I surprise myself…. but Too Faced; they were decent, then they started going downhill, but a lot of their more recent releases have been decent to good! I think ColourPop has shown that they’re not a one-trick pony and they can continuously deliver quality AND quantity.
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Dior — since Peter Phillips left Chanel as cosmetic beauty creative director in 2013 and replaced Pat McGrath at Dior in 2014. Small world, no? (Has Chanel Beauty been the same since?)
Anne – Yes, you’re right, Dior has been greatly improved upon in the past few years! Was wondering how and why, and thanks to your comment, I now know the answer.
Totally agree with you!
I totally agree about Dior. It’s ironic that their eyeshadows have a much better finish and texture since McGrath left; the new lips are amazing (especially the mirror finishes on the new Stellar shines); the cream shadows, sticks and liquid shadows have been amazing too but they’re so limited edition some haven’t even made it to the US online site much less a dept store.
Personally I’m not a fan of Lucia Pica at Chanel, and of her fall-winter collection is any indication of the direction she’s going I’d be scared if I were Chanel. She’s gone backwards with the shadow textures/ finishes, they all have a muddy look to them before you even start blending, and there aren’t many genuine colors—everything is a shade very close to the next.
Viseart’s quality has always been great, but I feel like they’ve really upped their game in the consumer (as opposed to pro) space recently. Theory palettes, petit pro, 9-pan palettes, single shadows…keep it coming!
I was reluctant to buy anything from Too Faced at first because their products received very bad reviews for a long time, but then the Chocolate Gold palette came out and got good reviews, and I couldn’t resist. I bought it and it’s one of my favorite palettes ever. I then bought one of their glitter lipsticks and love that too. I guess they realized they needed to do something about their products and fixed whatever issues they had.
MAC. I can remember when almost all of MAC’s LE collections were either pure trash or a very mixed bag just a few years ago. Now I’d say they’ve brought up the quality quite a bit in the past year and a half to two years. Far more consistent quality across the board, plus way more artistry in the LE packaging of late. My hope is that they will continue on this path.
For me it’s Dior. Huge improvement since they hired Peter Philips as creative and image director for their makeup division . During this tenure at Chanel Makeup he brought the brand back to life with some astonishing creations and products.
I also like the evolution of the Canadian brand Nudestix. I love their products, their vision and constant quality. They will be launching their first foundation. The same can be said about Cover FX. I don’t have my head spinning b/c of new launches every month, and I don’t see any gimmicky products. And they do pay attention to the ingredients. Two other Canadian brands worth mentioning Ilia and RMS Beauty.
Haha, every time I buy a Too Faced product, I side-eye myself. But some of their products are really good lil workhorses! I’m still bummed about them discontinuing the thin heart-shaped blushes. I would have bought the whole line eventually. Baby Love and I Will Always Love You are in heavy rotation.
Baby Love is one of my all-time favorite blushes. Great formula, too. IDK why they chose to discontinue them.
I think Too Faced and Tarte have both been improving again, which is really great to see. I agree the CP is continually upping its game. I’m adoring the entire 9-pan monochrome palette series.
Also, NARS, despite that awful permanent collection e/s reformulation. Not that NARS was ever terrible, but I was rarely interested enough to buy things from them, especially since they are on the spendy side of mid-range. But recently, their LE offering are really floating my boat! I still try to limit what I buy, because — of course — they stopped being CF right before coming out with so much stuff I’m loving. I’ve caved on a few items I thought were too stellar to pass up (Hot Tryst palette, Man Ray Glass Tears, Connor Tingley Palette, and Erdem Fleur Fatale Palette)
Definetely COLOURPOP, I met this brand through beauty subscription Ipsy.
Also, NYX, as a drug-store beauty brand, it has upped it’s game in a very relevant way. I use lots of products that I really love that I think are very competitive and better than lots of hi-end beauty brands.
Colourpop.
It’s a tough one, but I would say Tarte – since their lovely, colourful Pro Remix palette; Dior (which was very interesting to read the comments above) – which has put out some lovely quads lately..
It’s great to see when brands reinvent themselves by creating lovely, quality products
I agree. I have always liked Tarte’s face and lip products, but lately their eyeshadows are really nice too. I actually have on almost a full face of Tarte today (foundation, concealer, eyeshadow, blush, highlight, lipstick, mascara), and that’s a brand I was meh about before.
I think I’d also have to go along with Dior, although their colour cosmetics can still be pretty inconsistent which, at their price point, is distressing. But in the past few years, they seem to have had more hits than misses.