Hello to all of you beautiful nerds and welcome back from traveling the vast nerd universe! I’m back with a new post!

Drugstore Products Better Than MLM Ones

This feels a bit different with this post but I feel like doing this. I was inspired after being at a makeup panel during one of the online NFB State Conventions and it featured two people from two MLMs, as in Multi-Level Marketing companies. These companies are pyramid schemes that focus on creating up lines but also have some products. The products, from my experiences, aren’t great in quality and expensive, except one which had more drugstore pricing. As you can probably tell, I am anti-MLM since I haven’t been liking Avon and had bought a Mary Kay lip gloss before and was not that great either. As someone who has been buying items in both prestige and in drugstores, and also had beauty subscriptions on top of it, I have used better items. Let’s see what I feel in each category! I do have a disclaimer though!

Disclaimer: This post includes products I believe are better quality and can be purchased at a better price. Please, if you are in an MLM, don’t think I’m just bashing you as a person but understand that there are better products out there and I have seen the videos on the different brands in MLMs and heard how poor quality most items are but I am focusing on beauty.

Hair Products: I think I should start off with hair products. I know for one thing that a lot of us women and men pride on our hair. We do sometimes put it through so much, as in dying, priming, straightening, and sometimes people do have different conditions that cause fall out, which I do feel bad for them. I have heard that Monat, which is a brand that prides itself on hair products, such as their shampoo and conditioner, except people had lost their hair because of how they are made. Even though some reps say that the hair is the-toxin from all of the items that were used in the past. Um, hair doesn’t work like that. I remembered when Fox Kids did have facts and mentioned how hair tends to grow and I believe that and can grow fast depending on the person. RJ’s hair does grow faster than mine. When it comes to hair products being better than Monat, I do love some from Herbal Essences in the shampoo and conditioner department. Not only do they have the markings on the bottles but they smell really good! Plus, they help keep my hair moist. I do enjoy the mango shampoo and conditioner. While styling items are a mixture of prestige and drugstore and they include the Garnier Sleek & Shine Frizz Control Serum, sometimes if I get my paws on it, some items from Marc Anthony, R&B from Lush which I loved since it first came out, and do use items from Ipsy. I also sometimes get hair items in bundles with hair stuff in their offers section. With dry shampoo, I do love Dove’s dry shampoos and now love leave-in conditioner sprays. In the end, you have a lot of items to choose from. Plus, they don’t cost an arm and a leg since I hear the prices for Monat products are out there. One example is the Monat Renew Shampoo for $30 when you can get a bottle of shampoo from Lush for $24 or a bottle of Suave for$5. And of course your hair won’t fall out.

Face Masks: Next up is skin care but focusing more on face masks. I do enjoy a sheet mask sometimes since there are times where I love to pamper myself. One MLM I seem to run into when it comes to skin care is Mary Kay. Remembered when I mentioned the lip gloss above? Well, the day I got that gloss was when a rep was invited to my job to talk about makeup and had some people try a charcoal mask. I didn’t try it on my face since I had a doctor’s appointment and didn’t want to appear with a half face of makeup. I did try it on my hand though. One thing I did not like the feel because muy sensitive skin can’t handle concentrated charcoal and this mask was made of that and what miffed me was when the rep said that charcoal was good for all sensitive skin types, except my hand where the mask was patch tested on was tingling too much and had to ask for the wet rag to take it off. I will disprove the charcoal claim that this rep had made. I researched it and the snippet says that “Charcoal is best for oily skin and can remove excess oils.” I have sensitive skin and dry skin on top of it so I can’t use charcoal thank you very much but the sheet masks with it do feel good I felt that this representative didn’t do her research, from all the videos I’ve watched of people working at Sephora and Ulta, with all these videos and most of them talking about skin care is that they have to research to get to know about the ingredients. Heck, even employees at Lush have to research ingredients to make sure they match the products to customers, goes the same way with Ulta and also have to do the same thing. If they give the wrong item, then they would have an unhappy customer. One best thing if you’re a beginner is researching your skin type or see your dermatologist about what skin care is right for you and what skin type you have because it would help you with what you need to look for. When it comes to cheaper skin care items, I suggest Tony Moly since they’re a well-known K Beauty brand. You can also take a look into other K Beauty brands. HEMPZ is also another pretty good skin care brand since they have hemp seed oil in their skin care and hair care, which I could have mentioned but never tried with their shampoo or conditioner. Also Good Molecules are rising in popularity since you can find them through Ulta, trust me their Hyaluronic Acid Serum is pretty nice if you dry skin and they are great for all skin types!

Eye Shadow: I’ve only really tried Avon eye shadows in the past and was not a fan. Although they have drugstore prices, I’ve tried better to be honest. I even remembered having issues knowing the darker and lighter shadows apart in the duos I had my dad tell me which one was which and knew it may be an issue once I lived on my own. The lady at the flea market, which is where I went to purchase these alongside a trio and a blush, which I will get to later, chose based on what she thought would be best for my eye color. I do admit I liked nude shades and agreed that purples and blues fit well, I felt the shadows would be better. I did see reviews about Avon quads having reviews that they take more than one application to be visible. I did see one review on MakeUpAlley that someone who was very fair had issues with colors not fitting her skin tone. Another thing I had issue with besides the color match is how small the space is to fit your brush. The duos I picked up were hard to fit my favorite brushes into the space to grab the color. Even the trio had that same issue as well and I felt I hit the pan a bit too easy. Speaking of size, Mary Kay also has the same issue too. I will be hitting this in lip glosses but what you pay for is pretty small. I read people’s reviews on Amazon for the chrome shadows and they pay $13 for a shadow the size of a postage stamp. If you want something bigger that is worth your buck, the Colour Pop Super Shock Shadows fit that bill. I have enjoyed these a lot over time and they are very pigmented as well. Not only that, the single pans they sell which are $5 a piece also have decent sizing. I would suggest Coastal Scents but they recently went out of business. I still love their Hot Pots and they are pretty good for what you pay for when they are around. If you want a pallet that would be better for your budget, Urban Decay’s Naked 2 Basics alongside the Mini Naked Heat and the Mini Naked Honey also have decent sized pans you can fit your brush in. If you want singles, Mac also has really good shadows despite being in the range of $15 to $20 but you can fit your brush into the pot like Colour Pop.

Lip Gloss: Here we go! I love a good gloss like anyone and some of my favorite brands for lip glosses include NYX, MAC, Dose of Colours, and Jeffree Star. (I know the last one is not everyone’s favorite brand but I admit the glosses are good!) Like I said above, Mary Kay’s lip glosses are also small for what you pay for. Remembered when I mentioned that rep above? She was selling some items and there is one item I will mention later and that is more of a DIY item. I only bought the gloss since I did have to pay my copay for my doctor that afternoon and when I got the gloss I was surprised that it was small for $16. Even though MAC did have slightly smaller tubes back when I first got into them, they have improved and gave them better packaging. Plus, the Butter Glosses from NYX are $4 for the size I got the Mary Kay one, seriously it was the same size as a Butter Gloss. The formula was not my favorite either! It was too sticky! I hear people say that glosses tend to be pretty sticky depending on who you get it from. My tip is of course to use a tissue to dab off excess. This was beyond sticky even after the tissue and I just left it in my desk drawer at work because I’m not wearing it anymore. Plus, I’d rather have my lips comfortable with my favorite lip products, thank you very much!

Nail Strips: I rarely wear these but I feel like mentioning them since one of the reps that were invented during that panel came from Color Street. I felt throughout the panel they were pretty over hyped and ironically enough they were mentioned in one of the Illuminati’s videos the Monday after. I was surprised with what I found out about them, that the guy not only has two different nail strip companies in Ulta and WalMart but Color Street had issues with not sticking to fingers. I do notice how people say it’s easy to stick on but the claims of it staying on for two weeks can be a bit tricky. When you look at these they are made of actual nail polish and nail polish does chip. I just watched a video of someone who used to work as a rep and talked about how their nails chipped within a week and a half and she tends to do a lot with her hands, which I admit I tend to have that happen too and my nail polish does chip right away or not. I even remembered when I wore Kiss nail wraps in tye dye and they chipped pretty fast too. I am willing to give strips another chance but I am thinking of going with Dashing Diva since they have gotten a good review. I even have a set of blue ones I’m eyeing on!

Blush: Another item I feel like other stores have better items happen to be blushes. I have loved Mac’s blush line the most since they are very blendable and have a lot of colors to choose from. Heck, I got one based on a recommendation for my skin tone all thanks to And That’s Jacob. I do love Warm Soul the most out of Mac’s entire collection of blushes. I also do enjoy some of the Wet N Wild ones too since they are really pigmented and pretty. I wished the one I tried from Avon fit more with my skin tone, like I said with the shadows the lady at the flea market who was selling the items fit me with a very deep one and that is mauve. I do enjoy a rose toned blush but I felt that this mauve was way too deep for my skin tone and would stand out too much on my cheeks. I wished I asked for something lighter like a pink or a lighter rose tone but stayed with this one. I tossed it though since I felt it didn’t fit me nor my skin. I did forget to mention that E. L. F.’s Primer blushes also are really good along with Cover Girl and Milani. I would say check them out if you are curious about better formulations.

Brushes: Next up are brushes.  It’s hard to find any bad reviews on the Mary Kay brushes at all but I do have to say that there are many brush brands that are comparable to them. I even remembered commenting in the chat about other brands during the panel but it was ignored. As a makeup user who is visually impaired, I have used brushes from many brands and retailers over the years. I even get brushes through Ipsy and have found pretty good brands. I even found great brushes through QAmazon for the most part and before they went out of business, Coastal Scents was also big with their brushes. Most of my collection include Coastal Scents, rest in peace, SL Miss Glam, F. A. R. A. H., Complex Culture, I did just get one from NYX, and a few others. To me with brushes, if my makeup is able to blend well, even in the eye shadow department, then it’s a pretty good brush. Another important thing to note is after washing will it fray?I haven’t seen any complaints about Mary Kay brushes fraying while cleaning them but the biggest culprit in this department happens to be Morphe. I am not a fan of Morphe brushes, I still have my vegan set and one brush I got in Allure Beauty Box but I do believe the quality is okay, not my favorite and I’ve seen people talk about how their brushes fray while cleaning, especially a couple in the Jacqueline Hill set years ago.As long as you clean your brushes you will have them stay in good condition for a long time and after having all of my brushes for many years even from Ipsy and Coastal Scents they have stayed together pretty well and I still do reach for them. Will I run out for the Mary Kay ones though as a brush collector? The only thing I am worried about is that after using the small lip gloss will they also be small? I know one brush company that tends to print where the brush goes, I forgot which one it was, their eye brushes I got through BoxyCharm as a set was pretty small but I do use them for concealer and powder or even for the crease sometimes but looking at the price of the Mary Kay set for $55 I think they may be as small as their makeup products when I can get a set from Amazon for $20+ or under for a decent size. Plus, I remembered someone bought a foundation and it was pretty small which would not fit a brush possibly in that small container either. I would even imagine a powder pan too. Again, I’d rather go to my usual favorite places for brushes. If you are a beginner, I would say try out Ipsy for single brushes, it would help build your collection and if you subscribe to Glam Bag Plus or GB X then you could get a set that way or wait for it to show up in the Ipsy Offers area. If you don’t want to go that route, talking to workers who work at different stores like Mac, Ulta, and NYX would also help.

Empty Pallets: Final item is those magnetic pallets where people love to put makeup pans in. What got me interested in the Mary Kay thing from the start was that the rep was selling new empty pallets but seeing them in person made me say no to them. They were small and the pans they were selling with them were charged separately. Also, one had a small mascara included. I felt the pan and it felt small too. Like with the shadow pans above, I’ve seen bigger pans like with Coastal Scents when they were still around and Colour Pop has really decently sized pans for their shadows where your brush can fit easily. These magnetic pallets are not worth the $18 to $20 because I’ve seen better and bigger ones for that price range. Perfect example is the Ulta Z Palette in large is $20 and I can fit a plot of pans into something that big. I had to do that by replacing my magnetic palette from Coastal Scents by getting this one myself and they fit perfectly. I even got a small Z Palette from Amazon years back for $5 and was able to fit nine pans from Colour Pop. Again, better to go with these and just get the Colour Pop pans, also any other brands that offer shadow and blush pans for these magnetic pallets for less than what Mary Kay would offer. I also have gotten makeup pans from Ipsy where I attached included magnets to the back to place into these and gave it a convenient look. And with the mascaras, I love the idea of travel size ones to sample new ones that I got through Ipsy but the one that was going to be included felt small if it was full size, just saying.

Well, that is it for this post. I may have ticked off some MLM reps on here but I feel that there are better products and cheaper ones when we are in person. I rather use the brands I’ve known and loved over the years and if you have a favorite product that you trust and love you should keep using it. Plus, the eye shadow pallets and pans we see from Ulta or Sephora or even Mac have better sizes alongside the lip products. I can’t say much towards Color Street but nail polish does chip and of course press on nails do chip too or fall off.

What is next? Since we are going through summer, it is time for the talk about sunscreen!!!