Yesterday on her YouTube channel Elle S posted a video about types of makeup she wouldn't buy anymore. (It was a collab video with Zeyn San.) I so badly wanted to post a video response, but I don't have a YouTube channel and don't see myself comfortable starting one anytime in the near future. Then I remembered that blogs exist, and since I'm trying to get back in the habit of writing more often, I figured this would be the perfect medium to post what otherwise I would have posted to beauty YouTube. So here we go...
1. Doe-Foot Products
This was honestly the first thing that came to mind when I saw the video title. I didn't buy my first liquid lipstick until 2017, even though I had been watching them be hyped around YouTube for at least year prior. In March 2017 I received a sample of Tarte Birthday Suit thanks to the Sephora birthday gift and Stila Patina as a Sephora add-on code. Three weeks later I bought ABH Kathryn, followed by Smashbox Out Loud one week after that.
In less than a month I had gone from zero liquid lipsticks to four. I threw out Birthday Suit almost immediately because the color just did not agree with me. I convinced myself that Out Loud was much more of a fall color. Why I bought in April when I did not anticipate wearing it until October I don't understand either. (I have gotten better about that though.) How often did I wear Kathryn and Patina in the next few months? Maybe five times total. I was very careful with choosing Kathryn. I was drawn to it because of the name; that spelling is a family name quite meaningful to me. But I told myself I wouldn't buy it unless I liked the color in person. (Spoiler alert: I did.) So why didn't I wear these liquid lipsticks, or at the very least Kathryn, the one I had chosen so carefully?
I just could not get comfortable with the applicator, and it didn't matter which type it had. Applying it was so different from a bullet lipstick I can easily swipe on without staring into a mirror. With these though, not only did I had to be extra careful to create a smooth line, but I also felt like I needed to apply concealer to clean up the lip line. Once that was applied I felt like I needed to be balance out my face and apply foundation as well. It felt like a never-ending process just because I decided to wear a lipstick I didn't even like all that much in the first place.
Even now, I don't see myself wearing other types of products that utilize a doe-foot applicator. I've stopped wearing concealer, and I've never been interested in lip gloss. I've found it easier instead to just distance myself from considering purchasing doe-foot products in general.
2. Automatic Pencils
Be it lip or eye pencils I would much rather have one that needs to be sharpened like an old-school Ticonderoga. My first eyeliners were the Stila Smudge Sticks. I bought six or so of them and loved them, how smoothly they applied, how beautiful the colors were. But over time I became more and more frustrated with how the little nib would crumble off halfway across my eye.
I remember going to look for a purple eye liner one day and being disappointed that the purples in the Smudge Stick line were not the kind of purple I was looking for. Eventually I found my perfect purple in Urban Decay's 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Rockstar. However, I was so disappointed that it was a pencil that had to be sharpened because I was convinced, even never having tried such a pencil, that automatic ones were inherently better. Gradually I realized that I actually much preferred the Urban Decay one and have since converted to using them almost exclusively.
What solidified my dislike for automatic pencils was Chanel Eros. At the time it was the only red eyeliner I could find, and I was determined to love it. I thought that since, unlike the Stila Smudge Sticks, this one was able to actually twist back down I wouldn't experience the same frustration with the nib breaking off mid-application. Instead a whole new annoyance arose. I guess it was how I held the pencil, I'm not really sure, but somehow I had a habit of twisting the product back down into the pencil tube as I was applying it. I ended up using all of Eros because, after all, it was a beautiful color, even if it did have an inconvenient applicator. But I vowed to never purchase an automatic pencil again.
3. Products I'm Told I'm Supposed to Like
Maybe I will still buy some of these products, but I'm definitely more skeptical of these not-so-subtle suggestions than I was when I was first getting into makeup. My first eyeshadow palette was the original Lorac Pro. I joined YouTube soon before Naked 3 was released, so I missed the initial Naked craze. Instead, Lorac Pro was the new kid in town, and the one that was currently being encouraged by nearly every YouTuber as a perfect everyday palette. Did I get a lot out of use from the Lorac Pro? Definitely. As a newbie I felt extremely appreciative of the recommendation and felt comfortable pairing the different shades together to create easy beginner eye looks. If I had been told to go make a custom palette my first year into makeup I would not have understood how to make one I would actually wear.
Now that I am more comfortable and confident in choosing my makeup I don't need to rely on the opinions of others. In fact, all the constant bad publicity about ABH Subculture was what put that palette into my mind. After seeing it for the umpteenth time I realized that over half those colors were ones that I would put in a custom palette, and I got so much joy out of using that palette even though I was told that it was horrible.
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Over the last few years I've become increasingly more selective with the types of products I have been choosing to purchase. So while there are only three items on this list, there are more that I don't buy currently. I already have a face trifecta that I love (blurring primer + luminous primer + finishing powder), so why would I add a foundation to that mix? That doesn't mean I wouldn't ever buy it again though. Sure I would love to comb those three products down to one or two as they get used up, but right now I haven't found (or desired to find) a foundation that does that. Then there are other things that I just was never interested in the first place, like bronzer, contour, and liquid and felt-tip eye liner.
I found this topic so intriguing, and it was interesting to reflect on how my mindset around makeup has changed since I first began delving into the beauty world. I think it's important to recognize your own interests and desires instead of just going with the flow of what's being talked about around you. I found Elle's video especially quite inspiring and hope that it inspires you to consider how you would answer this topic as well.
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