Archived Post

Welcome to the newest Temptalia!

WELCOME TO THE NEWEST VERSION OF TEMPTALIA! We have been working on this continuously for the last six months: an entire recode and redesign of every bit and piece of Temptalia. We hope the changes make the site easier to use, features more accessible and useful, and if we’re really lucky, a little faster, too. 🙂 The new design is responsive, which means that the site will be better displayed for the device you’re using it with, like your phone, tablet, or desktop/laptop computer. We have also made some of our features more robust and have taken a lot of suggestions over the last year into consideration and implemented many of them across the site. If you find any errors or encounter bugs, please report them in the comments section below and let us know what device and/or browser you were using at the time. (Thank you!!)

Known Errors

These are errors/things that need to be added that we’re working on but aren’t instant fixes. We hope to clear these within 1-3 days.  Update on 8/9: most of these will (hopefully!) be fixed Monday and Tuesday of the upcoming week.

  • Sorting/refining functionality minimized on some features (notably, Foundation Matrix) – to be expanded soon
  • Price Slider on Mobile:  to be added soon
  • Advertising Reskin overlaps right sidebar
  • Swatch Gallery:  brand drop menu is missing from refine results – in progress
  • Blog Post: Dupe List should show Brand + Shade name
  • Unrated products sometimes show up as Fs
  • Newsletter preview image not showing up Fixed
  • Add back +Vanity icon to Glossovers
  • Scale thumbnails in Swatch Gallery/Dupe List to force size
  • Adjust sizing on Samsung tablets

We have plenty of things we still need to do: more features to add, like better and more sorting capabilities, enhancing user wish lists and vanities, and things of that nature — so there is more to come! We hope to get on a shorter release cycle with regular updates rather than one giant one soon. Here are some of our favorite improvements that you’ll find this time around:

Blog

  • Dupe Lists: Reviews now showcase the top 15 dupes, ordered by similarity with the % similar displayed within the review.
  • Compare Any Two: pull up any two swatches (that I’ve done) on the fly to make your own comparison from any review
  • Reader Reviews: see a summary of readers’ reviews for a formula (you can also add your own!)
  • Larger standard photo size (760px, previously 550px) going forward

Product Database

Swatch Gallery

The Dupe List

The Foundation Matrix

  • Shareable shade matches: easily save and share top matches by specific shade for referencing later (here are mine for MAC NC25!)
  • Refined algorithms and result ordering

300 Comments

Comments that do not adhere to our comment policy may be removed. Discussion and debate are highly encouraged but we expect community members to participate respectfully. Please keep discussion on-topic, and if you have general feedback, a product review request, an off-topic question, or need technical support, please contact us!

Please help us streamline the comments' section and be more efficient: double-check the post above for more basic information like pricing, availability, and so on to make sure your question wasn't answered already. Comments alerting us to typos or small errors in the post are appreciated (!) but will typically be removed after errors are fixed (unless a response is needed).

We appreciate enthusiasm for new releases but ask readers to please hold questions regarding if/when a review will be posted as we can't commit to or guarantee product reviews. We don't want to set expectations and then disappoint readers as even products that are swatched don't always end up being reviewed due to time constraints and changes in priorities! Thank you for understanding!

Comments on this post are closed.
Pami Avatar

It looks beautiful! Congratulations! I truly appreciate all of your hard work, and dedication to excellence. This is why YOU are my favorite beauty blogger! 🙂

Inday Avatar

And I thought this was my go to site BEFORE!! This is AH. Maze. ING Christine! Looking forward to digging into the new site. Your hard work, talent, attention to detail, this wonderful community you’ve founded are so appreciated! I don’t comment often but visit multiple times a day and am thankful to each and every contributer!

Jennifer Avatar

The re-design looks really nice and clean, Christine! I can’t imagine how much work this has been. Good work to Shaun and co. as well!

One question, I noticed that the Vanity feature is still part of our profiles, but in your reviews I can’t find the button by the grade for each product, where the Wishlist button is; it’s only available when I click on the product name and go to the individual product page. I hope this makes sense.

I love how you’ve added a Printable feature for the Wishlist. Do you plan on adding sorting capability based on the categories listed?

A function I would love to see in the future is if we had the ability to add your looks to a lookbook or inspiration section of our profile. I’ve bookmarking looks in your reviews that I want to remember and attempt, and it would be so handy to have the ability to save them to a section of my profile here on your site.

Again, the site looks great, and I’m sure it was a LOT of time and effort.

Christine Avatar

Hey Jennifer!

We removed the vanity icon from the Glossovers in reviews, because we noticed that how infrequently it was getting used (we were really trying to streamline the Glossover and remove anything we could), but it is on all of the product ‘badges’ elsewhere on the site (like if you saw the product on the Swatch Gallery). If you used it often, please let us know, and we’ll see about adding it back!

Thank you for the suggestions, too!

Christine Avatar

The site is divided into two columns – the left one has all the content, and the right one has ads and then “recent reviews” as well as “Best of Temptalia” type stuff.

I’m not sure if you’re on a desktop/laptop or mobile, if you’re on mobile, you won’t see a sidebar any more (any smaller screen devices, the sidebar drops to the bottom). If you are on most tablets or a larger device, you should see it on the right-hand side.

We really didn’t think anyone would miss it – there were a total of 171 searches in all of July (contrast with 1.3 million coming from Google directly). Let me what we can do!

Mariella Avatar

Christine, I can’t seem to reply to your reply but I did find it. I can only see it when I’m on the home page, not on actual product pages (or maybe it’s there and I’ve just not seen it yet). Like I say, it will take me some time to get used to the different layout/visuals, and basically everything (believe me, it does get harder when you get older…you CAN teach an old dog new tricks but it sometimes takes a bit longer!).

Mariella Avatar

FOUND IT but on my screen, it’s back at the top, rather than in the footer, but it’s there, pretty much where I’m accustomed to seeing it. THANK YOU (well, really, thank you for EVERYTHING in general….your site is and always has been a treasure and the most worthwhile makeup resource available!)

Chelle Avatar

Okay so I love that when I login it sends me to the page I was on and not to the main page. I always hated that before (although never mentioned it)!

Change is always like “OMG!”, but you’ve been so consistent over the years that I know this layout will be a big improvement just how all the others have been.

Love how the standard image size will be larger too. Love the “replies to my comment” option as well.

So far the only nuisance I’ve noticed is the newsletter pop up when I visit the main page. I love you and your site, I follow on IG, Facebook and Twitter, but I’m just not interested in a mailing list and wish that wouldn’t block the main page when I visit.

Grats on the new image launch! <3

Christine Avatar

The newsletter pop-up should only show up once every two weeks, I believe! It is set at either 14 or 30 days (I can’t remember this exact moment), though it is cookie based so if you don’t allow cookies you may see it often – it was on the prior layout as well though!

Thank you so much! 🙂

Chelle Avatar

Oh well that’s odd then. Wonder why I’m only noticing it now. It popped up twice when I visited the home page about five minutes ago. Didn’t do it just now though when I came back to check your response.

BTW, will you enable the links for personal blogs? I’ve found a few people via their comments on this site and would love if that was still a feature. Right now our names are linking to our profile on this site.

Lisa Avatar

The newsletter box has popped up three times for me.

Also, the one thing that caught my attention is on the product grading. The +/- sign is really tiny compared to the letter grade. So there’s a giant C and a little tiny barely noticeable (-) sign.

Anyway, very modern! You’re adding some very sophisticated features!

NelleShoeGirl Avatar

This looks amazing Christine! I love the redesign!

Just a note that I clicked on the link above for ‘Temptalia Recommended Products” and it took me to a page with various products on it. When I clicked page 2 or 3 (etc) it reloaded the same front page of products. I was on Safari. I’m glad this grouping in the database exists because I love seeing your top recommended products! 🙂

Juana Avatar

Hey Christine, the new site looks amazing! I do have something to “report” though. I’m not sure if this is how it’s supposed to be but I clicked on both the “Most loved” and “Most wanted” links and then tried to click on any of the products featured there but they are not clickable. Even where it says “Where to buy” is not clickable. I’m using my macbook laptop.

I visit your site multiple times daily, I am very excited to try out the new design. Keep up the amazing work! And thank you for everything you do.

Juana Avatar

I’m still not able to click on any of the products. I also tried on my iPad and same thing. It’s like trying to click on a still image, not a link. Nothing happens.

Juana Avatar

I just tried something different. Scrolled down to see if I was able to click on anything at all and turns out after the fifth row I can click on everything. So on the “most wanted products” list the first four rows are not clickable for me.

kohimiruku Avatar

Wow, congrats on the new site design! It’ll take getting used to but it’s very aesthetically appealing 😀

I’ve also noticed the newsletter/mailing list ‘ad’ show up on every single new page I open–which it never did before. I’m using a PC.
Also, I can’t seem to compare anything in side-by-side, Compare Any Two swatches. It redirects me to an ‘Oops/this page cannot be found’ deal. Just FYI! 😀

Sami Avatar

The new update looks great! I went to look at swatches in the compare any two category (I compared MAC Hollywood Cerise and Urban Decay Bittersweet Lip Liner) and when I made the search it came up with a ‘Page Not Found’ error. I’m using Chrome on Windows 10. Hope it helps 🙂

Pink Avatar

I love the new site!

I went to go check out the “temptalia recommends” page (awesome addition, I was just recently wondering if you had a page like this!), and when I try to go to the next page it shows the same products over again.

This is on a windows 7 pc in chrome btw. And awesome work on all this!

Genna Avatar

The new layout is amazing! The only critique I have is that when I refresh the page or back out of a post, I have to start at the top of the page again- not where I left off- so, I constantly have to re-scroll through posts. Not a biggie, but I’d thought I’d put it out there. The only device I’ve used so far is my iPad mini 4th gen (I think- whatever the newest one is).
Thank you for all of your hardwork!

Lilac Avatar

Wow, it is quite extremely sleek 😀 it might take me a while to get used to it, but truly appreciate all the work that must have gone into this, and I am aware of the fact that the functions being improved (even more than already) gives way more new value to the site than just changing the design, because there is just so much to do and so many things to research, that’s great 🙂

I quite have a thing for pictures, but I know that homepages have to be constantly altered to adapt to the change in hardware/software/user behaviour, so I see the reasoning behind the changes. It is nice that the photos are now larger and so there is still a place for all the colour 😉

Especially I like that it is now easier to compare swatches of different products (or the same colour); if I could not get anything next to each other in some way, I would normally open a second window and put them side by side that way. But now it is a lot simpler.

Thank you again for all the hard work, though I think I do miss the older versions of Temptalia, though 🙂 I think I have been reading this page at least since 2010 but probably earlier, I am not sure anymore.

Grace Avatar

This is amazing Christine! Congratulations on all the great changes. I’m so excited to dive more into your site. I always look at your website on my phone and even just now it’s so much better!

Samantha Avatar

I love the new layout! It is so sleek and professional. It seems so streamlined, and so much easier to navigate than before. Now if only MAC could follow suit!

Andrew Avatar

Congratulations! So far I’m really liking it; it looks very crisp and professional here on the mobile version. I’m excited to play around more and get a feel for the new features. You all have done another great job!

Augusta Avatar

First thing I always do in the morning is to check out Temptalia for product’s newness but today it was down for maintenance. I was suspecting that there would be an update and I was right 😀

Initially the new site (UI only) looks much nicer and clearer than before. It might take a little time to get used to first but I’m excited for you, your team and every makeup afficionado out there.

Christine Avatar

Haha! Yes, it was a major, MAJOR update. A lot of the improvements aren’t visible, as they were all code-related, but it is, in essence, a rebuild of the entire site from scratch.

I really hope it ends up being better than before! LOL, that is the hope for any new design ;D

Thank you!

Nancy T Avatar

Everything looks sooo different! But I am just over the moon seeing this, it looks fantastic! You did an awesome job on this, then again, you always do! I am sure this was quite a ton of hard work to revamp the entire site, just know that we sincerely DO appreciate this, Christine.

Rah Avatar

Another complete overhaul! Hopefully it plays nicer on mobile than the last version. Your site was crashing my phone previously. Congrats! It takes a lot of work to do something like this.

Sami Avatar

Wow the site looks awesome on mobile! Probably the best functioning mobile site I’ve used 🙂 Just so you know, there’s a issue in the Chrome browser for my Samsung. When you press to see the top matches after entering your current foundation shade, it instead loops back to the foundation matrix opening page

MackiO Avatar

Ooooh Christine! Temptalia looks wonderful! I check your site literally every day and was so surprised to see the new upgrades! Once again you are literally the best at this and deserve all the awesomeness coming your way. Congratulations ?

Laura R. Avatar

I am loving the new site design! It’s very streamlined and much more user-friendly. This is my favorite blog to research and discover new beauty products because of the quick, detailed reviews and all the swatches (I live for swatches). Keep up the good work, Christine!

Miyeko Avatar

The redesign is beautiful! I read your site at least once a day and love to use your reviews to decide what to buy.

One issue I’ve noticed in on the Foundation Matrix. I love that you list by best-ranked matches now, but I miss the option where we could filter a specific brand to see in the results. Has that been disabled? Otherwise, the way the FM pops up now is so much sleeker and easier to read.

Thank you (and your staff) for all the work you do!

Maggie Avatar

WOW. Didn’t expect this. Well, here’s my first impression (and feedback–since it sounds like you’re looking for it). It looks cleaner. More professional and contemporary. But also more impersonal–this last part I’m not sure I like but if you’re opening temptalia for everyone to interact with, then it makes complete sense. Either way, I’m digging this.

My second impression:

1) While QUICKLY scrolling down and skimming to see what I wanted to read, I found difficulty distinguishing between different posts that were next to each other. I recall this being effortless before the change. Maybe if the title of each post were bold font–then we can tell it’s the start of a new post? Or if there was a unmistakable line above each post title to frame a new post? I dunno–it’s something that I noticed right off the bat–I normally read temptalia right before bed while I’m tired and I was surprised that I had to rely on the huge photo of your product in the review post to know I have reached a new post–and then scroll back up to read the title of what it was. I know I’m being super-nitpicky, but I kept finding myself doing it.

2) Funnily enough, scrolling quickly down to distinguish between comments is much easier. I think it’s bc the commentator’s name is next to a large photo-bullet and bc the commentator’s name is in 2-3 times larger purple font in contrast to the rest of the black text.

Ryou Avatar

It looks great! If I have one caveat with the new layout, it’s how it squishes all the posts to the left side of the page with the right side being mostly empty, thus making posts a bit harder to read. Perhaps the right column could be expanded with a click of a button or rearranged to the top/bottom of the page instead?

Christine Avatar

Do you know what device you’re on so I can check window size/responsive qualities? The left content pane is actually wider than it was before, and the right sidebar is about the same as before (maybe a little wider). All of our ad obligations require the ads to be in a right pane, so we definitely can’t move it to top/bottom on most devices unfortunately!

Ryou Avatar

I’m on a laptop with 1280×800 resolution, and it looks perfectly fine when I’m on full screen. However, because I’m on Skype most of the time, I have my browser window resized down so it only takes a bit over half my screen, and that’s where the new layout gets squeezed down (whereas with the old layout I could just scroll sideways).

However! Since I posted the last comment I’ve found that zooming in once (with ctrl & + keys) solves all the problem, so yay! 😀

Ryou Avatar

Yay, thank you! 😀

I do have a question, is there a way to find the comments you’ve left on posts like you could with the previous layout?

Helena Avatar

Wow the new site looks amazing!! 🙂 You do such a great job, Christine, and all your hard work is so appreciated by me, and everyone. So a massive thankyou !! <3

Jen Avatar

I seem to be unable to find swatches by brand? I’m coveting a new Nars blush or two and I was hoping I could still pull up a grid of all Nars blushes…

Christine Avatar

All you have to do is search by formula and type in “NARS powder blush” — http://www.temptalia.com/swatches/nars-cosmetics-powder-blush

If you’re looking for any NARS blush formula, you can search by type and select blush, then refine by brand on the results page.

Hope that helps!

Michele Avatar

Overall, I do quite like the refresh!! It looks a bit cleaner and on my PC it is loading great! I do like the new swatch gallery “by formula”…looking at all the NARS Audacious lipsticks for example!! Well done!!

I do have one small quibble so far though. When doing side by side comparisons it used to be easier to “switch out” a different shade. There were boxes next to the two pics to immediately type in a different shade for just one of the shades. Now, after I’ve done one comparison instead of being able to type a different shade in on that screen I have to go back up to the Swatches – Side by Side comparison and type in both the new shade I want to compare and the old shade that I wanted to compare against.

For example…let’s say I did one comparison of MUFE M518 vs M536. I used to be able to just use one of the boxes on the side and change M518 to S642. Now I seem to have to hover over the swatches link at the top, select Compare Any Two again, and type in both M536 (the shade I wanted to “keep”) and S642 (the shade I “changed”).

I hope this makes sense.

In other aspects though, first impressions are very good!

Michele @Binxcat4ever Avatar

Wow – well done! I notice the responsiveness already! The resolution is amazing too; it will make for even better comparisons than before. So excited for you. You’ve made a top-notch site even better! This is why you’re tops on my recommendations for anyone looking at beauty products!

Mariella Avatar

I don’t do well with “new” but it’s only a matter of time til I get used to this. And the new features seem absolutely wonderful (being able to see things like all the “Temptalia Recommends” and “most loved/most wanted”, for example). It’s just going to take me a bit of time to adjust!

Mariella Avatar

Christine, is there no longer a “search Temptalia” feature? One where you just type in the name of a product and all the post/threads about that product, going way back, pop up? I used that one a LOT to find older information…. I’m not seeing it but it’s entirely possible my eyes just can’t “find” it on these new pages.

Wednesday Avatar

First impression: SLEEK!!!!~ I’m looking forward to exploring the new site. The additional features sound perfect as I am stash heavy and always looking at the dupe list (having them visually beside the reviewed product..perfect!) and the swatch gallery (very happy with the upgrade since I often want to compare colours on products irregardless of their respective product types. Both of these new features make me very very happy.

Terrific work Team Temptalia!!!

Christine Avatar

Thank you, Wendy! 🙂 It means a lot when regular, long-time readers like yourself like new features/new design!

I’m pretty jazzed about being able to view swatches by a specific formula. Though my favorite feature is once I submit all my dupes for a review, I don’t have to re-write them in the review – everything gets pulled automagically and formatted in sentences instead. Time saver for me!

Lisa Avatar

I just have to say that I am in awe of your work ethic and commitment to excellence. You have truly earned every bit of your success.

Gloria Avatar

I’m loving all the new features, especially the one where I can compare any two swatches, I no longer have to keep switching tabs! The site looks great on the desktop but on my Samsung tablet, the sidebar takes up half of the page vertically, I don’t think that’s the look you’re going for.

Andrea K Avatar

I cannot imagine the amount of work behind this new look!!! Congrats to the team!
I like how it looks… We’ll see how will I adjust.

lauraxo Avatar

Love the new layout, Christine! Thanks for all your hard work you put into keeping us updated on everything beauty. Checking Temptalia is always the highlight of my work day 🙂

Rebecca Avatar

The site looks great. The only thing I was sad to see go was that you can’t filter by brand in the swatch section. Likewise, when I managed to viewing swatches by brand, you can no longer filer by color.

Michele Avatar

Actually, I’m having trouble with this too.

I did a swatch search selecting the color Peach and Eyeshadows. When I had those results I clicked on “refine results” and could not find a way to limit by brand. Only finish (matte, frost, etc.) and price, availability (P/LE/DC), etc.

If it matters, I was using Chrome.

Ginny Avatar

Flippin’ awesome, Christine. I love the new features of being able to look at, for example, all Makeup Forever eyeshadow swatches at once, and ESPECIALLY the one that matches up two different brands (MAC lipsticks vs. Tom Ford lipsticks), that is so choice.

Katherine T. Avatar

Wow, you weren’t kidding when you said you were re-designing this site!! I’m going to have to play with it this weekend, but looks exciting. Thanks for all your hard work and dedication!

Kristina Avatar

This is going to be amazing! I am so excited! Christine, thank you for always putting your all into making this site the best it can be!

Kimmy Avatar

Wow, Christine. This must have been some hard work. When I think of the kind of blog I’d like to have, yours is the first that comes to mind. I really like your approach and aesthetic. To me, my blog is not a place for me to put my personal life on display 24/7 (not saying negative about those who choose to do so) but a place to share on a topic I enjoy – hopefully in a way that still manages to connect with people. You do this perfectly. 🙂

Sara Avatar

Christine,
Thank you so much for all the hard work that you do! I am so grateful to have such an informative, amazing blog to read everyday about something I love.

Keep up the wonderful job!

Nicole Avatar

This looks like it took so much work! I have already scrolled through some of the posts. So much quicker and clearer pics. The older site was great and I love your blog Christine -you know that! This is amazing. You have out done yourself girl! 🙂

Heather Avatar

Christine, the new site looks beautiful, thank you for all your work to keep temptalia running! I’ve seen some comments regarding too many ads, but I use adblocker and don’t see any ads at all. The previous version of this site ran a little slow for me (i’m on a macbook) but this one works great. You set the standard for beauty blogging, I’m so thankful for this site as a reliable resource!

Anne Avatar

I’m always impressed by how hard you work to keep improving your website, which is an already great resource as it is.
As with every redesign, this will take some getting used to, but I’m sure I’ll love it.

Lily Avatar

Hi! I love the updates! Thank you for all the time and effort you put in, it’s such an awesome resource!

I’m not sure if I’m missing something or just not doing something right, but if I click on the Write a Review button in the Reader Review section for any product, I get “Oops! That page can’t be found.”

Risa Avatar

Is there a way/will there be a way to search for looks you’ve done using particular products? For example, I bought Stila Mint Julep the other day because I remember LOVING a look that you did with it in a relatively recent eyeshadow review, and now I can’t find the look, and I can’t remember which product review it was attached to. 🙁 I might also just be really bad a searching.

Christine Avatar

I don’t have a lot of them saved as looks, unfortunately! They are in posts, usually related to the review (though less so in the case of an eyeliner), but there’s not a method to really save them other than actually bookmarking it in your browser.

What looks I’ve uploaded as looks you’ll find here: http://www.temptalia.com/members/temptalia/looks

Risa Avatar

Thank you, Christine!

I do have one more question. When I was going to see if you’d replied, I was looking for my activity in the drop-down for my username and didn’t see it. Was this functionality relocated or removed? I find it incredibly helpful to zip right to the post I’d commented on. I’m on mobile (iPhone) if that makes a difference.

Sadra Avatar

Great new look, very streamlined. I really like it.
I am getting a formatting bug when I view the pages on Feedly. The ratings by category (pigmentation/texture/application etc) are not formatting correctly.
Can’t wait to try the new features.

Rachel R. Avatar

Overall, I like the changes and think the Temptalia team did a great job. I notice pages load much faster now (I use a desktop PC). The layout is clean and uncluttered, which I like. I like that the ads are visible, but not intrusive. I personally find the bright white blocks against the light gray to be a bit stark and sterile, and hard on the eyes. I think thin borders around the articles would have been looked better, but that’s just my aesthetic for layouts. I also realize this way might work better for tablets, phones, etc., so I’m not complaining.

The post layouts look great. They’re clean, with borders, the bits of pink, and the wonderful photos to break them up but not overwhelm the reader. I love the bigger pictures. I also like that we can easily search for dupes and side-by-side comparisons from the side bar. The new sort features will be very helpful, I think. I can’t find the search bar, though. I use search fairly often, so I miss it.

Christine Avatar

Thank you for your feedback, Rachel! It is great to hear that it is loading faster now, too 🙂 Search is in the footer, but we are trying to see if there is any way we can include it somewhere in the top of the site (the problem comes when the site scales down to mobile devices, there is so little room!).

Emi Avatar

Oooh I like it. I’m especially excited that we can now easily see all the swatches for a particular formula – it was hard or impossible to configure the swatch gallery to do that before, and it’s really useful 🙂

Also, I saw that someone above mentioned that she’d like to stay logged in longer – I definitely second that! I prefer to stay logged in as long as possible unless I deliberately log out (or clear cookies).

Brooke Avatar

Where is the search box? I use it weekly to find one thing or another, and I couldn’t do a search tonight for a foundation I wanted to see if you reviewed… Search boxes are usually so easy to find on websites, I’m stumped!

Laura Avatar

Love the new layout! 😉 However, I’m not sure if it’s just my browser (Safari) or laptop, but as I browsed your “Temptalia Recommended Products”, I noticed on the second page that you had the It Cosmetics No. 302 LBD Foundation Velvet Luxe Brush listed on there with an “F” rating, and when I clicked on it there was no actual review for the actual product…. I’m not sure if it was accidentally placed in there or if I’m just reading everything incorrectly haha. Also, I noticed that when I reached page 5, the pics were not aligned and seemed like there was a glitch, so I refreshed the page to make sure it wasn’t just slow internet speed that wasn’t fully loading the page, put the same issue happened where some of the pics were spread out and there was a huge gap between the rows (if that makes any sense).

Christine Avatar

Thank you, Laura! The photos should be fixed (that one we knew about… some images were too short, but we are scaling them, so they will be a little distorted but won’t distort the whole layout!).

Noted the IT Cosmetics error – there are no scores for it, but the update is making no score = 0 and generating the F. Working on it 🙂

Laura Avatar

Thank you for listening to my feedback. You’re the best! ? (and sorry didn’t mean to comment about an issue that was already mentioned. I didn’t see it before haha) regardless, thank you for taking our comments into consideration 🙂

Adwoa Avatar

I’ve been a longtime lurker, but had to comment for this- great job on this new design. It is really clean. I agree that the posts seem a little hard to differentiate, but you indicated you all have a fix for that. Your site is definitely my go-to and I love that I find the site useful even though we are not the same complexion. I definitely rely on this site, so great job for continuously improving!

Christine Avatar

Thank you so much, Adwoa! We have implemented the following for differentiating, but please let me know if you feel it isn’t enough: tripled space between posts, tripled space between post/ad/post, added a light gray liner at the end of each post, and increased font weight by two (which is like bolding).

Genevieve Avatar

I think your new updates are fantastic – this must have taken you a long time to work out and do. Congratulations on your new look. I really appreciate all the extra features you have included to make it more user friendly and helpful than ever before.
Thank you once again for all your hard work – I love it all.

Nataile Brown Avatar

Wow! So many amazing changes and upgrades. I was already impressed with your blog and am even more so now. LOVE!! Thank-you for the time you put into everything you do for us. 🙂

Stacy Avatar

GREAT JOB! You definitely accomplished your mission of making the site move faster. And everything looks gorgeous. A few minutes ago, I clicked on the “Temptalia Recommends” button… WOW! My mouth is *still* watering LOL!

Cat Avatar

Wow, lots of changes! You’ve added some nice features. It’s going to take a while to get used to, but I like it.

Is there still a way to access your original reviews of products? I used that feature (See Full Review) frequently and I’m not seeing it now. I’m also not seeing how to search the entire site for a product/products (no search bar at the top).

Christine Avatar

Hi Cat,

All of my reviews are here. I’m not sure what you mean by full review – are you looking at a specific product page and then wanting to read the full review? On this page: http://www.temptalia.com/product/mac-cosmetics-electric-cool-eyeshadow/gravitational – there’s a section called “Editor’s Review” with the Glossover and then an excerpt from my original review with a “read full review” button after the first two sentences.

There’s a magnifying icon in the 2nd navigation menu (thinner black bar) as well as the full search box in the footer. We really couldn’t fit an expanded search box in the top when it gets to smaller screens! If referring to the product database search, that’s under “Reviews” (same place as it was before though, so my guess is that wasn’t what you meant!).

Hope that helps!

Cat Avatar

Okay, I see the search box in the footer now. Out of habit, I wasn’t looking for it there. =)

Have the reviews done by you been added to each product page individually? I see it on the link you gave me and I’ve seen in on other product pages, but not on the page I was on when I asked about it. The page I was on when I was looking for the “Editor’s Review” is: http://www.temptalia.com/product/kat-von-d-eye-contour-palette

One more thing, is there a way to automatically go to the most recent comments? I have to page through all of the comments to read the most recent ones. I also had to page through the comments in order to reply to your response when, in the past, the link in my notification email took me directly to your response.

If your team is coding each page individually… I bow to them! I used to create websites using only code so I know what it’s like. It seems there are always little things you don’t catch no matter how many times you check. They’ve done a fantastic job so far and I’m sure all the little buggy things will be worked out soon enough.

Christine Avatar

We added a the search icon in the navigation now as well (before it was an icon, but on a click, it would rollout the full search box – now it will take you to the search page). It is still in the footer in its expanded form. These should be visible on all pages throughout the site (nav/footer don’t change). We have a few different sidebars, so hopefully this works out.

So, the likely reason for that not having a review is because you’re technically on the “formula” page. Like Russian Red is a shade of MAC Lipstick, there aren’t always reviews for the full formula, just specific shades, so Eye Contour Palette is the “formula” of the palette, Shade + Light. What we are able to do is pull all the Glossovers for shades within a formula and average them, so that’s what you would see on a “formula” page. It’s probably easier to see when looking at a brand like MAC who has 100-some-odd Eyeshadow Quads, so when you see “Eyeshadow Quad” you’re expecting to select a specific one vs. KVD who only has one (for now!).

http://www.temptalia.com/product/kat-von-d-eye-contour-palette/shade-light

And that has the review! 🙂

I will make a note to look into what the notification email is sending out (that one is a plugin) to see if there’s anything we can do on that.

It was very much a recode – not quite from scratch but nearly – to improve scalability, functionality, queries, as well as to update the design and make it responsive across devices, and then tweak/improve some features. And then dealing with all of our legacy stuff is always fun, lol! Like our awards with special formatting each year are really annoying to update, haha.

Judy H. Avatar

LOVE the re-design! So much cleaner and SO MUCH EASIER to utilize. I never utilized much of your site before because I couldn’t figure out how to use it. I’m hoping that I am now going to be able to use it to its full capacity.

Audrey Avatar

Wow Christine! I don’t think the depth, breadth and scope of all your hard work can be truly appreciated until people see your product reviews/comparisons at the touch of a finger. And you keep wanting to improve. You really do spoil us 😉 Keep up the great work!!

Heather C Avatar

Ah, thank you so SO much for the redesign! I am definitely enjoying it because I browse the Internet only on my phone lately, and the new design works so much better with it. I love it, great work! 🙂

Diana Avatar

Totally loving the update! It’s so sleek and fast on my phone so I’m curious to see what it’ll be on my laptop. Great work and huge hugs to all the Temptalia team! You guys rock! You’re also the only blog I follow regularly.

san Avatar

WOW..amazing site…thank you Christine for all the hard work you and your team put in to make our beauty life easier for us.Running off now to try all the new tabs and features.

Joy Avatar

This is my first time in a week dropping by the site (thanks, work) and it looks amazing! I cannot imagine how much time and effort must have gone into this project. Congrats, it looks fantastic. And as always, thank you for your hard work!

rashmi Avatar

I will keep browsing till my last breath and wish your entire team many congratulations and kudos to all the hard work 🙂
keep it up gurllll 🙂
my life will come to stand still if i don’t come here for a day , really appreciate your each and every minute 🙂
will take time to adjust but this is Rocking

Anita Avatar

Hi Christine,

Congratulations! I love the new layout!

I have one question. In the past we were able to see all produc reviews for a particular brand. Is that feature no longer available?

Christine Avatar

I’m not sure where you searched for that, but you can view by brand through Blog > Brands (same as before), which generates all posts related to the brand or through Reviews > Brand (same as before), which generates all products in the database for the brand that we have in our database. Those are the only two I think were there before?

Kate Avatar

Congratulations on the re-design and re-code of the site! It looks and feels different but I am LOVING it! Especially great is that the site loads way faster (on my antique MacBook 3.1, running OS X, and my browser and Flash player are out of date). Thank you! This makes it easier to check Temptalia every day. LOVE IT!

Clamavi Avatar

If I may add a suggestion, I think the grade of the product should stand out : it’s too blended with the rest of the grade, maybe a colour for A, another for B etc and gradually fading ? Or maybe some colour in the background ?
xxx

Pearl Avatar

I had a comment all typed up and ready to go and then walked away for a few hours, forgot and closed down all my windows. 😐

The changes look great! It looks so sleek and streamlined.

I have 2 requests:
1. Can you add back in the brand name with the dupes listed in the paragraph the way it was before? Like when a new product comes out, you give the description and then list the dupes; now they only have the product name (i.e. “Morange” instead of “MAC Morange”). I sometimes don’t remember what the product names are, but I know my stash and the brands I have for each product (i.e. MAC for lipstick or Chanel for blusher), so if I see a dupe that says Brand Name Color, I’ll know whether or not I have that dupe because of the brand (along with the color).

2. Under your name/profile/settings and all that, can we have the ‘Activity’ log back? I like being able to check there and see where I’ve commented so I can just click on that and go back and see if there are more comments to the posts.

This site just keeps getting better and better and this is the only beauty blog I visit now – it has everything! I have saved so much money since I’ve become a regular visitor here. Temptalia is truly one of a kind. You’ve done a great thing here, Christine. 🙂

Christine Avatar

Hi Pearl!

1.) Thank you for noticing – it actually SHOULD have brand showing, so we’ll fix that on Monday.
2.) We are working on activity pages and in general, user profiles/vanity/wishlist/etc. but none of that is ready to go any time soon

Thank you so much!

_An_ Avatar

I kept noticing how big the swatch photos were looking lately before this official announcement was released, haha.

The new layout looks so sleek and clean! I’m not used to *not* seeing hot pink lines/borders. Excited to explore things. Thank you for creating this awesome site. It has become such a great guide for me! I always refer to your site for swatches and reviews. ^^

Emily Avatar

I love the update! It is truly exemplary and not only is it lovely to look at, but it is easy and functional to use. Just one thing – even though the brand drop-down is back, it doesn’t quite work. I tried to search for only colourpop products and it put some colourpop products on top of my search but it had a lot of other brands in there as well. Is this on the list of things to be fixed?

charlotte Avatar

Since your site overhaul you no longer send photos with the email newsletter… please reconsider. Very often I may not have heard of the item or know the exact shade name, but will want more info based on the photo.

jaz Avatar

1 quick quibble- while it does seem to load faster (I’m on a galaxy note 4 ) , it seems a bit sterile now. I know you want a clean , professional site, but there has to be a happy medium between sterile and absolutely juvenile.

Other than that, I’m happy. Thanks for adding the next post /previous post option. I was going to suggest it , but I see yall are on top of it

Emily Avatar

The new layout is nice except the ads at the bottom . I understand they help with revenue but it’s very annoying how it’s bouncing around . I’m using an iPad so maybe that’s why . It’s so annoying I keep exiting instead of finishing posts . I hope this will get better because I love your blog .

Christine Avatar

Those have been on the previous site, but they’re not supposed to bounce, I believe they’re supposed to behave by sitting at the bottom of the screen and then stay at the bottom as you scroll. I’ll look into if there’s an ad that’s not sticking well – if you know the specific ad, that is more helpful as ads are contextual and country-specific!

Carrie Avatar

Christine, this is FANTASTIC! I love this redesign! I’ve been a loyal reader since 2007 (Barbie Loves MAC, OMG, I’m old) and this is the best version yet! Great job!!

Carly Avatar

I went on holiday for a week and came back to a completely different site! 😀 Will definitely take some time to explore everything. I really like the mobile version. It will make it much easier to search for one of your reviews on the go! Great job Christine & team!

raloves Avatar

The new Temptalia is really nice.
Only when you go into an item’s page, in order to look at the next photo the whole page renews, rather than the page staying and the pictures changing…
I hope it makes sense 🙂

terry Avatar

The new foundation matrix is not as user-friendly as the previous version I think… It’s difficult to obtain information about the finish and coverage of each foundation that comes up (including the base foundation, so that it’s easier to make comparisons), and the filters also no longer allow for multiple brands to be searched at the same time. I would say the new version is not as practical as it was for me, especially when attempting to use it to get color-matched online. Just my two cents, though. I really appreciate all the effort that’s gone into making the site better for all of us!

Christine Avatar

Thank you for your feedback!

Here is our rational/reasoning for the changes we made: A lot of feedback on the prior edition of the Matrix was that it was too much information and people just wanted the shade match and the information about how well (or not) it matched, so that’s why we pared back the amount of information to concentrate on the matching portion – and those that want more information can then go to that specific shade/formula to find out more info. Many users did not find the previous design user friendly, so we made it more in line with what we had initially, which didn’t seem to have as many issues (from four or five years ago).

terry Avatar

Thanks Christine for taking the time to reply!

It’s interesting to learn that I’m in the minority in my desire for more information.=P But since you mentioned clicking into the specific product links to get more information, I’ve found that clicking into various products from less well-known brands just seemed to point to pages stating “reviews coming soon”? It would be great if information such as finish (natural, luminous, matte, etc) and coverage (light, light-medium, medium, etc) could be included, along with price, like previously, instead of waiting for people to add their own reviews, which is probably not happening for more obscure brands, like D&G or shu uemura, for example.

On a side note, I’ve noticed that for some shades, no undertone is specified. Does that mean neutral, or simply that it’s not been categorized yet?

Thanks for all your effort!!

Christine Avatar

If there is no undertone specified, it means that we don’t have the info – so no user provided data (or user data may have been 1 person said cool and 1 said warm) AND there was absolutely nothing to go off of from the brand (some brands give you something – at least enough to determine warm/cool). When we did the massive data collection a couple of years ago, I was googling every single shade that we couldn’t categorize to find it on people and to see who was wearing what and trying to cross reference when we had nothing to go off of, but if that proved unsuccessful, then it was left blank! (I do the same with anything we add, but we did a major effort to get as many foundation formulas as we could find then.) We add the shade with all the info we can find, so nothing is left uncategorized by desire, only because we don’t feel comfortable marking it as specific undertone, so instead no undertone = show to all and hopefully people will vote on it and give us data points to go off of.

The information about the formula should be found under “About the Formula” on the shade or formula’s page. If will provide these characteristics (if known): price, amount (in oz.), type (e.g. liquid or tinted moisturizer), coverage level, finish. For shade pages, you’ll also find: brand’s shade description, and our shade(s) recommended for the shade. If we don’t have a piece of info, you won’t see it, but anything known will be shared!

terry Avatar

Thank you for the very detailed response Christine!! I will try out your method and I hope to be able to make the most of your very extensive database to assist my purchases in the future.

We try to approve comments within 24 hours (and reply to them within 72 hours) but can sometimes get behind and appreciate your patience! 🙂 If you have general feedback, product review requests, off-topic questions, or need technical support, please contact us directly. Thank you for your patience!