Cosmetic chemist Kelly Dobos has been challenged to compare different types of blush. Can she figure out which are the most expensive products? Kelly uses her high-level of expertise to break down these compounds through tests of visual cues, application and melt to put together an extremely educated guess. How many will she get right? Watch to find out!
Director: Noël Jean
Director of Photography: Dominik Czaczyk
Cosmetic Chemist: Kelly Dobos
Coordinating Producers: Sydney Malone and Nikola Jocic
Casting Producer: Nicole Ford
Camera Operator / Gaffer: Lucas Vilicich
Sound Mixer: Kari Barber
Production Assistant: Sasha Bottitta
Production Designer: Cedar Jocks
Director: Noël Jean
Director of Photography: Dominik Czaczyk
Cosmetic Chemist: Kelly Dobos
Coordinating Producers: Sydney Malone and Nikola Jocic
Casting Producer: Nicole Ford
Camera Operator / Gaffer: Lucas Vilicich
Sound Mixer: Kari Barber
Production Assistant: Sasha Bottitta
Production Designer: Cedar Jocks
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:02 A higher price tag in makeup doesn't always
00:04 mean higher quality.
00:05 I'm about to be presented with pairs of mystery blushes.
00:08 And after a series of tests, I'll
00:10 try to determine which was the most expensive.
00:12 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:15 Product A, I notice a nice, smooth, even finish.
00:23 I don't really see any surface glazing.
00:25 This looks to be a really nice product.
00:27 Surface glazing occurs when there's too much of a binder
00:31 used in a powder product.
00:33 And it creates kind of a shiny appearance on the surface.
00:36 When I inspect product B, I notice
00:39 that it is a little more dull than product A.
00:42 However, the pigment looks very even.
00:45 So it looks to be a fairly nice product as well.
00:49 Before I apply a powder blush, or any powder product
00:52 for that matter, I apply a primer.
00:53 Primers are made with silicone polymers
00:55 that help grip the powder product on your face.
00:58 I'm looking to see how much product is picked up
01:00 on the brush and how much is applied to the skin.
01:04 It feels very soft and smooth and blends easily.
01:08 I really like the feel of this product.
01:09 Most blushes don't really have a whole lot of coverage
01:12 because you want a natural appearance on the cheek,
01:15 unlike, say, a foundation or a concealer product
01:18 where we're trying to hide something on the skin.
01:20 I notice this product feels extremely smooth and soft,
01:23 really indicating that there's some high quality
01:25 filler materials.
01:26 Now on to product B. This one doesn't
01:29 seem to be picking up as much product on the brush.
01:32 So I feel like this one might be a little harder to apply.
01:35 I'm not noticing as much color being deposited.
01:38 I feel like I'd have to apply quite a bit of this product
01:41 to get the color I want.
01:42 Now I'm going to do a dusting test.
01:48 A dusting test is really going to show me
01:50 how much of the product actually moves from the pan
01:53 onto the brush.
01:54 And I'll start with product A. So I'm
01:56 going to take the brush and swirl it
01:58 around in the product a few times.
02:00 Then I'm going to tap it off on the paper.
02:02 You can see in this product, I've
02:03 got quite a bit of powder that dusted off onto the paper.
02:07 And there's actually some sitting on the product as well.
02:10 You really don't want a lot of your powder being distributed
02:13 all over the place.
02:14 So you're wasting powder when you're using the blush.
02:17 Now we're going to test product B.
02:19 I'm going to swirl the brush in the blush
02:22 the same amount of times.
02:23 Unfortunately, this one doesn't have a whole lot of pickup.
02:25 So I'm not seeing much of the product dust.
02:28 But it's also not transferring to the brush as well either.
02:31 So that indicates to me that this
02:33 might be a little bit of a lower quality product
02:36 because I'm not getting the transfer from the product
02:39 to the brush that I would like to see.
02:41 This particular product might have a higher level of fillers
02:45 or a lower level of pigment, as indicated by a lighter
02:49 shade of the product.
02:51 Based on the feel, based on the pigment levels,
02:55 I really think product A is the more expensive product.
02:58 Now let's look at the price.
02:59 Product A is $26.
03:01 Product B is $6.49.
03:03 Definitely feels-- that one feels a lot nicer.
03:06 On this one, I was right.
03:08 Product A is probably a higher tier cost product.
03:12 Product B would be more in the range
03:13 of a product I might buy at a drugstore or grocery store.
03:17 I really preferred product A. It had great color payoff.
03:20 And it felt really soft on my skin.
03:22 I think this product really delivers.
03:24 Key ingredients that helped product A perform the way it
03:27 did were boron nitride and talc.
03:29 Talc is the primary filler, a low-cost filler
03:33 that's used in just about every powder product.
03:36 Because it's low cost doesn't necessarily
03:38 mean that it's a bad material.
03:40 Talc is actually one of the softest materials
03:42 we can use as a filler in cosmetics.
03:44 So it's really useful.
03:46 But I also noticed that the fourth ingredient
03:49 is indeed boron nitride, which I thought
03:51 I could tell by skin feel.
03:53 Boron nitride also has optical blurring effects on the skin.
03:56 So it helps reduce the appearance of pores
03:58 and blemishes as well.
04:00 Boron nitride is also a more expensive ingredient.
04:03 So it's going to be used in more prestige products.
04:07 In looking at the ingredients for product B,
04:09 I also noticed talc is the number one filler
04:12 in the product.
04:13 Fillers can be up to about 60% of a powder product.
04:17 So they really contribute a lot to the skin feel
04:20 as well as the cost.
04:21 There are some other materials used in here
04:24 as fillers, like synthetic floroflogopite,
04:26 one of my favorite words to say in cosmetic ingredients.
04:29 Synthetic floroflogopite is synthetic mica.
04:32 And while it's useful as a filler
04:34 because it's highly transparent, it also
04:37 is a lot harder in skin feel than something like talc.
04:40 So it may be contributing somewhat
04:42 to the increased compaction of product B.
04:47 And maybe somewhat contributing to the fact
04:50 that it didn't transfer as well to the brush.
04:52 Let's try some cream blushes.
04:58 When I look at product A, I see a nice smooth finish.
05:01 It also looks like it has a lot of chroma or high intensity
05:04 of the pigment.
05:05 When I look at product B, it also has a nice smooth finish.
05:09 It looks a little shinier.
05:10 The color on product B doesn't seem
05:12 to be as intense as product A, maybe indicating there's
05:16 lower amount of pigment.
05:17 The pigments often contribute a lot of cost to a product.
05:20 The lower amount of pigment might make
05:22 this a less expensive product.
05:24 I'm first going to try product A.
05:26 I'm going to swatch the product on my inner arm.
05:28 This product has a really bouncy skin feel.
05:31 You can see the intensity of the pigment on my skin.
05:34 I'm going to blend it with a makeup sponge.
05:36 You can see the color blends nice and smoothly.
05:38 Cream blushes contain more waterproof ingredients.
05:41 They contain a lot of waxes as well.
05:43 So they're not going to move around as much as a powder
05:45 product.
05:46 So you don't really need that grip
05:48 that comes with the primer.
05:49 Now on to product B. This product
05:51 feels a lot more oily and waxy.
05:56 And I'm needing to apply more product
05:57 to get the same level of payoff.
05:59 Now I'm going to blend it with the makeup sponge.
06:01 When using the makeup sponge, the product really blended out.
06:08 I feel like I'm going to need to apply more of this blush
06:11 to get the higher intensity color that I'm looking for.
06:13 I think product B may have some lower cost emollients,
06:17 making it a little bit more of a greasier, oilier feel
06:21 compared to product A.
06:24 Now we're going to do a melt test.
06:25 You want the product to melt on the skin.
06:28 And human skin temperature is about 36 to 37 degrees
06:31 Celsius.
06:32 But you don't want the product to melt too much
06:34 so that it slides, melts in a hot car,
06:38 or any other warm condition.
06:39 We have the hot plate set to 50 degrees Celsius, which
06:42 is above skin temperature, to see where the product melts.
06:46 We're going to start with product A.
06:48 I'm going to remove the product from the pan
06:50 and scrape it into the beaker.
06:52 The product all came out in one piece.
06:55 It was really interesting.
06:56 It has sort of a bouncy texture to it.
06:59 It was kind of springy.
07:00 And now I'm going to place it on the hot plate
07:02 and wait for it to melt.
07:04 Yeah, this one doesn't-- it's like the texture of Play-Doh
07:06 almost.
07:07 This doesn't appear to be a traditional hot pour formula.
07:11 It might mean that it's a completely different base,
07:14 like a silicone polymer.
07:15 The texture was really springy and bouncy.
07:18 And I don't think there's a whole lot of waxes at all
07:20 in this formula.
07:21 This could indicate that maybe there's
07:23 some silicone polymers or other materials in here that
07:27 would be indicative of a higher cost.
07:30 Now we're going to test product B.
07:32 This is behaving much more like a traditional wax-based
07:35 formula.
07:36 This formula behaves similar in many ways
07:39 to a lipstick-based formula stick.
07:41 It's starting to melt. I can see it on the bottom.
07:44 You can see the product starting to slide, too.
07:46 So you can see product B really melted compared
07:49 to product A, which has this really interesting texture.
07:53 It's still solid and has a pretty springy feel to it.
07:57 Because product A has a much different feel and texture,
08:02 I think this might have some unique ingredients that
08:04 contribute to that product performance.
08:06 And this might be the more expensive product.
08:08 Let's look at the price.
08:10 Cream blush A is $33.
08:12 Cream blush B is $17.
08:16 And I was right.
08:17 Product A is the more expensive product.
08:19 Product B appears to be a mid-range price for a blush,
08:23 whereas product A is definitely more a prestige price.
08:26 I preferred product A. It had a good amount of play time.
08:29 It blended easily.
08:31 And it had a good amount of pigment.
08:34 The first ingredient in product A is talc, a filler.
08:37 And I think fillers get a bad rap in most formulations.
08:40 They actually do a lot for the formula in terms
08:43 of how it feels on the skin.
08:45 And this probably contributes to a powdery skin
08:48 feel of the product.
08:49 The second ingredient is dimethicone.
08:52 And dimethicones are silicones that
08:55 give you a high amount of spreading on the skin,
08:58 allowing you to blend the product easily.
09:00 There's a dimethicone vinyl dimethicone cross polymer.
09:04 It's really what's contributing to the skin
09:06 feel and the texture, that bouncy feeling
09:09 of this particular blush.
09:10 Product B appears to be a traditional hot pour
09:13 wax-based formula.
09:15 It contains a high level of emollients,
09:17 like ethyl hexyl iso-nonanoate, and waxes like candelilla wax
09:23 and carnauba wax.
09:25 These waxes will be combined to create a lower melt
09:28 point product.
09:29 If I look further down on the ingredient list,
09:31 I see a lot of extracts.
09:33 And typically, when a lot of extracts
09:35 are put at the bottom of an ingredient statement like this,
09:38 they're what we call pixie dust.
09:40 These ingredients might make a nice claim
09:42 for the front of label.
09:44 But based on their position in the ingredient statement,
09:47 they really won't be contributing much
09:49 to the product performance.
09:50 They just sound nice on the front of the product.
09:53 Let's try some tints and stains.
09:56 When looking at a tint or stain, I'm
09:57 looking to see the intensity of the color.
10:00 Product A looks like a pretty thin liquid product.
10:04 I notice a good intensity of color.
10:07 And it does look a little tiny bit translucent, which
10:10 suggests this might contain dyes.
10:13 And there are actually a few dyes
10:15 that we can use in cosmetics that do stain the skin.
10:18 These are called fluorescein dyes.
10:20 Product B is also quite liquid.
10:21 You can see the product flow in the tube.
10:24 It looks like there's a higher intensity of color additives
10:27 in this material, because I can barely see through the product.
10:30 It's really dark.
10:32 I think this product has a higher percentage of dye
10:35 in the product because of the deeper color.
10:39 I don't use a primer with tints and stains either.
10:42 And that's typically because a tint or stain
10:44 might be primarily water-based.
10:46 And because it's water-based, it's
10:47 going to be easier to see through.
10:49 Water-based, it's going to be incompatible with the silicones
10:52 that are used in primers.
10:53 I'm going to try product A first.
10:56 I'm going to put a small amount on my arm.
10:58 This product contains dyes as opposed to pigments.
11:01 And in the cosmetics industry, we
11:03 can categorize color additives by their solubility.
11:07 So a dye is soluble in either water or another solvent
11:11 like ethanol, which is alcohol.
11:13 Or a pigment, conversely, is something that's insoluble.
11:18 Now I'll try product B. This appears
11:20 to have a lot more color.
11:22 And it feels a lot smoother.
11:24 I'm feeling some more emolliency in this product compared
11:28 to product A. It's gliding a lot more easily on the skin.
11:33 And it has a shinier appearance.
11:35 And it didn't dry quite as quickly compared to product A
11:39 as well.
11:39 And you can definitely see the difference
11:41 in the intensity of the color.
11:42 Product A did look a little bit streakier.
11:45 When I applied it to the skin, I could
11:46 see the product kind of pool into little spots on my skin
11:50 compared to product B, which was very smooth and even.
11:54 Now I'm going to do a solubility dispersibility test
11:57 to help understand more about the nature of the base
12:01 ingredients in these formulas.
12:03 I'm going to add a few drops of product A to the beaker.
12:08 And you can see the product fully dissolved,
12:10 indicating to me that this is indeed a water-based product
12:14 using water-soluble dyes.
12:15 And I would say based on the color,
12:17 this is indeed one of the fluorescein dyes
12:19 used in this product.
12:20 Fluorescein dyes actually do fluoresce.
12:23 So they will glow underneath a black light.
12:25 Let's move on to product B. Well, you
12:27 can see this behave differently.
12:29 The product sunk to the bottom.
12:31 There is some dispersion in the water itself.
12:35 And you can see the product is just kind of swirling around
12:39 on the bottom.
12:41 So this product does not appear to be entirely water-based.
12:45 It probably contains some emollients
12:47 in the base, which, because they're
12:49 more expensive than water, might make this more expensive
12:52 than the water-based product.
12:54 Now let's look at the price.
12:55 Tint A is $33.
12:57 Tint B is $4.99.
13:01 Sorry.
13:02 Tint B is $4.99.
13:04 I'm really surprised that product B is so much less
13:07 expensive than product A. Just based on the fact
13:10 that the formula contains more emollient materials that
13:16 are water-insoluble, I actually did like product B better.
13:20 It had a longer play time to distribute the product
13:23 and blend it in, whereas product A dried really quickly
13:27 and didn't give me much time to blend.
13:29 Product A is primarily water-based.
13:32 There's actually not a whole lot in here.
13:35 There's a little bit of polysorbate 20,
13:37 which is acting probably as a surfactant
13:40 to help solubilize some of the other materials,
13:44 like fragrance or preservative.
13:47 One of the interesting ingredients in product A
13:50 is carmine.
13:51 Carmine is a color additive that's
13:53 actually dried from beetles.
13:55 So while it's natural, it's not necessarily vegan.
13:58 But carmine is very expensive.
14:01 It takes thousands of beetles to produce tiny amounts of dye.
14:06 While product B is water-based, we
14:08 have many other ingredients in here,
14:11 like glycerin, panthenol, sodium hyaluronate,
14:15 that may be contributing to the insolubility of some
14:20 of the materials.
14:21 The radish root ferment filtrate is probably
14:23 preservative in this guy.
14:25 When a product is water-based, we absolutely
14:27 need to include preservatives.
14:29 And those preservatives are there
14:31 to protect the product from microbial growth, which
14:33 is yeast, mold, and bacteria that
14:36 can grow in the product and cause an infection.
14:39 Let's try some liquid blushes.
14:40 When I'm looking at a liquid blush,
14:48 I'm looking at the intensity of the pigment.
14:50 The product looks pretty thick.
14:53 I see a lot of pigment and looks like it
14:56 might be something that's an oil-based product based
15:00 on the way that it moves in the package.
15:04 It's not overly liquidy like a water-based product.
15:07 So I'm not seeing much movement when I tip the tube.
15:10 Product B looks rather pigmented as well.
15:14 I think I might notice a little bit more fillers
15:16 in this product because it has a bit more
15:19 of a white appearance to it, so maybe some titanium dioxide
15:23 as well.
15:23 And it appears to be something emollient-based.
15:27 I'm not seeing the product move in the package
15:29 like I would with a liquid or water-based product.
15:32 I'm first going to try product A.
15:39 Product A feels really thin.
15:42 It glides nicely, has a lot of emolliency.
15:46 I may have applied too much, but this
15:48 seems like it is a emollient-based product
15:50 with a high level of pigment.
15:52 It has a very nice gloss as well on the skin.
15:55 Now to product B. Product B looks
15:58 to have a higher level of pigments.
16:01 I can really see a lot of opacity here.
16:04 So there's probably a greater level of the colors itself,
16:09 but also maybe some fillers like titanium dioxide
16:13 that may be contributing to the high degree of opacity
16:17 I'm seeing with product B.
16:20 Now I'm going to do a playtime test.
16:22 But first, I'm going to calibrate myself
16:24 using mineral oil.
16:26 In a liquid blush, you need a sufficient amount of playtime
16:29 to blend the product.
16:30 If you don't have enough time to blend the product,
16:32 you might end up with splotches or streaks on your face.
16:36 By testing this first, I can get a reference point
16:39 to judge the other two products.
16:42 I placed a small amount of product A on my arm.
16:45 It feels like product A is fully rubbed in.
16:51 It had a fair amount of playtime,
16:53 so it was easy to spread.
16:55 The color looks very nice and even and well pigmented.
16:59 Now I'm going to test product B. I'm
17:01 going to put a few drops on my arm.
17:05 Product B feels a lot thicker and a little bit stickier.
17:09 It has really even pigment coverage, very opaque as well.
17:15 I can already tell that product B is a lot more emollient.
17:19 It is a lot glossier than product A,
17:21 and it's taking a lot more time to rub in.
17:24 So it really has a lot of playtime, maybe
17:26 a little too much playtime.
17:28 I might use a lot less of this product
17:30 if I was going to apply it to my face.
17:32 I think product B might contain some clays
17:36 to help suspend the pigments, something like a bentonite
17:39 or a hectorite clay.
17:41 It also feels a little bit tacky.
17:43 There might be some more glycerin
17:45 or a higher concentration of maybe occlusive emollients
17:49 that are contributing to that tack of the product.
17:52 I think product A performed well,
17:54 but I think it has a higher degree of oily materials
17:59 and might be a less expensive base than product B.
18:04 Product A seemed to also have a slightly lower pigment load.
18:07 Now let's look at the price.
18:09 Lush A is $8.
18:11 Lush B is $23.
18:14 On this one, I think Cream Lush B was definitely
18:17 worth the money.
18:18 I preferred product B because it had a higher level of pigment
18:22 and it had a greater amount of playtime
18:24 to blend the product in.
18:26 Product A actually appears to be an emulsion based.
18:29 So water is the number one ingredient.
18:32 And I see PEG-10 dimethicone as the third ingredient, which
18:36 would be acting as the emulsifier
18:38 to bring the water and oil phases together
18:42 in this product.
18:43 And product A also contains some what
18:46 we call effect pigments, like synthetic floroflogopite
18:49 and calcium sodium borosilicate, which
18:52 is essentially a glass effect pigment.
18:54 So it gives you a high level of shine.
18:57 Product B is not water-based.
19:00 The first ingredient is something
19:02 called hydrogenated polyisobutene.
19:05 This is a really thick and shiny emollient.
19:09 This is a product also used in a lot of lip glosses.
19:12 So it kind of has some similarities to those products.
19:16 The other ingredients here, we see trimethoxy silicate.
19:19 This is a very high gloss silicone material,
19:24 which is contributing to the level of sheen
19:26 you're seeing in product B as well.
19:29 There is also diastere-dimonium hectorate.
19:33 This is a type of clay that we use
19:36 to help suspend the pigments.
19:39 Product B had a higher level of pigment.
19:41 And I think that equates to a better bang for your buck.
19:46 (gentle music)
19:48 [BLANK_AUDIO]