Beauty products we regret..

[YouNoNothinJS1]

Anything you have found a waste of money and wish you didn’t purchase, I’ll start Kevin A contour pallet! Looks grey on my face

Pixi Glow Tonic - it didn't do anything wrong, it just did nothing

The Ordinary Hylauronic Acid - I was told this would become a holy grail and I'm still persisting with it just to use it up, but again I don't think it actually does anything

Love this thread.

Made a number of expensive mistakes, most recently Olaplex, way too heavy for my fine hair. Hourglass Ambient did nothing for me as did the Chanel bronzing base. Bought a Dyson hairdryer and expected much better results for the price. Been seriously tempted by Charlotte Tilbury but after reading the reviews don't think I'm going to bother.

Deliberated for months over buying Egyptian Magic Cream and pleased to say I actually like it - bit like 8 hour but not as thick or perfumed.

Going back a long, loooooong time here, but I'm convinced that all my skin woes can be traced back to using the bottled napalm that was Ten O Six. I swear it made my skin drier than the desert yet simultaneously greasy and spotty.

Ha ha. Love your description. I mentally decided that as I had an occasional spot (hormonal) when I was younger, that I must have rampant acne. I loved ten O Six and also something even stronger - Come forward Innoxa Solution 41! At the time I thought it was great but obvs not!!!

ten-o-six - yes, it probably was a bit harsh but boy, it got the dirt out of your skin! I remember using it too when I was in my early teens. That was one of my first skincare purchases IIRC, Outdoor Girl cleanser and 10-0-6 toner. Happy days!

Ten o six was like painstripper cleansed right down to the bone

@TheLadyAnneNeville

Your post was about Sali Hughes' physical appearance. You ended it with a smiley face.

It was unnecessarily unkind, particularly as over recent months she has been trolled relentlessly in all aspects of her life.

In the same post you also posted your derogatory opinion on her skin colour. This is not acceptable, regardless of skin colour, even if you are of the same race or have the same skin colour.

"freezing my nuts iff" (without the typo, this would be a saying). I'm more likely to say "freezing my arse/tits off" because I don't have any nuts, but hey, you do you!

Style and Beauty has, until recently, been a empowering place of knowledge and information where (mostly) women try to help each other make the most of themselves and share interests. Mean-spirited comments are not expected and constructive criticism is delivered gently. For that reason, people post photos of themselves, safe in the knowledge that they won't be torn to shreds. You posted your photo on here too, asking for advice, no-one made unkind remarks about you.

I'll end with a saying for you, knowing how much you like them
If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all

Thanks everyone, this thread is really helpful for knowing what to avoid!

Benefits eyeshadows. £££ and dry out, flake and won't apply smoothly after just a few weeks. Much prefer powder palettes from Rimmel or Bourgeois that cost a fraction of the price and stay good for months.

Yes, Benefit cream eyeshadows are a crock.

Charlotte Tilbury makeover. Looked like a ghost/the joker at the end! Before I could wipe the foundation of it had already gone patchy.

If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all

Oh no! I have just breached your guidelines by ‘relentlessly trolling’ Benefit eyeshadow, Perricone cold plasma, L’Oreal mirror shine shampoo and all the other beauty products I have slagged off!

All Ordinary products, bar the rosehip oil. Rest have done nothing discernable.

There's only 2 ingredients different between Nivea soft and Creme de la Mer. And about £140 🤣

Chanel nail varnishes are shit.

Benefit mascaras all clump and flake for me 🤷‍♀️

Charlotte Tilbury really makes me laugh. Her conflicting messages are as follows:

• It is a tragedy that so few women engage with make up because they lack confidence (I agree with this actually, but read on!)

• my husband has never seen me without make up (!! whence the confidence?)

• when I go to bed, I apply tinted moisturiser, blusher, mascara and eyeliner.

• I grew up on Ibiza and got my start in the make up artist biz by getting my mum to phone her dear friend Mary Greenwell to ask whether I could be her apprentice.

• I am the only make up artist that my dear friend Kate Moss can tolerate. One day a BBC make up artist dared to put eyeshadow on her and she complained because she wanted Charlotte Tilbury eyes!

• I am here for REAL WOMEN!

(All of this is culled from an ‘in the bathroom’ YouTube video with Sali Hughes, whose pallor I dare not refer to for fear of repercussions)

Revitalash.

£40 and it didn't work.

I use up shampoo-that-turned-to-be-awful for washing hairbrushes.

Bit worried that the Philip Kingsley absolute splurge I made doesn’t look to be working out, though.

A lot of these comments just go to show that people still don’t realise the bullshit they are being fed by shill-bots infiltrating every corner of the internet. So many people have said on this thread that CT is a pile of (literal) shiny shite, yet were somehow persuaded to spend £££s on it.

An innocuous thread will be started on here asking for a lipstick recommendation, and it’s like a klaxon call goes out to all the CT-bots. Twenty “pillow talk will change your life”s later and you’ve dropped £25 for a lipstick that you could’ve paid £1.25 for in Primark. How are otherwise perfectly sensible women being persuaded to part with £75 (!!!) of their hard earned cash for a pot of “magic cream” which is chemically identical to Astral?

In this day and age, do people still not realise that beauty editors, reviewers, YouTubers, bloggers and “influencers” are being PAID to hype up these products and countless others like them?

So much money wasted on expensive foundations that look terrible! Also a Nars spf 50 primer that makes my skin really greasy.

@Iamthewombat...

All of this is culled from an ‘in the bathroom’ YouTube video with Sali Hughes, whose pallor I dare not refer to for fear of repercussions It’s absurd that we can’t express ourselves. Especially when you consider the stuff some of these “experts” come out with. We’re talking makeup. Slap. Cosmetics. Greasepaint. And this thread confirms to me that many of these gurus with makeup brands to flog and those who’re given freebies to test and promote, are laughing all the way to the bank.

Ahh, @gingersausage... kind of a cross post, there!

@Destinesia, I remember seeing or reading something with Sali Hughes in which included Ms Caroline Hirons (apologies if I’ve spelt that wrong) which I found quite offensive. I’ll see if I can root it out for you. Sadly, we are not all perfect.

Anything bumble and bumble. Most things recommended by SH. Prefer India knights

@Iamthewombat there I was thinking Kate Moss only wore Rimmel makeup 🤣

I wanted a sulphate free shampoo and conditioner for my coloured and dry-isn hair so I bought Sukin. It didn't lather at all and turned my hair into a matted mess. Definitely one to avoid, it's not cheap either. Now I use Pureology which is more ££ but use so little each time and it's lovely. I also didn't like the Charlotte Tilbury eye shadow stick, it doesn't blend well and I can't work out how to sharpen it. What a waste of money!

There are some threads you read on Mumsnet that give you great comfort. Whilst I'm really sorry if people have wasted money on beauty products and makeup, at least this thread reassures me that with my lifelong Nivea/Boots/Maybelline/No 7 etc habits I haven't been missing out!

I tend to get into trouble mostly when brands discontinue lines that work for me and I’ve used for years. Why do they do that? Why?!
Well, I know why, it’s to get me to start the interminable, exhausting and expensive cycle of buying, trying and ultimately discarding half-used a gazillion other products in an effort to find a worthy substitute.
My biggest regrets are the perfumes Ive tried when they’ve discontinued or changed the formulation of one I’ve loved. They sit gathering dust on my dresser and occasionally I’ll try them thinking they can’t be that bad on me - they usually are. Oh well.

ChicChic I think you're right, it's often better to stick with products you know you like instead of trying new things which can turn out to be expensive mistakes. Until they're discontinued of course as Quantum says - very annoying!