Natasha Denona comes to mind as I recently went through some of my original reviews, and it’s clear that the brand has really improved their eyeshadow formulas over time. Now, some of my favorite matte eyeshadows are in Natasha Denona’s formula, whereas a lot of the original mattes received C-F ratings from me!
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I’m not too familiar with more mainstream brands, but I agree that Natasha Denona‘s more recent releases are a clear improvement!
When it comes to indie brands though, my pick would be Terra Moons Cosmetics. I’ve been a customer ever since they’ve started shipping internationally (Feb 2019) and I own most of their eyeshadows. They have improved SO much in such a short time. Their mattes are now some of my favourites and their regular duochromes are exquisite – some of them are very sparkly, textured and “shifty”, without breaking the bank. Their chameleon shadows are expensive, but the iridescent line is up there with Clionadh (in my opinion). Red Giant has to be one of my favourite eyeshadows of all time!
I wish I could come up with a brand but I have found all the ones I’ve tried over the yrs and used to be faithful too have declined over the yrs. I wore origins foundation for 20 yes and theY reformulated And it’s horrible and not the same color and they put it in a plastic container while telling you they made it better.. they only do those things to make more profit.
Sydney grace has been the most consistent for the last couple yrs.
I posted a comment and it was removed, do you know why? And when I do post it can take hours to post. I don’t understand why.
Are you screening which ones people see?
Curious
Cheryl,
Your comment was approved, not removed, so I’m not sure what you’re referring to! All comments require approval… there is a message that says exactly that when you post a comment! 🙂 This has been the policy on Temptalia for over a decade at this point, I believe.
There is also a message at the bottom of every post that states our policy:
“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!”
Pat McGrath! In a few very notable ways:
Her Mothership Palette mattes are far easier to blend out and apply beautifully from the Midnight Sun Mothership Palette forward. Huge improvement over the previous ones!
Also, when she added lipsticks and glosses, this made an enormous impact on the beauty world. Especially when she launched the Luxetrance formula and LUST Gloss formulas! Too bad Mother has DC’d that wonderful lipstick formula, however.
No more black spiders for packing material!!! Thank you, Mother!
I think CP has improved, at least compared to those first 4 pan palettes they came out with. I still have a few of them and they are OK, but I recall a few of them being terrible. I think that most of their other products, especially the blushes, are better than the first iterations.
Then again, I could be simply overwhelmed by the sheer volume of product — there has to be some good ones in the vast sea of CP products issues weekly.
High end — Natasha Denona. It seems like she’s always tweaking her shadow formula, and has made great improvements.
Budget — E.l.f. They’ve been a bit up and down the last few years, but I feel in this last year or so, they’ve really listened to customers and upped their game. I think BH Cosmetics has consistently gotten better every year.
Don’t know if this is improvement or just agreement, Rachel – but a big yes to Elf and bh! I can’t believe the quality of the shadows in Elf’s warm shadow book (‘python’) bought years ago, and bh Solar Flare. The book has 48 (count em) tiny, uniformly excellent colors in every shade I could possibly want. (Didn’t stop my eyeshadow career, but that’s on me.) Still apply flawlessly. Solar Flare is newer, and omg. So pigmented, beautiful & shiny. At least as good as my ABH, PMG and older (eg. quality) UD shimmers.
Maybe e.l.f.? When I first used them, it was pretty standard dollar store fare; while their prices are no longer all $3 or less (sigh!), many of their products have gone from serviceable to excellent.
I honestly cannot come up with a brand that I think has improved across all the brands products. I agree that several brands improve one product in their line but that doesn’t always endear me to the brand. None that I would rave or even mention as improved. Overall, I think most brands are hit and miss these days. Either that or we are expecting better performance from out makeup brands. Once you start paying $50-100 for a product, you really expect it to be stellar.
Colour Pop started out with a handful of product line-ups – some of which I wasn’t personally crazy about but acknowledged was nice (like the super shock formula). And now, the brand has expanded to the point where people can do their entire face makeup with Colour Pop and expect fair quality more often than not (and this is not mentioning the facial skincare and the emerging body care). Frankly, I think it’s impressive that the brand’s product quality remains competitive all-around against other brands alongside the same price point. I know several people have commented on being annoyed about Colour Pop’s frequent releases and I could understand the annoyance if I was a collector or some sort of “professional” reviewer, but I’m not. I love seeing what they come up with next and whether or not the products are receptive.
Yes, I would agree with you Christine – that ND has definately improved over the years, although it is very pricey here in Aus.
Another brand that has been consistently good for the past few is Sydney Gace. Their eyeshadows are still stunning.
Sephora’s Lipstories range still manages to be excellent and very reasonably priced too.
I am actually super surprised when a brand like ND kept improving. Usually it is the opposite.
I think Bobbi Brown’s lipsticks improved. I couldn’t wear them in the cold because they would chap my lips, but broke down and got a color I really missed. Well I used it on a cold day out but forgot my balm. My lips stayed soft with no chapping.
A very underated brand! Makeup Geek. I really like her reformulated eye shadows. The previous ones were ok but nothing special. But the shadows now are so blendable and lovely.