Cult Beauty Products: What's Worth It and What's Just Hype?

In the cosmetics industry, hype is everything. Word of mouth can change the fortunes of a simple beauty product, transforming it from face cream to bona fide miracle worker. The status of "cult" is the ultimate height an item can reach. Once it has earned the public's trust, it sells itself for free—and better than any advertising campaign ever devised. You rarely see ads for Creme de La Mer or Maybelline Great Lash Mascara—although they still sell like hotcakes decades after they first hit the market. Women have begged, borrowed, and stolen to obtain certain cosmetics that they believe in so completely. But just because popular opinion says something is fabulous, doesn't actually make it so. For every genuinely awesome, you-must-try-this mascara or nail polish out there, there's an equally well-known lemon. Here's an objective round up of the ones worth the title, and others that are just running on their rep. —Charlotte Rudge, Shine Staff