Hello to all of my beautiful nerds and welcome back from traveling the vast nerd universe! I am back with much of a serious topic.

Brands Losing Touch With Reality!

Disclaimer: This post is a response to a video and my opinions on what was said. Please respect my thoughts and opinions, thank you!

Yes, another somewhat of a cosmetic controversy where I am seeing it myself. This morning I saw Hot Mess Mama MD talking about how beauty brands have been losing touch with reality in releasing with so much. I agree since I have been a makeup user since 2008 and seen so many brands releasing a lot of products almost every week or month and sometimes they can be either inconsistent in formula due to the demand of pushing them out or even keeping up with other brands. The main example that Hot Mess had used in her video was Anastasia Beverly Hills where they have released their pallet with Jackie Eina in August and then a week or two later Norlina, Anastasia’s daughter, made a video about the Norlina Pro Collection and the first one released after that. I have seen a few reviews and felt like they released one item and jumped to the next even with reviews people have done when they received the pallet as PR. Last month, they did release Norlina Pro 2 and 3 on the same day and now giving pictures of the Carly Bible pallet! Jeez Anastasia pull the brakes! You’re not a factory, let us breathe!

I know, I bet you’re wondering where you can take a breather after all that. Never! The beauty community is over saturated with releases and it’s hard to keep up. I admit I’m getting overwhelmed with the new stuff coming out, heck with Christmas items already out there it it’s not giving a chance for a breath of fresh air. Norlina did mention that the reason why she has been releasing items back to back is due to the demand by retailers and how they are saying the customers want new items. Not really! I think we need a break in between. I remembered when I first got into makeup I was able to get new items once to twice a month and even watch reviews before I buy on my dad’s next paycheck. I am admitting that I used to have my dad buy my makeup and not getting into too much detail either, I was just the daddy’s girl. Anyways, I felt like even drugstore brands weren’t pumping out so much as much Colour Pop has been lately. So in other words a lot of brands are losing touch and losing it bad.

One thing I have noticed is that with the pumping out product the formula suffers a lot as in the formula is not as pigmented as it used to be. One good example is now Makeup Revolution. I love this brand since they were known as the brand that dupe big pallets and I admit I have some of them, one of them is of course the Light & Shade and use that for work when I do and now it feels like they’re putting so much that their eye shadow formula is not as great as it used to be. I see some videos talking about the Shook Pallet and someone did say it was not really pigmented. I have this pallet and hoping it’s pigmented since there are times where it is pigmented for some people while others not so much. Another example is of course Too Faced even though I feel like they have taken breaks in between release this year but their formula has suffered a bit. I remembered how they did one release to the next and so many people saw that the formula was not like how well the Chocolate Bars are formulated and best examples were the Power of Makeup pallet, the Chocolate Chip pallets, the Chocolate Shoppe, and of course the Too Faced side of the Better Together pallet with Kat Von D! Jeffree Starr may have said in his newer documentary is due to how they sold themselves to Estee Lauder but to me it’s that they released so much within months of each other that it felt from what I’ve seen in reviews that they didn’t test it out while making it before they released it to the public. One example was Power of Makeup and I did like that pallet but I do notice the pigmentation issues that I have to dig into it. I am pretty selective with what I buy from them and I admit I bought two of the Christmas 2019 releases and will be testing those on YouTUbe.

Another example I have seen and it’s becoming a bigger trend is where brands uptake their biggest best seller of a shade and release it into other items as time goes on. Nars is really guilty of this because they have done it with their shade Orgasm which is a blush shade that everyone knows and loves. They have made it into a mini version to a big one and even a limited edition collection alone. Now it feels like Kat Von D is doing it with the lipstick shade Lolita which she did it as a blush/shadow and to be a full on shadow pallet and now a sequel to it when she has yelled at Nars for selling to China. I only bought one Nars blush and that was a different shade from Orgasm because I felt like it was too much of a hyped product to buy. It’s great that a brand has a bestselling item but they shouldn’t turn it into so many other things because it bores the consumer and it can cause a loss in interest in that item. Even my best buddy Vivi found the Lolita pallet boring when he loves KVD himself! Heck, someone did suggest Champagne Pop to me and I didn’t buy it because it felt like I didn’t want to be a part of that overhype when Jacklyn Hill was the face of Becca and decided to go for other peachy highlighters that I can enjoy and they came from brands I have loved for a long time which I admit Colour Pop is one of them and of course Maybelline since I feel like they are thrown aside. Which brings me to the next point!

Finally, I feel like some of the brands that have been long time favorites are being thrown to the wayside and being forgotten. I admit I have done that with some of my old favorite brands like Maybelline but have been getting back into them because they were there when I started getting into makeup. Heck, I have been getting back into Revlon after seeing them in one of the top lists in Allure for best lip tints and I could see why and that it’s so good! The brand I’ve noticed that has been brought to the top of all has been Morphe for many years! Even though they’re just a privately owned version of Crown Brushes but a lot of influencers have been promoting Morphe for the longest time, pass out codes, and so much more. Heck, Jacklyn Hill always pushes them like crazy and it feels like with that push from Morphe that we lose touch of our favorite brands of all. I felt like I rarely see anyone talk about Makeup Geek, NYX, and even some more indie brands that are out there due to how much people were getting into Morphe. To me I kind of feel like once that brand gets bigger and once someone tries it it’s not that great. I even mentioned I found the brushes just okay not the best because I get brushes from other brands and even in my subscriptions that I enjoy due to quality and how good it feels, I admit one of the Morphe brushes in the vegan set did tickle me when no other brush does.

Whew! That was a lot to cover because I want to see a break in between releases because I felt that I can see what will be coming and also be able to play with the pallets in between and that is why Urban Decay has been a favorite of mine due to how many months in between they allow to let people play with their makeup. I mean Naked Reloaded was released in February then Game of Thrones around May leading into June and finally Naked Honey released last month and of course in between Naked Honey and Game of Thrones we did get Stay Naked foundation which they released a lot of shades for more consideration of people’s undertones. If I see the trend continuing for Urban Decay we will probably see their next item probably around January or February which excites fans a lot more than most other brands. Heck, Coastal Scents really waits for a year and a half before doing anything new from what I’ve seen. Still brands should at least give their fans a break and just slow down because if they keep speeding up more people are not going to care about their stuff as much as they used to and plus sometimes the formula will suffer if they’re not too careful with testing it to see how it shows on someone’s lid. And of course, no more of the same shade because that has been all done before!

Well guys that is it for this post! I know it was a bit of a wordy one but had to get my thoughts out there. So, next time I will have the next book review and now waiting on my box subscriptions to come in. Until next time!