Monday, August 2, 2010

To the Ladies...

I feel so exploited. I was sitting here cleaning my make up brushes so that they'll be fresh and clean for tomorrow's exciting day in Cook. I have this special Sephora Brush Cleaner. The online description reads:

Sephora Brand Daily Brush Cleaner is an anti-bacterial daily brush cleaner designed to quickly remove light traces of makeup between applications. Just spray this purifying formula onto a tissue or directly onto brush bristles, then lightly swipe your powder, blush, eye, and lip brushes across tissue for a fabulous dose of freshness. No rinsing needed!

Wow so wonderful! Anti-bacterial formula! Just spray! No rinsing! Well, then I happened to look at my Sephora brush cleaner bottle and after getting past all the French, it says:
Ingredients: less than 5% non-ionic surface agents ALSO alcohol and perfume

First of all, what does non-ionic surface agent really mean? Secondly, that's it?! And how much did this cost? $6 for 2 oz. SIX dollars for TWO ounces!!? How much are those huge glass containers of isopropanol in the lab? Someone please tell me, or not. They make a killing on this stuff. Oh, and did you read the reviews??? 4.5/5 stars! Just take a moment to read them. All these girls are raving about how great this stuff is and oh, it has special chemicals with special anti-bacterial stuff. For example:

This brush cleaner makes cleaning my brushes daily fast and easy. It is a must have in my beauty kit that I dare not be without. The best part is that it contains antibacterial cleansing agents.

I love this, its not just a cleaner but has antibacterial solution in it to so it cleanses from germs in brushes. Its better than MACs brush cleaner & dries quicker!

I love this stuff!! Everytime I use it, it's like I have a brand new brush. I have super sensitive skin and it doesn't bother it. That's totally worth it. The fact that it's not to hard on the wallet is nice as well.

What a great value!

Lol, ok now here's one that comes from someone who knows what's going on:

I like this brush cleaner, I just have issues with paying this much for something I know I can make at home...so if youre more of a buy it girl and not a diy-er this works fine...if youre a college girl and want to spend your money on something else like makeup...find a recipe online. it will work the same, simple.

Despite the college girl comment, she is saying the absolute truth. Here's a quick DIY recipe:

Now how much do you think that all costs? Sure, the Sephora cleaner was only $6, but.. it was $6 for 2 ounces!

I realize there's the whole convenience factor and they give you this nice little spray bottle, but it just makes me wonder how much companies really make on all these make up products. There are A LOT of buyers, ready and willing to lay down the plastic for "must-have" beauty products. Obviously, our world is not going to change overnight, so why not capitalize on this? We are smart female scientists. I'm pretty sure we can get a piece of the pie and exploit the less-scientifically-inclined women out there. Just come up with some very basic products, such as this brush cleaner, and then tell the marketing people that there's top secret formulas involved. Yeah?

Conclusion: We should all go work for L'Oréal or Estee Lauder or any others on this list: http://beautifulwithbrains.com/2008/09/02/who-owns-what-in-the-beauty-industry/

Hunter, care to chime in?