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Thirteen FDA-filed formulas, side by side. The ingredients, the prices, and the claims — every figure cited to a primary source.
Thirteen studies live — 13 foundations, 8 eyeliners, 5 lip glosses, 7 toners and 1 setting-powder question, every ingredient list from a primary sourceA live finding · ownership
A $19 L'Oréal Paris foundation and a $53 Lancôme one declare them in the same order. Both brands belong to L'Oréal.
distinct ingredients across 13 foundations. Only 6 show up in three-quarters of them.
e.l.f. vs Estée Lauder gross margin. The $53 formula costs about what the $12 one does.
substances the EU prohibits in cosmetics, versus the US. None of the 226 are on either list.
The studies
Thirteen foundations compared ingredient by ingredient, with a slider to put any two side by side. 226 distinct ingredients; only 6 appear in three-quarters of them.
Source: FDA-filed OTC drug labels (DailyMed)
Eight eyeliners compared ingredient by ingredient. No SPF claim means no FDA filing, so every list here comes from the brand's own product page instead — and the corpus splits into two different chemistries, liquid and pencil, wearing one product name.
Source: manufacturers' own product pages
Does a dearer formula mean rarer chemistry? Measured: price buys a longer list and better-placed actives, but ingredient rarity is flat across every tier.
Source: ingredient corpus · label ordering rule
e.l.f. runs a 70.7% gross margin; Estée Lauder runs 74.0%. The formula in a $53 bottle costs about what the formula in a $12 bottle costs.
Source: SEC 10-K · company annual reports
An ingredient list names what a substance is and never where it came from. L'Oréal's own RSPO filing shows 99.5% of its certified palm is mass balance — an accounting claim, not a traceable molecule.
Source: RSPO Annual Communication of Progress · scheme registries
A $19 L'Oréal Paris foundation and a $53 Lancôme one declare the same first nine ingredients in the same order. Both brands belong to L'Oréal.
Source: FDA filings · permutation test
The EU prohibits 1,760 substances in cosmetics and the US prohibits nine. Not one of the 226 ingredients in this corpus appears on either list — the real divergence is elsewhere.
Source: EU Cosmetics Regulation · 21 CFR 700 · REACH
The first substantial change to US cosmetics law since 1938, enacted three and a half years ago. Every requirement that needs FDA to write a rule is still outstanding.
Source: Public Law 117-328 · Federal Register
No manufacturer discloses how many prototypes a formula takes — so this sources what actually is public: the stability testing a formula must pass before it can ship.
Source: 21 CFR 211.166 · EU Decision 2013/674/EU
Half the parent companies behind this corpus disclose no R&D figure at all. Among the three that do, spending more does not visibly buy a cleaner or more concentrated formula.
Source: SEC 10-K · company annual reports
The same FDA-filing discipline, applied to a much smaller category: five SPF lip glosses share so little that only fragrance clears a 75% threshold — and not one is made by a company that files with the SEC, so cost and R&D can't be compared here.
Source: FDA-filed OTC drug labels (DailyMed)
Every SPF setting powder with an FDA filing is talc-free — they're mineral sunscreens, a different tradition entirely. The brands actually reformulating away from talc carry no SPF claim, so this page sources both halves separately.
Source: FDA-filed OTC drug labels · FDA asbestos testing
Toner almost never carries an SPF claim, so this corpus is sourced from the FDA's other OTC drug route instead: a salicylic acid acne-treatment filing. Seven toners, six real parent companies, and one EU concentration limit they're already brushing up against.
Source: FDA-filed OTC drug labels (DailyMed) · SEC 10-K