Just because your favourite foundation has been discontinued, doesn’t mean you’ll have a bottle-shaped hole in your make-up bag forever. Reddit is filled with hundreds of posts asking fellow users to help them track down a discontinued product. While others make pleas offering payment for anybody willing to post their last samples.

Many major beauty companies also offer initiatives to help customers track down any last samples of discontinued products still knocking about, such as Estée Lauder Companies’ Gone But Not Forgotten (GBNF) scheme. “[We] understand that having a most-loved product discontinued can be frustrating, and searching for a replacement can be daunting and time consuming,” reads the GBNF customer page. “We offer our consumers the opportunity to search for products that have been discontinued within 24 months through the Gone But Not Forgotten Programme.” To initiate a search, all you have to do is email gonebutnotfortten@esteelauder.co.uk and the Estée Lauder team will hunt high and low across 21 beauty brands for any last remaining products. It’s worth a shot; 200 products are sent out to fans in the UK every month.

“It always feels good to get hold of certain skin products, like moisturiser, that a consumer cannot live without,” says Jessica Danson, dedicated lead for UK Gone But Not Forgotten. “When I tell them we have it available, you can hear in their voice how much it means and how much confidence the product brings to them.”

Why beauty products get discontinued and how to track them down