Worst of 2014: The 10 Most Disappointing Beauty Products
When I think about “Most Disappointing,” it doesn’t always mean all the Fs, because it can also mean formulas or products that you’ve come to expect A-level quality from that end up C-level (or worse!) quality, which is possibly more disappointing than a product that was never great to begin with. There were also some new formulas that were introduced this year that had little to no ability to be saved!
- MAC Techankohl Liners — the majority of the shades in the new-for-2014 shade extension release were disappointing with poor color payoff and wear
- Stila Body Eyeshadow Palette — beyond disappointing and gets a place as one of the worst palettes I’ve ever dealt with
- Gucci Potent Violet Lip Lacquer — by “intense color,” they must have meant “barely there”
- Tom Ford Ice Queen Eye Quad — difficult to apply, shorter-wearing, subpar color payoff
- bareMinerals Lasting Line Eyeliner Sets — a painfully stiff, dry, and poorly pigmented formula
- Kat Von D Star Studded Eyeshadow Palette — though it didn’t get the lowest score overall, it had some beyond dismal shades, like Gothica, which was like purple sand and introduced me to a texture I had never seen (and hope never to see again)
- Kat Von D Studded Kiss Lipstick — another formula with mostly disappointing shades in what could have been a real winner (still kills me how bad these were/are)
- Urban Decay Shadow Box Palette — a major departure from Urban Decay’s signature formula left me majorly disappointed with this one
- NARS Night Series Eyeliners — so much potential, but lacking in color payoff
- Chanel Sweet Star — there are so many stellar teal eyeliners to choose from, how a brand can charge $29 and put out a poor performing one leaves me utterly confused
Christine, you must’ve got a bad batch of the UD shadow box, I love that palette, mine is soft and buttery, perfect pigmentation. In fact I bought a back up of it. Maybe try another one? Sorry it didnt work for you 🙂
I have two of them, and they’re both terrible, IMO. 🙁
I was disappointed with it, as well. So much so that I returned it!
Good for you!!
Mine is really good, too. Maybe a tad more powdery than past offerings, but still very nice. I’ve been using it quite a bit.
That’s too bad about the Kat Von D palette and lipsticks, I had such high hopes for them. Though I am still enjoying what I can from the palette, no where near as lovely as last years holiday palette.
Last year’s was definitely better!
I rather liked that palette… Sure, Gothika is a bit tricky, but still workable, and the other 23 shades are nice, so I have no regrets. I also have seriously dry eyelids, so a primer and/or base are always a requirement, unless I’m using a cream shadow or foiling loose shadows. I figure primers are available for a reason, and unless a product *still* won’t work, I don’t think a product is “inferior”.
I’m glad you liked it, Amy!
I am loving the uniqueness of the rest of the 23 other shadows as well, just beautiful! This is why I love Kat Von D make up. Just am always wishing/hoping for good grades for all the brands offerings, so it pains me that this had a couple of misses.
Definitely the Studded Kiss lipsticks. I’m so glad I waited for your reviews before I bought any.
I can’t believe they were THAT dry!
Yup. I had lipsticks in the old packaging that worked fine (well one seems to have gone bad on me which is one thing) but I got Poe in the new Studded Kiss packaging and…wow. Just awful. Like dragging sandpaper across my lips.
Happy to return it.
Not the Benefit “They’re Real” liner?
Sorry, I didn’t review that!
Dare I say, please don’t haha. Felt like Benefit gave everyone and their dog a PR sample and the over saturation has actually put me OFF the entire brand.
That’s part of why I didn’t review it (I understand why brands do it, and sometimes I’d be shooting myself in the foot by simply not reviewing, e.g. Urban Decay Vice3, but it also makes me feel like part of a marketing plan – often why I prefer to buy products!), while the other is just that I can’t wear eyeliner on my upper lash line without irritation, so it’s a harder product for me to review (since it’s largely focused on winged eyeliner and whatnot) as I can’t give insight into the primary purpose! (Same reason I don’t review a lot of liquid eyeliners.)
Nice integrity! Thank you for your honest reviews.
I agree that the “They’re Real” liner by Benefit was one of the biggest disappointments for me this year.
That liner was the worst of the year. Such a horrible applicator and formula. Just awful on all levels
I thought it was waaaay overhyped. It worked ok, but the applicator wasn’t all that.
Kat von D Star Studded Eyeshadow Palette gets my vote for worst eye palette in the history of the universe. So much fallout. I was lucky that I got some of the good Kat von D Studded Lipstick shades, but I’ve seen such bad swatches on so many of the colors, I passed on buying any more. 🙁
I really like my Stila Body palette and UD Shadow Box (a bit more powdery than usually, but mine is still pretty good).
It was really a bad year for some of higher end eyeliners, wasn’t it?
There are a handful of nice shades in the KVD lipstick range, but most of them were disappointing for sure 🙁
Christine – Say it ain’t so! The Stila Eyes Are the Window – Body – palette is one of my favs. I reviewed it on 9/25. Every time I wear these shadows, I get compliments; especially the Rose Quartz, Aquamarine, and Emerald. I really have to disagree with your call on this one. Completely agree with your other calls though.
Glad you liked yours!
Thanks! Off topic (sorry) but I LOVE the shadow/liner you have on in your pic – what are they, please? (The pink remind me of the Shupette palette…)
here you go! http://www.temptalia.com/mac-electric-cool-eyeshadow-review-photos-tests
DIPBROW!!!! I had the highest hopes for it because I’ve adored Anastasia’s other brow products and it was a total dud for me. Fussy to apply because it’s so easy to overdo, and no matter what I did I couldn’t make it last through the work day. I tried keeping my eyebrow area unmoisturized, I tried UDPP, I tried setting spray. It stayed great on my eyebrow hairs like a tinted gel, but it WOULD NOT STICK on my skin. I’m still sad about it because it wears like a tattoo on most people and can look so beautiful and natural when applied well.
Oh no! That sucks, Nikki 🙁
YES!
Who are the people who love Dipbrow?
I was so excited to try that item and got it almost immediately when it came out only to return it a week later. Fussy product. Too smooth with not enough coverage. Glad its worked out for other people, though.
I would’ve included some of the Dior eyeshadow palettes. So dry and hard to get pigment out of them… So sad.
Which were your big misses this year, Whitney?
Whitney – Oh, yes, I have to agree with you. I dropped the $60 for the Jardin palette hoping to have some flexibility with it since the colors looked gorgeous. For me, I found the best I can get from it is a stained-glass effect – which doesn’t last very long. I think it would be ok for over the Summer, but still disappointing. Which one(s) did you buy?
The Trafalgar. The middle shade is soooo pretty and great, but I couldn’t justify it because I’d just get disappointed when I used the lighter shades around it.
Two of Kat Von D line of products on this list? So sad I always root for her and have been pleased with the stuff I have bought from the line. Amazing pigmentation. But as for those Stila palettes, I will agree. Expensive and the shadows don’t live up to the prize at all!
Sadly, KVD was really disappointing this year — I almost put her eyeliners on this list, too, lol!
I’d like to add Charlotte Tilbury Airbrushed Finish powder. Super super oxidising, and I was so excited when I got it. Really disappointing:(
That sucks, Helen!
Wow, I originally missed the review on the Stila Body palette but I’m glad I held out and saw it now, that pigmentation is so terrible – especially on the more unique colours. That’s a shame 🙁
I’ve only had one product that I’ve regretted this year and it was the Benefit They’re Real liner, I gave it so many goes but it just kept clumping up, drawing terribly uncrisp lines and transferring to the rest of my eyelid like crazy, would *not* recommend!
It was painfully horrible – they increased prices and total fail!
I agree. There was so much hype on the liner, but it really performed horribly. The clumps were the worst.
Eeep! I saw the title of this post, and I laready knew a few of the things that would be on it, LOL! Actually it’s probably more of a cringe/LOL, really.
From a personal perspective, I’ve been fairly lucky – nothing worse than a couple of colours that just didn’t really suit me. I do get quite a visceral response from seing some of the disasters you have to deal with though, like that Gothicka shadow and that pale Studded Kiss lipstick that looked (and probably felt) like you’d been attacked by dried toothpaste… the only other thing is the repeated failing of brands to do blue eyeshadow weli (even if the rest of the palette was OK… *twitch*
Happy to hear you’ve lucked out! 🙂 Thankfully, there are plenty of good products to help me forget the bad ones. The ratio of As/Bs to Fs really shows that beauty products, on the whole, aren’t terrible, lol!
I was eyeing that Tom Ford palette – good thing I saw your review first!
I’m not a huge fan of TF’s regular eyeshadow formula, but that one was just terrible.
I know that Kat von D’s Studded Kiss lipsticks got horrible reviews overall, and yet my all-time favorite lipstick is from that line. Lolita is such a wonderful shade, I have bought two of them in the last 6 weeks or so, and will no doubt buy more when these are done. It is the perfect match of matte without being draggy and horribly drying, and it lasts for ages. I wish the rest of the line were as great as I find this shade, because I hate to hear how disappointed people are with this line.
Happy Lolita is working well for you, though 🙂
totally agree with the Stila Body Palette! i was soo crushed as the colors looked soooo good in the pan!
Me too! 🙁
I was also disappointed with how sheer that Gucci gloss turned out to be. I wanted it so bad when I first saw the promo pics. No idea why they would make it so sheer. Such a waste
They put out so many shades/formulas, they might as well have put out a sheer gloss formula and include it there, rather than tout it as pigmented!
I was very disappointed by the Nars Narsissist eyeshadow palette. I have all of the shades as either duos or singles and was hoping to consolidate them into one mindblowingly gorgeous palette. However, the colour payoff and formula is so bad I hardly use the thing. I took it away on holiday once and ended up wishing I’d brought some more shadows. Big downer for me!!
That was a poor palette for sure!
I love NARS shadow (duos) so much and was so excited for that palette, it broke my heart returning it but the shadows were just so terrible.
For me it was the MAC yellow cc cream thingy. It sat in my pores and disappeared elsewhere, so I was kind of polka dotted in yellow!
Awww!
I agree about the Kat Von D lippies! I was so disappointed with those. I must’ve missed your review because I would’ve skipped them.
They had so much potential – interesting packaging, good price point, huge shade range, but nope, nope, nope.
Oh, that Gucci lip gloss.
Of all shades to sheer out on, too!
I have the Sourpuss Technakohl liner and while I agree that the quality isn’t as it should be, I do love the color.
The color is cool for sure!
Sourpuss is on my little ol’ wishlist!
In an attempt to try some budget-friendly products, one of the items I bought was the Pixi Ultimate Beauty Kit 2nd Edition. It’s only $34 for 40 eye shades and 12 cheek shades but it was $34 that could have been spent better elsewhere. The eyeshadows have mega fallout and no staying powder, and the blushes and highlighters are like children’s makeup — even with a very light hand they come up clown-like andare hard to blend. I guess that’s one positive — those suckers didn’t fade the whole day.
Oh, that is too bad, Jilly! I haven’t tried much by Pixi. I think I have heard their eyeliners are good, though.
I love reading the worst product reviews. I just sit there giggling and happy I didn’t buy any of them!!
Thank goodness 🙂 Did you manage to avoid all disappointments this year or did you have any of your own?
I was disappointed in the Hourglass Mechanical Gel Eye Liner. I liked the actual product but the pencil would break easily and this kept it from lasting very long. But – once applied, I thought the product was good.
That was bad, too!
The MAC and the KVD were actually surprising because I thought those were things the brand did well so I was extra disappointed.
Me too!
I agree with all the above as I read your original reviews. There was a lot of rubbish put out last year – especially some of the holiday palettes. It’s great that you are able to honestly and systematically review the various beauty products so that unwary consumers like me (us!) do not end up with a substandard product. Keep up the good work Christine.
Thank you, Genevieve! This year felt like palette overload with most just being so-so.
Hear, hear! I’m new to the blog but already an addict. (Complements my makeup addiction well.) You have already influenced my spending so much! Mostly to spend more ;p, but I find myself waiting to push that “buy” button until I’ve read your reviews. Thank you, Christine!
I completely disagree with the Kat Von D Studded Lipsticks – some of the best lipsticks I have ever used! I love them so much!
I wish I had that experience! Some of them caused my lips to crack/bleed 🙁
The MAC Techankohl Liners are the worst! I was so disappointed. There was virtually no color payoff at all. I could get better color from a 99 cent Wet n Wild pencil from Walgreens.
I was so surprised 🙁
I actually love the Kat Von D lipsticks. Yes, they are dry but that’s a matte lipstick for you. The colours I got were gorgeous and pigmented, they last a long time and I always get tons of compliments on them. I’ve recommended them to friends and they ended up loving them too. I plan to pick up a few more.
I think you can get matte lipstick that isn’t painful or cause lips to bleed, so for me, they were a big miss, even if they lasted a long time 🙁 Several of them physically tore my lips up! If they were stiff but at least wore long and didn’t hurt, it wouldn’t be quite as bad for sure! Glad they’re working well for you!
MAC technaKohls have been highly disappointing.. wasn’t expecting such quality from MAC!
and those Studded lipsticks with super drying texture.. arrggghh@!!
Me neither!
I have noticed so many formerly great independent stand-alone brands change (formulas, quality) once they are bought out by a parent company. So frustrating! I’ve watched it happen to Bobbi Brown (Lauder), MAC (Lauder), and even UD in some instances now that they’ve been bought – things are still in transition there. I can’t speak for KVD as that is different altogether. Once brands become “Lauderized”, they start to lack richness in formula and performance. Happens every time.
I’ve honestly never tried Bobbi Brown or MAC pre-Estee Lauder!
Interesting point!
Hello Christine 🙂
Happy New Year to you 🙂
Regarding the Worst Products of 2015, I have the Kat von D Mini-Lipstick Set that was available before Christmas, and even though I have not tried all colours yet, those that I did try, they were fine.
Yes, they are dry, but I can work with them and they are not as dry as some older MAC mattes, for example. Also for me the colour does not turn extra dry, like it sometimes happens with some lipsticks which you wear all day long. I kind of apply these lipsticks by patting them on and they truly last all day.
Plus, I found a great colour, Lovecraft, it suits me so well that I ordered a fullsize. (Have heard of the story that possibly the full sizes have a different quality than the smaller lipsticks but it did not deter me). For once in my life a “nude” colour does not turn orangey or too brown, as has happened to me with most MAC neutral colours that I tried (luckily many of them from The Body Needs, as samples, so not all fullsize).
Before ordering, I saw your reviews but I was too curious about the KvD-brand and I liked the colour selection.
Next time, I will try the liquid lipsticks 🙂
I’m really glad that you’re enjoying them, Lilac! 🙂
This is so accurate yet I would input the mac studio eyeshadow and liner trios, whatever they were officially called by, round containers, two eyeshadow on each side and a strip of wet shadow liner between them? That was a major fail! The above showcase some I also had high hopes for and was not pleased. Amusingly so, I had to laugh at the BM liners, worst liner fail, that review was helpful 😀 and then of course the highly anticipated MAC ones. 😛 Otherwise, a repetion of Laguna bronzer was a miss unless you really love it! 😉
Were those this year? I can’t remember, but those weren’t good either. Plenty of “worst of” to go around!
I really was sad about the NARS liners. The others, especially the KVD left me kind of stunned too, It’s like who thought this was ok to release?
There were so many disappointing beauty products released last year. I pretty much stuck to brand staples. I did purchase the Benefit’s They’re Real eyeliner and it is abosultely horrible, so bad that I refuse to buy any products from that brand. First off, you twist it to bring up eyeliner and nothing happens, I don’t have all freakin’ day to apply eyeliner, when I open the darn thing later on, there’s a huge amount of liner on the tip which breaks off as soon as you try to apply it. I will stick to my Clinique and MAC gel eyeliner in the future. This was a huge and expensive failure.
Your review sounds like what the Kat Von D liquid liners were for me.
I like the idea of them trying new innovative ways of me using an item but that whole twist up thing? Twist…and wait. Twist…and wait. Twist…and now I have too much, great. I needed a brush to help smooth it out and fix any mistakes which defeats of a liquid liner pen.
There is some sort of weird satisfaction knowing I did not purchase any of these products! Ha!
11. Hello Kitty Palette Holiday 2014. Nuff said.
lol!
I love the kat Von d lipsticks!! The shades are the best, I hate birung unoriginal shades. They have gorgeous colors! I understand hating the formula but the colors? No way.
Cathedral is the best nude ever! I get compliments everywhere. Love craft leeps getting sold out. Got boka looks amazing. Who would think of fine shimmery glitter with bronze lipstick?
These lipsticks are the best and I keep reaching for them.
They were disappointing because of the formula – I don’t care if a color looks good on me or not, that is never a factor in the rating for it.
Oh Christine… You made me LMAO with your comments. Priceless!
I remember trying the Studded lipsticks and reviewing a few at the Sephora website shortly after the release. I hated them. Painfully drying. I got showered with thumbs down. I guess all the die hard KVD fans couldn’t fathom that these really sucked, so started telling me that I had no idea how to wear a matte lipstick and all that. Shortly after I felt less weird finding that you didn’t like them either.
There are some colors in the Studded Kiss line that might be worth the effort, but the formula itself is a total let-down. It’s cool if you want to put in the work/make it work, but I had SUCH a drying experience with it that it’s so hard for me to fathom it being comfortable/hydrating/nice to wear, lol!
This came up and I thought I’d take a gander again.. I laughed too! Christine… Your comment about a real liner… Priceless! I felt that one and laughed hard! I still am, actually! It’s so true though, but your disgust in the fact was so blatantly opaque for you that I’ll not forget that one! Lol! :*