Opinion | Makeup collabs and collections have gotten out of hand

Makeup collaborations and joint collections nowadays feel so overdone. It’s almost as if there’s a new collection coming out every few weeks, and there’s just not as much excitement over it. This is probably due to the fact that it’s become so common that we don’t really see anything special in it anymore. Recent makeup collections and collaborations seem like such an obvious cash grab. Any collab or product that a brand comes out with is for the sake of money, though, so that’s not where the main issue lies. It’s when the brand or company chooses to collaborate with another brand or company that has absolutely nothing to do with makeup or beauty at all. The collections they come out with just look and feel so childish and gimmicky. Not only that, but it also heavily promotes overconsumption. 

Take, for example, some of the more recent collections brands have come out with — Colourpop x Naruto, e.l.f. Cosmetics x American Eagle, Glamlite x Rick and Morty, Makeup Revolution x Disney Monsters Inc — and, as I am writing this column, Makeup Revolution’s Grease collection just dropped today, Aug. 30. That’s two collections in one month! 

Whether you’re an influencer or just a regular person, no one person needs 30 eyeshadow palettes, 50 lipsticks and lip glosses or 10 of the same blending brush. It’s just not realistic for anyone to use all of them. Chances are, we buy the new collections and collabs for the hype, use them for like 2 weeks and then forget they exist. Influencers such as Laura Lee, Trixie Mattel and Tati Westbrook even made YouTube videos showing themselves decluttering their collection of makeup. Most of it gets tossed. Their accumulation of makeup products over the past several years has made it near impossible to use most of them regularly. Some do get donated and given to family and friends, but many are tossed. No one wants a used product from several years ago that’s most definitely expired. And at that point, what else could you do with it besides throwing it out?

The endless collabs and collections with brands that are pretty much irrelevant to the beauty industry are getting out of hand. They get their 30 seconds of excitement before everyone moves on to the next new thing and the products are never used again. Cosmetics companies are capitalizing off the increased desire to keep up with the trends. They exploit our fear of missing out (FOMO) by marketing products as “limited edition” or “almost gone” in order to get us to buy another thing we probably don’t need. The more we buy, the more we end up throwing away. This fast-paced cycle can create a lot of unnecessary waste, especially since most cosmetics products and packaging are not easily recycled or resold. Most makeup products come in single use containers, which makes it more difficult to reuse the container and be eco-friendly. According to Zero Waste, the global cosmetics industry is responsible for over 120 billion units of packaging produced every year, and a large majority of these are women’s health and beauty products. 

Makeup collaborations and collections were super hyped up and they felt special. Back in the 2010s, they were the hot topic. I remember when the Becca x Jaclyn Hill ‘Champagne Pop’ highlighter came out and every middle school girl was scouring Sephora for it. Even as we go later into the 2010s — the Jeffree Star x Manny Mua collection, NikkieTutorials x Ofra, Nicole Guerriero x Anastasia Beverly Hills and even the James Charles Morphe palette — collections and collab items were still super sought after and exciting. 

Collabs back then didn’t happen very often. But when it did, it was with beauty guru youtubers with massive followings and with makeup brands at their peak popularity. The collabs actually made sense. Makeup brands and companies did them with people whose jobs were talking about makeup and all things beauty related. When beauty creators made their collab announcements, you can tell that it was something they were passionate about and put a lot of thought and effort into. It felt a lot more personal. It wasn’t just about making money. 

It’s sad to see how something that once was breaking the internet is now barely making a splash. The oversaturation of the beauty industry today has diminished a lot of what made makeup collaborations and collections special. Many other people are also picking up on this feeling. 

I wouldn’t be surprised if by the time this gets published, Trendmood posts about five new random makeup collections. Will the 2010s makeup hype era ever come back? I don’t know. But all I know is that for the meantime, I would rather use my five year old Morphe 35C eyeshadow palette than to buy a new one just for some “limited edition” packaging and has the same shades I already own from another palette.