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What brand do you think has changed the most over the years?
What brand do you think has changed the most over the years? Share!
Tough question! Urban Decay, perhaps, because of their massive and enduring venture into all things neutral, given their history of bolder, edgier color. MAC has seemed to rely more heavily on collaborations over the last few years than ever before (though they have done collaborations for quite sometime). NARS seems more aggressive as a brand with more launches than they used to have, plus collaborations.
Thanks to Rachel for today’s question! Do you have a question idea? Submit yours here.
Urban Decay !!
CoverGirl; they suddenly went from one of the least expensive DS brands to outpricing L’Oréal…
Maybelline has really stepped it up with foundations, lip products, & cheek products; however, besides the Color Tattoos, the eyeshadows leave little to be desired…
Probably Urban Decay. When they first started, I remember they were a really edgy brand, with edgy and unusual colors and names. They didn’t invent the neutral palette, but with the huge success of Naked 1, they launched a thousand neutral palettes from other companies. Who would’ve guessed they would be responsible for fifty thousand shades of brown?
I remember buying Urban Decay in Walmart! I’m pretty sure I still have the fingernail polish. That’s crazy!
I definitely agree that all three that you mentioned have changed. Most notably for me is definitely Urban Decay! Oh my, have they ever! Although the whole Naked thing has become a bit tired at this point. Also showing huge changes have been two DS/LE brands, Nyx and Wet n Wild. WnW used to be the worst garbage out there, and then came those 6 pan palettes followed by the 8 pans and trios, the matte lipsticks, some of the Fergie stuff too, WOW. Nyx has been becoming more innovative, especially for the low $’s and quite risky with colors too.
I remember buying Wet ‘n’ Wild when I was first wearing makeup and the lipsticks were around $1 USD. Back then it was like the bottom of the barrel for drugstore brands. I haven’t bought any WnW in years, and I was surprised to see so many people on Reddit raving about the products!
YSL. One word to describe it before. Decadent. The colors were BOLD. The cases were from real gold plated, not just the color gold. The shadows were pigmented and gem like colors. The lipsticks…so beautiful. It was truly glamorous….every single piece. Now the entire line is artificial and smells like some fruity flavor.
I say Clinique- I never noticed they coloured makeup, they were skincare/foundation for me, but now they has chubby-sticks and colour pops, and are kind of pioneer- almost every brand has some sort of chubbys now and Clinique was first!
I agree; hands down I’d say Clinique. It was the first department store brand I bought almost 30 years ago due to the appeal of the GWP. The entire color line has been re-vamped at least two or three times. Their eye shadows used to be bland, boring, and not good quality. The mascara, which is still available, is boring. The focus was always the skin care, and they had good foundations. Now, they are definitely worth a try – Chubby Sticks, Color Pop blush, the eye shadows, the High Impact mascaras.
I think the brands I am starting to notice more are Bobbi Brown and Clinique, especially Clinique with their Colour Pop blushes. They’re both starting to add some fun additions to their lines, and I used to think that both brands were not luxurious and “for my mother.” Maybe since I am aging, that’s why I like them.I also like that they’re not too shimmery, obnoxious or glaring. They do have “pops of color” (such as BB Artsticks which are fantastic) but they seem to have become more classic, less
fuddy-duddy.
For me Estée Lauder, but I’m not sure if that’s actually true or just me. The brand never appealed to me. I just didn’t feel the brand was aimed at girls my age. The products seemed so serious and mature. But now they seem to have become more modern and trendy. More current. Or maybe I’m just getting older/more mature, lol 🙂
I totally agree with UD. Bobbi Brown hasn’t so much changed than stopped being everywhere. I was never really drawn to the brand, but I used to see it everywhere, with Bobbi herself all over television. Now, not so much. I don’t know a single person who still uses anything from the line.
I think Tarte has changed the most. I remember their product range consisting mostly of cheek stains, these cute double-ended lipglosses, and tinted lip balms. Now everything is Amazonian clay and maracuja oil. They must be doing something right because the brand seems much more popular now than it was a few years ago.
I would have to agree with Urban Decay, though on the whole, I think they’ve changed for the better. Their new formulations for products other than eyeshadows have greatly included the entire line.
The one that immediately comes to mind is MAC- when I first started loving makeup, MAC was the gold standard for a lot of things. Over the years, they’ve tweaked formulations (for the worse IMHO), increased prices and capitalized on LE items to the point where I don’t even get excited for collections anymore. It’s sad because half of my kit used to be MAC, but the quality didn’t stay in step with their pricing. Maybe it’s because I’m no longer in their target demographic, but outside of Fluidline, I don’t really use anything MAC at all in my day to day.
Ditto. These constant super LE releases are stressful as a Mac fan. Keeping up with dates rushing from store to store. Just too much. I don’t even feel like consumer anymore it feels like work.
That’s it. Bought it. Thank you, Christine
No problem, Lucia!
I think It Cosmetics has changed significantly (and for the better). I used to associate them with ‘as seen on TV’ type kits and with anti-aging and rosacea. I think they have grown and added some really innovative formulas and offer items that are totally new to the market. Their lipliners that stain, base products with 50SPF, interestingly shaped brush heads in synthetics, and their satin-matte eyeshadow formula comes to mind, but I’m sure I could think of more examples. I haven’t loved everything I have tried from them, but I do appreciate their line and am interested to see what they come out with next.
I’d have to agree with you on MAC, but for different reasons. it seems they’re heavily relying on new collections and the quality seems to be going down. Urban Decay has branched out quite a bit. Too Faced has upgraded their quality a lot over the years.
I feel like Benefit has changed quite a bit, at least in their products offered, if not in their approach as a brand. They used to have some great lipstick and gloss formulas and single eyeshadows that I really enjoyed. In just the few years that I’ve been paying attention, they’ve introduced “permanent” product lines and done away with them quickly.
There aren’t a lot of brands I’ve been following for a long time, so the only one that really stands out is Urban Decay. They still rely on their “edginess,” but so much of their line now is the Naked collection and neutrals/nudes. I love Urban Decay and I always will, but heck they don’t even have a good purple or black lipstick.
I agree with you and your reasons!
Hands down Bobbi Brown. Since she SOLD OUT to the Estee Lauder Corporation years ago the ENTIRE aethetic of her line changed. If you were around from the beginning, you know what i mean!
Since you didn’t say make-up or skincare I’m going with Olay…they went from my grandmother’s pink lotion to a cutting edge skincare line.
Hmmm…I would have to say Sephora brand and drugstore brands–the quality has increased significantly across the board. I used to ignore Sephora bc I thought their huge palettes were such a joke but now I make sure to always look at their selection in store. Drugstore base products used to not work for me but now, I have several brands that actually work better for me than my line-up of higher-priced base products.
i agree with others who voted Urban Decay.They really stepped up their game with some user friendly & innovative products. The Naked foundation is one of the best high performance natural foundations out there!
I think all the brands have evolved during the last few years – completing to bring out different kinds of products. For example – this season we have seen the emphasis on contouring/bronzing products. Before that was the eye pencil/sticks etc. Some brands – like MAC do more collaborations. But some things never change – that of quality for your money.
Urban Decay…when I went through a short lived makeup phase in the late 90s, I thought that Urban Decay was a little young for someone in their mid-30s. Now here I am at 51 and I have a ton of UD products. They were much more wild and edgy back then. Wet and Wild is light years better than they used to be. They’re still hit and miss, but they used to be all miss, to the point where even being super cheap wasn’t enough.
Makeup For Ever! I remember years ago (20+) they being a more stage makeup company.
I completely agree with Urban Decay. They used to have a line of individual eye shadows in really cute packaging- I think they were called deluxe eyeshadows- and they were all bright/non-neutral colors. I still have a bunch of them. However, they still seem to do colors really well, and I think their Naked palettes are superb (though I really didn’t think it was necessary to make a second Naked Basics palette that looked almost identical to the first). I’m just glad their quality hasn’t suffered, but I am a bit annoyed to see their prices gradually increase. I understand pretty much every company does this but when I got my Naked 2 palette last winter, it was $52 and now it went up to $54 (I’m pretty sure the starting price of the first Naked palette was $50 but I could be wrong), and I believe the Naked Basics were $27 and now are $29.
I also agree with drug store brands stepping their game up! Wet n’Wild makes fantastic lipsticks, though the packaging needs to be improved. I love that NYX is expanding their line and has a great range of colors available, and ELF seems to be doing really great as well. I actually just got a contouring brush and tapered brush and they are fantastic! Their new skin care line seems to be a step up for them- I also got their eye cream but I’ve only used it a few times so I can’t tell if it really works or not, but so far I really do like it. So yes affordable makeup companies improving and expanding their lines makes me happy!
And sadly I do feel like Mac’s quality has decreased a bit over the years- the stuff they do well, they continue to do well but I feel like they’ve had a lot of disappointments in more recent times.
I bought the first Naked palette when it first came out, and if I’m not mistaken, it was $44 USD…
Thanks for using my question.
High End: I would agree with UD becoming less unconventional and edgy, and concentrating on the Naked line. Although making nudes/neutrals so popular was unconventional at the time, and a surprise move for the brand. The new Summer season products have me hopeful, though, with the bright blushes and cool duochrome shadows. MAC’s quality has gone down quite a bit, and it seems collections are becoming less creative in both content and packaging.
Drug Store: Wet n Wild. I’ve used them since the 80s, when they were super-cheap and the best products were the eyeliners and lipliners. They did have some really edgy colors in those days, especially for drug store makeup. They were very much a teen brand. They’ve really upped their game over time, and now they have great lipsticks and eyeshadows, and lots of other nice products. I think appeal to a wider demographic now. They have become more conventional, . though, too.
I can’t really say. I didn’t start feeling like I had to use makeup much at all until just a couple of years ago. However, I do remember as a little girl, sitting in the bathroom, watching my mother use drugstore makeup such as Maybelline and Cover Girl. I always wondered why she had to “draw” a brow on her face with a “pencil”. I’m 45yo now, but realize I was only probably 8 or 9 years old at the time. She always intrigued me when putting on makeup. So again, I don’t really have an answer for that. Just thought the story would be interesting to read!
Definitely agree on UD. MAC, to me, has always had a collaborative aspect, and an LE collections aspect, so whilst those activities seem to have stepped up in frequency, it’s not really a core change, imo.
I think most, if not all, of the properly high end brands have gotten complacent and rely too heavily on their name, rather than on great formulas (I’m thinking Chanel, Dior, Guerlain, YSL – that ilk of “designer brands”). I remember coveting Chanel lip products, especially the Quatre Levres compact (DC now, I believe), but I’ve not been impressed with the lippies I’ve tried recently.
Estee Lauder, for sure. It seems like they change their entire color line every year. Nothing stays around for long. Even their skin care lines change every year. The only thing that stays the same are their foundations. They have some of the same foundations that I used over 20 years ago.