Products That Didn't Work Out For Me

I feel like I have a very large number of products that I've tried and that haven't worked out for me, but the majority of them didn't work out because of the shade. For example, I've tried about 20 different concealers and found that only about 6 of them worked because they were pale enough. The other 14 were probably good concealers, but they didn't work for me. So, I'm not going to mention the products that didn't work for me because of shade, but just the products that didn't work out in general.

Just because these products didn't work for me, they might work out for you as everyone is different. These products are all from brands that overall, I really like, but these particular products were a fail. I'm not trying to be negative here, but I think it is important to be honest and it might just save you some money.

1. Maybelline Baby Skin Instant Pore Eraser Primer - £7.99
   - I purchased this primer when I first started getting more into make up and I kept seeing all these YouTube beauty gurus raving about it. I've tried it numerous times since then and I can't get it to work for me. It is a silicone based primer, (which is not my favourite), I don't feel like it properly sinks in no matter how long you wait before applying foundation so my foundation sort of slips around on top of it. I can't say I notice my pores being erased at all and it does not work on my combination skin as it turns my skin into an oily mess by the end of the day. In general, it just doesn't feel nice on the skin and leaves my make up looking worse than without it.


2. New Look 2 Pack Beauty Sponges - £4.99
   - So for those of you who don't know, New Look have had their own make up range for a while now but recently brought out a load of new products and repackaged a lot of the old ones. It is relatively affordable - around drugstore prices. I'm always on the lookout for new beauty sponges that are much more affordable dupes for the Beauty Blender, as I'm sure most of us are. These sponges are not a dupe! They are very dense and firm, they do expand a bit when you dampen them, but they still don't go very soft. They soak up all of your product and feel like you're hitting your face with a rock (small exaggeration but you get the idea). This is the same as the beauty sponges from other clothing shops like Primark, in my experience. Can't use them and definitely do not recommend wasting your money.


3. ELF Prism Eye Shadow Palette - Naked - £12.50
  - I'm normally a big fan of ELF products, but there are a few that just haven't worked out for me and are not worth the money. This eye shadow palette is one of those items. It has good reviews on ELF's website, which confused me because it is one of the worst eye shadow palettes that I've tried. You only get 6 eye shadows in this palette, which is fine because they are all beautiful neutral shimmer shades, but, in my experience, they are very dry, they lack pigmentation and they don't tend to reflect the shade that they look like in the palette. They are all just sort of averagely-bad quality and I feel like there are so many drugstore alternatives for palettes that are a fraction of the price, amazing, creamy and pigmented, which this palette most definitely isn't. On their website, they describe this palette as 'silky and creamy' but even the swatches in the picture make the palette look very lack lustre.

4. Superdrug Hydrate & Shine Conditioning Mask With Coconut Water - £3.99
     - I don't usually go for Superdrug own brand products, especially when it comes to my hair, but I was given free samples of their Hydrate & Shine Shampoo and Conditioner a while back and I fell in love with the scent of it, and my hair seemed to really like it. So I had a look on their website and was shocked at the price of it! I purchased the shampoo and this mask - loved the shampoo, but the hair mask didn't really do anything for me. It is quite a liquidy texture, so it feels like a standard conditioner and it doesn't do anything more than a conditioner does to my hair. The conditioner that I tried previously was good, so I was expecting good things from this mask but I was disappointed. It is not a bad product and if you don't have dry or damaged hair, it will probably be fine for you, I just didn't see much difference at all to my hair.


5. Soap & Glory Super Blur Imperfections Eraser Primer - £8.00
    - This is another fail for me, which is not a huge surprise based on the reviews on Boots.com for this product. I bought it a while back when it had no reviews online - I think I recall seeing a sponsored YouTube video for Soap and Glory and the girl raving about this. I never reach for this product because it doesn't do anything for me. It leaves a waxy feel on my skin and it makes my skin more oily by the end of the day, and my usually bulletproof foundation starts to wear off throughout the day when I've used this primer. A lot of people also don't like the application of the product, if you have any acne or blemishes and you are applying this stick directly to your face, it will be holding the bacteria from the blemishes on the product - you then reapply to your skin and it could cause more breakouts. However, you should be aware of that before you purchase a product like that anyway.

6. Make Up Revolution Radiant Lights Breathe Highlighter - £3.00
    - Now usually, I love Make Up Revolution highlighters, I think they do some of the best highlighters in the drugstore and I think their shade range is great. I purchased this a while back and loved it at first. It was great quality for such an affordable price and it even came with a mirror and their sturdy packaging, as apposed to their clear plastic lids that tend to break. Initially, the colour was beautiful - a shimmery, light peachy pink which was different from all the other highlighters I had and it was more of a natural looking glow. I reached for this the other day and was horrified to realise that pretty much all of the shimmer is now gone, as if there was a top layer of shimmer but once you've used that, it turns is just a peachy pink colour. I applied this on my face without realising this and it left straight up peachy pink stripes on my face. I could possibly use this as a blush now, but I was disappointed I can't use it as a highlighter anymore.

7. Quick Fix Facials Anti-Blemish Mud Mask - £4.99
   - I had never tried or hear of this brand before when I stumbled across it on Boots.com and was intrigued by it because of the low price point and the good variety of face masks in the range. I bought this one and the exfoliating scrub mask and neither of them have blown me away. I prefer the exfoliating mask out of the two, just because I don't like the scent of this mask, it kind of smells like gone-off make up and beauty products and it does nothing to my skin. If I happen to have any blemishes at the time of applying the mask, they feel exactly the same after I've taken the mask off and the next day. I don't think it stops my skin from breaking out and it doesn't reduce any breakouts I already have. Just overall, is my least favourite face mask in my collection. However, this could just be me, as my skin is quite fussy on what it likes and a lot of products don't work for my skin.


8. L'Oreal Mega Volume Miss Manga Punky Mascara - £7.99
     - Normally, I love L'Oreal mascaras - the Telescopic Mascara, the Lash Architect 4D and the Volume Million Lashes are some of my favourites. But this one was a fail for me. It is a very wet formula that took ages to dry, it made my lashes very clumpy and spikey - if that's a look that you like, you will like this mascara! It feels as if the brush just puts too much product onto your lashes and you can't separate them. I understand that it is meant to be 'punky' lashes but I think they just look like messy lashes! It is definitely worth spending a few pounds more on the other L'Oreal Mascaras in my opinion. In saying that, my husband bought this for me (he intended to pick up my usual Volume Million Lashes at the time) so I gave this to a friend and she loved it so it does depend on your personal preferences.


9. MUA Lip Scrub - £3.00
    - A lot of people would say that there's no point complaining about cheap products from the drugstore, because you haven't lost much money and you can't expect amazing things. I disagree, because so many brands, including MUA and Make Up Revolution have some amazing products for very affordable prices but they also have a few products that are rubbish! This is one of their worst products, in my opinion. This doesn't really do much to exfoliate your lips, it is basically a lip balm with some sharp bits in it, which can be very scratchy on your lips if you press too hard, however, if you don't press hard enough, it doesn't do anything. It is also difficult to take off and remove all of the little exfoliating bits that it leaves behind. I've tried other lip scrubs which have had more of a gel like consistency with little exfoliating beads and these have worked much better for me.

10. L'Oreal Lumi Magique Foundation - £10.99 
   - I wrote about this foundation and showed a swatch in my Best & Worst Pale Foundations so I won't go on about it too much here, but it wasn't just the shade that put me off this foundation. It has a very liquidy formula, it has little coverage, it transfers onto everything and even with a mattifying primer, it turns into an oily mess within a few hours of wear. And on top of all of that, the lightest shade is very dark and I can't get it to match my skintone, even with a 50-50 mixture of white foundation! This disappointed me because I love the original Infallible Foundation from L'Oreal and I used to wear it every single day for years!


So hopefully I have saved you some money if you've been considering purchasing any of these items. As I said, all of the reviews and descriptions are based on my personal opinion and experiences. If you've tried any of these, let me know down in the comments whether they worked for you or not.


Sarah (aka. Pale Princess) x

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