topic Re: Monthly Misses: May 2023 in Beauty Confidential

Monthly Misses: May 2023

greeneyedgirl107 — Fri, 26 May 2023 23:35:17 GMT

Did you have more beauty misses than hits this month? If so, this is the place to tell all the BICers about it. It could be a tried and true product with a change in formulation. Or, it could be something new that you tried out during the sale that just didn't work for you. Whatever it is, this is the place to post about it.

Re: Monthly Misses: May 2023

greeneyedgirl107 — Fri, 26 May 2023 23:49:30 GMT

Now that masks have been lifted at my workplace after 3+ years, I've been trying to re-enter society. I tried two NYX Butter Glosses. I've always found them rather sheer, but thought I'd give them a go. One was Marshmallow that was rather purple leaning (I know, the tube is purple but I didn't think it'd read *that* purple on my lips). I guess it didn't matter, b/c the pigment didn't last long at all. Another was Strawberry Cheesecake which must have been the outlier in the line b/c it was bright, pigmented and let a stain on my lips. Pretty, but not what I was looking for. It'll go to my sister. Two more were from the Milky Gloss line, Ube Milkshake which didn't have enough pigment for me and faded quickly. The other was Lilac Splash which was rather similar to Marshmallow. I could have in theory kept all of the shades, but I'm trying not to spend money on things I don't really love.

I also had some missed with cotton balls. I didn't care for the up & up ones from Target, nor the ones from Ulta. I've been making due with CVS's one + other in the jumbo although I'd like to try the regular. I also didn't care for Ulta's Premium Pillow Cotton Pads, but I didn't want to waste them. I've been using them here and there to remove excess before rinsing and then doing my second cleanse. I don't like to waste like that, but the alternative was returning them and then them going to waste altogether.

I returned Maybelline Great Lash b/c I couldn't get the classic brush to work even after all these years, and couldn't fit the Maybelline Full 'N Soft brush in it. I should have compared more closely. I'm going to try to work with the Full 'N Soft. Ever notice how you kind of have to "break in" a mascara several times before getting a good feel for it?

was a big miss for me. I used the for years, and I think I just finished my third bottle at least. The latter went through one or two re-formulations, but I hung with it b/c I liked the hydrating aspect as well as the antioxidants (under-hyped) that were in an airtight bottle. The former doesn't feel light at all, and the squalane just sits on top of my skin. I was fortunate to find a unicorn online, and three at TJ Maxx (I bought two). IDK what I'll do in years to come.

I guess that's about all I can think of for now. Now that I'm finally able to get back into makeup again, I think I'll be having more misses...unfortunately!

Re: Monthly Misses: May 2023

CorgiMommy — Sun, 28 May 2023 01:40:43 GMT

The only miss for me is . It just didn't work for me. I have tried of number of serum without any luck.

Re: Monthly Misses: May 2023

WinglessOne — Sun, 28 May 2023 06:55:49 GMT

- sometimes my lips are okay with a synthetic form of menthol; it depends on what else is in the product and how it's formulated. But both shades of RB lip oil I tried (Joy and Affection) failed the comfort test: uncomfortably tingly/prickly and surprisingly drying. And that was over a very thin layer of Aquaphor Ointment (my daily lip balm). I did like the beautiful stain Joy left behind, but not at the cost of comfort. I tried again with a thicker base of Aquaphor to buffer discomfort and keep my lips moisturized. I figured the tradeoff would be getting no persistent stain when the lip oil wore off, and I was right. The stain is the main—maybe the only—reason I liked these lip oils, so there's no point keeping them if I have to give up the stain just to comfortably wear them since they're not long-wearing at all. This product was a huge disappointment.

Obligatory disclaimer because I know someone will take it personally:

I know many (many) people love these lip oils. That's great for them! Yay for them! 👍 Pointing this out because when I negatively review a beloved product, I almost always get comments or messages from someone (and I'm not restricting that to BICers; this forum is not private, and threads are easily findable via Google and any other search engine) defending the product as if I'd just trashtalked their mother or something.

Remember, we don't all like the same things and that's okay! Heck, some folks hate the overall performance of Glossier Cloud Paint which is my favorite cream blush, and I'm okay with that. It's a blush, not a family member or close friend. No one's jabbing at me personally when they negatively review Cloud Paint. Sheesh.

Now, if Glossier's founder or current CEO does some bigoted, harmful, or blatantly dishonest/shady crap that goes uncorrected or unaddressed by the brand, then yeah, I'll lose respect and trust in the brand and possibly side-eye folks who still support them. When actual harm is caused, it's not "just makeup" anymore.

So anyway... how about a product I actually love other shades of?

- this one's not so much a miss as an underwhelmer. The 2 other shades I own are not sheer on me. This shade is. It’s also too close, colorwise, to one of my Pat McGrath Lip Fetish balms. I should exchange it for a different shade, but I'm nervous about getting in TRE trouble since I've made other returns and exchanges this year. Sigh...

Re: Monthly Misses: May 2023

Loretta55 — Sun, 28 May 2023 12:37:09 GMT

I agree about the RB lip oils @WinglessOne . It took a couple of weeks until my lips healed. I also tried wearing lip balm under them but unfortunately it didn’t help. Hopefully they will reformulate the lip oils because I really like the colors that I tried.

Any tips how to make the Glossier Cloud Paint work. Anytime I squeeze the tube I get a massive amount and I find it hard to remove.

Re: Monthly Misses: May 2023

Loretta55 — Sun, 28 May 2023 12:42:42 GMT

Hopefully you will find a true love in the future @greeneyedgirl107. I mentioned in the hauls thread that I attempted to swatch RB gloss in nearly mauve but unfortunately it doesn’t swatch well. I wore it to work on Friday and I felt like it had decent pigment. Her lip glosses are really pretty. I have all five colors and I feel like they are everything I want in a lip gloss. I will attempt to swatch PMG Divine Rose lip gloss which is another favorite. I also like the scent of the PMG glosses.

Re: Monthly Misses: May 2023

Loretta55 — Sun, 28 May 2023 12:47:02 GMT

How long have you used the lash serum @CorgiMommy? You need to use it consistently for at least four to six months to see results. I use their brow serum and I am very pleased with the results . Like our generation I over tweezed my eyebrows. My hair stylist noticed the results quicker than me.

Re: Monthly Misses: May 2023

CorgiMommy — Sun, 28 May 2023 14:56:30 GMT

@Loretta55 I am going on my fourth month

Re: Monthly Misses: May 2023

CattyT3 — Sun, 28 May 2023 15:06:40 GMT

Honestly I'm not surprised that the NYX butter glosses fell short - its talked about non stop I feel like it's put on a pedestal that anything short of perfect would have been a disappointment anyway.

I only picked up the clear one but I'll keep a closer eye when I try it out on the lasting power compared to a couple of glosses I do like by Too Faced and (before I had to andon them sue to allergic reactions) and Juvia's Place.

And I very much agree with you about the First Aid Beauty serum - I actually forgot I had a couple of samples of it that I used up that's how unremarkable it was for my skin. My skin doesn't seem to agree with any formulas other than the Arnica rescue mask no longer sold at Sephora and the intensive hydration cream.

Re: Monthly Misses: May 2023

CattyT3 — Sun, 28 May 2023 15:15:27 GMT

That's super unfortunate to hear about the reaction you and @Loretta55 experienced with the Rare Beauty lip oils, Sadly formulations and specific forms of ingredients just end up causing so much issue for even a few of us.

I did recently see a thread about people badly some people reacted to the Fenty glosses, so I hope you both healed well after this.

If it's the staining aspect you ended up preferring over the "oil" formula of it, since you do order skin care from Japan and Korea, I've seen a lot of comments about how they have perfected art of the lip stain. I hope they have options that have friendly enough ingredients for you to give them a go.

But i am curious if you've tried the Benefit tint that is meant to be the original one - if it's as good as it is said to be?

Re: Monthly Misses: May 2023

CattyT3 — Sun, 28 May 2023 15:30:03 GMT

I had a horrific allergic reaction to the Sulwhasoo Active First Serum (I'll update the product tag when I switch device). Immediately made my eyes swell my skin increasingly irritated and heating up and actually impacted my breathing a bit - so I know very quickly that whatever is in this caused an immediate allergic reaction.

Luckily after washing everything off meticulously and applying my gentle recovery skincare all returned to normal halfway through the next day. I loved the concentrated ginseng cream I first tried last year, but this serum was such a painful disappointment - the texture itself also did not feel hydrating or like I even applied a serum in the slightest.

No other ingredients were such that I don't regularly use them in my routine in other formulations - I just know that I don't use anything with parfum listed high nor anything with denatured alcohol funnily enough.

It was after my reaction that I realised that the combination of the parfum being listed to high on the ingredients and alcohol denat being 2nd/3rd on the list is now an alarm bell I'll be vigilant of, since just generic artificial fragrance (parfum) even after my lavender allergy diagnosis does not effect my when it's low enough on the list to be under 1% concentration.

I think my review under the actual product has as many dislikes as upvotes, so obviously my reaction to the product was offensive to some people - but I can't deny that this has now made me very skeptical about trying anything new by brands I am loyal to now 😅

Re: Monthly Misses: May 2023

CattyT3 — Sun, 28 May 2023 15:30:33 GMT

I'm way too scared to try out the mini sample size I got from ULTA eventhough I'd love to encourage my eyelashes to grow longer 🙈

I was curious about using the lash serum by the Ordinary but see very mixed reviews about it. Have you tried that one?

Re: Monthly Misses: May 2023

greeneyedgirl107 — Sun, 28 May 2023 15:33:51 GMT

@WinglessOne TRE scares me, too!

Re: Monthly Misses: May 2023

danielledanielle — Sun, 28 May 2023 16:12:00 GMT

@CorgiMommy, yeah that's more than enough time to make a declaration on it.

@CattyT3 I haven't looked at the reviews, but I like the ordinary's serum. It didn't do much for my brows, I suspect because those follicles are just permanently damaged from threading. BUT, my lashes were nice and lengthy. I was using it 1x a day for about a month and noticed the difference.

Re: Monthly Misses: May 2023

danielledanielle — Sun, 28 May 2023 16:15:10 GMT

@WinglessOne, maaaaaannnn....people can be quick to be petty, but slow to read or listen. Especially online 🙄

@WinglessOneand @Loretta55 , your frankness is always welcomed. Personally, your experiences with the RB lip oil squashed my FOMO quite quickly, just don't care you got flack for it.

Re: Monthly Misses: May 2023

CattyT3 — Sun, 28 May 2023 16:55:04 GMT

Ooh that's promising actually. I'll put that in my wish list to try out then since I do trust the Ordinary to have less risky formulas to try out.

And actually I didn't know threading did permanent damage to hair growth - I narrowly avoided reluctantly agreeing to thread my eyebrows when I was barely 12 since it's seen as a given in my culture for girls to want to thread their brows. Glad I did not cave because the threading salon people claimed that threading had no impact on the hair growth itself!
Castor oil - not sure if it needs to be Jamaican specifically since it's also a very prized oil in my South Asian culture - I've seen that has become popular with the social media girlies now for hair growth (like many oiling traditions from my heritage), if you haven't tried that for brows.

Re: Monthly Misses: May 2023

SportyGirly125 — Sun, 28 May 2023 16:55:57 GMT

@WinglessOne @Wow people are crazy. I never had someone DM me because I left a negative review.

Re: Monthly Misses: May 2023

Westcoasty — Sun, 28 May 2023 17:46:35 GMT

@CattyT3 I've tried the in original and I love it as a super-natural looking blush (plus the beautiful rose fragrance). But as a lip stain, I found that even when I thought my lips were moisturized, the stain showed every tiny bit of dead skin, and the stain didn't last long, either. I would drink coffee and discover that my stain was now all patchy and half-gone. I thought the point of a stain was to have some staying power.

Re: Monthly Misses: May 2023

CattyT3 — Sun, 28 May 2023 18:04:52 GMT

Oh that' a shame, if it was equally good on the lips as on the cheeks I was eyeing this up as an all in one product.
Thanks for the information on that.

Re: Monthly Misses: May 2023

CorgiMommy — Sun, 28 May 2023 21:51:53 GMT

@CattyT3 yikes, that is scary. Glad you are okay