Comments on: A Beauty Industry Secret: Who Really Makes Your Cosmetics?

By: pje

pje — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:19:43 +0000

It seems to me that one of the main differences between salon and drugstore products is fragrance. So many of the drugstore brand products have a very perfumy scent (Pantene comes to mind) that isn’t bad, but that I know could trigger a migraine for me. Most of ones I have smelled in the shampoo aisle at Target have a heavy perfume smell to them that I know would bother me. I use Frederic Fekkai glossing products because 1) I like the way they work, and 2) the scent is light enough that I know it won’t induce a migraine. I’ll gladly pay more for something that won’t cripple me with a migraine.

By: tkmn

tkmn — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:26:08 +0000

As for whether companies would intentionally downgrade their formulations for their drugstore labels, I doubt this would occur just because drugstore labels are probably more profitable to the parent company than their prestige labels because of volume. It’s a competitive environment and you don’t water down your shampoo to save a couple of cents in production in order to lose thousands in sales.

I also don’t think companies are really worried about losing their prestige label market by reproducing the formula in drugstore labels. A lot of consumers aren’t really informed enough to make the connection and simply assume that what costs more is naturally better. And, as I know too well, the habit of buying into high end products is hard to break despite all logic.

By: thebeautybrains

thebeautybrains — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:03:44 +0000

@Rina,

Yes it’s possible, it’s just not done. Big companies buy these brands so they can make them more profitable by achieving “economies of scale”. So, they buy the same chemicals for both brands and get a discount because they buy more of the ingredient.

People want so much to believe that they are getting a better product, it doesn’t matter whether it’s really delivered or not. You can put exactly the same formula in an expensive brand bottle and a cheap brand bottle and people will swear that the former works better.

It’s just human nature.

By: Curious 2

Curious 2 — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:14:12 +0000

I’m wondering the same….since I started experimenting with drug store brands and generics from Sally and my hair is now breaking off.

By: Rina

Rina — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:50:15 +0000

I keep hearing about how the salon grade products are almost no different than the store brand products of the same company (ie: Kerastase Nutritive Oleo-Relax Smoothing Hair Masque and L’Oreal Vive Pro Smooth Intense Conditioning Treatment.) But I’m curious… isn’t it possible that the quantity/quality of the ingredients listed are NOT the same? For instance, is it possible that the vive pro has more water in it than the kerastase? Or that the amount of laurel sulfate is less concentrated in the vive pro, etc.? Wouldn’t this effect the quality of the product, without showing up as a major difference on the ingredient list?