Many times. I have had some real disasters. Long time ago there was a moisturizer that had just come out from Neutrogena I wanted to try. This was back in the day when manufacturers still put paba into products. We had taken a short trip and I saw some of the new moisturizer in a drugstore. I bought it and went back to the hotel where curiosity got the better of me and I decided to go ahead and try this new stuff out. Five minutes later it had begun to itch. Fortunately for me I had some Dove beauty bar we had brought along. I washed everything off my skin, but it was too late. For the next 2 weeks I had a nasty flaming red rash that was just under the surface of the skin everywhere that moisturizer had touched. Did I mention I am allergic to paba? That is how I found out.

Oh I didn't learn my lesson that time. A few years later I let a cousin talk me into letting her do a make-over on me! Start to finish all new products I had never used before....let's just say never again? Flaming red rash, just like with the paba. Dove to the rescue again. (The pediatrician had told us to bathe our daughter in nothing but Dove so we always had it on hand.)

Now I do things one new product at a time. So far so good.

My latest new thing to try is Skinceuticals 0.5% retinol. No bad reaction the first night. I will see how it goes!

Question:  between 1) urban decay's 24/7 waterproof liners (two very different colors, both of which contain shimmer) and 2) shu uemura basic black mascara (which I wore at the same time as each of the two different liners)--which is more likely to be irritating to my eyes?  I lean toward the mascara only because my eyes seem to feel okay until I've applied that.  Again, it's not major irritation, but not 100% comfortable either.  FYI, I only apply the liners below the lash line, I don't line my waterline.
I'll probably just have to do a test by switching to a clinique mascara that I've used before without a problem, or skipping the mascara altogether to see if that helps at all.  I'll be really upset if it's the shimmer in the UD liners b/c I've shelled out for the set of 15 of them (most of which have shimmer).  But I'm not jumping to any conclusions yet...

I agree, it will come down to experimentation.  I'm going to try one of the liners today with the clinique mascara and see how it goes.  I do tend to think (although I hate to) that it's the shimmer in the products physically/mechanically irritating my skin and eyes.  If so, it may come down to adding another product to seal the liner.  The UD liners are waterproof, but there may still be shimmer that falls out.  I have trish mcevoy's finish line eye--a waterproofing treatment--but I'm not sure how to use it with a pencil liner.  Normally, you'd use it with a brush that you dip in the product and then use it to make a powder shadow/liner into a liquid liner.  But I think you can brush it over a pencil liner to seal it, just not sure how.  With powder liners that contain shimmer/glitter, the finish line product made all the difference between the product being extremely irritating if I just brushed it on [because product was falling in my eyes] and completely wearable with no problems if I used the finish line.
P.S.  I'm usually minimalist with makeup, so I actually have limited mascara experience.  I used the shu uemura basic before in the dark brown color and it was all right, but a waterproof bright blue mascara they make was mildly irritating to me.  I remember using the clinique before without any problems, so I got a tube of that to try.

Agreed, neither of the mascaras I have that I would use regularly are waterproof.  I only bought the blue one in waterproof because the color was so stunning...
So, here's my update--it is the shimmer/glitter in the eyeliner and not the mascara.  I did okay most of the day today using a different mascara.  But when it reached that point in the day when the shimmer/glitter started to fall off into my eye, it was bad.  I was practically crying until my eye had flushed out the offending particles.  So I'm discouraged, because I have a big box full of these gorgeous shimmery eyeliners.  I will ask at the trish mcevoy counter if there's a way to use their finish line product to seal the eye pencil so it can't fall off into my eye--again, it worked like a charm with the shimmery/glittery powder that trish mcevoy makes [completely kept it from falling out onto my eye], I just don't know if there's a practical way to use it with eye pencils.  The only other possible culprit that I have to rule out is the urban decay eye primer [I got the color "sin" which also has shimmer in it, apparently in makeup years I'm 13 lol].  I probably need to try the pencil liner without the primer on and see if the problem persists.
 
 

Thanks as always Lindygirl for the suggestions! I will try my mineral powder on the eyes. Right now I'm using a powder eye sunscreen from colorescience, but my mineral makeup has a pretty decent spf so it might kill two birds w/ one stone. I think ultimately I'll go back to my old routine w/ minimal eye makeup and mineral makeup only on my face. The liquid makeup from Bobbi Brown did okay on my skin for a day or so at a time, but I can't use it daily. Yesterday--in addition to the eyeliner debacle--I used the liquid foundation for the second day in a row, and I got a rosacea flare which never happens unless I do something that makes my skin unhappy. But I would like to find a way if I can to wear those urban decay liners for when I want to dress up my look. I can relate to your use of the wet and wild--I also like cream eyeshadow more and more (especially b/c my lids are so, so oily it's the only thing that will stay on).

I also think mineral makeup gets a bad rap b/c people don't take the time to prep their skin and perhaps apply the powder too heavily. But maybe it also isn't the greatest for very dry skin types. The way I prep for my mineral makeup is to use a fair amount of a moisturizing sunscreen (combined mineral/chemical). It isn't a primer, but it does add a bit of a sheen, has a little opacity to it b/c of the mineral sunblocks in it that evens my skin tone a little bit, and keeps the makeup from looking dry or matte. I was in sephora one day and one of the salespeople was very surprised that what I was wearing came in a powder form--if your skin is well moisturized first, it really just blends into your skin and almost looks like a tinted moisturizer.