through our comments. 🙂
Same! Although I am also inspired by the makeup in fashion advertising.
Adding my 2 cents, in agreement w/ gratitude for Christine and the other Temptaliaites! Few of my friends are into makeup and I love the community, seeing the swatches, reviews and comments.
I’m less excited about new products and more excited about using tools such as My Vanity and Dupes to help me curate a fabulous stash.
I love the advice and feedback of other Temptaliaites which helps motivate me to explore my existing stash more thoroughly or to try a product in a different manner.
And, of course, technique. I feel quite good about my skill set at this point, but there is always room for improvement.
I gotta get weird with it to stay interested. My main hobby is art and painting and sometimes makeup and beauty can feel stale and samey in comparison. I’m really done with makeup that’s for making me look hotter or sexier, like any kind of “glam” looks. I’m gay, I’m bipolar, I would prefer to be as unsexy as possible, so the looks I gravitate towards to keep me interested in the medium tend to be pared back, kinetic, and architectural.
Visiting your site every day, Christina. 🙂 I get unbiased reviews, great swatches and ideas for how to use various products and combine colors, etc.
though I’m new to commenting, I have been checking your site for a couple of years! I have also been subscribed to Lisa Eldridge’s YouTube channel. so these are the two places that get me excited for beauty!
Thank you!
🙋♀️
Your website keeps me interested for sure!
But I also think it’s good to let interest wax and wane. If we’re going to say this is an art form, then it’s natural to sometimes just want to take a break and explore other art. If we say it’s entertainment, it’s even ~less~ necessary to stay permanently engaged. I think, particularly in the West, we’re terrified of being bored. It’s okay to feel bored with makeup. A new collection is just around the bend waiting to reawaken your interest.
That makes sense, too – and sometimes you just have to let it run its course and accept it knowing that you’ll eventually be re-inspired down the road!
Temptalia keeps me excited about makeup b/c of the dups and swatches. I LOVE LOVE LOVE seeing the amazing eyes you create from various palettes. It’s inspired me to utilize what I have rather than just buy into mindless consumerism. What I think would be interesting would be a then-and-now assessment about how various products have changed or products that weren’t around 15 years ago that transformed makeup. A year or so ago an amazing co-worker helped me revive a stale routine and Temptalia has helped fan the flame.
By staying in tune with the new trends and brands. Not that I follow trends actually, but new color stories and combinations of such, do keep me on my toes. Also, even though I’m 60, I still experiment with different color and shade combos. One need not stick with a signature look once they are of a certain age, or so I believe!
I rarely get excited about new products (unless it’s an all-green eye shadow palette or a green lipstick that actually performs well), but I still get excited about playing with makeup. I just love how I can transform myself, and experimenting with color is a lot of fun. Last night I was wearing teal liquid lipstick just because I wanted to try it — I wasn’t going anywhere, just doing my makeup at home because it had been too long.
I’d really like to take my skills to the next level and be able to start to do more FX-style makeup, although I don’t really have enough call for it to justify investing in the extra supplies. But getting the chance to go to IMATS NY in April on their FX makeup focused day was REALLY exciting!
This site pretty much does it for me!
I love to visit the site every day, multiple times a day, to see swatches, reviews and sneak peeks of what is coming out!
You do a wonderful job Christine and I am always super excited to visit your site to see your looks and to see what’s next!
I find you very inspiring!
Aw, thank you Gina!!
I’ve become a lot less excited about the new products during the past two years, and less interested in makeup in general. I don’t have much time to prepare in the morning before running out the door and I wear minimal makeup during the weekend. I could think of two main reasons for this change: 1) I have more products than I could possibly and realistically use and 2) The balance between skincare and makeup was altered, with skincare playing a much more vital role in my life than ever.
I’ve come to appreciate and use more what I already have. I’ve realized that I have products in my stash that I barely touched, while some of them were never used, just swatched. And this is a waste of money and a bad investment, from my point of view. I’m more interested in new techniques for a natural-looking makeup that enhances my features, and in being a responsible buyer.
1) Visiting Temptalia to check out the latest – I’m a magpie and I love the pretty sparklies.
2) Planned buys from preferred brands – the idea is to watch revolving door of brands and releases and wait for my brands to come out with their iteration and then see if I like it/if it’s worth it. The reality is that I typically knee-jerk purchase out of brand loyalty and freshening up the stash. I still love what I get, though.
3) Playing with my curated stash – I’ve taken great care to showcase and organize my stash and I love shopping my own personal Sephora.
4) My Vanity feature on Temptalia – I use this to shop dupes and to keep everything current and organized. I LOVE this timesaver; it’s really helped me be much more discerning with my knee-jerk impulse to buy based on instagram or ad copy or first impressions only.
I stay excited because there is always something new coming out and different combinations to try. I always love to see what you are presenting to us Christine and enjoy this blog most of all. I feel it keeps me in touch with what is happening in the beauty world.
Because I enjoy looking nice and there are always new products that I think will look good on me and create the look I want.
I know I can come here and there are many other people that are just as obsessed with makeup as I am. I can read the comments and check into other people’s experiences with products and learn from their experiences and share mine as well. When you are learning it keeps the excitement going.
I try to keep up reasonably well with brands and launches. Even when I’m not buying, it’s fun to look. Plus, there are always new products and formulas coming out from existing brands. I also like alternative, indie brands, which tend have more variety. Because I’ve been buying less from mid-range brands, I’ve been occasionally splurging on brands like Viseart, PML, and Natasha Denona.
Phyrra’s Facebook beauty group has a ton of creative and talented members who share info on products and post looks, and they’re extremely inspiring.
I don’t know. But I sure wish I could turn it off sometimes. The amount of money I spend on makeup every month is just ridiculous, not to mention all the time spent watching videos and reading beauty news and reviews.