Technology sharing

sueg

In large beauty companies like Estee Lauder, how much do they share formulas/technology? For example, Bobbi Brown's gel liner; all the EL brands now have similar products, although I think MAC's version was the earliest. 

RandyS

There is a LOT of technology sharing that occurs across different brands in large companies. R&D research and testing (as well as consumer research) is expensive and time consuming so when you develop a good formula you want to find as many homes for it as possible. 

Look at the first 5 ingredients in any given products. If they're the same the products may very well be using the same base technology. (Of course that's just a rough rule of thumb but you get the idea.) 

If you have any specific products you'd like us to compare just post a link to the ingredient lists. 

PerryR

Also, companies get discounts on raw materials when they buy a larger quantity.  So big companies have an incentive to use the same compounds across as many different product lines as they can.