Whenever available, I buy the drugstore dupes of name brands with the same efficiency to save a few bucks. The formulas are exactly the same, yet you pay far less. Today, let's discuss how Walmart and chain drugstores can afford to sell us these amazing bargains. Along the way, you’ll also learn some industry jargon.
YouTube’s Doctorly channel (hosted by dermatologists Dr. Madiha Shah and Dr. Tom Maxfield) reveals that celebrity, drugstore, and doctor-branded lines often get their products through white-labeling and contract manufacturing. They don’t create unique formulas from scratch; instead, they buy pre-made stock formulas from private 3rd party, contract laboratories and slap their own labels on them. Some of these sellers may make minor tweaks known as ingredient dusting to market the skincare (or makeup) as rare or innovative products.
The 3rd-party beauty labs are independent contract manufacturers and cosmetic chemists who formulate the base recipes. A solo lab might make a core retinol serum or moisturizer or skin treatment or body wash and sell the same stock formula to a ton of brands across various price points.
Celebrities or influencers rarely formulate anything. Beauty companies and marketers work with a famous name or physician to select a pre-existing stock formulation from a lab catalog, pick out custom packaging, and plan a marketing story around it.Another YouTube dermatologist, Dr. Usama Syed, also explains how white labeling works: Labs own established recipes and sell them to many competing companies. A $10 drugstore serum or moisturizer and a $100 luxury/celebrity one often come from the very same lab.
According to Dr, Syed, ingredient dusting (minor adjustments or adding a tiny pinch of a trending ingredient) lets brands claim a custom formula while using a default stock product. Frequently, contract labs let sellers decide how much active ingredient goes into a stock formula based on whether they want a marketing level trace or an actual clinical concentration level in their skin care.
So now you know that a $10 Walmart or drugstore skincare knockoff and a $100 luxury/celebrity one are usually exactly the same, and you have insight into what you’re paying for ... is it the ingredients (about $10) or is it (a feeling) the packaging and name?
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