And most of it has already been reviewed to death by other beauty bloggers / vloggers because it’s all about the latest and the greatest… I swear, I probably made a blog post similar to this at some point last year but I can’t remember and I don’t feel any motivation to go through my older entries just to see if I did. But it’s a topic worth mentioning again because I see more and more people trying to jump the beauty bandwagon in the online makeup community, hoping to be the next hit guru. Even if they voice the opposite.

Am I gonna stand on my soap box and preach to them that it’s a futile attempt, that they (as well as me) are too late on arriving to the scene and that they would either need a massive amount of money or lots of PR to keep up with the Joneses? Nah, I’ve done that enough last year. While I’m typing away the second blog entry of 2017, I find myself looking at my massive makeup collection. 5 rows of an door-hanging shoe rack filled with lots of lip, eye, and face products of varying companies.

At one point, I had the intention of tearing through these products everyday and filming a vlog entry / typing a blog entry review for them. But most of the brands I own were already reviewed many times over by people who had the means of purchasing them and reviewing them before I acquired the power to do so. And reviews on the latest releases, either in reddit format or vlog format, have already been done before I even realize that there were new products.

That’s when I started to feel bothered, so I turned to my makeup collection again on a whim. And that’s when I had my eureka moment: recalling a remark on reddit somewhere, someone pointed out the fallacy of coming up with different highlighter shades. The person thought it was silly that there are so many different types of highlighters (or bronzers. I can’t remember which one) when they are all going to end up looking the same way on the face.

In fact, I own bronzers from e.l.f, Colourpop, Kiko Milano, theBalm, NYX, and Laura Geller. What made me take the earlier comment about bronzers or highlighters to heart was the fact that there are countless dupe videos in which expensive products are used on one half and replicated with their cheaper counterparts. It’s needless to say that quality is going to be the key argument to this – some brands are just better than others. So then why are we so obsessed with the idea of dupes? Why are we bent on constantly finding products that are similar to each other in terms of the final result but significantly different price wise?

If I already got a bronzer from e.l.f, why should I go out of my way and buy theBalm’s Bahama Mama, which costs greatly more, if they’re going to end up looking the same on my face? Sure, I may need less of the Bahama Mama on my face because it’s far more pigmented than e.l.f’s (disclaimer: I haven’t tested this to be true, hence the word may), but who would know it at first glance?

I guess that’s why I just never tried to catch up with the Joneses by trying to buy the latest makeup release and whipping up a review before anyone else does. Of course, there’s also the fact that some people receive PR packages so they can whip up frenzy for the new release to their followers by getting a vlog / blog out there as fast as possible.

The next entry’s most likely going to be a quick review on the Revlon Lip Lacquer. I think I filmed a vlog review for it, but with my plans for the channel, I’d rather keep the product reviews here. I find that I articulate myself better if I type instead of filming my thoughts.