Cosmetic chemist Ramón Pagán has been challenged to compare different types of lip glosses. Can he figure out which are the most expensive products? Ramón uses his high-level of expertise in visual analysis, application and ingredients to put together an extremely educated guess. How many will he get right? Watch to find out!
Director: Noel Jean
Director of Photography: Dominik Czaczyk
Editor: Jess Lane
Talent: Ramon Pagan
Producer: Sydney Malone
Production Manager: Andressa Pelachi; Kevin Balash
Camera Operator: Shay Eberle-Gunst; Oliver Lukacs
Sound Mixer: Will Miller
Production Assistant: Shenelle Jones; Ryan Cartee
Set Designer: Sage Griffin; Leah Waters-Katz
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Scout Alter
Supervising Editor: Erica DeLeo
Additional Editor: Paul Tael
Assistant Editor: Andy Morell
Director: Noel Jean
Director of Photography: Dominik Czaczyk
Editor: Jess Lane
Talent: Ramon Pagan
Producer: Sydney Malone
Production Manager: Andressa Pelachi; Kevin Balash
Camera Operator: Shay Eberle-Gunst; Oliver Lukacs
Sound Mixer: Will Miller
Production Assistant: Shenelle Jones; Ryan Cartee
Set Designer: Sage Griffin; Leah Waters-Katz
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Scout Alter
Supervising Editor: Erica DeLeo
Additional Editor: Paul Tael
Assistant Editor: Andy Morell
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00 [upbeat music]
00:01 So satisfying.
00:02 It's kind of giving cinnamon a little bit,
00:04 not in a fun way.
00:05 Hi, I'm Ramon and I'm a cosmetic chemist.
00:07 [upbeat music]
00:10 In front of me, I have two plumping lip glosses.
00:21 When it comes to a plumping lip gloss,
00:23 I want that plumping effect,
00:24 which is thanks to generally an ingredient called capsicum,
00:27 which literally irritates the lip,
00:29 promotes blood flow to that area
00:30 to give you a more visually plump looking lip.
00:33 Starting with A, it's a nice peachy color.
00:37 I'm not seeing shimmer or anything.
00:38 It's actually very opaque.
00:39 I can't see the actual doe foot in there.
00:41 And now let's look at plumping gloss B.
00:44 Same color family, very different color.
00:46 Also has shimmer, if I'm not mistaken.
00:48 This does have a slight smell to it,
00:52 but this smells like a very traditional plumping gloss
00:55 with a little bit of something put on top of it.
00:56 Compared to A, I don't smell
01:01 the traditional lip plumping smell out of A.
01:03 That doesn't necessarily denote quality.
01:05 Maybe they're masking the scent,
01:06 but maybe B has a higher concentration of the capsicum.
01:10 It glides on really nice.
01:14 It doesn't feel very thick.
01:16 It's a very, very thin consistency
01:18 and it spreads really well.
01:19 And I'm not feeling any irritation or burn from this,
01:23 which I kind of expect out of a plumping gloss.
01:25 I want that.
01:26 You can see the color of it.
01:27 There's like no color to it.
01:28 I'm now feeling a little bit of a cooling sensation though.
01:30 But again, it's not a burning.
01:31 It just feels like I put menthol or like Vicks on my lip
01:34 and it feels like fresh, cool.
01:37 Now let's try B.
01:38 I'm waiting for the burning to kick in.
01:45 This one also spreads really nicely.
01:47 Okay, now the burning's starting to kick in a little bit.
01:49 But again, this is a more traditional
01:51 burning capsicum feeling,
01:53 whereas with A, it feels very mentholy.
01:55 So right now that tells me that Plumping Gloss B
01:57 features capsicum, probably a good, decent amount of it
02:00 'cause now it's really starting to burn a little bit,
02:02 whereas A uses something alternative.
02:05 So you can see when you apply Lip Gloss A,
02:07 first of all, it's a lip gloss.
02:08 So instantly you're gonna get a really nice,
02:10 moisturized look.
02:11 And as the lip gloss sits on the lip,
02:13 your lip's gonna look more full
02:15 as a result of just moisturization.
02:17 But realistically, it's not plumping the lip.
02:19 And you can see you're not getting the visual payoff
02:21 you would expect and want
02:22 from a traditional plumping lip gloss.
02:24 So here's the before and after for Lip Gloss A.
02:26 You can see it didn't do much.
02:28 It didn't live up to the benefits and claims.
02:30 And you can see when you apply Product B,
02:32 you're getting the same moisturized look on the lip,
02:34 but the initial burning sensation starts to kick in
02:37 after about three to five seconds.
02:39 And you can see as it wears longer on the lips,
02:41 the plumping effect visually just becomes more and more
02:44 and more pronounced as the inflammatory response
02:48 takes place.
02:49 And you can see the lips look a lot more visibly fuller.
02:51 The inflammatory response is a little bit more pronounced,
02:53 and thus the lips actually look plumped.
02:55 And here's the before and after for Product B.
02:56 And you can see this is what a traditional
02:59 lip plumping gloss is supposed to do.
03:00 This is what I come to expect from a plumping gloss.
03:02 This is what I hope I'm getting
03:04 when I buy a lip plumping gloss.
03:06 So now let's compare the ingredients list
03:07 for Lip Plumper A and B.
03:09 Looking at A, let me just say,
03:11 I have never seen an ingredients list this long before.
03:14 That's crazy.
03:15 First ingredient is petrolatum, aka basically Vaseline.
03:18 Right there, that's going to help
03:19 nicely moisturize the lips.
03:21 Not something that's necessarily very heavy.
03:22 Algae extract.
03:25 On the list, I see something that says Menthol PCA,
03:27 which might be the specific cooling effect that I feel.
03:31 Maybe they're trying to make lip plumping claims off that.
03:33 I don't know if they're going off a traditional,
03:36 your lips are going to look more hydrated
03:37 and therefore more plump situation,
03:39 and maybe pushing a specific story with the marketing.
03:41 But this is not a traditional lip plumper by any means.
03:44 Looking at B though, sure, your ingredients list.
03:47 Mineral oil is the first ingredient,
03:49 which is also a hydrocarbon similar to petrolatum,
03:51 but it's a much more lightweight one.
03:53 So yeah, with this you see capsicum, frutascent, resin.
03:56 That is the capsicum that's giving you
03:57 that lip plumping effect,
03:58 that traditional burning sensation
04:00 that I'm quite enjoying at this moment in time.
04:02 Just off these two ingredients lists,
04:04 I'm actually going to say product A
04:06 is probably the higher end, higher quality products.
04:08 Whereas B is probably the lower quality
04:12 in terms of it probably has a lower price point,
04:14 but it's going to be a more effective,
04:15 more traditional lip plumping products.
04:18 So looking at the price for lip gloss A,
04:20 $90, and it was really all in the ingredients list.
04:24 It's a very specific natural stance,
04:27 and it's pushing a more botanical based results.
04:30 And for me, that always just leans on a higher price point.
04:32 For product B, $33.
04:35 So both are actually on a mid plus price point tier,
04:39 but it's interesting because you can see that product B,
04:42 a lot more actually effective.
04:43 You get a lot more of that high impact result,
04:45 which I personally want out of a lip plumper.
04:47 So the price point for this is warranted
04:49 in that this is very effective,
04:50 but it's interesting comparing it to product A,
04:53 which has almost three times the price point.
04:55 Clear, high shine lip glosses.
05:00 So starting with lip gloss A,
05:02 as you can see, it is glass clear,
05:03 which is a really good quality in a clear gloss.
05:05 We don't want anything cloudy.
05:07 We don't want anything that's going to affect
05:09 the clarity of that.
05:10 Let's look at product B.
05:11 Visually, a clear gloss is going to be a clear gloss.
05:13 The main attribute when it comes to looking
05:15 at the quality of a lip gloss is how it looks,
05:18 how it spreads, and how it feels.
05:21 We're going to test the application for lip gloss A.
05:24 So again, it's a clear gloss.
05:25 We're not going to see much, any color payoff or pigments,
05:27 but just in how it applies.
05:30 Okay, it feels thick.
05:31 As I'm pulling that across my hand,
05:33 there's a little tug on there.
05:35 So it's not spreading easily.
05:36 And that's telling me potentially there's a lot
05:37 of that hydrogenated polyisobutene or whatever
05:39 is serving that purpose in the lip gloss.
05:42 Maybe not so much of a focus on emollients and esters
05:43 to increase the spreadability,
05:45 but that's not a bad quality.
05:46 And then if I rub it, it's thick.
05:49 It has viscosity and body to it, which is not a bad sign.
05:52 It doesn't indicate quality, but it is a thicker gloss.
05:55 So now let's look at lip gloss B.
05:58 Oh, that's even thicker.
06:01 Okay, that is like, I'm tugging at my skin to spread that.
06:04 Again, that's not an indication of quality whatsoever.
06:06 It's just a focus on,
06:08 there's more of that hydrogenated polyisobutene
06:11 or potentially just not so much of a focus
06:13 on the emollients and esters.
06:14 But that could mean that product B,
06:16 as a result of having that higher concentration
06:18 of the hydrogenated polyisobutene,
06:21 is gonna give you a higher impact, like more glassy gloss.
06:24 Spreading that, yeah, it's really thick.
06:26 There's like a lot of tug.
06:28 It's like if you were just to put like cooler
06:30 than room temp honey on your skin and try to spread it.
06:31 You know how honey gets thicker the cooler it is?
06:34 It's very that.
06:34 Another like user experience thing is lip gloss A smells.
06:39 It has a fragrance to it.
06:40 It smells, I'm getting sweet vanilla.
06:43 It smells like a baked good, like you walk into
06:44 someone's house when they're baking cookies.
06:47 That smells good.
06:48 Product B doesn't have a smell.
06:49 And again, that does not indicate quality.
06:51 So next we're gonna go in with the flashlight test.
06:54 We're going to test the refraction of the lip glosses,
06:56 see how glossy they really are.
06:58 Just because when we have a clear lip gloss,
06:59 we want it to really gloss.
07:01 So what I'm noticing in the flashlight test is
07:04 product A is actually giving me a lot more gloss,
07:07 a lot more shine compared to product B.
07:10 But product B is giving thick.
07:12 It's giving a richer body, a thicker texture on the skin.
07:16 So product A is giving me a lot more gloss,
07:18 even though it's a thinner texture.
07:19 Product B has less gloss, but it has a thicker body.
07:22 So now let's compare the ingredients list
07:23 for lip gloss A versus lip gloss B.
07:25 Let's start with A.
07:27 And right off the bat, something really interesting,
07:29 which I don't think I've actually ever seen before,
07:30 is the first ingredient is mineral oil,
07:33 which is a really nice moisturizing hydrocarbon.
07:36 A hydrocarbon is generally something
07:39 that is actually petroleum derived,
07:41 which is not a bad thing.
07:41 Anything that's petroleum derived is highly refined,
07:44 very safe for cosmetic use.
07:45 But it moisturizes really well,
07:46 but also has a very light skin feel.
07:49 So potentially the lighter skin feel
07:51 and better spreadability of lip gloss A
07:52 has to do with the fact that mineral oil
07:54 has a higher concentration in the formula.
07:56 And then the next ingredient is polybutene,
07:58 which is generally a component for lip gloss.
08:00 It has a very good adhesion to the lips.
08:02 It moisturizes really well,
08:03 and it has a really nice gloss to it.
08:05 If you look at an ingredients list
08:06 and you see something that ends in eight, A-T-E,
08:08 like here we see sorbitan, sesquioleate, that's Ester.
08:11 And Esters generally tend to have a much thinner viscosity,
08:14 very good skin feel, very light skin feel,
08:16 but they have kind of like a dry oil texture to them.
08:18 Thus, in this regard,
08:19 they're helping with viscosity and spreadability.
08:21 So now let's look at the ingredients list for lip gloss B.
08:23 And as you can see, worlds apart,
08:25 there's one, two, three, four ingredients in this,
08:29 which tells me it's a very simple product.
08:32 The goal for this is gloss.
08:33 It's not so much necessarily user experience.
08:36 Hydrogenated polyisobutene is the first ingredient.
08:38 And as I mentioned earlier,
08:39 it's a very thick, very viscous gel.
08:43 Next is jojoba seed oil,
08:44 which to some degree helps to thin out the formula,
08:48 maybe help with spreadability, but we saw didn't really do much.
08:50 And then tocopheryl acetate is a version of vitamin E
08:53 that helps with formula stability.
08:54 It's an antioxidant that prevents the product
08:56 from going rancid.
08:57 And then phenoxyethanol is a general preservative.
08:59 So it just prevents microbial growth
09:01 'cause when you're taking the applicator,
09:03 putting it on your mouth, putting that back in lip gloss,
09:05 you don't want anything growing in your lip gloss.
09:07 So obviously comparing the two,
09:09 product B has a much more simple ingredients list.
09:12 In general, that's not a bad thing,
09:14 but just looking off A, the user experience
09:16 of both lip glosses, and then B, the ingredients list,
09:19 in my mind for lip gloss A,
09:21 a lot more care and intent was put into the formula
09:24 to make it have a better user experience.
09:26 At the end of the day, as a chemist,
09:28 you want your customers to enjoy your product.
09:29 You want them to have a good time using your product.
09:31 And therefore I wanna put as much time and attention
09:33 into making sure that my product's fun to use.
09:36 So to me, product A is gonna be a little bit higher quality
09:38 and also more expensive.
09:39 There's a lot more things in there.
09:40 So let's look at the price for product A, $6.
09:44 That is shocking.
09:45 I'm genuinely very surprised by that.
09:47 The product overall is a really nice quality product.
09:49 It spreads really well.
09:50 It has really good gloss.
09:51 It smells delicious.
09:52 And now the price for product B, $23.
09:56 I'm also very shocked by that.
09:57 I mean, again, the amount of ingredients
09:59 on an ingredient list doesn't tell you anything.
10:02 What I can only assume it's potentially
10:04 A, a specific story put behind the product
10:06 or B, you're paying for the name of the products.
10:09 Sometimes affordable products
10:11 have a lot more intent put into them
10:13 and cheap doesn't mean bad.
10:14 (upbeat music)
10:17 Now we're gonna be looking at lip oils.
10:19 So lip oils, super hot at the moment.
10:21 What a lip oil is, is a more thinned out lip gloss.
10:26 Pretty much the same exact ingredients.
10:28 But higher concentration of oils and esters
10:31 that help give more slip, more spreadability.
10:34 Common comment that I've heard about lip oils
10:36 is that they aren't as moisturizing as lip glosses are.
10:39 And that's because a lot of the esters that are used
10:40 might not be as occlusive or moisturizing
10:43 as a lip gloss itself is.
10:45 So looking at product A first,
10:47 you can see it's got a tint to it,
10:50 but the tint is not opaque.
10:51 It's not a very high coverage tint.
10:52 Therefore on the lip, I actually don't know
10:54 if this is gonna leave very much of a color impact.
10:57 I'm just trying to see if anything settled to the bottom.
10:59 This looks like a dye.
11:00 It's not pigment, obviously.
11:02 But that's all I'm seeing out of this.
11:04 Now let's look at lip oil B, and this is very different.
11:07 This one is a lot more color in there.
11:09 I cannot see the actual applicator in there at all.
11:11 And this is probably also a dye,
11:12 but just at a higher concentration.
11:14 So now let's see how these look on the skin,
11:15 starting with lip oil A.
11:18 So you can see it has good spreadability,
11:19 but on the skin, that color doesn't translate
11:22 very much at all.
11:22 So on the lips, gonna be like the most subtle of tints,
11:25 if anything.
11:26 The color payoff itself is no indication of quality
11:29 or of any higher price point,
11:32 'cause you might have a higher end brand
11:33 that just wants to appeal
11:34 to a very natural, no-makeup consumer.
11:36 But it feels very lightweight on the skin.
11:38 It actually has a little bit, like a little bit of pull,
11:40 which tells me it's gonna feel a little bit more
11:42 moisturizing on the lip, possibly.
11:43 So now let's do lip oil B.
11:46 Again, this one has substantially more color to it.
11:49 Let's see how that translates on the skin.
11:51 Surprisingly, not very much.
11:54 In terms of the texture of this,
11:56 this doesn't have as much pull as lip oil A.
11:59 Therefore, it might feel more light on the skin.
12:01 And actually, comparing them side by side,
12:03 they have the same level of color to them on the skin,
12:06 which is interesting.
12:08 And then comparing the two,
12:08 product A, because it has more pull,
12:10 that's gonna indicate to me it has more tack,
12:12 it's a little bit more sticky.
12:13 Maybe it has a higher percentage
12:14 of the hydrogenated polyisobutene.
12:16 Whereas B, it spreads a lot easier.
12:18 It's not very sticky, doesn't have much pull at all.
12:21 And maybe it has just a higher concentration
12:23 of the emollients and oils.
12:24 So now in order to test the two lip oils,
12:26 we're gonna really test how they spread
12:28 and feel on the lip, starting with lip oil A.
12:31 It has a smell, but I can't clock what that smell is.
12:39 It's kind of giving cinnamon a little bit,
12:41 but not in a fun way.
12:42 So you can see it doesn't give much color at all.
12:44 It feels lightweight on the lip.
12:47 There's a little bit of stick to it.
12:48 It has a little bit of body to it.
12:49 I think this is the one I said might have a little bit
12:51 of a higher concentration
12:52 of the hydrogenated polyisobutene.
12:54 So I'm feeling a little bit more moisture to the lip,
12:56 but I also, I feel it on my lips,
12:58 which I don't know if I love.
12:59 I want a lip oil.
13:00 I want it to be very lightweight.
13:02 But now let's go with lip oil B.
13:03 So yeah, on the lips, it feels more lightweight.
13:08 It doesn't have the stick that lip oil A does.
13:11 Smells, does it smell?
13:13 It smells like raw material.
13:14 So it kind of smells plastic industrial to me.
13:17 So in terms of the test,
13:18 I think lip oil B has better spreadability,
13:20 but in terms of quality, I'm still torn.
13:22 So now let's compare the ingredients list
13:24 for lip oil A and B, starting with A.
13:27 The first ingredient is hydrogenated polyisobutene.
13:30 So this is basically the sister to a lip gloss in my mind.
13:33 I mentioned earlier that ester is anything
13:35 that ends in an eight.
13:36 And the second ingredient is tri-decile, trimelitate.
13:40 Interestingly, there is fragrance in this product,
13:42 actually very middle of the ingredients list.
13:45 And I did mention that product A did smell a little bit
13:47 to me, kind of like cinnamon.
13:48 The last ingredient in here is a specific extract,
13:51 undaria pinnatifida extract.
13:53 Anytime I see an extract,
13:54 to me that's trying to tell a specific marketing story
13:57 that could denote a higher price point.
13:59 And now let's look at lip oil B.
14:01 Interestingly, the first ingredient
14:03 is also hydrogenated polyisobutene,
14:05 followed by the same exact ester we saw in lip oil A.
14:08 You have polyisobutene,
14:09 which is another like fake lip gloss ingredient.
14:12 Good amount of oils in here.
14:14 Product A has a longer ingredients list,
14:17 and I see less oils, more esters.
14:19 Product B has more oils, less esters,
14:23 and a much shorter ingredients list.
14:25 Product A has that extra extract in there.
14:28 So based on the swatches, the application test,
14:30 and the ingredients list,
14:31 I think product A personally is gonna be
14:34 the more expensive, higher quality option.
14:36 So let's look at the price for lip oil A, $40.
14:40 That's actually crazy for a lip oil, if I'm gonna be honest.
14:43 But again, this tells me they probably have
14:45 a very specific story.
14:46 They have a very specific intent
14:48 with this line and this launch.
14:49 And now let's look at the price for lip oil B, $8.
14:53 Worlds apart.
14:54 And what's interesting is,
14:55 I actually prefer the formula for B,
14:56 just because I think it spreads a lot nicer
14:58 and feels a lot nicer on the lips.
14:59 And also, as I mentioned earlier,
15:00 you see how the colors of them look very different.
15:02 B is a lot more opaque in the packaging,
15:05 which visually, in your head, you're like,
15:07 "Oh, it's more dye, it's gonna cost more money."
15:08 But, $40.
15:11 Price point really does not tell you anything.
15:13 You want a high shine, a nice lip feel, a nice lip look,
15:18 and price point doesn't always get you
15:21 those specific results.
15:22 But when it comes to lip glosses, try them out.
15:24 Swatch them and look at some more affordable options,
15:28 because you get some good bangers up in there.
15:30 [upbeat music]
15:32 (upbeat music)