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Hard to say, but lately, I feel sad about Urban Decay’s trajectory over the last five years. I used to get so excited for their launches but now it’s almost like waiting to be disappointed each time.
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I am so going to be in the minority over this, but mine is Pat McGrath. The problem isn’t with them per se, but that what they have just doesn’t work for me. Beautiful stuff, cool packaging, but just not for me.
I am in agreement with you. I would add that sometimes the packaging can be a bit wasteful.
I agree also. Packaging is wasteful, gimmicky, and flies all over the place. So to me it’s not cool, and spoils whatever may be inside.
I agree with you on Pat McGrath too.
Yes! The only thing I’ve ever bought, or really ever been interested in, from them is the Celestial Divinity palette.
You know what, same. I was excited when she first released products that didn’t have the cheap, temporary packaging (those first lip and eye kits) like the mothership palettes – even though there is nothing in them to justify the price tag – but now everytihng she releases is a redunant pink. Her and Charlotte Tilbury just keep churning out shades of pink with crazy price tags it’s a snorefest.
I adore PMG’s LuxeTrance lipsticks and it’ll never stop bumming me out that she discontinued them instead of really doubling down on a range of nudes. Explain to me how a gorgeous lip formula in a wide range of nudes – not just pinks – won’t sell like hotcakes.
Too Faced. Hit or miss quality. Bad owner behavior.
ABH. Went from exciting releases to too many releases.
Urban Decay. I used to get excited about their pallets. Now it’s sub par quality on another Naked release. Come up with something new UD.
I was going to say every one of these for all these reasons. So am in agreement here.
I wanted to add also ABH on the list, but I think in the last year they were slightly better. Or maybe I am too biased because I am Romanian, like Anastasia Spare; but I also find Norvina, her daugther, annoying 😅.
Agreed on Urban Decay. Also Too Faced has really fallen flat over the past 5 years. Their shadow palettes are boring, chalky and not very pigmented. It seems like they’ve gone after the “cute” factor at the expense of quality.
Cali- yep on both brands. I was so looking forward to trying Too Faced because the products my daughter had from them were out of this world level of fantastic. However, my first e/s palette experience with the brand was a disaster. It all looked gorgeous on. But the crap had sodium saccharine in it! Which I had no idea about. 4 days in, my eyes looked like they were severely infected or something, but it was a severe allergic response to the saccharine, which is a sulfa. WTF is an artificial sweetener doing in EYE shadow anyway??? Then add in spotty quality in later palettes, a problematic owner, scandals, etc.
I felt that way about UD until PMG started to crush me. It’s hard to look at the site – everything I’ve bought is on sale. Their lipsticks are being sold at a small fraction of what I’d paid. Their single eyeshadows. Premier luxury brands don’t do this. You’ll never see Chanel practically throwing out their lipsticks and shadows. You’re lucky to catch a sale. The value of PMG has gone down and that’s a more significant monetary loss to me as a collector than UD.
But you can be happy that her delightful products are accessible to more people to enjoy and that they probably are getting products into the hands of people to enjoy rather than throwing out tons of products once it expires.
I feel this way too. It’s like she’s quickly moving down from luxury to mid-range and it breaks my heart. And sorry if this sounds snobby but I like the luxury price. If I wanted makeup that everyone else has I’d stick to Colourpop or Morphe. I feel like people complain and cr*p on her a lot because of her prices and this is her response (constant sales, that horrible Mega Morphe palette, cheaper packaging). but it’s makeup, it’s not necessary to survive. If you can’t afford it, either save up or buy something else. She already has $14 palettes on her site which is accessible for a lux brand. So no, I don’t have to be happy that her products are accessible to more people when the quality and lux image is going downhill.
Because Chanel would rather waste perfectly good product and let it go bad and have to throw it in the garbage than look “cheap”. I don’t think this comment reads the way you think it does.
Several brands have disappointed me in the past few years. Tom Ford quality has declined. I’ve also been less enthusiastic about most of Chanel’s launches. I am tired of red and variations of red. I miss cool tones in makeup. One other thing that’s not brand specific is the amount of mica in makeup. I’m allergic to it and I’ve had to discard so many new palettes, including Dior, Pat McGrath, and Charlotte Tilbury because they give me eczema on my eyelids. I wish for the older, simpler formulas that were truly hypoallergenic.
It’s probably a toss up between TooFaced and Urban Decay. I remember when TooFaced had some great product – single and duo eyeshadows (the duos weren’t separated like Nars duos but they were still great), they had a terrific powder foundation and their 9 pan palettes, while not a great value compared with UD’s Naked, were really good. Their holiday palettes too offered good value and generally good quality. Urban Decay consistently breaks my heart lately….what can I say?
I’ve noticed the fallout from UD eyeshadows with glitter has gotten significantly more noticeable in the last batch of singles. It’s about the only thing I buy from them nowadays but I bought three singles from Ulta’s latest sale on them ($10 I couldn’t resist,) and the same shades I’ve used before are now my highlighter as well….
Pat McGrath. I have bought a palette, mascara, eyeliner, and the foundation and have sampled the primer. All okay but none worth the general hype or the price. I expected so much more.
I feel exactly the same way. I gave away the palette and foundation. I even bought her primer which I ended up testing but never used since it just didn’t agree with me. Her lipsticks, I like.
I heartily throw in for the Urban Decay disappointment. I loved their stuff growing into makeup use and it’s tied to a lot of my aspirational daydreams from high school and college. The first real makeover I had was from an urban decay makeup artists. I’ve always loved that slightly darker grunge aesthetic they used to play off of more. Alice in Wonderland was a peak collection moment for me. I used to wait all year for the holiday eyeliner sets as gifts and I’ve bought midnight cowboy as an eyeshadow single for so long that I miss finding accent colors in those oval shells. I used my sister’s naked palettes enough that I was never disappointed in the quality – until the last few years or so. The aesthetic seems to have turned nearly entirely to privileged coed to me. (Maybe it always was and I was just young enough not to notice.)
I’ve had brands hit and miss unreliably over the years – but the only other brands that I’ve become more and more let down by as time’s gone on is NYX. I used to rely on them for budget-friendly options because I don’t wear makeup every day. I returned 5 of the last 5 purchases from the brand now. I’ll stick to just their butter glosses from now on. Bourjois has filled this niche on mine handily.
Bourjois… it’s so surprising only to hear someone mentioned the brand. I loved their foundation and lipsticks when I lived in Europe, but since moving to US I haven’t tried anything from them. Although I am sure I could find something on Amazon. 😅 Wonder if I’ll be disappointed, sometimes we overhype products we wore years ago, just for the memories.
Bourgois is as good now was ever. It’s readily available in Canada and I love their base products too.
I used to love Bourjois. Chic, quality but reasonably priced. It was carried by Sephora in the US. ASOS also had it. I don’t think it’s available at all in the US anymore. I’ve searched for it.
I have 2.
Urban Decay! They were my favorite brand for 20 years! But in the last 5 years I can count on 1 hand how many UD items I’ve bought, and I picked them all up on sale :/
Also gotta say BITE unfortunately. They discontinued the Amuse Bouche lipsticks and lip pencils, which were amazing formulas with a great color range, and have yet to replace them. Also the lip mask was my HG but then they made it vegan and it’s awful now. I appreciate wanting to be vegan but it came at the expense of quality.
Yes! Just when j discovered bite they changed everything!
Pat McGrath – the hype and hysteria and now everything is on sale 6 weeks after launches. It’s not that I paid premium price – I value what I want and have and if I want something at $5 or $500 I get it – it’s “Where’s the fire? What’s happened? Why are you turning over product so quickly? Why are you getting rid of beloved staples?” No more luxetrance and many of the lust glosses I liked. I am tired of divine rose everything. The mascara dries out too quickly and they have yet to offer a waterproof version. The primer, foundation, concealer and powder are meh and not worth the price. Turnover and constant sales feels like fast fashion. I prefer the languid stroll of Chanel, Sydney Grace and very recently MAC (for me, they’ve slowed considerably and save for holiday, have smaller edits/releases. Maybe I unsubscribed so I’m not bombarded, can’t remember).
Definitely Too Faced. My daughter had spoken so highly of them many years ago, but when I bought their Chocolate Bar Palette, I was in for a nasty surprise. It did have cocoa. Not a problem for me. However, it also snuck in an artificial sweetener, sodium saccharine, which, as it turns out is a sulfa. I’m highly allergic to sulfas! They have continued down this off-putting course. Plus, the quality of their products is up, down and all around! Ye gads, what a screwed up brand. Then, add in a troublemaking owner, and what a mess.
Greed. PROC. COVID-19. The cosmetic brand falls under one of these category.
Whatever brand stated here…by your commenters are true … the quality has gone down. That comes with greed. The effects of COVID-19 is like 9-11 but in slow-mo. PROC…I say no more….for me is like putting poison on my face… I am telling you….buy when the brand is new into the market….the quality is the best. then the prices go up and the quality goes down. The vaccine against COVID is not cosmetic, but that was how I saw the same thing. Yes, the vaccine is unknown and new…I still went forth with it anyway and got the vaccine. Fortunately, I am one of those healthcare provider to get it; I could not take a risk. As for your cosmetics…if it is no good…shuck it and don’t buy it…not worth your health or your pocketbook. I am dead serious about PROC. … never will buy something from there for my face, and will never step foot into that country no matter how magnificent it appears. Yes, so sad about Urban Decay etc,
This comment is kind of hard to understand and all over the place, but are you saying that you don’t use any cosmetics made in China because they’re bad for one’s health??
Disappointed is maybe a strong word, since I don’t take brands and what they do so seriously, but I have my ideas. 😅
To not mention Urban Decay again… definitely Too Faced and Benefit are on the list. I used to love their products, now they are simply mean to me; and I don’t like the direction the brands are going with the new launches.
On another side, I am disappointed in brands like Charlotte Tilbury, Briogeo and Olaplex, but for a totally different reason: no matter how much I tried and other people praised them, I simply don’t like anything I used from them.
UD was likely to be a common response, but I feel the decline was so gradual that we’ve just come to expect mediocrity. Bite is the worst offender: their decline was fast and furious, sudden and drastic. I can’t forgive them for all of the lost holy-grail-status products.
None of Pat McGrath suits me either!
Urban Decay has been my brand disappointment for years. I was an Urban Decay eyeshadow Junkie that kept collecting what I could afford. I regret owning too many palettes from them. During my early years of makeup, Urban Decay eyeshadow was amazing compared to a lot of brands on my eyelids. As their popularity rose, UD palettes have been lackluster in color choices and quality.
Also they kept repeating the same eyeshadows in their earlier palettes. I noticed that some single eyeshadows are better quality compared to being in a palette. I regret purchasing so many palettes in my early years of makeup. My first palette was the Book of Shadows IV and my last palettes were the Vice collection. Their microglitter eyeshadows have so much fallout that irritates my eyes.
Some of my favorite urban decay eyeshadows are Fireball, Gash, Money, Mary Jane, Blue Bus, Crystal, Cobra, Baked, and Half Baked.
I wish I just bought eyeshadows from brands like Sydney Grace and Fyrinnae.
Urban Decay, MUFE, and Smashbox.
The biggest decline and disappointment over time goes to Urban Decay, no question. Speaking of UD…are they discontinuing/reformulating their lipsticks and eyeshadows again, are they??? It was either Ulta, Sephora or UD’s site that had a 50% discount on eyeshadow singles. And I believe I’d read on someone’s blog I follow that their lipsticks were on sale as well. I still don’t understand why UD reformulated their lipsticks from the Revolution formula to Vice. Personally, I really enjoyed the Revolution formula. Eh, UD has me to the point where not even the lure of half off is enticing enough for me to bother. I just don’t think the quality is there anymore. The last purchase (at over a 50% discount) from UD that I made was the Naked Honey Palette and while it’s alright (with a little work), it’s not the same quality that made me fall in love with UD eyeshadows many years ago. And why did Bite do away with their AB lipsticks? I thought that was a stellar formula but what do I know? One positive is that there are so many brands putting out quality products to choose from now as opposed to 20 years ago. Even drugstore makeup has improved bigtime.
Honestly, Colourpop. They were the brand that really got me in to makeup, and, for a short time they were coming out with really great launches (remember when their improved liquid lipstick formula came out and went like gang busters?) and then they started releasing something new every week and started duping themselves over and over. The quality of the shadows had declined a lot, especially the shimmer formula.
CP’s quality definitely went down for sure, especially with the rise of pressed glitters in literally everything. Their price point has also gone up–I remember the dawn of their first set of 12 pan pressed shadow palettes starting at $16 and The Disney princess 15 pan palette was $20 when Christine reviewed it back in 2018. Now it’s $24. I wonder if the markup is due to continued licensing fees, but a 25% increase in less than three years seems strange.
Probably UD too. They were my introduction to makeup that was a step above drugstore. I don’t remember when I felt like they really dropped the ball on quality, but it’s so garbage now and the releases uninspired. With the exception of Naked Honey and their Game of Thrones collab – that eyeshadow palette is perfection. I swatched a few shades this morning and was struck at how rich and smooth they are. It’s like the best parts of Anastasia’s shimmer/metallic formula without the excessive powderiness and they held their own against the PMG shadows I swatched alongside them. I feel like they really put their all in to the shadow palette and liners from that collection (phoned in the highlighter and the lipsticks were meh) and got burned by HBO straight murdering the series and a bunch of “beauty gurus” trashing the packaging, color story, and not even being fans of the show or books. It’s a damn collectors item and not every palette needs to be a complete neutral look with a pop of color and five mattes. I love it, I display it, and I don’t use it nearly enough. It’s the only thing I can say they’ve released in ten years that made me excited. The last being the anniversary Vice palette (actually…..when was that released?). The one in the velvet box and metallic looking plastic packaging? Whole lid came off the palette and has a great mirror inside? Yeah, beautiful. I regret de-potting that.
Anyway, I feel like UD is trying so hard now to keep making a profit that they’ve just cut too many corners on quality. And, let’s face it, consumers are so obsessed with eyeshadow palettes being a certain format (again, neutral/pink with one or two pops of color and half to mostly matte….whyyyy???? why do you need every single palette to be that??) that by the time you meet the criteria of what you think people are willing to buy, everything just looks the same. I want to see exciting things from them again.
Fenty. Except for their mattenoiselle lipsticks, nothing else works or is something I need. Despite their 50 shades I still don’t have a shade there. I bought 330, 350 and 345 and none worked. I guess it is just not for me.