What was the last brand that disappointed you?

Not a massive disappointment, but Guerlain’s Matte Rouge Gs just rarely apply as smoothly or as flatteringly as I’d expect based on marketing and past experience with the Rouge G range.

— Christine

39 Comments

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Ana Maria Avatar

I love Hourglass brow product (the brow gel and the year drop eye pencil) to the point I consider them better than ABH; I’m still debating if the brow gel is better than Gimme Brow 😆
For me the gel provided enough hold, which is great since I have longer and unruly brow hairs. I liked that it was a buildable formula, I could get natural looks or apply with more pressure and more layer for something dramatic. Wore nicely through both rains and sweats. For me the longer bristles half of the wand was useless, that would be my only complaint about the product; I only used the shorter side.

It’s so amazing and interesting to me how products work so differently for different people. ? For some products I almost believe that brands use multiple labs to manufacture products, and they don’t enforce same guidelines so product quality varies from lab to lab and batch to batch.

Wednesday Avatar

Hi Ana Maria! I have the opposite in terms of brows. Mine are short and fairly densely packed so I need major grip to make mine stay in place. (Surratt is one of the few brow products which can actually hold mine, but it dries down clear). The front and tails of my brows are sparse so I was hoping the Hourglass would essentially balance them out, but it did not work out for me… so I can completely understand how it might be so much better for you given what you shared. Goes to prove sometimes you just have to try it out for yourself ?

Erica Avatar

PML. I just don’t get the hype. Okay eyeshadow that just never really has that wow factor for me. Too expensive for what it is. I want to love it but rather I’m more “meh”. I don’t think I will ever buy from the brand again. Too expensive of a brand to be constantly undewhelmed and disappointed. Their mascara sucks and wreaks of cheap old perfume. Eyeshadow is wah wah. Lipstick is fine. Yet a brand like Natasha Denona I can use all day long and have few complaints. So I’ll stick with them, buh bye Auntie Pat!

Lesley Avatar

I was going to say PMG as well. I also did not like the mascara. The eyeliner pencil was not special. I like the foundation well enough but it is nowhere near HG. I gave away the one palette I bought because it just was not useful to me and it gave me the guilties every time I looked at it and went for something else. I prefer Viseart.

Erica Avatar

Viseart has a wonderful formula. Idk, I just feel with luxury, I should experience more. And when you have brands that have these rich, soft, smooth, creamy and blendable formulas… PML leaves much to be desired imo

Helene Avatar

So glad to read that I’m not alone in not caring for the mascara. I’ve got just as good (in this case bad) results with drugstore brands. What I mean is that PMGs mascara should have been awesome, HG and left me with a feeling of finally having found the one, it didn’t. I thought I was applying it in a wrong way, but no wiggling or twirling or spinning helped. 🙂

Ana Maria Avatar

To be honest, I love Hourglass brow products and the mineral veil primer… but anything else it’s kind of disappointing (maybe because I like those products so much), and I never understood the hype about their powders.

Francesca Avatar

Marc jacobs air blush. I don’t understand the hype at all. zero Pigmentation at all, I have to apply 10 layers to have something barely visible on my checks, and I’m light-medium. For the price point, huge disappointment. Moreover, I don’t understand 12 months of pao. Why? Powder are usually 24- 36 months

kjh Avatar

MJB Steeletto. I expected it to look fabulous, do the dishes and the taxes. I waited forever! And it was like Eeyore with the deflated balloons. Dusty, draggy… totally blah. the only other MJB shadow I have is the first mega, and it’s great. I like Lunatick, Smashbox, and CP cool selections far better.

Seraphine Avatar

Same here. I put off getting it for so long, then finally broke down and bought it, and now I never use it. I wasn’t happy with the application or the way the shades look on me. It seemed like it would be a perfect match for me, but I was underwhelmed.

Helene Avatar

I didn’t like it much either. I don’t give up though, so I tried it again, yesterday and washed it all off as I though it made me look even more tired, and I used the lightest shades. I’ll use it paired with other eye shadows, I think, I don’t want to throw good money away.

It’s so interesting to see both pros and cons from others.

Nancy T Avatar

Tom Ford. I had pined over his Honeymoon Quad for years. Finally got to buy it, and….wah wah womp. I had to apply it damp in order to get full color pigmentation and shine, and even then, it just didn’t look very special. I do believe that there may well have been a change in the Honeymoon formula or that I received a bad one, though. Because mine looked duller, more lackluster than the one Christine reviewed years ago!

xamyx Avatar

Lunatick Cosmetics Lab; I absolutely Iove the Contour Books, and when I ordered the Volume 2, they sent an eyeshadow palette (Elvira) for free, and I was really excited to try it. However, while it is decent, it just takes too much work to get it to perform to my standard, so I gave it to my 13 year old daughter, since the shades are right up her alley. That said, I am extremely grateful I had the opportunity to try their eyeshadow, and while the formula isn’t necessarily for me, it’s not necessarily “bad”, and I would absolutely recommend them to someone looking for a buildable formula, with minimal fallout. My “disappointment” comes from my really wanting to love them…
Melt Cosmetics is another brand, but not because of the product. I just feel if a brand is going to vigorously hype a product/release for several weeks, they shouldn’t hold back stock, and they should ensure everyone has a fair chance to get on the website at the same time… With the Four Twenty release, they sent out a “password”, but many didn’t receive it until a good 10+ minutes after it went live. Also, while it was understandable they were working with a reduced staff, and only specific products would be available, it wouldn’t have been any more difficult to sell the palette if they were able to sell the Smoke Sessions palette… However, most disappointing is that they just completely ignored comments from longtime, loyal customers who expressed disappointment in the “password” debacle…

Erica Avatar

Can we just say how ridiculous it is how rapidly puking out of product Melt has done as of late. In a relatively short amount of time they have pushed the Vida, Muerte, Milenial Pinx, Rust and 420. For $54-$60 a palette, it’s really shameful they are pulling this code thing for their loyal customers. Turns me off of the brand in general. It’s greedy and gross imo

Mariella Avatar

As a brand, probably Benefit. I used to love their Creaseless Cream shadows and their powder shadows and all of both of those lines have been discontinued entirely. Lots of other things I’ve liked from the brand are also not available any more. There’s little from the brand that I even want any longer.

Hourglass is the other brand – their pricing practices have really disappointed me. I have a few items from them that I like well enough but they’re all majorly overpriced for what they are, but I can accept that. It is their ongoing habit of charging WAY over the odds for their holiday palettes irks me and yet people still buy them. It is that practice that has caused me to stop buying from them and it’s a practice I learned about thanks to you, Christine – the “cost per ounce” comparisons that you do blinding highlighted just how much MORE they were charging at a time when almost all the other companies are offering a little “extra” for the holidays.

Pearl Avatar

ABH – I finally bought the palettes I’d been lemming for after watching the brand for 2+ years. Within 3 months, I’d given them all away. The eyeshadow formula didn’t work for me and honestly even if it did, I no longer care for the company’s aesthetic.

Francesca Avatar

Nice to read that I am not the only one who isn’t crazy for abh palettes. Not a bad formula, mind me, but it doesen’t fit me, my tecnique. Moreover I don’t like so much the way they arranged their colour stories, nor the ridiculous amount of product in each pan. Not to mention the horrible velvet packaging. No way to carry it anywhere.
For the same price point I prefer 10000times more huda palette, in terms of forula, colour stories (huda is the best to arrange shades in palette in my opinion) and travel- friendly package

Ana Maria Avatar

Lately I have been sticking more with old favorites, so nothing to be disappointed about. The last big brand disappointment make-up wise was Charlotte Tilbury; I always had the impression I would love her products, but most products that I have tried just don’t perform for me… and the material if the packaging seems so cheap.

But beauty wise, I simply can’t get over how disappointed I’m with Olaplex and Briogeo. 😆

Wednesday Avatar

Alterna Hair Care: Caviar Anti-Aging Replenishing Moisture Conditioner.. phew ?. The namrs of products these days..

Anyhow, great conditioner for me. I have coloured-treated damaged fine tangly straight hair. This easily beats all the Olaplex conditioners and I also use a restructuring serum from the same line because I bleach my hair often (well not now, my roots are pandemically challenged?)

Denise S. Avatar

Charlotte Tilbury’s blue eye shadow quad was a letdown for me. The shadows applied patchy and didn’t last well even with eye shadow primer. I love blue eye shadow but ended up returning this one. I like the other stuff I’ve ordered from CT but that was a bust!

Genevieve Avatar

It’s been awhile since a brand and a specific product disappointed me, thanks to your expert reviews Christine. But I would have to say the Laura Mercier finishing/setting translucent powder did disappoint me. I found it to be expensive ($47 here) and nothing really special when setting my foundation. It was loosely packed in the pan and I went through it very quickly – there didn’t seem to be much product for the price. I have since found Rimmel’s Translucent matte setting powder to be much better and a quarter of the price.
Another product that disappointed me was ABH Brow Whizz – again hideously expensive, a thin pencil like product (I’ve found that I dislike pencil points) that broke easily. Again, nothing really special for my brows. I have since swapped to Makeup Savvy,’s eye brow pencil, a budget line, in soft taupe and am much happier with the result.

brendacr1 Avatar

I see so many people raving about Colorpop so I bought one of their eye palettes I’ve only ever touched it once and went right back to my PMG, where I know my buttery soft colors will burst onto my eyelids and stay there for the day without fading, never to disappoint me.

Missy Avatar

Colourpop Blush Stix. I was curious and bought a couple to try off of Ulta after hearing they were being discontinued. They’re pretty but I needed to reapply 5 times before getting enough color. What a waste of my time. I’m into natural looks so it wasn’t clown-level blush, just a light natural flush. I’m guessing that’s why they’re discontinued….

Helene Avatar

PMG and not for all the FOMO (well that as well 🙂 )
It’s the mattetrance lipsticks that just don’t agree with my lips. I had one from a some time ago that I didn’t like to use, but had forgotten why, so I ordered Elson, such a lovely red. After an hour, maybe less it starts to get so dry it feels as if I have dipped my lips in sand, grainy and very uncomfortable.
Her lipsticks, forget what they are called, the creamy ones are lovely to wear, but I broke the one I have, a clean break and that never happens. It was Major Red, by the way. I also really disliked the mascara.

Gilad Avatar

PMG lipsticks. I can’t speak to their other products, but hoping the small 5-pan palette that’s on it’s way will justify the brand’s hype. Matte and Luxetrance formulas are uniquely great for outlining and holding a shape on my aging lips, and with out migrating into lip lines- hard to find. which is why the colors are so frustrating! (and why I’ve spend far too much $ trying to find ones that work for me.) Officially giving up. Over a few years I’ve gotten 2 mini sets (6) – the more neutral options, and 3 ( various sales) full-size. Off all those exhaustively researched attempts (because I can’t try them in person + price), w/ 9 products I end up with 3 discernable colors. 5 rose-brown-mauvishness (officially different colors), 2 unwearably dark plum-brown (repeat color in sets), and 2 almost indistinguishable mid-tone brights. They’re mostly muddy on my lt warm coloring, despite correct undertone, and having other similar colors from other brands the work on me. No more.

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