Here’s the Quickest Way to Find Cheap Mascara Dupes — Revealed By A Cosmetic Formulation Scientist
Mascara dupes are mascaras that are similar to “premium” or “luxury” ones but with a much lower price. When it comes to high-end mascaras, as we all know, there is always a price premium that is more often associated with the brand equity, and not a necessarily better product. So if you’re tired of spending your money to pay back the luxury brands’ over-the-top marketing campaigns, read this article!
Two Mascaras, Same Formulas, Same Benefits, Different Brands … Different Price! Seriously?!
YES! This is unfortunately a common practice in the beauty industry and it is becoming more and more common with the boom of indie and digital beauty brands. Most beauty brands source their products from the same pool of vendors, private label manufacturers, and labs. Knowing that very few brands have research labs since R&D is highly expensive and time-consuming, it is very familiar to find product dupes in the beauty market: products with similar formulas, similar benefits and performance… but with prices that are significantly different.
Wait a sec! Rihanna and Kylie didn’t formulate their own products?!
I am sorry, nooo they didn’t … but they were most probably involved in the selection of the products they were going to launch among different ready-to-launch vendor options. In a market driven by evolving trends, new product developments and product launches need to be fast which is incompatible with innovation. Developing an innovative cosmetics formula can take up to 5 years. Fine-tuning an existing formula can take a whole year in order to carry the required stability, safety and microbiology tests. Launching innovative products is nowadays sacrificed for faster launches and higher margins since REAL innovation has a COST! This is why most indie and digital brands don’t invest in R&D and source their products directly from external partners.
Are the big beauty conglomerates practices any different?
Eight beauty conglomerates control the beauty industry by owning more than 200 brands on the market: Estée Lauder Companies, L’Oréal, LVMH, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Shiseido, Johnson & Johnson, and Coty.
Most of these mega-companies work as well with vendors or private label manufacturers. Most of them have also their own labs and do R&D. However, brands within a same parent company can share the same formulas and technology for cost-efficiency and faster time to market.
What’s the quickest and most accurate way to find cheap mascara dupes?
Botëval is the answer. Botëval is a smart cosmetics advisor based on years of expertise in cosmetics formulation science leveraged by state of the art artificial intelligence. The beta version of this website is addressing the mascara product category. Botëval can reveal in one click all the mascara dupes of any reference thanks to its powerful algorithm.
How does Botëval work?
Botëval gathers and processes a lot of data on ingredients, technologies, benefits and consumer reviews to calculate a % matching between two mascaras. When the % matching of a mascara is very high compared to the reference mascara, the product is tagged as a TOP MATCH.
All you need to do is the following:
1- Go to Boteval.com
2- Search for any mascara. You’ll then get an unbiased analysis of this mascara and recommendations of personalized alternatives called Botëmatches.
3- Click on “TOP MATCH” (if any)
Mascara dupes can be found if there is a “TOP MATCH” among the recommended mascara alternatives — referred to as Botëmatches. Top matches are mascara alternatives with similar composition and performance as your reference mascara.
4- When the TOP MATCH is cheaper than your reference mascara: it is a CHEAPER MASCARA DUPE!!
Easy, right?
Here is my selection of 6 cheap mascara dupes vs premium mascaras
1- Lancôme Définicils High Definition Mascara vs L’Oréal Paris Telescopic Original Mascara
Botëval % matching: 92%
Formula match: YES
Prices: 27.50 USD vs 9.99 USD
Average Reviews Rating: 4.31 stars (6703 reviews) vs 4.35 stars (9845 reviews)
Common Benefits: lengthening and definition
For a direct comparison and more details, go to this page and click on the “COMPARE” button under L’Oréal Paris Telescopic Original Mascara.
2- Nars Climax Mascara vs Essence The False Lashes Mascara Extreme Volume & Curl
Botëval % matching: 100%
Formula match: YES
Prices: 24.00 USD vs 4.99 USD
Average Reviews Rating: 3.94 stars (1421 reviews) vs 4.32 stars (313 reviews)
Common Benefits: volumizing and curling
For a direct comparison and more details, go to this page and click on the “COMPARE” button under Essence The False Lashes Mascara Extreme Volume & Curl.
3- Lancome Monsieur Big Mascara vs L’Oreal Paris Voluminous Lash Paradise Washable Mascara
Botëval % matching: 97%
Formula match: YES
Prices: 25.00 USD vs 9.99 USD
Average Reviews Rating: 4.43 stars (8366 reviews) vs 4.35 stars (12726 reviews)
Common Benefits: volumizing and lengthening
For a direct comparison and more details, go to this page and click on the “COMPARE” button under L’Oreal Paris Voluminous Lash Paradise Washable Mascara.
4- Bobbi brown Intensifying Long-Wear Mascara vs MAC Extended Play Gigablack Lash Mascara
Botëval % matching: 97%
Formula match: YES
Prices: 31.00 USD vs 19.00 USD
Average Reviews Rating: 4.25 stars (417 reviews) vs 4.33 stars (408 reviews)
Common Benefits: volumizing, lengthening, curling, and definition
For a direct comparison and more details, go to this page and click on the “COMPARE” button under MAC Extended Play Gigablack Lash Mascara.
5- Lancome Hypnôse Drama Instant Full Body Volume Mascara vs Maybelline The Falsies Washable Mascara
Botëval % matching: 88%
Formula match: YES
Prices: 27.50 USD vs 7.99 USD
Average Reviews Rating: 4.30 stars (5596 reviews) vs 4.35 stars (1047 reviews)
Common Benefits: volumizing and curling
For a direct comparison and more details, go to this page and click on the “COMPARE” button under Maybelline The Falsies Washable Mascara.
6- Yves Saint Laurent The Shock Volumizing Mascara vs Maybelline Volum’ Express The Colossal Big Shot Washable Mascara
Botëval % matching: 97%
Formula match: YES
Prices: 29.00 USD vs 7.99 USD
Average Reviews Rating: 4.28 stars (1584 reviews) vs 4.41 stars (17970 reviews)
Common Benefits: volumizing
For a direct comparison and more details, go to this page and click on the “COMPARE” button under Maybelline Volum’ Express The Colossal Big Shot Washable Mascara.
Botëval is not just about Mascara Dupes, it does other COOL things as well!
Botëval is the smartest and most complete mascara advisor in the market with exciting and innovative features:
- Unbiased analysis of any mascara based on consumer reviews, price, benefits and controversial ingredients
- Unbiased recommendation of cleaner, better, and/or cheaper alternatives compared to a reference product
- Extensive range of 550+ mascaras with fast and easy filtering based on your preferences
- Other product categories are coming soon
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My next article will be on: The Best 2019 Waterproof Mascaras. Follow me on Medium or Subscribe to our Mailing List on Botëval’s website to get notified when new articles are published.
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About the Author:
Founder & CEO at Botëval and an ex-lab manager at L’Oréal. Launched a multitude of innovative make-up products and filed 30+ patents. Passionate about beauty, formulation science, and tech.
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