Is there a product you swore you wouldn’t buy but ended up purchasing?

Well, I don’t know if I’d say “swore,” as that’s a little heavy for my position, but I’m not much for backing up products any more (I’ll never get to them, I know that!). I love Bite’s Prismatic glosses, and I’ll often reach for one for photos (if I have a lot of cheek products to swatch through) if there isn’t a lip color to-be-swatched that makes sense at the time. Mine are in dire need of replacing, and I wasn’t going to repurchase… until they did 75% off and I found out that there’s no replacement anticipated at this time.

— Christine

31 Comments

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Francesca Avatar

Huda beauty Mercury retrograde! When I saw It for the First Time (in this blog) I swore that I would never buy It, because I don’t Need It and I wasn’t convinced by Huda description of the shades… Then, I haven’t realize when I’d exactly changed my mind, but at a certain point I started to search for review… And then I ended buying It as an auto- present for my birthday.

Nichole Avatar

I told myself to not buy anymore cream shadows, but I ended up purchasing Sydney Grace’s cream shadows during her sale last week. I got them yesterday and they are NICE!! The teal warms and stops my heart at the same time.

Nancy T Avatar

One was a specific brand: KVD. This was due to reports of an anti-Semitic incident on her part. But not easily substantiated, and so when she came out with Metal Matte Palette and I was on the hunt for a perfect emerald green eyeshadow, I caved. Bought several more of her products. Then came another controversy involving her. The anti-vaxxing stance along with noticing a swastika on her fiancé’s neck was enough to finally cause me to fully swear off of her brand.

Another one was the Pat McGrath Mothership palettes @ $125 for just 10 shades. I truly found that to be ridiculously and obscenely expensive for what it was and wasn’t ever going to buy one! And then she came out with Bronze Seduction Mothership… again, I caved. Now I have 3 Motherships! About to buy a 4th, too. Never say never!

Helena Avatar

I also swore off KVD…
I didn’t even knew about the anti-semitic situations, but her position as an anti-vax alone is enough for me to never touch her stuff again.
it was hard during this Black Friday because her liner was on sale and I was in a dire need of one. still, I purchased the haus labs one, even though it was 3x as expensive and I had to import it…

still worth boycotting her brand.

V Avatar

I’m glad I’m not the only one who couldn’t resist the incredibly cheap KVD sale or the Bronze Seduction pallet. I had to have Bruno, other blues, some cheap brushes but I don’t feel great about myself bc It’s basically a Sephora company. I *try not to buy fast food makeup or fashion or skincare. Who can resist all of the time!?

Gossip time: About her husband Rafael aka Leafar w/the enormous ego, whose personality puts me off, he doesn’t have the same swastika symbol used by nazi Germany which was flipped/reversed to end up representing something very different. His choices involving his daughter are what turn ppl off the most. KVD did a video on YT explaining where the anti-Semitic claims or “propaganda” originate from. The story goes that it was the tattoo artist (who couldn’t draw) on that lousy tv show she was 1st on in Miami. It’s all easy to find but I’m fairly sure our products won’t arrive w/ rickets or polio… I hope!

V Avatar

Oops! I left out the part about that guy she worked with becoming upset & jealous about her getting on a new tv show then *allegedly making flyers that claimed she was anti-Semitic (long before her relationship with Sandra Bullock’s ex). The guy she was on that show w/ was hoping to sabotage her career… Allegedly. She said he bullied her and she didn’t wish to address the source of these claims earlier. Idk what’s true or if Sephora or Kenzo or whomever might’ve pressured her to address it on YT.

Emilie Avatar

Oh yeah. Urban Decay Naked Smoky. Pat McGrath Mothership VI Midnight Sun (evidence of that statement is on this site, lol). ABH Subculture. Lunar Beauty Moon Spell palette. Lip gloss in general until Fenty Gloss Bomb came around. Probably other instances as well. Most of the time it works out for me, but not always.

Rachel R. Avatar

*CP Baby Got Peach Palette: It isn’t terribly diverse, so I wasn’t going to get it. However, I was buying on a sale, needed a few more dollars to get free shipping, and I have all the other monochrome palettes. I let the completionist in me win. I wasn’t interested in buying it just for its own sake, though.

*UD Naked Smoky Palette: I thought it looked kind of boring in photos and didn’t buy it for a long time. However, so many friends recommended it to me because of the purplish grays, that I bought it the first time it went on sale for $27. I’m very glad I did, though.

* Lime Crime in general. I detest Doe Deere and the things she did in business and in private. Now that she’s sold the company, I trust the the brand more. I realize she’s still on the board, but several people I respect feel comfortable buying the brand now, so I have gotten some things.

Ana Maria Avatar

UD Naked Smoky Palette… that was the best Naked palette in my opinion (I never liked the color scheme on them, most colors are too similar and their shades schemes unflattering to me).
Maybe it’s also the fact that I purchased in during my first trip to Paris from the Champ Elysee Sephora, but if I where to buy pre-made palettes again (nowadays I stick only to my custom made one), I wish I could get Naked Smoky again. I actually started my custom palette by searching dupes for shades in that one. 😆

Deborah S. Avatar

I think the only thing I have purchased in years that I had sworn never to buy was a Kat Von D Metal Crush e/s in the shade Rose Shock. I picked it up about a year ago, I think and regretted it almost immediately. It wasn’t a particularly unique colour and even with a sticky base, it dropped glitter all day. I don’t support Kat Von D’s brand in any way, shape or form so this was a major mistake in my eyes and ever time I visit the Sephora inside JC Penny’s and I see almost half the wall, in such a small space, devoted to her brand I am frustrated. I would love another prestige brand to use that space! I have spoken with the sales associates and they indicate that they rarely sell anything from the brand and that doesn’t surprise me given the location. It is pretty conservative up here. It just seems like a waste when I could use almost any other brand Sephora carries.

Ana Maria Avatar

I’m not that opinionated on make-up to `swore` I won’t purchase something; and by this I mean I’m opinionated on the quality of my make-up, ingredients and type of product, but I’m not usually the one that `cancels` certain brands/people, price points, etc.
Most likely I’ll never purchase a lipgloss, a cream shadow, because they simply don’t fit with my liking and routine… but I just can’t say `I swear I won’t buy it` 😆 I’m also right now trying to transition to only using brands with recycling programs for make-up/skincare, but I still can’t say `I swear I won’t buy anything else`.

To play the game still… I swore I’ll never buy very expensive skincare when there are many good quality products at decent prices (but still not drugstore), like Paula’s Choice? Did I ended up buying overpriced Peter Thomas Roth face primers and mud masks? Yes I did. 😆 Were they mediocre? Yes they were.

Tatyana Avatar

I work in finance so I’m one of those people that prefers drugstore makeup over luxury. I went around proudly saying, it’s about the skill not the product… I happen to be very happy with my BH and Colourpop makeup.
Well, I caved when I saw the ABH vault on sale. It was the same price as the Naked2 and Naked Smokey that I had already purchased. And I have no regrets. It’s the first formula that I’ve worked with that was that blendable… in fact, the shadow near disappears. I wish I had gotten an ABH soft glam palette when I first got into makeup but alas, I was broke and it was far from being out yet. It does remind me a little of the Tartelette toasted palette that I have. So anyway, now I own an ABH palette…

Kriss Avatar

Lime Crime because history. But I recently found some products in a local Ulta and fell in love with the Venus XL 2 palette. The color scheme is right up my alley (rosy pinks, sage greens and a few browns) and since then I’ve bought a handful of products from small eye palettes, lippies and these cute cream blushes. I feel a little better knowing that the owner has stepped down.

KKW Classic Blossom palette because I loathe that family but I figured I can practice eyeshadow looks and work on my application technique with this junk instead of wasting my better stuff like the Huda palettes. I still feel slimy supporting that family. Ugh.

So far I’ve held out on Kylie, James Charles and JStar. And I didn’t think I would own a PMG product because the prices are insane but that $10 lippie sale earlier this week got me and I was finally able to afford Psycho Candy.

kjh Avatar

I’ve managed to stay true to ‘no new brands’ in a low buy resolution. Many of these posts are about redemption. I have an expression ‘(Insert very very bad person here) loved dogs.’ It means that there is some good to be found in the worst people; no one is all bad. These days, when people with questionable or dreadful behavior are the SM face of a brand, they, too have room for redemption. Some, with negative inner core values, reoffend and reoffend with their highly publicized stances. Some try to be better people and stumble into more controversy. Some actually see the light. Some are distanced from the brand by the board or corporate officers. I think the last is Doe D, who no longer is in a position to do reprehensible things. I caved after her step-down (And after asking here about LC) and bought the last Venus palette. Nice cool choice. For me, price is not the issue in ‘swore not to’ but the demonstrated values of the company are. I regret that I have been Amazonified. Lured by instant gratification and ease of acquisition into supporting a company that exploits its labor force AND HAS SET THE STANDARD FOR THE DELIVERY MODEL. Go fast, go convenient, or go home. Reducing Amazon will be my #1 NY resolution.

Pearl Avatar

Estee Lauder x Victoria Beckham Modern Mercury – I didn’t like the ad campaign calling the look sweaty, or something about “for that sweaty look”. And I bought 2. It is among the top 5 that I use consistently.

Any Pat McGrath – I didn’t like the bloated ad campaigns. And those still photos of her inspiration for collections bothered me. Lips on the lipstick tube for others is the fly on the lip for me. I remember watching a youtuber talk about some kind of 3 or 4 step process with eye shadow and mixing medium and turning into this molten metallic chrome look on the eye and thinking who are they even talking about? Now I stalk launches and own just about all of her palettes and have too many lipsticks, lip balms, and glosses to count. Currently she has the number one spot for preferred brand for me.

Pearl Avatar

Forgot to add ColourPop – I swore them off after a shipment took just shy of a month to be delivered and I never received the package. It was lost somewhere between the post office and arriving at my work. This was about 2.5 years ago and I contacted CP about it as well as worked with my post office to try to get to the bottom of it but to no avail. CP said as a 1 time courtesy they’d re-ship but the whole mix-up made me gunshy of ever ordering from them. It just felt sketchy all around. I gave away all of my CP after that and washed my hands of the brand. I can’t even remember what it was that I ordered. And then along came Going Coconuts and I’ve ordered 2. I’m excited to receive it. Should be here sometime in February.

Brian Avatar

I was one of those people effected by the Lime Crime data breach. Their response to the situation(deleting comments from people warning others about it so they can contact their banks while not giving any official statement themselves, the pathetic 10% off coupon for customers etc) along with finding out more about Doe Deere I had no intention of ever buying from them again. And then they came out with the Plushies…and the wet cherry gloss…. And here I am buying from Lime Crime again.

V Avatar

A 10% discount always feels like, “Gee thanks for the few pennies off!” I’m sorry that security breach hurt your funds! I also have a hard time NOT wanting LC’s products w their constant sales and never ending reminders but they could have better ingredients in their lip products… I think.

Mariella Avatar

I never intended to buy UD’s Born to Run palette because of the orange and red shades in it but the more I looked at it, the more I realized that all the other shades more than made up for the ones I didn’t like as much. And I’ve also used Double Life and Ignite with okay results (I still avoid Hell Ride, Baja and Wildheart). Also, I’d launched my own personal boycott of Hourglass because of their annual Grinch-y rip off with their Holiday palettes. But I caved with the Veil loose powder. It’s such a lovely product but that’s the only Hourglass product I’ve purchased in years.

Alison Avatar

I bought the Natasha Denona purple-blue palette when it launched, and a few of the original five pans– and have not bought from her in the last few years because her colors are too warm for me, and also because I was disappointed by all the brownish shades in the Purple-Blue. So.. along comes Metropolis and it really is quite warm but it does have those greens and a few browns I can wear. So I got it and I really fell in love with her formula, and so began the back and forth on whether to get the Green-Brown palette during the Holiday sales. I went through it shade by shade multiple times, looking on multiple sites to get clear on the exact colors. I counted the number of shades already included in the five pans I own, calculated the other wearable shades, and concluded it was not worth it. I did not even put it in my cart when the Black Friday ND site sale began because I could not find another not-too-warm palette to match it with in a 1 + 1. And then Beautylish showed it as out of stock at a deep discount, and I was poised to pounce when it came back into stock at 2:55 PM on Thanksgiving. I have no regrets. It’s actually so much cooler than it appears in photos. Perhaps the trend is to such warm shades, that it now appears more neutral and I can wear all but 2 shades in it. A lot of the shades are almost like toppers that one could wear over other mid-tone mattes. Since I do paler rather than deeper eye looks, it works for me and I wear it daily.

Helene Avatar

I have “sworn off” some brands, and so far I’ve not bought anything from them. I replyed about one of them earlier in this thread and find no need going into the others, but I have a mental list. If I add more to that I think I’ll need a book. 🙂
I had decided never to splurge on anything more from Tom Ford, but this past Black Friday made me cave and I bought a lipstick that I love.

Jane Avatar

Never “swore” either because I just don’t, but anything PMG’s. The foundation (due to price), but have it and really like it, so I feel good about the purchase. Her palette’s (I’ve told myself no to the quad Noctural Nirvana, but I KNOW if I find a sale, I’ll purchase it.).

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