Don't Believe The Hype! Overrated Products

Hello apples and pears,

So I've been inspired by xxAliCosmeticsxx video on Youtube which is about products that are hyped up by beauty gurus and on youtube - so we've got so excited and gone out and bought them, but then been disappointed with the results. Here's the video;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YQP8grRgW0&feature=fvw

Now I'm a definite sucker for things others 'in power' recommend - if a makeup artist says get it, I feel like I need to get it. However, this is my downfall! I've ended up with products that I really don't understand why I bought them, and will probably never use again.

This is a risk we all have to take though, if we want for example some expensive lipstick or eyeshadow, we have to rely on the brands name and reputation and word of mouth that the product is actually worth the money, and is going to be amazing. Since the birth of the internet, especially makeup blogs and videos, makeup companies advertising has got a whole bunch easier, as now all they need is one person to recommend it, and the word spreads like wildfire through the online makeup community!

However, for us consumers out there - this means as we lap up everything anyone recommends, we may be loosing out on our pennies to products that just aren't as good as we expected!

So, here's my list of stuff that I've been over the moon to buy, but have been very under the moon with the quality of the product in the end!

First, my biggest beauty sadness and monetary loss is Shu Uemura Skin Purifier Cleansing Oil - I spent £27 on the smaller sized bottle (the larger one is £55! :o ) and my goodness, do I regret it. It does what it says on the tin, cleanses the skin and removes makeup. Now for this job I agree it does it well, but you need a lot of squirts of the stuff and a LOT of water to get the oil off again. The scent is nice too. But in the packaging, comes instructions on how to properly cleanse your face - your rub a few squirts of this onto your face with your hands, then use as many as 30 face rinses with cool water with your hands - yes 30! Now I was like that doesn't sound too bad, but rinsing your face 30 times gets very boring, you get very wet and your clothes do, and you can still feel traces of the product on your face. Now as the cleanser is oil based, leaving extra oil on your face only leads in one direction - and that's to oily skin, which is not what I bargained for when trying to cleanse my face. For the money I feel the Skin Purifier should purify my skin, it should remove makeup quickly and efficiently, it should help reduce redness and calm any skin imperfections (as it says on the package it does), but actually it doesn't do any of these things, and if it does, it only does them to a small extent. I'm really gutted it doesn't work, as the sales lady got me so excited to use it - but 2 months later and I still really dislike it. I would recommend a million times more simple old Ponds Cold Cream Cleanser - it's cheap and I believe is the best cleanser on the market. Don't waste your money!

Another product on my overrated products list are MAC Beauty Powders. I don't think MAC sell these constantly, they're just limited edition, and to be honest I feel it's MACs way of getting great packaging out there and bulking up their collections. The beauty powders are the most unbelievably unpigmented powders I've ever seen, and as well as being unpigmented, it's like the powder has been bound together with superglue! It's so difficult to actually get the product from the compact (this sounds ridiculous - but a normal couple of swipes of a brush or sponge will get absolutely 0 product for you). I just cannot explain to you how bad I find these products. I do think the reason they sell them in their limited edition lines is because they are larger bulkier products offering a high price tag that something smaller like an eyeshadow can't command - so therefore they get to showcase the limited edition theme brilliantly with great packaging and often the theme being somehow engraved or embossed onto the powder itself. So, all in all, if you want something incredibly beautiful to look at, get the beauty powders, but do not rely on them for anything else!

Whilst I'm on the subject of MAC, I have a couple more things that I don't like at all from them. It breaks my heart to pull MAC apart, as I love it SO much, but there are some things from them I've had to step back and think, you might be MAC, but you ain't that good!

First are their lip conditioners. I have the Lip Conditioner Stick and I absolutely love it to bits, I use it at least twice a day - but the problem I have with MAC Lip Conditioners is not with the sticks, but with the tinted lip conditioners that come in tub shapes. I have one of these in shade Petting Pink, and it cost me £10.50. Now, for the job it is trying to do (nourish lips) it does brilliantly - but there are severe problems with it. The packaging looks nice, but its so unsanitary to dip your fingers in the balm, swipe them on your lips, then dip again, it's just gross! The balm is full of vitamins and goodness just waiting for bacteria to grow on it! Eww! That's mainly why I much prefer the stick. Next is the colour, the pigment that it appears to have in the tub is not the colour it appears on your lips - it just goes a gross sheer colour that noone would want! However, the main problem I have with the tinted lip conditioners is the price. At £10.50, they are priced so sky high its actually quite shocking. It does exactly (and I mean exactly) the same job as Vaseline or Carmex or any other lip balm does - but for 10 times the price! Do not be drawn into buying them! If you really want soft lips with a slight colour, why not pop on vaseline or lip balm and then pink lip gloss or stick? You'll get exactly the same effect without the ridiculous price tag.

Another on my MAC unhitlist is an eyeshadow I've been wanting for a long time, and finally got it recently - it's in shade 'Wedge'. Now I absolutely love everything about MAC eyeshadows, but this one is probably one of the worse eyeshadows I've ever used! It's like putting the most unpigmented eyeshadow on in the world ever, and no matter how much you put on, what primer you use, anything, it just will not build up colour! I'm actually really sad that I dislike it so much as I've been so excited to try it out, and it's such a disappointment.

Another thing that I haven't actually bought or even disliked is MACs cream colour base in 'Shell'. Kandee Johnson uses this as a highlighter in so many of her videos, as do other youtube gurus I've seen, so it was something firmly on my 'want' list. However, I'm so glad I didn't invest, as I went into a MAC store and was actually shocked at the colour of it! It's like mucky pink beige with tones of white and silver in - you would look revolting with that on your cheekbones! Just swatching it on my hand made them look so mucky and just not pleasant! Instead, I went for the cream colour base in 'Pearl' and I'm so glad I did - the colour is an extremely pale gold and perfect for the tops of cheekbones and brow bone! Just steer clear of Shell! :)

Finally on my MAC rant is the swatches on their website. Some of the colours on there are pretty far out compared to what colour the actual makeup is. Now I know there's problems with stuff like screen brightness and colour contrast varying between computers - but sites such as love-makeup and gurumakeupemporium and dauphines always seem to swatch the same colours that are sold. I hope MAC can somehow sort this problem as I've ordered a lot of stuff online without seeing the product in a shop first (my local shop is 2 hours away), and it's led to me getting the most ridiculous shades! So just watch for that when ordering online :)

Next, a product everyone in the world seems to rant and rave about is YSL's Touche Eclat. Well I will let you into a secret, please don't gasp haha, I HATE IT! Aaah that feels better :) It is so unpigmented, so sheer and just so plain wrong! It doesn't conceal stuff - it goes on either too shiny or to cakey and dry, and is just so bad! The mix is too sheer and ends up bringing the eye to the place you've tried to conceal and look better - so everyone notices the bad stuff more! Plus one thing a find pretty revolting about Touche Eclat is that its constantly dispensed via a brush that's permanently attached to the product. This means that everytime new product comes through, it immediately mixes with the stuff you've previously used and left over, and mixes with the bacteria and grossness that the brush has taken from before when being swiped on your skin. That's just plain gross.

The final thing on my hitlist are elf eye liners. First off, their Brightening Eye Liner. Now for a start the name is just ridiculous, if you're buying a black eye liner - it's not going to brighten your eyes! Now for the actual product - it is so unpigmented that I was actually shocked they even sold it, it stays on the water line for all of two seconds, and stays on the upper lid for about a minute before it starts creasing, melting, and moving around your eyelid - not what you want your eye liner to do. Another eye liner product from elf I really dislike is their Waterproof Eyeliner Pen. Now I should probably get them done for fraudulent advertising - because it is not waterproof, it does not line eyes, and it is the most ridiculously unrefined pen fibre tip I've ever seen. It is so difficult to use as the tip is bushy, scratchy on the eye and is never fully saturated with the product, the product that does come out is very unpigmented and like a very watered down black, and it lasts about ten minutes! Looks like elf had a bit of a disaster making their eyeliners!

So that's my list of overrated products, or products I quite simply HATE haha please don't take offence if you love the products I've mentioned - it's just my opinion after all.

What are your worst beauty products?

Emily xoxo