Popular make up and skincare things that don't work for you

[Lottapianos]

We've all seen products recommended by others that just didn't live up to the hype for you. Here's some of mine:

Trilogy Rosehip Oil - I love other facial oils, but this left my skin feeling tight

MAC lipsticks - the colour range is amazing, but I find them all so drying, even the non-matte formulas. I have about 6 and there's not one I would repurchase

Clarins Hand Cream - less moisturising than the Vaseline Intensive Care I'm currently using

Oh yes. Bio-oil. What's that all about??

Another 8 hour cream- nasty smell

Great lash mascara- when it first arrived in the uk I was excited but found it underwhelming

Hyluronic acid products: I get spots with it. I have tried loads. I always get spots and bumps. I am still trying (?!).
I do also wonder that if an ingredient can hold 1000x it's weight in water then wouldn't it just draw water out of your skin?

Interesting to see so many products I love listed - which I guess is the point!

I loved Redken all soft so tried their curly hair one and bought huge bottles. Hideous to use, horrible texture and my hair never felt clean. Looked lovely for about 3 hours then turned into a greasy mop. Yuck!
I'd like to add to the hate for touche eclat too, though I used it as a teenager so may not have been doing it right.

I love clarins hand cream, liz Earle cleanser and 8hr cream (though I only use it as lip balm, for v dry skin around my nails and on sunburn...)

Clarins beauty flash balm and super restorative remodelling serum ( luckily only have trial size of the latter) both gave me spots which I usually rarely have. Odd because I have quite dry skin.

I remember a Clinique employee telling me that years back Clinique was formulated for, and marketed toeards very problematic (acne basically) prone skin. In amongst the Clarins (plant doodahs) Lancomes (will make you look 18 again) selling points, the white coat zit zappery approach wasn't considered 'sexy' enough so they effectively stopped telling people their products were phenomenally harsh (that yellow soap stuff and the astringent paintstripping toner etc) I do like their laser repair foundation though.

Creme de la Mer is reputed to be identical to Atrixo handcream apart from the one ingredient that makes it £300 a (nasty cheap looking ) tub!

It seems to me that a lot of the products here that have caused reactions have been used by people with very sensitive skins anyway so it isn't necessarily a good guide. We are all different and what suits one may not suit another.

The only product I have ever reacted to was a body lotion that slowed down hair regrowth after shaving legs. The reaction really frightened me and I had to neck several piriton to deal with it.

I haven't had a reaction to any facial product, but obviously some suit my skin better than others. I don't get on with Nivea for instance as it is too greasy for my skin and just sits on top of it. I love No 7 Protect and Perfect. It suits my skin and has a lovely smell.

Creme de la Mer is reputed to be identical to Atrixo handcream apart from the one ingredient that makes it £300 a (nasty cheap looking ) tub!

I think it's Nivea

dailym.ai/14MquVN

Creme de La Mer is a mineral oil based moisturiser (like Nivea and many, many others) with a bit of added kelp extract, which while nice and beneficial to skin isn't worth the de La Mer price tag even if there's classical music involved. Neither are the rest of the potentially irritating plant extracts and oils that fill out the rest of the ingredient list.

I've reacted badly to Pixi glow tonic, the FAB radiance pads, Emma Hardie Cleansing balm but I put that down to my rather sensitive/reactive skin.

Is there anyone who tried the Clinique 3 step system and actually liked it? Genuine question... The toner went out on day 3, the soap bar soon followed and I don't think I ever finished that yellow snot passing for moisturiser either. I still don't get on well with most Clinique products samples only thankfully. I've tried in more recent history the Custom Repair Serum that broke me out terribly, however I was fine with the eye serum of the same line .

I find all clinique stiff too harsh and the make up too orange.

Never bothered with their makeup, looked at the airbrush concealer once and deemed it ridiculously overpriced for the amount and that was comparing it to other dep. store brands. I was, however, quite surprised to learn recently that their average customer is in their forties as I associate it with my teens and the horrible 3 step program.

I also dislike their counter staff's forced sales tactics so I'm probably better for it that I don't get on with their products.

Botemp- my friend can "only" use Clinique she says, as everything else brings her out in boils. She does have very bad acne still, in her 40s, so I'm guessing the harshness deals with the oil production.

Another I'd add as, not horrible, but certainly not worth any of the hype is anything calling itself Vitamin E and lobbing a price tag. Wheatgerm. Cheap as chips. Get a ginormous bottle from Naissance on Amazon. Might not be pink and smelling delightful, but it's the same stuff. (I don't mind the £4 I splash on Superdrug hot cloth but the rest of the Vit E range is very nasty and perfumed and full of other shite)

Tubing mascara. Last time I looked it all came in some sort of fecking tube. Is that like pan-frying and oven-baking then? As opposed to? Do I just pay an extra tenner to add an adjective or what?

Yes, I once sent a snotty email to John Lewis after their Clinique rep was a complete bitch to my elderly (but always having spent a fortune) on make up and skincare mum. I swore then never to touch anything of theirs again and hoped the saleswoman came out in suppurating boils overnight. She didn't want to sell, she actively thought that an almost 70 year old asking about a new foundation was beneath her orange-powdery-cakey face.

I've always found Clinique stuff good. I like Clarins

I know what you mean about the concealer wands, they don't seem to blend in.

I also liked the Glamglow mask but it made my skin a bit sore

8 hour cream - just really £££ Vaseline surely? Awful stuff
Liz Earle - started to make my face sore
Boots protect and perfect - brought me out in spots
Clarins - awful! The smell is vile
Clinique - as boots p&p - spots!
I now use a lush cleanser and face mask, Nivea toner and moisturisers and serum by Estée Lauder
Interestingly, k can't use Estée Lauder gave creams - they really dry my skin out

Mineral make up here too. I looked...dusty, with pot hole pores. Not a good look.

Oh, and best find recently for me has been korres cc cream
Fabulous

Tubing mascara has nothing do with the fact that it comes in a tube but that it forms like a shrink wrap tube around the individual eyelashes as opposed to just coating them. It's a different type of chemical formula that's a godsend to those of us with panda eyes.

I've heard the 'only Clinique' arguments before and while I get that when you suffer with your skin it's much preferred not to mess around with it, these are usually the type of people who are best seen to by a derm and medication.

Agree on vit E, anything Vitamin is a premium these days. Nothing particularly expensive about them.

Almost 20 years on I revert to Clinique when my skin flares up. I prefer Lancôme but there's something comforting about the 3 step toner from Clinique!

The 3 step toner is pretty much pure alcohol, of course that will kill all the bacteria perpetuating the flare up and anything else on your face...

clarins double serum, sit city 😢 and expensive with it, love their hand cream and quench mask but the serum was awful!

Philosophy face cream - hope in a jar. I was so excited about receiving it as a gift but my face was red and blotchy after using it.

Tubing mascara is godly. I can finally wear mascara without looking like ChiChi by lunch time.
8 Hour Cream though. Vaseline with a bit of eucalyptus oil in it.

how did I not know that about tubing mascara! I just thought it was another Emperor's New Clothes gimmicky name. I'm going to have to try the bugger now, aren't I?