$9 Vs. $29 Eyeliner: Can a Cosmetic Chemist Tell Which Is More Expensive?

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As much as...

Do one of these moments.

Mine is not going anywhere.

A brown.

I'm Ramon and I am a cosmetic chemist.

So in front of me we have two different liquid eyeliners.

What I'm looking for is a good pigment payoff.

B, how smooth it's going to glide on the skin,

and then C, if it's going to run or not.

So let's start first with product A.

This is going to be, I think, a brush tip

applicator liquid eyeliner.

For this I'm looking at, A, how pointed that is,

because if you want a smooth, especially sharp wing liner,

that tip is going to be crucial.

So now over to product B,

let's look at the applicator on this.

This is a marker tip eyeliner,

but with these, sometimes,

the tip starts to get worn out a little bit

and you're not gonna get sometimes as precise

or as sharp of a point as you would like.

So now let's swatch the eyeliners, starting with A.

Again, this is the brush tip applicator.

Okay, so right off the bat,

I am not getting any product out of this.

Sometimes shaking it helps.

Back in my makeup days it was put the cap on

and do one of these moments.

You need to get the product to the tip of this.

There we go.

These are primarily water based.

Some liquid liners actually have alcohol in them,

which act as a volatile.

Volatiles are going to be the ingredients

that flash off, hopefully quickly,

allow the film to form

and allow the pigment in the film to set.

Is that an indicator of quality?

In my mind, yes.

You can see it took me a while to get the pigment on there,

but once it did, it came out.

It's only been a few seconds, and has it dried down yet?

It has.

So now let's swatch product B.

Once again, this is the felt tip applicator.

When I touch it to the skin, immediately we have pigment.

Let's give it a couple seconds to dry down.

The blackness of this one, it's comparable.

There you can notice they are a little bit

of a different undertone as well.

I've given it a couple seconds,

as much as the tables have turned.

So now let's do a water resistance test.

I'm gonna start with liquid eyeliner A.

For these, what I'm gonna do is take the product,

draw a line on the back of my hand,

and then to give them both a fair shot,

we're gonna give them a minute to set down

and afterwards I'm gonna dip my finger in the water,

rub that on the liquid eyeliner

and see if the eyeliner's gonna stay put or not.

So it's been a minute.

Let's just give a little rub just to make sure.

Okay, you can see that's staying put right now.

So let's do with a little bit of water now.

Putting that on.

Okay, so you can see I'm rubbing it.

I see a little bit of wear to the eyeliner,

but then again I'm like rubbing the eyeliner.

If you're just sweating or crying and not rubbing your eye,

it could stay put.

With the water and the friction,

obviously that film and that pigment

did dissipate a little bit.

To me though, I'm not indicating

it's a lower quality product.

So I'm actually fairly content with that.

So now let's move on to product B.

Once again, we're going to take the eyeliner,

we're going to draw that line

and we're gonna give it a minute.

The product did bleed a little bit on the back of my hands.

To me that is a little bit of a quality indicator.

Let's do just the regular rub test first.

You can see that's sponging.

And then now let's do it with some water.

Yeah, right away that is rubbing off.

This is not a water resistant or waterproof eyeliner,

and therefore I'm not saying

this is a very high quality option.

Letting the liner set using the water tests,

eyeliner A was a lot more durable.

So let's compare the ingredients list for these eyeliners.

For product A, as I mentioned earlier,

these are both water based.

So you see water first.

That styrene acrylates copolymer, that is the film former.

And as you notice with the rub test

and water resistance test, product A was more durable.

It stayed on the skin a lot better

and that is as a result of the copolymers,

those film formers

that allow the product to adhere to the skin

and to be a lot more wear and tear resistant.

And then the last part,

you see that black two, that CI77266,

that is that very, very black jet black pigment,

which is not a cheap pigment,

it's not necessarily the easiest to work with either,

so that right there tells me, okay,

they probably put a little bit of money

into the manufacturing as well.

Let's look at product B now.

Compared to the first products,

product A had the co-polymer, the acrylates

as the second ingredient.

If you look at the N two also has that black two.

So it also has that jet black pigment.

But what's interesting is

they looked very different on the skin,

especially the undertones were a little bit

different compared to each other.

Something that's interesting is product B

has parabens in it.

Parabens are a preservative and preservatives,

while people are afraid of them,

they are very necessary in cosmetics,

especially when it comes to eye area.

You have water, you have different microbes

that live naturally on the skin,

but you're taking an applicator, rubbing it in that area

and then you're taking that applicator

and putting it back in the packaging.

If the product's not properly preserved,

you're essentially giving it the grounds

to just proliferate, AKA multiply

and you're contaminating the product.

So especially for products around the eye area,

we really want preservatives

because if not, that could lead to infections

and a lot of things we don't want.

And seeing the film form

a little bit lower down on the ingredients lists,

that could be an indicator.

Based off the product swatches,

the applicators and the two challenge tests,

I would assume that product A

is going to be the higher quality product.

So let's reveal the price for product A.

So that is $21.

That's a pretty decent priced eyeliner right there.

That's telling me that is a good higher

and mid-tier eyeliner.

So now let's reveal the price for product B.

$8.99.

That's drugstore right there.

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In front of me I have gel eyeliners.

Gel liners are really useful when you're working on clients

or if you or yourself are doing your own makeup.

These tend to be a little bit more water

and oil resistance than your regular liquid liner.

And the big difference between a liquid liner

and a gel liner is that these are wax based waxes,

they don't mix with water, therefore there's a good degree

of water resistance as a result of a gel liner as well.

So let's start with product A.

Let's look at what the product looks like.

So this is a brown gel liner.

It's in a pencil casing,

but the formula is still a gel type eyeliner

and I can tell because it basically looks like

they molded the gel part of the liner first

and then put it into the casing.

Product A due to the packaging itself,

it's not one where you can twist it

and a product comes up, you've got to sharpen these.

So now let's look at product B.

Again, I'm gonna assume this is a brown gel liner

and they molded the gel liner

but they put it into one of these retractable packaging.

So like you twist it and the product comes out.

This type of packaging is a little bit more affordable.

This tends to be a little bit more cheap.

It's easier to mass produce,

especially if we're doing like a bunch of different shades.

When it comes to product A's packaging,

because it is the gel liner in the pencil style casing,

those tend to be a little bit more intensive

to get the product in there.

So just off of that, I think product A

is gonna be a little bit more higher quality.

Now let's swatch the gel liner starting with liner A.

Once again, this is the one in the pencil casing.

These are brown liners.

If you love a good natural wing, a brown,

you want the wax to be durable,

you want it to have a good structure,

but you want a good amount of emollients

and esters in the gel liner

to make it so that the liner isn't brittle.

So a very fine mix right there.

So that's very unfortunate.

The fact that that tip broke off, it's not a good indicator,

but that being said, it's not gonna be like

the be all end all indicator.

So we're not gonna jump to conclusions just yet.

So with product A resharpened,

let's go again for that swatch.

I'm looking for a nice smooth glide, a nice clean line.

That went on creamy, that went on very easily.

That glide is important

because if you are applying it on your eye,

you don't want any snares or snags

because that's not gonna be a nice clean line.

It's gonna be like really bumpy, really jagged.

Now let's move on to product B.

Let's see how that applies.

Not the cleanest line.

I'm just gonna do a second line just for good measure.

So just off that, it's creamy, like it glides on well,

but you can notice between the two,

product B doesn't have the most opaque,

the most full coverage line.

The pigment just isn't as rich.

So that to me is also a big indicator of a quality thing.

I am not seeing a lot of that opacity in product B,

which could be a pigment, functional filler

or other quality issue,

and therefore that to me is indicating lower quality.

So now we're gonna be doing a resilience test

for the gel liners.

I have water here and I have squalane oil.

Squalane just because it is similar-ish enough

to the sebum that we naturally produce

that in this situation it could be a good indicator

as to whether or not a gel liner

is going to be heavy duty enough for the natural wear

and tear of the eyelid space.

What I'm gonna do is take each of the gel liners,

draw a good solid line on the back of my hand,

allow the product to set for a minute.

I'll do a regular sponge test on the left,

a water rub test in the middle

and a squalane rub test on the right.

Starting with the regular rub test,

you can see I rubbed that,

there's a small little smudge here,

but I think this is the result

of a little excess pigment right in that one spot,

but you can see when I rub it, it stays put,

which indicates to me, for example,

if you're gonna do a little bit of a smudge liner moment,

you have some wiggle room,

but once the volatiles evaporate out,

that smudge liner is going to stay put decently well.

Now let's do the water part of the test,

it's gonna take a little bit of water

and do the middle parts.

You can see that liner's not going anywhere.

So that already is a good sign, but again,

waxes are a part of a gel liner's formulation

and waxes are not water soluble.

And now for the [indistinct] part of the test,

the squalane oil.

Get a little bit of that off

and let's just do a couple rubs here on the right.

That liner's not going anywhere,

so there probably is a very good crease proof option

if you got oily eyelids, like I do.

So now let's try the same test with product B.

Start with the regular rub test.

We do get a little bit of smudging there.

Let's go in with the water part of the test.

Okay, you can see with the water,

I'm gently rubbing that on there.

It's not going anywhere, which is nice.

Again, water is not going to dissolve the waxes ideally,

therefore I anticipate a good amount

of water resistance from a gel liner.

And now for this even part of the test.

We're using just a little bit of squalane on our finger

and rubbing that on.

That came off really easy.

So that tells me this is not going to be a liner

you want to reach for if you want crease proof,

oily lid proof wear.

So now let's compare the ingredients list

for these two, starting with eyeliner A.

So that first ingredient, the trimethylsiloxysilicate,

that is a silicone resin,

and what it's gonna help do in the formula

is help with some of the durability and long wear,

so it's what's gonna help make it water resistant.

Hydrogenated polyisobutene.

Fun fact, that's actually the main component

of a lot of lip products.

Lip glosses especially.

And that's just a hydrocarbon.

It can help with some structure,

with some spreading benefits.

Isododecane, that is a volatile.

So that's one of the ingredients

that when you apply the eyeliner,

it's going to evaporate out

and allow the product to settle

and form the film of product on the skin.

The ethylene propylene copolymer film former,

so that is going to, again,

form that film or product on the skin,

increase the durability of it.

So we're seeing a lot of products

that help with the structure,

with the spreading and with the depositing of product

and pigment on the skin

to ensure a little bit of durability and long wear.

For product B, the first thing I notice

is it's a very long ingredients list.

We see a lot of antioxidants,

because eyeliners, gel eyeliners are anhydrous,

that means there's no water in the formula,

you preserve them a little bit differently.

The main thing you're looking at

when it comes to preserving a anhydrous product

is you want antioxidants

to prevent the oil-based ingredients

from spoiling or growing rancid.

And with that, basically just it starts to smell weird.

This is a very long one.

Pentaerythrityl Tetra-Di-T-Butyl

Hydroxyhydrocinnamate, antioxidant.

Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate,

that's a vitamin derivative, antioxidant.

Interestingly, if you look at the bottom part of this,

there is water in this, but that's primarily because

if you look around that water, there's a lot of extracts

and extracts are generally

when you get them as an ingredient,

water is part of the formulation.

Why is that in a gel liner?

That's a great question.

Mostly for marketing and to have

a little bit of a story in there.

Mostly it's not imparting a lot of benefits.

So it's just in there for a little bit of fun,

a little spice, a little sprinkle or something.

Based on the application, the challenge test,

as well as the ingredients list,

I personally think that product A

is gonna be the higher quality product.

Let's see, the price for product A.

This is $19, which for a gel liner is actually first of all,

pretty good price for a good mid-tier,

so it's not luxury price.

And now let's look at the price for product B.

So that's $8.49.

That's a drugstore eyeliner right there and we could tell.

Do I think product A is worth the $19?

If I'm gonna be real honest with you,

I think that's a great price

for how high quality the product A was

with all the different tests.

I would honestly, if I was a makeup artist,

love to have that in my kit

because I know it's going to perform well,

it's going to wear well and it's going to last a long time.

We're talking water resistance and crease resistance.

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In front of me now I have Shimmer gel liners.

When it comes to the reflect, the shine, the shimmer,

that's a result of something called an interference pigment.

And with that, I still want it to spread well,

but when it comes to the application of it,

I want a good payoff, I want good coverage from the liner,

but I still want really good effect from the shimmer.

I want that shine, I want that glitter

and that's dependent partially on the particle size.

So when it comes to the actual manufacturing of it,

I'm looking at a higher quality product,

if it's gonna be a true glitter liner,

maintaining the particle size of those glitters

to really get that shine and that sparkle.

Looking at this though,

I'm not seeing like a lot of high glitter,

which means I'm not looking at bigger particles.

So I'm looking at probably a more metallic

or shimmer finish on the skin.

Let's look at product B now.

It's a little bit of a darker blue,

but we see in this one already, this actually has,

depending on how you hold it up to the light,

I'm getting little sparks of a lighter blue glitter,

which is interesting.

I'm excited to see what this

could look like swatched and up close.

So now let's look at the application for product A.

Again, as I saw just off the visual,

I'm not seeing the same glitter reflect I saw in product B.

Let's do a little line.

I'm not strong or anything.

It's not like I'm like doing all this force on there.

So that's unfortunate.

Let's get that sharpened.

So once again with product A, do a line,

and with this I'm just looking for how does it apply,

does it have good glide?

Again, we want something very smooth,

very creamy on the eye area especially.

And that applied really well.

Looking at the payoff on the hand,

when it comes to formulating with blue pigments,

they're very challenging, they're very high maintenance.

You want really good integrity, you want really good payoff.

What I'm looking at immediately

is it's just not like a very consistent line,

not consistent payoff.

Just to do a second line again.

I'm not seeing like a very, very like opaque,

very high coverage line on that, but it is very creamy.

I will say that.

On my hands it's coming across very metallic.

So I'm not looking for like very big glitter particles

or like shimmer interference particles, pigments.

But all things aside, it does have decent coverage,

it does have nice payoff.

You might have to go over a couple times

to get very bold, bold color,

which could be a quality indicator,

but overall I'm not gonna discount it

and say it's a bad quality product

or say it's a great quality product just yet.

Let's look over to product B now.

Right off the bat we know

it's gonna be a very different color.

So swatching that.

So very smooth, very creamy.

That happened.

Let's give it a second try like we did for product A.

It's very creamy, very smooth,

really nice application on that.

Looking at it, it's not like opaque high coverage, bold.

Like when we see black and brown liners,

like we're seeing like a very rich payoff from those.

These, you kind of see like

skin showing through a little bit,

so you might have to go through a couple times

to get really high coverage, really high payoff.

This one, as I mentioned earlier,

you do see actual glitter pigments in there,

which could be a sign of higher quality,

just because when it comes to formulating with glitters

or anything that's a little bit more

of a pronounced shimmer,

you want to incorporate them gently to the formula

just to maintain the integrity

of that sparkle, that shimmer.

So let's look at liner A under the microscope.

So first thing I'm gonna notice, first of all,

is I notice what we call agglomerates.

Agglomerates are basically chunks of pigment,

but generally you want to avoid these clumps.

It affects coverage, it affects payoff

and to me kind of indicates a lower quality product.

There's a lot of things you could do when you're formulating

a product to prevent that chunking,

the agglomeration of pigments.

Something else I'm noticing here,

which is actually a very good illustration

of what an interference pigment is,

which interference pigments,

they're used in color cosmetics and even skincare

to give that reflect, and it can, depending on the size,

give you anything from like a slight metallic look

to like full on glitter.

One thing to note is the fact that

when we looked at this product

just straight up from the packaging,

there wasn't any noticeable large sparkle sizes.

So to me, this is gonna be more of a metallic liner

and therefore I shouldn't see

as inconsistent size particles.

I mean, this is very, very, very small.

It's microscopic.

So now let's look at product B.

Okay, so first things first,

obviously, very different colors,

therefore that indicates to me the coating on the substrate

is probably a different thickness,

therefore I'm getting a different color payoff

or maybe the substrate itself

is a different substrate altogether.

Usually for these kind of pigments

it's going to be mica or synthetic mica.

Also notice, remember when I looked at

the product itself out of the packaging,

we noticed visible glitter shimmers.

And as we see here, you see a very considerable difference

between the majority of the shingles

that are there for the glimmer versus larger particles.

We do want to see that in this specific type of product

because we actually do want that very noticeable sparkle.

So because for the final product

we do want to see little flecks of those bigger shimmers.

And in the closeup we actually see, again,

substantially larger plates.

That could indicate a higher quality

because when you want to maintain the integrity

of those bigger shimmers,

there's a special way of incorporating that

into the final formula.

You've got to take a little bit extra care,

a little TLC and go in a little bit more gently

because you don't want to break those up

because then you're making them smaller

and then you're gonna get

that final like substantial payoff from the shimmer,

therefore that could indicate a higher quality product.

Now let's compare the ingredients list

for liner A and liner B.

Let's start with liner A.

First ingredient is dimethicone, not a bad ingredient.

They are great for spreading,

they're great for also a little bit of heavy duty wear.

Again, they are water and sebum resistant to some degree.

Second ingredient is trimethylsiloxysilicate,

which as we saw earlier, it's that silicone resin.

It also gives you good wear, good water resistance.

The Acrylates Stearyl Acrylate Dimethicone

Methacrylate Copolymer, cute name for a baby,

that is again a film former,

so it's going to affect the durability on the skin.

So just right off of that,

we're gonna get decent wear out of this product.

You see Synthetic Fluorphlogopites.

That is synthetic mica.

So that could be one of the substrates.

For the interference pigments we see some waxes.

Those are for structure.

Alumina Tin Oxide, those would be other substrates

for interference pigments.

Let's look at product B now.

The first thing I notice are pigments.

And generally you can't gauge how much pigment

is in a lot of colored cosmetic products

because a lot of times they'll just have them at the end.

So seeing these at the front, like the very top things,

it's interesting, but also it's a good visual

that pigments are the primary ingredients in liners.

But this does have mica in it, straight up mica,

not synthetic mica.

If I'm gonna be honest, I'm not entirely sure

if there's a big price difference

when purchasing the raw material

of mica versus synthetic mica,

but what that does potentially showcase

is the fact that the first product, product A,

maybe they didn't want to feature real mica

for maybe some sort of ethical reason, which is interesting.

In the cosmetic space mica is a very hot topic.

Based off the swatches, the deep dive

and the ingredients list,

I'm leaning towards Product B

being the higher quality product.

Let's look at the price for product A.

Nine dollars.

We were not surprised by that,

if I'm gonna be honest with you.

It didn't give a lot of high quality,

like a lot of effort put into the formulation.

Let's look at product B.

The price is $29.

I mean the ingredients told me a really good story

and I knew it was gonna be a higher quality product

just based off what they put into the product.

Therefore, I do think it does justify the price point.

I don't personally think higher price

indicates higher quality.

As you saw in today's test though,

it was pretty hand in hand.

We're not about to speak down on drugstore products today,

but as you did see, sometimes price does indicate

a little bit extra TLC and care put into a formula.

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