Without wishing to harp back to the Becca Jaclyn Hill episode where some of the eyeshadows in the now withdrawn palette were of a differing quality, it has made me think to take a longer look at how consumers can do their own homework on their favourite products. If it wasn’t for blogger/vlogger testing putting the eyeshadow palette to use, it’s possible no discrepancies would have come to light.
So, one of my readers, with a science background, @declairelegenou, who is very well researched on the subject has given me a few pointers and examples on how to Google beauty ingredients for like or same products across brands. This is not a post about naming names, but more to enable you as the consumer to learn if you wish to do so. For many, many people, it doesn’t matter at all, but I know that BBB readers are hot on ingredients, so thought it was worth flagging up.
To explain a bit – a product’s ingredient listing will list from the highest quantity ingredient in the product all the way through to the lowest. So, on many skincare products, you will see Aqua (water) listed as the ingredient there is most of within a certain product. The exception to this is Asian beauty – those products are not required to list in highest to lowest order. I think we have to understand that most beauty products have a similar basic recipe – ingredient quality might change, but it’s the same principle a baking a cake..it all starts with eggs, flour and sugar. It’s what happens after that that will decide whether it’s a chocolate cake or a Victoria sponge.
Claire’s method of research is to copy and paste the ingredients in the order they are listed (important) right up to preservatives (which makes up about 1% of any product, so anything following that is likely to be negligible) into Google search, and see which products crop up. From there, you may well see further similarities down the line to the point of the product being the same.
In this example, pulled from Google search, you’ll see that the product ingredients for both eye pencils are identical up to small colourant difference and yet one brand charges double the other.
- Isododecane, Sythetic Wax, Hydrogenated Polydicyclopentadiene, PEG/PPG-18/18 Dimethicone, Polybutene, Glyceryl Tribehenate/Isostearate/Eicosandioate, Nylon-12, Polyethylene, Perfluorononyl Dimethicone, Polyglyceryl-4 Diisostearate/Polyhydroxystearate/Sebacate, Synthetic Beeswax, Pearl Powder (Margarita Powder), Copernicia Cerifera (Carnauba) Wax (Copernicia Cerifera Cera), Pentaerythrityl Tetra-Di-T-Butyl Hydroxyhydrocinnamate, Mica (CI 77019) [May Contain: Iron Oxides (CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499)]
- ISODODECANE, SYNTHETIC WAX, HYDROGENATED POLYDICYCLOPENTADIENE, PEG/PPG-18/18 DIMETHICONE, POLYBUTENE, GLYCERYL TRIBEHENATE/ISOSTEARATE/EICOSANDIOATE, NYLON-12, POLYETHYLENE, PERFLUORONONYL DIMETHICONE, POLYGLYCERYL-4 DIISOSTEARATE/POLYHYDROXYSTEARATE/SEBACATE, SYNTHETIC BEESWAX, PENTAERTHRITYL TETRA-DI-T-BUTYL, HYDROXYCINNAMATE, COPERNICIA CERIFERA (CARNAUBA) WAX +/-: MICA, (CI 77019), TITANIUM DIOXIDE (CI 77891), IRON OXIDES (CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499), FERRIC FERROCYANIDE (CI 77510)
Knowing this allows you to make choices – for example, one of the big areas of similarity is eye and lip pencils. The formulas are incredibly similar across many brands, if not all. So, you can make your purchasing choice by spending less on an eye pencil, for example, knowing it’s more or less the same thing whatever brand you buy from, and have more to spend on something else. Beauty economics at play here!
BUT… and there is a huge but coming along: even if the ingredient list is exactly, to the letter the same, there is no guarantee that the ingredient quality is the same. In some cases it will be the same and in others, it won’t. You will only ever know through physical trial and error – higher grade ingredients will often just ‘feel’ better. Ingredient grading differs for a number of reasons – brands may choose the ingredient with the least contaminants, or the longest shelf life, for example or may go down the costing route, where other factors aren’t as important as keeping prices down. I’ve spoken with several formulators and they all agree that different brands use different quality ingredients which can have a direct result of the efficacy and texture of the product.
Being your own beauty super sleuth is down to meticulous research – it’s not really a quick thing – but with sites like Sephora listing full ingredients now, it is at least a bit easier to tackle that research if you want to. It’s definitely worth doing if you have a couple of make up products fom differing brands that ‘feel’ the same – a quick check can tell you if they are.
Transparency Disclosure
All products are sent to me as samples from brands and agencies unless otherwise stated. Affiliate links may be used. Posts are not affiliate driven.
10 comments
Great post, I find all this stuff really fascinating. Just to complicate matters, it looks like Korean beauty products don’t have to have their ingredients listed in the order of quantity. For those of us who buy Korean skincare, this is important but all part of the game I guess. This post from a US blogger explains it well http://www.fanserviced-b.com/south-korean-vs-u-s-cosmetic-ingredient-list-order-differences/
Jane, we might add that the ingredient order rule is only true for American made products (I think). Asian beauty products have ingredient listing regulations of a different type.
thanks for that reminder… I will pop it into the post because you are right.. it’s an important point.
That’s really interesting. I’ve often wondered whether we are just being sold the same thing in different packaging and I guess we often are! But I agree that it’s a case of trial and error and finding out what works for you. For example I love the Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliners because they go on so smoothly even if the products listed are the same as others!
JH | hellojenniferhelen.com
Jane this is such a good post! Yes, the qty of ingreadiants could be different but it’s still a pretty damn good reasearch. Especially let’s say if you had a feeling that products are similar you can compare and then make a descision on what to re-purchase etc.
Great post! However, could there be differencies also regarding how specific ingredients are handled? So is the making process same for an eye pencil (heat, pressing etc) no matter which brand?
I’ve also heard that there are also like two or three factories in the world who even make lip liners, so since the production lines are limited there isn’t so much variation as in other products.
I guess there could.. but there isn’t much ‘different’ handling required to be honest… if it is one, say, khol, then the methods will pretty much all be the same.. there are some brands that have their own factories and production, others that farm out to several factories – there are many more than three globally.
I’m so glad to see that the research discussion is continuing! I have a question: how do you get around google’s 32 word limit for queries? Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me sort this out.
I never had any problem doing the cut-paste on Google search box, regardless how long. I wonder if this only happen in some instances? Can you explain how you do your search (i.e. do you google from the google.com, or just simply cut-paste and paste them on the URL box on your browser — which I often do, also without any problem). Thanks!
Great post! Half way through reading I was going ‘yea, but quality of ingredients…’ and then you of course mentioned it, because you are meticulous like that 🙂 I do really look at ingredients, but it is a project once you start getting into it. On the one hand when it comes to products like lip glosses, at a certain price point I’m honest with myself in that I can admit that I want it for the packaging. However it’s really hard to tell the quality until you’ve bought it and been wearing it (I’m not testing a lip gloss in a shop) which is where the makeup gamble comes into play.