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Most Disappointing Beauty Products [Summer 2018] Hi guys! As I was scrolling through my emails, I noticed I had multiple requests for my "most hated" beauty products, lol! {If you did not know you could request topics on my blog, click HERE to leave me your next post suggestion!} I didn't want to title my post the "most hated" products, because hate is a strong word, but these products were down right disappointing for me. For each product, I will explain why these products just didn't workout for me!

***Just a friendly reminder that the products mentioned below did not work for ME, but that may not be the case for you. If I mention a product that you love, please do not get offended. If it works for you, that's great! Everybody has different skin types, Also, just because I don't like a certain product from a particular brand does NOT mean the entire brand itself isn't good.***

Thanks for reading and let me know if you like posts like these! I could start making this a seasonal series?!

Smashbox Photo Finish Primer Oil

I wanted to love this primer because I had never tried an "oil" primer before. I love innovative products, but I was very skeptical going into it. The reviews online are AMAZING, so I didn't mind the higher price tag than Smashbox's usual primers. I tested this in both the summer and the winter time and this just didn't work. It took a longer time to absorb into my skin and my foundation laid on top of this so unnaturally. Throughout the day, I noticed my foundation on my nose was completely gone, even though this product claims it works for dry to combination skin.

Stila One Step Correct Primer

This primer claims to brighten, nourish, AND color correct your skin... sign me up right? I noticed it's hard to get an even mixture of all 3 colors when you pump it out so sometimes you'll get 90% of the pearly white color, and sometimes it's all green. You have to examine what kind of pump you get every time so that you can decide where to put it on your face. Most women have redness in their most-oily spots because that's where we breakout the most. So because this primer has green and a pearly color in it, you are color-correcting your red, oily areas, but also illuminating them, which is not what I want.

If the name doesn't lure you in, I don't know what will. When my face is clear but I want a little something, I typically want a CC cream or sheer foundation. I saw this product heavily advertised on Instagram showing the before and afters, and I was all for this. However, it never dried down on my skin, leaving me feeling sticky. One thing I cannot stand is trying to set your face with a powder when your foundation is wet because the powder clings and doesn't blend out. I also noticed having to go back in and blend out brush streaks because they showed really bad.

Milani Conceal + Perfect 2-in-1 Foundation + Concealer

I love the finish and the coverage of this foundation! Plus, it's under $10... um YES please. However, this foundation has the worst color range I've ever seen. Even before I was pale, the lightest color was too dark on me. A lot of their colors have a very yellow undertone. Even my olive complexioned friends complained that this was too yellow. They only have 14 shades, but they have 2 colors for deeper skin tones and I don't support brands that don't cater to dark skin.

Estee Lauder Double Wear Stay In Place Makeup

I wore this foundation once and after a few hours, my skin was itchy and sensitive, which is very unlike my skin. You could see through my makeup that my skin was starting to look lumpy, like I was covering a cystic, under-the-skin breakout. After working at Sephora, I have learned from my peers that this foundation has similar ingredients that are found in acrylic paint, which is not good for your skin long term. Definitely would not recommend this foundation personally, but it is one of the highest reviewed foundations on select websites.

Anastasia Beverly Hills Subculture Palette

The colors in this palette are everything! However, the scandals that went viral on the internet about this palette were all true. If you don't know what I'm talking about, search "Anastasia Subculture Fall Out" on YouTube and I'm sure you'll have a selection to choose from. Fall out has never bothered me with an eyeshadow and I can usually look past it if the color blends out and my eyelook is great at the finish. However, this palette is messy and gently dipping your brush into it makes powder go everywhere. It looked muddy and patchy on my eyes, and I had to really work to get a decent eyelook that I wasn't too proud of. I know these are always on sale at Sephora and Ulta and ABH apologized for their lab inconsistencies. I would suggest their Modern Renaissance or Soft Glam palettes because those are amazing formulas that never had a bad batch!

Origins Checks and Balances Frothy Face Wash

I bought this right before I started working at Sephora as a teenager, feeling so high and mighty because I was using my first "expensive" face wash. When washing off with warm water, my fingers would cling to my skin and I couldn't smoothly massage my face. I remember my skin being so tight and dry, even after a moisturizer and my makeup CLUNG to these dry spots. I befriended this guy named Tyler at Sephora who worked in Skin {For my Lexington ladies, he still works there and will get your skin looking RIGHT} and I was telling him about my skin having no life. I was blaming it on the winter weather but when I told him I was using this face wash, he gasped and said, "That's why!" He went on to tell me that he was highly against some of the ingredients and that this strips the oil from your skin.


Let the hate reign in. I know this is a cult classic and I know many people own this. This was my first eyeshadow palette I owned that wasn't from drugstore back in the day. I thought it was EVERYTHING and I used it all the time. Fast forward to now, having tried hundreds of other eyeshadow palettes, these are one of my least favorite "higher-end" palettes you can buy. Compared to new eyeshadow palettes that have come out over the last 3-4 years, the formula of the Naked 2 isn't high quality to me anymore. Even swatching the colors now gets me unexcited because the pigment just isn't there. The "foiled" shadows are sheer and glittery and not to mention this palette is actually so expensive compared to the pricing of similar brand's palettes. I think it was a very great palette at the peak of its popularity, but it has been out for several, several years and they never reformulated this palette. Newer palettes and better formulations have been created over the years and this couldn't keep up.

Morphe Continuous Setting Mist

This is one I was the most bummed about. A lot of my favorite beauty YouTubers rave about this but it just didn't do it for me. I really wanted a $15 setting spray because it's half the cost of my personal favorite, All-Nighter Setting Spray. The mist is fine and light, in the aerosol can but man, I don't see it doing anything. For weeks of using on and off, I was trying to say "I think it made my makeup last longer," but it really doesn't do anything dramatically noticeable. I feel like you have to use a ton to touch your entire face, and the can starts feeling very light weight and empty so I'm not sure how many uses you actually get. This is "fine" for a day-to-day, indoor wear, but I don't reach for this if it's hot outside, or if I'm going to be wearing makeup for extended periods of time. I find that I get more oily and when I try blotting, it takes some of my makeup off. By the end of the day, msot of my skin is peaking through my foundation.

Fenty Beauty Killawatt Freestyle Highlighter

Again, another amazingly reviewed and raved about item but I wasn't a fan. When my order arrived in the mail, I got this out and swatched it immediately. It was not as "full" coverage for a highlighter that I am used to and it came off glittery. I got the second lightest shade. One the face, it was blinding with some lighting angles, but looking at me straight on, you could see the color sitting on top of my blush. I like my highlight to look like a wet, glowing beam on my face. Not a colored powder on my face. It also extenuated texture on the skin.

Loreal Voluminous Lash Paradise Mascara

This mascara was very over-hyped on the internet and I was dying to try this. I love the way this makes my lashes look and I was confident I had found my new favorite mascara. However, throughout the day, I noticed a spotted, grey discoloration under my eyes {with makeup on} and some mascara transfer in the outer corner of my eyes. No matter if I heavily baked my undereyes, this mascara bleeds and transfers throughout the day and there are a lot better drugstore mascaras that don't do this to me.

Make Up For Ever Pro Bronze Fusion Bronzer

I had high expectations for this product and it didn't live up to what I wanted it to be. I am pretty pale and I own the darkest shade, 35I, which is "ideal" for tan-to-dark skin tones. In what world?! There is a wavy design engraved into the pan, and I know a lot of people have a hard time getting product onto their brush. You can't just dab your brush in like usual, you have to move it in a figure 8 motion "against" the grain, which is what I was taught from a MUFE Rep at Sephora. If you don't do this, the product does not leave the pan. This isn't user friendly which is why it's a no from me.

Benefit Cheek and Lip Stain

This product is my biggest WTF for me. It is basically a watery nail polish, but it's a blush. I found that this can be very pretty for a natural day with no face makeup, but if I'm not going to wear foundation, I am definitely not putting on blush. With makeup, I have tried this blush directly on top of my foundation and I have tried it on top of my setting powder and neither way worked. I used small dots and tried blending it out. The product blended out and didn't separate my other makeup, but you could still see the darker, stained circles where I had originally placed the product before blending.


I hope this was a helpful post so that you could not only see my beauty product fails, but also learn more about why exactly these products didn't work out for me. I tried to not overwhelm you with too many products, so if you like posts like this one, let me know in the comments or email and I can start making more like these! I always am trying new makeup and the list is always growing. I hope everyone has a great day and let me know what products didn't work for you!

Posted by Sarah Moorhead at 7/10/2018