What do you like about limited edition products? What don't you like?
Tell us what you love and hate about...
Limited Edition Products
They give brands a chance to play around and release products that may not fit as well with the brand’s core identity or make sense to have 24/7. On the flip side, they can sometimes feel like they’ve received less effort when they’re lower quality or it gets frustrating when a brand releases mostly limited edition products and has no real permanent range.
— Christine
What I don’t like is falling in love with a product (MAC Sweet Sentiment blush and Grand Entrance e/s are examples…) and then not being able to replace it when I finish it up. What I like (or used to like; not so much any more as I’ve so much makeup) was the feeling of excitement seeing new LE releases – it was just always so thrilling to see what new stuff I “had to have”!!!
They usually, although not always, have special, very fun packaging and designs. Plus, many times I just love how they are coordinated with each other and have unique shades included.
As for the “dislike” category, they cannot usually be replaced unless the brand decides to make a LE product shade or palette permanent. And that’s a major rarity, if ever!
I like when they have a fun theme that makes sense to be LE — thinking about different brand collabs with Pantone for the Color of the Year, for example, or Lunar New Year releases that are themed around that year’s Zodiac animal.
I don’t like when they are ultra-limited, as in “Buy it when it first drops or you won’t get it at all.” I don’t like that false scarcity, and I don’t like that it makes it hard to wait for reviews and make an informed purchase. Especially when you consider what you said, Christine, about LE items sometimes being of lower quality!
Hate:
The real or manufactured hype to buy buy buy the limited edition product on release day. Not everyone has the ability to be online or at the shop. You blinked and missed it? Catch the next one or buy it from someone who buys it hoping to resell at a profit. If it is ‘limited’, have it be available fo X time period. That there will be stock for 30-45 days.
With the number of brands and the seemingly weekly churning out of products, the limited edition stuff loses its lustre. People have stopped caring. There will be another release in a few seconds, and maybe I’ll get that limited edition instead.
How much makeup do I really need? The average person who does like makeup rarely gets tons of compliments or people asking what they are wearing. I certainly don’t. I certainly don’t feel exclusive.
If I do like the product and want to repurchase, good luck in finding a replacement or dupe.
Love:
A different colour palette, something more unusual. Maybe different packaging that makes me appreciate it more.
What I like about limited edition beauty products is that every now and again a brand gets it really right and releases something fabulous. The downside is that not everyone who wants that product can get their hands on it, due to the limited number of products produced. Frequently they don’t ship to Australia.
And, of course, there is no possibility of a backup should you fall in love with it.
When it’s good it’s very, very good, when it’s bad it’s rotten. I’m getting too old for FOMO. I am at the very last drops of my Oscar Pink Lily Limited Edition perfume, and although Floral Street Sunflower Pop is close, it doesn’t last very long on me.
When I was younger the build up was exciting and the products were worth the wait, now not so much. If they could bring back that anticipation with the quality they might have some customers that would stick with their brand.
Years ago I bought a couple of phenomenal Tom Ford lipsticks not realizing they were LE I was sad; I’ve never bought another LE of anything because if I get attached then poof they are gone.
I like when they are done really well and with high-quality and thought. Like the UD GoT (MOST of it, well…. the shadow palette and brushes) and Melt’s Muerte/Vida and Beetlejuice (not the matte bullet lipsticks, their formula is horrible and cheap on those).
I hate when they’re cash-grabbing garbage. I also hate when they’re something so amazing that it sells out and I miss my opportunity to own it – like the Muerte palette.
I used to love LE’s when they didn’t come all year round, there were two or maybe four a year. It was way more exciting I thought when there weren’t so many.
I think if the quality is there and they have enough stock to last nor just for a few hours it can still be fun. I do refuse to be sucked into the FOMO, I think Pat McGrath cured me. 😉
As said by Christine, sometime the quality just isn’t there and it makes me regret spending on whatever it might be.
If it turns out I love the product and can’t replace it, it would annoy me.
So far I don’t think there’s been a LE that I have bought that I’d desperately would like to repurchase. However I really dislike when permanent products are DC’d than missing out on a LE.