Most Disappointing Products of 2018
Worst of 2018
Most Disappointing Products
As we close out 2018, it’s fun to reflect on some of the better and more interesting products that have been released and reviewed over the past year, but I also like to think about what products let me down during the year, too. When I think about the worst of the year, it’s more about expectation levels and what was released; it isn’t necessarily that it was the worst in quality but was it super hyped up and then fell totally short? The list below is a mix of products that are disappointing because of quality (with some being devastatingly bad) and others because these brands can or have done better.
For example, I don’t feel like Wet ‘n’ Wild improved their Color Icon Eyeshadow formula. The mattes seem a little more pigmented and blendable, but they don’t wear as well. The shimmers are often much worse than they were before. I miss the old Comfort Zone palette. Sephora reformulated their Colorful Eyeshadow range, which I deeply regret purchasing “all the shades” of based on past experience (I didn’t even end up testing them all as reader interest waned so thin after several dismal ratings and reviews!).
What’s noteworthy about this year’s list is that brands that have had very high notes in this year and past years have spots on my list. Fenty Beauty has four products on my list: Rose on Ice (much better in the pot now!), Moroccan Spice palette (not bad but should be so much better!), Killawatt Foil Palette (packaging is a let-down, formula wasn’t as good as it could be), and the awful, awful Metallic Eye & Lip Crayons.
Luxury-priced Tom Ford earned four spots on my list of 20 with the lackluster Private Shadows (for $30+ singles, they should be consistent AND high quality), more dismal Shadow Extremes, ho-hum Soleil d’Ambre, and the more recently disappointing experience I had with the dual-ended eyeliners. I have some long-time favorites from Tom Ford from over the years but this year, I’ve been less and less impressed by the offerings and consistency in quality.
It’s not much of a surprise when some of the more packaging-focused launches by MAC make it onto my list, like the Nicopanda kits and the Lo-Fi mega-palette. What is a surprise is to find that Viseart’s Petit Pro 02 was such a departure from the quality I expect from the brand. Similarly, I expect and know Urban Decay can do better, which is why this year’s newest Naked Palette, Naked Cherry, finds it way onto my list.
Did you have any product flops this year? Products that disappointed you?
MAC Nicopanda Full Face Kit
MAC Baby Girl
MAC Baby Girl Bronzing Powder ($28.00 for 0.35 oz.) is a soft, light-medium brown with warm, orange undertones and flecks of gold sparkle over a... Read full review.
Tom Ford Beauty Shade & Illuminate Eye Kohl Duo
MAC Lo-Fi
MAC Lo-Fi Jeremy Scott Eyeshadow x29 Palette ($75.00 for 0.51 oz.) is an example where there's a lot of attention paid to the packaging but not enough... Read full review.
Makeup Geek Power Pigment
The formula is supposed to be "highly-pigmented" that "will maintain their vibrancy." Some shades were pigmented, some were not. The majority of the eyeshadows had a grainier, drier texture that had some excess product kicked up in the pan and was prone to moderate fallout during application without use of a primer. In general, most of the shades were dismal applied over bare skin as the drier texture seemed more prone to picking up the natural oils on the skin, absorbing them, and looking uneven as some parts appeared darker than others. Read more...
Sephora Editorial 2.0
Sephora Editorial 2 PRO Eyeshadow Palette ($68.00 for 1.12 oz.) is a new, permanent palette that features more muted or faded takes on pops of color... Read full review.
Fenty Beauty Rosé on Ice
Fenty Beauty Rosé on Ice Fairy Bomb Glittering Pom Pom ($42.00 for 0.25 oz.) is a translucent dusting of fine, pale pink sparkle and micro-glitter. ... Read full review.
Wet 'n' Wild Nude Awakening
Wet 'n' Wild Nude Awakening Color Icon Eyeshadow 10-Pan Palette ($4.99 for 0.35 oz.) is the type of product that makes one question whether... Read full review.
Tom Ford Beauty Shadow Extreme
The formula is split into two finishes--metallics (Foil) and glitters (Glitter)--and the performance depends largely on the finish. In general, the formula is supposed to "glide" on with an "ultra-thin, water-resistant gloss of color onto the lids." Though each compact seemed to be the appropriate size for a standalone eyeshadow, they only contain 0.03 oz. a pop, which made them some of the smaller single eyeshadows on the market. There were some really lovely shades but enough inconsistency that for the price point, it never amounted to being an impressive range. Read more...
Fenty Beauty Metallic Eye & Lip Crayon
The formula is supposed to have "insane glide" that is "creamy upon application" but sets. The brand says that they can be used as eyeliner, eyeshadow, lipstick, or lip liner. I found the performance to be underwhelming both on the eyes and lips, though on lips it was particularly disappointing. Fenty has been fairly consistent, and where they've missed, it's usually not a total failure, but I had no luck with this formula at all. Read more...
ColourPop Super Star Loose Pigment
The formula is supposed be a wet/dry formula that has less intense shine when applied dry and a more metallic finish when applied wet. They're a finely-milled, loose powder that can be used on eyes, lips, and cheeks. Not wholly surprising, they tended to perform best applied with a dampened brush or over a lightly tacky primer. They can be a little messy to work with if you are not used to loose eyeshadows, but I did not find them any better or worse than the average loose formula. The pigmentation varied a lot from shade to shade, though most shades had more pigmentation when applied with a dampened brush along with greater shine.
Tom Ford Beauty Private Shadow
The formula is supposed to have "unadulterated color" that's "highly pigmented, longwearing, and crease-resistant." The packaging is clever, though for anyone who has more than few eyeshadows in their stash, the compact is rather large relative to the actual pan of product (which is less than average for a full-sized eyeshadow--given the price point, I would have expected closer to 0.07 oz. or even 0.09 oz.). The formula itself varied a lot between shades with enough inconsistency that would make me weary of buying blind online. Read more...
NARS Heartbreaker
NARS Heartbreaker Holiday 2018 Cheek Trio ($42.00 for 0.36 oz.) includes three blushes from the brand's permanent range. Oddly, the brand's... Read full review.
Wet 'n' Wild Color Icon Eyeshadow Quad
Urban Decay Naked Cherry
Urban Decay Naked Cherry Eyeshadow Palette ($49.00 for 0.456 oz.) is the newest in the Naked series and features a mix of corals and plums. The... Read full review.
Sephora Colorful Eyeshadow
The formula is supposed to be "highly pigmented" and wear for "10 hours" while being blendable and layerable. There are three finishes, and I found that the quality did differ depending on the finish more than anything else. The glitter finish was comprised of a mix of more matte and glitter-packed shades, where glitter would fallout during application and often were under-pigmented, along with denser, more silicone-heavy glittery shades with the latter applying and holding up better on the lid as it adhered better, though they typically didn't have great pigmentation. The matte eyeshadows were medium to opaque in coverage but often buildable with fairly soft, thinner textures with some powderiness, though there were some definite winners in the bunch. The shimmer eyeshadows were more often quite pigmented with moderately dense, smooth textures that were easy to use, but there were a few that had a little too much slip or were too dry and so application wasn't impressive without a dampened brush or an eyeshadow primer underneath it. The wear was between six and eight hours. Read more...
Fenty Beauty Moroccan Spice
Fenty Beauty Moroccan Spice Eyeshadow Palette ($59.00 for 0.47 oz.) is a new, 16-pan palette that features an array of shimmers and mattes with pops... Read full review.
Fenty Beauty Killawatt Foil
Fenty Beauty Killawatt Foil Killawatt Freestyle Highlighter Palette ($54.00 for 0.70 oz.) is a new, limited edition palette featuring seven hues... Read full review.
Tom Ford Beauty Soleil d'Ambre
Tom Ford Beauty Soleil d'Ambre Eye & Cheek Palette ($155.00 for 0.45 oz.) is a new, limited edition palette that contains four eyeshadows and two... Read full review.
Viseart Petit Pro (02)
Viseart Petit Pro (02) Petit Pro Palette ($30.00 for 0.28 oz.) is new, eight-pan palette with four matte shades and four shimmery shades. I usually... Read full review.
Yep, these were pretty average across the board and you nailed it on the head in your comments Christine.
The only beauty product I ended up being disappointed in was Designer Brands (an Australian brand) foundation. The porcelain ivory shade was too pale and the next shade up had yelllowish undertones. The formula itself is a bit too thick for my liking. I do mix the two together, which is OK on days at home so I can use them up.
Otherwise, I have not had any real misses this year.
I didn’t try all (or even most!) of these bad products, but I get what you mean about how you’re defining them.
Regarding the Sephora shades you did review, I got the Get Wild shade based solely on your review and swatches, and like it when I need a more neutral shade. In fact, it pretty much matches my eyelid veining, which perversely makes it less noticeable.
I also got the Sephora shade Romantic Comedy, which it looks like you swatched but this was one that you gave up on. I really like the shade for inner corner; with my ingredient allergies, it’s one of the few pinkish shades that I can wear that looks decent there and is just the right shade. I’ll never know what you thought of that shade, but I reach for it pretty much all the time. I can’t wear white shades in the inner corner so Romantic Comedy is the more neutral one I can wear there.
I like MAC permanent products. I am a make-up minimalist living with a custom made palette of 15 MAC eyeshadows and 6 face powders (including sculpting, highlighting, bronzer and 3 blushes), along with currently 6 lipsticks in various shades. The permanent range offers me enough flexibility with color, at a good quality.
But I’m highly disappointed by the brand focus on so many temporary collections. This yields disappointing products… tons of them each year. I go to stores and try their new collections and I’m not at all convinced to buy them. In 2018 I did purchased Patrick Star Patrick Woo lipstick as a back-up for my current red one; I did it to support him. His collections were a decent quality, compared to other collections; but it was still too much.
My biggest disappointment with the products in 2018 is that brands seem not to make improvements.
Brands like MAC and Too Faced should focus more on improving the permanent collection (both formulation and shades).
Non-drugstore / high end brands should focus on improving packaging. The spoolie on the Anastasia Brow Wiz is still the flimsiest around, breaks even if handles carefully because the plastic around it is not sturdy enough. Brands launch eyeshadow palettes in cheap looking plastic and cardboard for +$40. Brands launch pencils that don’t sharpen well; common, we’re sending people to space since the 60s… how hard is to make a material that sharpens well in 2018?
Brands should test out the waters (aka. influencers, make-up artists, make-up reviewers) before relaunching their entire range. Because from the experience with Sephora, Tom Ford and Wet’n’Wild (just to name a few) it’s clear that their internal testing didn’t showed that the new formula is worse performing.
ROFL on the space/pencil comment. So true that we seem to not be able to nail simple customer requirements.
Amen about the sharpening issue!
Certainly was a year for stingers. I didn’t fall for winter Fenty disappointments, due to T. Instead of the HL palette, really pre-lemming, wound up getting the minted mojito. The TFs were surprisingly bad; TFhas been overrated, at least on performance, a lot in the past 2. S has messed up dreadfully, esp with the megas. But their singles were a mirror of the MUFE redo. From fair to good>>>to bad to worse. My only disappointment was w/the Lorac holiday palette, though Pro 4 is good. I think Pro 4 was formulated before the sale. Ulta won’t print my review, though it wasn’t a real dragging. No longer eagerly await UD, too uneven. Backtalk ?2017? Was worse than cherry. What is the biggest disappointment is the supersaturation of the market, the constant sales, the money grabs, the IG whip to a frenzy…and, poof, 50% off next week. UD Elements is half price, for anyone who waited and wants it. That is an illness symptom to me.
“What is the biggest disappointment is the supersaturation of the market, the constant sales, the money grabs, the IG whip to a frenzy…and, poof, 50% off next week”
I could not have said it any better. Yes, I agree with you, it is a symptom of an illness, for real. The makeup /cosmetics industry is in very critical condition, possibly ready to code.
The new Chanel “LA BASE OMBRE PAUPIERE” eyeshadow base is a disaster mess for me—watery, hardly any coverage, no staying power, and makes the shadows slip off my lids. A huge NO.
I’m really surprised to see the Moroccan Spice Palette in here. While I do think there was inconsistency within the palette and there were some shades I really wasn’t fussed about, I really liked and got on with the palette overall. I guess people like different things and you definitely made some good points. I always read your reviews and love them, so maybe if I try it again I won’t be so impressed!
I hated the UD Born to Run palette. I bought one of the lipsticks as well and I didn’t like it much either. I know most everyone else loved it but I found it really mediocre. I also found the Nars Hot Tryst palette difficult to work with. 🙁
I haven’t bought MAC in years but it’s still deeply disappointing to see them putting out sub-par stuff on such a regular basis…
Thanks to Temptalia, I didn’t get any of these disappointments. For me, the Tom Ford decline seems a trend, versus a fluke single release, and it’s all the less excusable given the price. Viseart Petit Pro was the most disappointing, but seems to have been a single miss given that other releases have been better. UD singles seem better on the whole than most of their palettes, so I guess my expectations for Cherry palette weren’t high anyway.
Thanks to Temptalia and your hard work, Christine, I’ve managed to avoid major disappointments and especially major really pricey ones like some of Tom Ford’s real clunkers. The only let downs for me were a Lise Watier mascara (everyone else seems to love it but I don’t see that it does much of anything and it’s a real pain to remove) and Tatcha’s The Pearl Underlight Eye Illuminating Treatment (and that was just a sample so not like I’d dropped a lot of money on the full size).
Hi & thanks Christine for reminding of of the duds (as I recall being said of fireworks that either don’t pop or do so without much of a bang). I can only confirm on the Fenty products, as I tested them (Oooo, the pencils perform very poorly!) and I purchased the Kilowatt Foil palette. I agree the packaging was weak on the palette, cardboard (Oh my!); however I didn’t think the highlighters were that bad (but that’s because I thought at first that they were eyeshadows…LOL!) I don’t think I’d use them as highlighters, just too much in my opinion, but for those who like heavy, frost on their cheeks, you can enjoy that here. So as eyeshadows, they work pretty well, though of course I don’t do the testing on wear time, and I’d agree with your rating.
OH, I forgot to share MY worst disappointment, and I’ve just received it…the Pat McGrath Mothership Subliminal palette. It looks so nice and everyone has raved on here palettes, and I was let down. I guess you can have imagination that goes farther than the hype, huh?! LOL Even though the palette is heavy (but still plastic laquer looking) and the mirror is tops (like the beveled edges, seems like a “real” mirror), I was most disappointed that the VR & Blitz shadows must need heavy finger tap application or a fixing medium because natural brushes don’t seem to work well with it. The mattes are fine and pigmented, but I was sooooooooo disappointed with what I thought would be the best ones the VR & Blitz.
And oops, I believe the palette was a 2017 product, but I’m late to the PM palette party, and it really was my biggest let down even though I purchased it on sale, as anything over $50-$60 should “Wow!” me.
Wow two of my favorite products for this year are actually on this list. Also the lighting is always too hot on your pictures. The swatches never actually look that way in real. They’re always blown out. Fyi.
Which products are you referring to?
I’ve always found her swatches to be true to color.
That’s odd. I’ve always found her swatches to be some of the most accurate out there.
Thanks to your site, I only bought one of the above noted “failures”. The MAC x Aaliyah Baby Girl bronzer, mainly just because of the sentiment and that a bunch of us pushed so hard for that collection to happen. It really only works for either warming up a blush I have already laid down or as a lid wash.
However, there sure have been a ton of misses this past year. Which I owe to a market that is suffering from it being glutted with too much coming out too rapidly. It’s taken the mystique and fun out of most of it. It’s just becoming too difficult to keep up with all that’s happening. Between so many new brands, many by influencers and insta-celebrities of one sort or another. Something has gone haywire, and doesn’t feel quite right lately.
Granted I’ve only actually swatched them, but I don’t care for the NARS reformulation of their eyeshadows… Perhaps I’d feel different if I tried wearing them, but they’re far too expensive to take that chance.
I don’t really have anything I hated this year, but I got the Frost Money set of Fenty crayons and they’re actually working pretty well as eyeshadow for me so far. It seems like the best way to apply it is to sketch on a little bit at the outer corner and then tap the crayon over the rest of the eye area.
I agree with most of the stuff here. I was really considering whether to splurge on the UD naked cherry but because I like the colour scheme I did and I was pleasantly surprised I actually like it a lot!
I didn’t buy most of what you posted, Christine, but I did buy TF’s Soleil D’Armbe for 50% off at a CCO and it’s become my second favourite TF Eye and Cheek palette. I also love the red The disappointing item that I bought this year was Charlotte Tilbury’s Stars in Your Eyes pette mostly due to the shadowoes having ansorange undertone and the violet shade groupings did not stand on their own, at least to me.
I can totally see where all these items belong on this list. I was a bit surprised not to see the new MUFE and NARS eyeshadow reformulations, but I get why you put these items over those.
I like Naked Cherry and it performs well enough for my skin type with primer, but I know it didn’t perform well for many people, and even more were disappointed with the color range.
The biggest disappointments out of what I bought were all eyeshadow palettes:
1) Viseart Pro Theory Palette in Amethyst. Many of my purple-loving friends adored it, so I bought it. I loved the shimmers, but I could not get the mattes to blend on me at all, no matter what I did. I should have trusted my gut and stuck with your review of it. I ended up giving it away to a wonderful lady who loves it, so there was at least a happy ending.
2) Dominique Lemonade Palette. I bought the reformulated version, but it took major advice and a video chat from our lovely Nancy T. to make it useable on me. I love the color scheme, and I can make it work OK now, but I don’t think their formula is for me. I won’t be buying any more of their palettes, even though they put out a purple-themed one.
3) Coloured Raine Berry Cute Palette. The same scenario as the Amethyst palette: I ended up agreeing with your assessment more than my friends’. The mattes are more usable than Amethyst’s, and I got it on sale for less than half price, so I kept it for the shades I do like. Loveberry doesn’t blend worth crap, so I only use it as a liner.
Dishonorable mention: Although I like my MUFE Lustrous Shadow Palette a lot, the singles reformulation made me so mad I haven’t bought any of the reformulated singles. I know many still got good ratings and there were still colors that appealed to me, but I got mad all over again every time I saw a bad one. Did MUFE even come out with a e/s palette this holiday season? I don’t remember seeing one. That says something. Juvia’s Place and Pat McGrath have taken MUFE’s place as makers of my favorite e/s formulas and colors.
Oh, I forgot Physicians Formula Butter Blush in Natural Glow. I couldn’t get it to show up on me at all, and I’m really fair. That was one of the few products I returned to the store.
Disappointments this year for me:
1) Juvia’s Place Magic Palette: This is the start of the realization that I don’t like shimmers with a silicony consistency and dipped in mineral oil. Unfortunately those are very welcomed now in the marketplace that I am very wary of buying any eyeshadow palette. In this palette, even the mattes have that oiliness that I just cannot get on board with.
2) Prism Palette. I bought it on sale, and gave it away. Same theme as the Juvia’s Place palette: I hate the shimmers formula being chunky and oily. Honestly, there hasn’t been a shimmer that worked as well for me as a Zoeva palette I purchased years ago.
3) Shu Uemura blush. I tossed it after attempting to use it once. It was such a weird consistency that it instantly has a hard pan, and no matter what tool I use to scratch the surface, nothing comes off on the brush. Instantly tossed.
The only thing I’ve tried from your list is the the Naked Cherry Palette and I haven’t had any problems with it. For me, the most disappointing product of the year is the Natasha Denona Mini Star Palette. I got it for myself for Christmas even though I kept seeing one bad review after another, and yep, it earned its’ reputation. Returning it tomorrow!