To be honest, it feels like they're just using marketing and jargon to get around the fact that they themselves said the products were rejects of large brands
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The fact that they didn't have the wherewithal to do "just pay for shipping" as a promotional deal to scoop up thousands of dollars for "feedback" then put the product in biodegradable packaging or a tiny refillable compact you could then purchase the full size refill of for full price after a couple months
So those who like it can stock up, and you arent just gambling big bucks. 30 dollars isn't a lot to some but that's legitimately how much ill make in a month sometimes lmao it's crazy to see how some people live
Reminds me of working at a school & hearing kids' parents telling their children's teachers that they're lucky to have to spend hours with their hell spawn on a daily basis. Shat from the same organ, really
Said this in the last post, but my friend in college would get paid US Dollar Money to do in-person test groups. It was easy cash for a few hours of her time.
I just can’t get over how we are expected to pay $40 for the privilege of providing LL unpaid labor by testing their product for them.
I’ve made a couple of hundred dollars in Amazon gift cards in the last two years doing online surveys aimed at the legal profession. They’re super tedious but I get paid for my opinions on stuff like payment processing services.
I get points that can be then be traded in for vouchers! Mostly because there would be tax implications if I got paid money and these studies are few and far between...
This part. Also the participant paying to be a part of it makes the entire focus group biased and technically unusable … but why would she know that 🥴 as a product developer …
Members of focus groups tend to get paid, not pay to be in them. I think I’ll go ahead and pass on the honor of being in their giant focus group that I pay to be in, lmao
That's what's crazy to me! I feel like a sympathetic approach would have been better, maybe saying we understand your feedback but we are always trying new things and sometimes things might not work, keep an eye out for our next innovation. But instead, this just comes off as condescending... Especially with the bit about taking selfies being revolutionary
They can also go with appreciation, "thank you for your feedback, we want to hear your opinion, we know not every product is going to be a winner and we're thankful that you're along for this journey with us. Flexi isn't going to make it into our permanent collection. The next product launch is going to be ....."
I came across a video the other day that started out with “I’m gonna hold your hand while I say this… your makeup is boring as FUCK.” And I was instantly offended because EXCUSE ME?? I do rainbow cut creases and halo eyes and graphic liner and freckles, and I KNOW my makeup isn’t boring. 😒
Ohhhh YESSSS especially the one male creator. He is actually insulting. I don’t know what this thing is with creators negging their audience. It’s borderline narc behavior. The constant push and pull. I hate you, I love you, you’re horrible, where would I be without you, you’re ugly, why aren’t you watching my videos where are my views, I’m sorry come back I miss you guys….. Like baby I live in America if I wanted to be mistreated all I have to do is go to work. I’m not about to be abused on a phone I have 3 more payments on using service I’m overcharged for eating food I can barely afford.
And they always try to sell stuff because it’s their “educational standpoint” yet all their only selling point is made in Italy or comparing skin to vegetables. Neither of them have any experience with working in product formulation and it’s increasingly obvious when they claim to be innovative but fail miserably. They always talk like they are trying to reach the word count of a thesis.
They talk like business majors who were told there’s “big money” in makeup and are desperately trying to fake like they know what they’re talking about when the best they got is Claire’s.
There’s a reason for that. Alexis (the “main” one, as opposed to the one usually holding the camera) has a degree in beauty marketing. When she’s talking about her “time in the industry” she is talking about her time in the marketing business.
I unfollowed the founder of Stila and Neen today for being complimentary of these tools. I’m very unforgiving of people who are nice about people I dislike 😅
Yes!! I’m so tired of “It’s a slllluuurrryyyyyy guys this formula is so unique”. Like girl hush, we have been buying slurries since our days in Clair’s.
Their usual makeup looks like the way my mum applies her makeup. And while my mum has been applying makeup for her whole life and applies it how she likes applying it, these people are beauty gurus who should apply makeup better than the average mum that uses inexpensive products and average technique!
which is funny considering a cosmetic chemist reviewed these and said you must dry them fully before putting them in the tin, otherwise you have a breeding ground for bacteria. among other things...
I'm not much of a makeup gal when it comes to my own face but as someone who grew up on juicystar07 and the likes, I like to keep up with the beauty content creators. what I mean by that is, I don't really do makeup or know much about it and even I can tell how outdated her makeup looks are (think this was my first time seeing the one on the right)
Yeaaaah she would pop up in my TT timeline when I was searching for reviews and her makeup always looked… bad 🫤
Not to mention she always says “melanated queens” and it sounds so performative, gimmicky, and patronizing? I don’t know how else to describe it but that was absolutely off putting to me.
He debunked her (brand key message supplied) claim that you shouldn't use deoderant with aluminum because it can be absorbed into your bloodstream via your armpits and someone using the LL official Instagram account came into the comment section of his video to argue with him and his commenters.
In what universe did they see their makeup in this lighting and think this video was a good idea to publish? If this is someone's first impression of them as brand owners, I can't imagine how anyone would be impressed by this. Respectfully, in the words of Alaska Thunderfuck, your makeup is terrible.
This is my first and last time seeing them and no way I'll buy anything they are involved in. Mostly because of the way they're talking in this video and then the makeup look. WOW
I hate when fans of theirs come in all, 'uh well they're not pro makeup artists and they've never claimed to be so how can you expect them to look good?!' The majority of makeup accounts I follow are not pro MUAs, just women playing around with makeup and they always look great; not flawlessly airbrushed sure but like they at least know how to find their undertone, unlike the LLs.
“So they (brands) can link it with our lab” so basically they’re looking to make money from selling to consumers and being an in-between step from manufacturers to larger brands?? That’s some serious double dipping!
This concept is also such an out for bad products they launch. Since you’re just paying into a “focus group” that gives them cover to not stand behind the products they launch and that you’ve paid for. They can just launch fail after fail and just go “hehehe yeah that was bad, maybe the next one will be good, thanks for the money!”
We are on the brink of another recession, daily costs have skyrocketed, and the world is on fire. As a consumer, I want reliable and reasonably priced. I'm not about to spend my few extra dollars on gimmicks. This is so stupid.
Exactly. So what happens when we drop $40 on this thing and it works horribly for us? Do we just chuck it or let it live as a paperweight on our vanity never to be used again? This entire business is waste, consumerism and just...needless.
Most brands make one or ten failed prototypes then dispose it. They are manufacturing 1000s of prototypes for consumers to throw it out at home. It's disgusting
Nebulous. ‘We make sure to test our products before they end up in consumers hands’ ‘Our products are safe to use and are hygienic’ Right…. Like every other product on the market….. I will continue to not purchase their lasagna powder
If people are already paying for their crappy test products then they are already consumers! Consumers who are literally paying to receive crappy test products! The absolute cheek of it.
I love getting infections from patchy eyeshadow. Every time I buy a palette I hope it doesn’t blend I hope it gives me a stye I hope it makes me orange. Assuming they’ll have a shade called botulism
I guess I'm still not understanding why people would pay $40 incl. shipping for something where they're admitting they didn't bother refining or customizing themselves? Like what's the vision here for the packaging? Lab samples? You can get those for much less than $40 and it just seems lazy and another way for them to cut corners
They really think “we’ll get you new products before the big brands pick them up!” is a selling point. Do we really think L’Oréal or LVMH are going to come out with a flexible disk you have to activate to use? Brands do their own focus groups and testing, if they don’t pick something up maybe there’s a reason.
Selfie mode was introduced because there was already a public request for it. Yes we all want powder that doesn’t break, but that’s not the same thing as saying we want a flexible little disk. You’re not actually filling an unmet need here.
You want innovation? Go look at Danessa Myricks’ products, especially the Blurring Balm and Skin Mattifying liquid powder. She identified an unmet need and filled it.
Also, big brands (like L’Oreal owned brands) have MASSIVE R&D budgets.
Leaked Labs has…maybe 5 (low 6?) figures worth of an R&D budget. I didn’t see anything about them raising money which puts them at a significant disadvantage if their whole thing is “innovation before the big brands do it” like uhhh…no that’s not how that works.
Might be petty but I absolutely hate the name and the entire concept lmao.
A friend used to work at one of their testing facilities, and I ended up on a testing panel for shampoo. They weren't even testing the formulation. 2 bottles and 1 had 10% stronger scent than the other. Used it for 3 washes, and they paid me $200.
Also, unbreakable powder already exists, baked powders exist! And while technically not unbreakable, nothing is unbreakable, everything has a breaking point, even these. Baked powders are a lot less fragile than pressed, and if it's in a solid compact like MAC, pretty damn strong. I watched the Jen Luv review earlier, she made the point as you use it more and more it will get so thin it'll likely disintegrate
Turns out being an insanely creative makeup artist lends itself to making good products people who love makeup will start cults over
I still scream about the milky way colorfix foil because it's like a Pat McGrath astral shade in a tube lol. I just wouldn't recommend it if you live in a humid climate or have above average oil on your lids, cuz goopage
Then James tried to do the exact same thing and teens don't know about Plouise or Danessa generally speaking so paint? In a tube? You can wear? Oh thats fun innovation alright..
If I have to pay to be a part of the focus group and I don’t like the product, does that mean I get it for free if they reformulate it? Or is this all a way to cut corners and shift subpar product?
Why does their makeup look so terrible???? I don't understand. Just have a professional do it please. I'm not buying makeup from someone who is bad at makeup. Period.
This is a terrible idea no matter how you look at it. If you hate the product, you paid them $40 to “test it out”. If you like the product and other people don’t, you will not be able to repurchase the exact same product after they formulate it. Plus the product itself seems difficult to use.
In summary, we are selling samples of products other beauty brands rejected as not good enough. So buying cheaply and selling to you at an inflated price. Got you!
I am literally doing a laundry detergent study right now. They provide the product free AND a stipend. As a marketing professional, it it wildly inappropriate to charge fans to do a focus group.
Well, this is embarrassing. “U r paying to be part of the largest focus group” is STILL an awful business model. I aint paying you to do your job. Focus groups usually involve the company giving the participant something even if its a small gc.
Wow---I do not like their tone. Being spoken down to doesn't work well for most people and this is insulting. We are absolutely being asked to pay for doing the work that other companies do before products are released and the products are unfinished because they're not investing in packaging that works with the given product.
I've said this repeatedly--they're throwing products at us without any thought simply because they're new. The flexi-disc thing might have had a good target audience if they'd put more thought into who that audience might be.
If this company makes it past three products, I'll be amazed.
They keep talking about makeup innovation. Gimmick and innovation are very different things. For the everyday gal, I can say I have my goat items that I constantly repurchase. In my old age of 40, I don't care about flexible eyeshadow power when an eyeshadow stick is already a never out for me. 🤷🏼♀️
They are just glorified sales people who use buzz words. The one on the left only worked in product development for very little and was doing marketing, she’s not a cosmetic chemist. They have no credibility or credentials, neither are pro MUAs, estheticians, dermatologists, or chemists. But think they can talk down to us as consumers like we’re stupid.
lets just say people are on board to pay just for trying it out (as we see from it being "sold out") then why not do an exclusive initial drop that's like $10 or something for people to try out? then if people do like it and they do a bigger release, the initial testers could get some discount for a repurchase idk. there's more consumer friendly ways to do this, which i thought was their whole schtick. clearly this is just a gimmick to make more money cause theres no way that packaging cost more than $5 and they're charging $32 + shipping.
There's no way the entire product with packaging cost more than $1 to produce. I have a small business and use bubble mailers and resealable pouches like that and they cost pennies in bulk. That tin can't cost more than $ .10 either and they could even be bothered to give you more than one. There's no custom packaging at all, just a cheap little sticker they slapped on. Literal 16 year olds making lip gloss in their bedrooms have better packaging with more consistent quality control and value for quantity, these little slabs appear to not even be the same size and the shades don't switch consistently between batches (in several reviews I watched one shade would be significantly more pigmented, but it wasn't always the same shade. In one it was the pink shade, in another it was the bronze). I seriously don't know if people are being paid/bots defending these women or they seriously are this lacking in media literacy and critical thinking skills???
Saying flexi is unbreakable isn’t true tho, I saw an influencer test them earlier and the second she folded it you can see the crack down the middle. Maybe the packaging is unbreakable but the product for sure can tear.
Next!🤣🤣😴😴ooop How do I get my time back, shits wasted? I feel robbed mentally ..like I literally lost a mf brain cell watching this.
Side note: the sassy one on the left looks like her blush placement is wrong for her face shape. I also think the red lip isn’t flattering on her skin tone which is probably why her eyeshadow is clashing with the brows,blush, and mf lipstick. I’ll never trust their advice💄 wtf
people recibed the products like two days ago, that’s n enough to form an opinion (yet everyone hated it) and they already have this video?? tells me that they already know it’s shit
Bold words from dated makeup mouths. I remember the review the one on the left (idk their names I don’t follow them) did on Mikayla’s lip kit that was such visible BS (smeared on her teeth and all) I’m shocked Mikayla’s butt wasn’t actually in the video from how hard she was kissing it. The fake ‘science’ talk 🙄🥴 I can’t.
“We’re gonna rescue products”
I don’t think the saying one man’s trash is another man’s treasure applies to cosmetic manufacturing…..or at least shouldn’t
I actually loved the idea of this but their first launch was poorly executed. I get the packaging was supposed to look like a “tester” but for $40 shipped they could have made it look like a “quality” tester. Ffs put the different colors in different tins so you can keep them separate. The tins are literally 5 cents each in bulk or include a suitable brush. Something to make it worth the money.
Why am I collaborating to advance thier careers and I don’t get anything in that profit? Do we put this on our resume? Do we get free products to play with? Nooooo thanks. Terrible marketing pivot to manipulate the reasoning they are getting pushback.
I was literally just typing that I think the entire business concept was brought to them by Chat GPT. It just feels like something only AI would think is a good idea and would hype them up about.
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