Disappointing High-End Beauty Products/Not Worth the Hype

Sometimes you buy into the hype of a product and then once you get your hands on it, it's a dud. For some reason when it is a high-end product, I just can't let it go. It ends up sitting in my makeup collection for months on end collecting dust. I reach for it periodically thinking that for some miracle reason, it is going to work for me that day. Sadly, that doesn't happen too often.

When I purged my collection last year, I couldn't bear to part with these super-expensive but never touched products. Last week, I returned them all. This is my dirty secret guys; After years and years of working customer service, I know that you can pretty much return anything. Sephora has a fantastic return policy. You can return any opened product as long as you have used less than 1/3 of the product (which is still tons!). If you do not have a receipt or even packaging (like me!), they will offer you an exchange. Which means you can exchange it for anything else in the store (they used to offer a gift card but recently stopped this policy). I know some people frown upon this, but if I bought something and no longer have the receipt and I don't use it, why keep it? Might as well trade that bad boy in. These are the products that I was holding on to and decided finally let go of.

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Dim Light: I know, this is basically blasphemy. This just did nothing for me. I swear by my MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural. It is my holy grail face powder. The Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder just didn't blow my mind. This powder retails for $52CAN. I think part of the problem is that Dim Light is yellow-toned and it actually ended up making me look kind of Simpson-ish. It just was not worth the hype for me, or the price tag. I grabbed for it maybe twice within the last year that I owned it, and only out of force. Don't miss you Dim Light.

BB Prep Spray: I picked this up because it said it was a good dentangler. Obviously, it never met my lion's mane before. I had to use so much of this product to get it to do anything. And even then, it was not detangling enough. Since then I have tried the Not Your Mother's Knotty to Nice Conditioning Detangler and I never looked back. This baby knows how to handle my crazy hair. The BB Prep spray was nothing by lackluster. It might work if you just have normal hair, but if you have kinky, curly hair like me, stay away.

NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Train Bleu: NARS Cosmetics is probably my favourite high-end makeup brand. They are fabulous. This is a beautiful deep purple colour, which is basically my crack. I actually recently bought this and it is just too close to the MAC Lipstick in Cyber for me to justify to keep them both in my collection (and I Back to MAC'd for Cyber, so it was free!). I also find the NARS Matte Velvet lip pencils to be a little too drying for me to be able to wear very often. I own Cruella and the colour is to die-for. But this just wasn't worth it based on what I already own. Instead, I traded it in for a NARS Audacious lipstick, which are my absolute favourite lipstick formulation, ever.

Urban Decay Revolution Lipstick in Rapture: I like the formulation of these lipsticks, but none of them stood out as being a unique colour except for this one. I thought it would be a great colour to wear every day. I must have forgot that I hate every-day colours. This just didn't look good on me and I never reached for it. I also find that this formulation is slightly too glossy for me. It's honestly not glossy at all, but I am all about that matte finish.

Smashbox Full Exposure Travel Palette: I picked this up because it is so cute and was only $23CAN, which is a fabulous price for 6 high-end eyeshadows. But, I just never found myself reaching for this palette. I own SO MANY neutral eyeshadows (it is actually quite ridiculous). I found the mattes to be beautiful, but the shimmers were a little too much on the glittery side for me personally. I reached for it like 2 times in 4 months, so she had to go.

I traded all of these babies in, which was a $170 credit. I picked up a YSL Foundation, Nars Blush, Nudestix Lip and Cheek Pencil, Urban Decay setting spray and a NARS Audacious lipstick and ended up owing only $27.00! Too good to be true. If you feel sketchy or regretful for returning the items that you don't use, just think of all the products you can add to your collection that you would actually use !

Just a heads up, when you return things without a receipt they do take your ID and put your information into their system. So don't make a habit of it. But it is definitely something to consider if you have some makeup that is still in great shape because you never reach for it. Hope this was helpful for you guys and please reserve judgement!