What are three products you own that you rarely use?
Ha, ha, ha. About 98% of what I “own” isn’t getting frequently used. It might be 99% but let me live under a small delusion.
— Christine
Explore Temptalia
We're here to help you make better beauty purchases that you'll enjoy and love! We recommend signing up to take advantage of personalized features like tracking products you own, viewing dupes that you already have, and more!
Here are some useful resources for you:
Compare Any Two
Curious how two shades compare to each other? Type in the shades below to get instant side-by-side swatches!
34 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.
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!
Only 3??? Gosh, 30 would be more realistic for me! #1 – This will seem like blasphemy, I’m sure but first would be the only Pat McGrath palette I own – the 6 pan Bronze Ambition one. I don’t like the packaging and while I love the texture of the shadows and the colours, I just don’t feel the need to grab it and use it. Maybe that’ll be my plan for the coming week – to use it several times this week. #2 – MAC’s Early Morning Mineralize Blush – I should never have bought it because it’s really not a great colour for me. #3 – Urban Decay Maui Wowie. It is such a beautiful colour but (as with MCRA) the fallout is so bad that it’s a total turn-off. I originally got it in a palette, loved the colour but just couldn’t use it. Then it came out as a “reformulated” single that was supposedly less fall-out prone. LIE!!! It’s just as bad as the one I already had. I wish it had been better – I’d use it all the time if it were!
It was bad enough before the pandemic… getting in a rut and wearing the same looks and products to the office. Since then, I’m buying just as much, and barely using any of it because I’m working at home. If I go out on the weekends, I think about how much my mask will be on, and sometimes just decide against makeup altogether! It’s actually kinda depressing…I miss it!
Product categories I don’t use much: eyeliner, false lashes, bronzer. I have at least one of all three because I thought I’d give them a try, but… nah. Just not a fan of how they look on me. (I use the shade Fair 02 in Colourpop’s No Filter concealer so warm-toned “sunkissed” bronzer is not fooling anybody on me, haha. It never looks natural!)
Products in a category I do use that get neglected: Wet n Wild x Pac-Man palette, Revlon Lustrous lip gloss, Too Faced Sweet Peach palette. The Pac-Man palette has too many mattes so I barely ever want to use it for anything. The Revlon glosses smell really bad to me, even when they’re brand new. (Maybe the reformulated version is better?) Sweet Peach is just too neutral/safe and warm for me; I bought it when I was fairly new to makeup and didn’t know my tastes yet.
1. Any lip gloss that I own, I try and try again but still always hate the way they feel.
2. Most of my eye palettes.
3. Contouring Kits, I need way more practice with these but just don’t have the time needed.
Bronzer, foundation and lipstick.
Any highlighter. Moschino X Sephora Laptop palette. Picked it up bc a Youtuber spoke highly of it and I don’t care for it. And my JD Glow Galaxy eyeshadows. They’re pretty and sparkly and reflective. Don’t regret buying them but I’m not into those type of shadows at the moment!
That’s how I am with the Clionadh shadows. Really too bright.
A shame really. I have to house them specially and with much care bc they are so fragile but I just have not felt like being bothered by such sparkly unique shades at the moment!
I’m still in denial that I will start using my Viseart palettes again. Same with my NARS blushes. I used to switch up. I also barely use super shiny highlighters anymore.
Highlighters, concealers, almost all my eye palettes 🙁 Like you, I use just a small amount of what I have! Crazy….
I rarely use highlighter – especially since I started using glowier blush.
Not reaching for anything too sparkly – items bought when I was younger that don’t work with my skin now. Eyeshadow or face primer. I don’t have much of a need/desire for them. My makeup either lasts long enough for my purposes without them, or a slow fade over the course of a day seems fine. Also I’d have to buy new eyeshadow primer at this point (the smell is off, and I won’t risk putting it near my eyes) and just haven’t felt like I’d use it enough to be worthwhile. If I was going to stores, I’d probably pick it up semi-mindlessly, but feels like I have to be more intentional to order it online.
Pat McGrath eye shadows, charolette tilbury eye shadows. Liquid eyeliner.
1.) Almost ALL my regular tube lipsticks due to mask wearing.
2.) Several older eyeshadow palettes, ie; Dominique Cosmetics Lemonade Palette and KVD MetalMatte palette. Oddly, both are still loved by me? I literally have a palette graveyard. Yet, I do still use UD Naked 2 and MUFE Nudes You Need.
3.) My cooler weather/slightly lighter skin foundation: Fenty Profilt’r Hydrating Longwear Foundation in 260. But that’s only because it doesn’t currently match my face. It will again soon, so I bought a new one.
Finishing powders. Anyone who still has original Meteorites, still going strong and lightly scented w/violet, has a problem. Don’t use hourglass mood much, either. Brow products. That’s what long bangs are for…cover up what makes docs give me thyroid tests. Real foundation. Usually just mix a little into TM. Actually, almost everything, right now. Staying home means skincare.
Why about Guerlain Meteorites?
I’ve actually been using brow products more… Lockdown means no haircut since March, and even then my bangs were past due for a trim; now they’re significantly longer than chin- length… I still suffer from “90s brows”, so doing my brows is essential, even if I wear nothing else.
Nowadays the least use products are my lipstick (I actually declutter most as old, I have one opened and two unopened which I still keep in my back-up drawer), eye liner (I have a mini unopened, none in use) and eye pencil. Otherwise, my make-up collection, small as it is, gets decent use.
Sadly, my Pat McGrath palettes! La Vie en Rose and Dark Star haven’t been touched for a long long time, as beautiful as they are.
I am a serial declutterer but I haven’t been able to give up my Nars Everglades lacquer. I’ve never worn black lipstick in my life and I probably never will.
1. Lip products except for Bite Agave Lip Mask that I use at night.
2. Laura Mercier Matte Highlighter No. 1. It’s the only highlighter I own.
Everything else gets used at least once in awhile or is a seasonal product for me.
For right now due to the pandemic i have cut out using lipstick and highlighter for the most part which r 2 products i used to always wear!
I really wish that I reached for my TF eye shadows more.. I seem to just love my Pat McGrath and ND palettes. I really try to use up what I have before buying more. I need to reach for more of my eye liner colors besides my go to black and gold. I also am going to commit to using different lip colors.. I get stuck there too….
Three products I own but rarely use are:
Bite Beauty’s Amuse Bouche lipsticks – I find they tug when I apply them and Nori is far too dark for me. Maple can turn fairly dark as well. I just don’t use them.
I need to be an octopus to use up all of my eyeshadows, but the palettes I don’t reach for as much include Tarantino’s Emerald Beauty and Guerlain’s Les Aquas.
And I have The Balm’s Mary Lou highlighter, which I don’t use at all.
Top 3 is easy.
1. All my Lime Crime sparkly lippies
2. Jeffree Star whatever I have, which is lips (beyond a concealer) mostly. Because…
3. Sadly, my all over face/cheek palettes from UD, TF and CT.
I’m just not there anymore and wonder if I ever will be again…
Duraline (I need to learn how to use it!)
Shadow primer. (I always forget until it’s too late)
Mac’s Fix it. (I very seldom need my makeup to last very long except for our stay at home “date nights.”
Bonus fourth thing: Concealer. Not because I don’t need it but because even using the strongest peach color corrector, (Lancome’s Teint Idole Ultra Wear Camoflage Corrector) and a concealer over the top of that, it really doesn’t do much to hide my dark circles. 🙁 Something I’ve come to accept and ignore.
This was a difficult one. I really don’t know. However, any bronzers I happen to own don’t get any use at all. Concealers, I just am hopeless and can’t get concealers to look nice under the eyes. Contouring products, I don’t think I’ve ever bought any, yet I own a couple, I should declutter, but I imagine when I sit there with a product in my hand, ready to toss it that I’d miss it the very next day.
As for specific products, other than the above, I guess there are too many to chose from. I should rotate my stuff more.
Like most people, the pandemic has changed my makeup habits a lot – I still definitely wear it but strangely enough my eyeshadows have taken the most of a hit. I enjoy putting on eyeshadow since it won’t touch my mask, but a lot of the more vibrant colors (blues, greens, etc.) have gone by the wayside and I’ve been more picky on formulas.
The one that makes me the saddest is the Coloured Raine Safari Raine palette – I was so convinced I’d love it and I honestly just… don’t. I don’t find the mattes to be that great and the shimmers are lovely, but far more foiled than what I need for everyday use now. I’m still happy to have it in my collection but I’ve used it all of 10 times since purchasing this year during the final restock.
Two is… the Hourglass At Night blush. I think I’d like it more in the summer when I tanned, but the formula just doesn’t hold up to my SUQQU blush quads so I don’t feel particular compelled to reach for it, and the color is nice, but not as world changing as I thought it would be.
Lastly are my Propa Beauty lipsticks. I was so excited to have more suitable nude shades, but the lipstick formula is so soft that even in high 70 degree weather they had started to melt which hasn’t really happened with any other lipsticks I’ve owned, I guess I’ve been lucky so far. They’re extremely affordable so I still recommend them, but having to pull them out of the fridge every other day has damped my interest in them. And similar to Hourglass, I found I enjoy the Comfort Lip Fluids from SUQQU more.
Lip liner. Lipstick. Lip gloss. 😂
Lip products, of all sorts, except lip balm (although, I will occasionally use a lipgloss if I’m literally staying home all day)…
Concealer; it’s just not a product that makes any real noticable difference in my routine… I’m fortunate to have a very even skintone, no pigmented acne scars, or dark circles under my eyes. However, I do have more texture than I’d like, so I try to keep overall complexion products sheer/light-coverage most of the time.
Powder face/complexion products; I’ve just really been into creams this summer, typically with a TM… I’ve discovered how much easier it is to reapply sunscreen if I don’t use powders.
Concealer – I could use it but it’s usually more full coverage than my foundation. I end up looking like I’m wearing a mask or my foundation did something funny so I often don’t bother.
Setting powder/ finishing powder – My skin is very dry and more often than now they make my face look dusty so I avoid them.
False eyelashes – I have a pair and I want to try them but right now they feel like a lot of work so they’re just sitting there. lol
Blasphemy, I know – but mascara and foundation. I am using concealer and all the rest – bronzer, blush, eye shadow base (NARS, of course) and two shadows. I line, I do brows. I actually think I would be way too over the top for my *at home life* now, were I to apply mascara or lip pencil – I do still use lipstick. I’m happy with the look.
Lipsticks, like so many others.
I was always an eye mu girl and I try to maintain it even though I don’t really work or go out. Perhaps I am just trying to give the ghost crabs something to look at when I walk my dogs.
I used to use lipliner ALL the time. I have 50 or so and they never see the light of day, although when I do use them I am always glad I did.
Finishing powder… as my skin ages I don’t need added crepe-yness
Eeeesh …. what a question….it really makes me think with the current climate. My entire blush and lipstick collection has seriously been devoid of any use….errrr nearly my entire makeup collection. I probably used mascara about 5 times this year….
Most of mine are items I bought knowing they would fall under the “experimental” category for me…
1. LA Girl Blue Foundation Pigment. Literally a bright blue liquid to mix in with foundations to get a more olive tone. Since I’m not wearing foundation nowadays… it’s only been used once.
2. Benefit Gimme Brow! I discovered I like pencil and brush-tipped eyebrow products more than dipping a brush into a pot. It’s probably dried out by now!
3. Colourpop Blush Stick. I only have one shade, Mini Me, but it always turns out pinker than I expect. And I learned that stick products (it’s like applying a glue stick to your face!) turn me off.
Pandemic has deeply affected me. I’m not in the mood to wear makeup… i must try to take everything, day by day and do my makeup again as an uplifting routine, as a daily meditation.