Bestselling: Blush Prices

We're going to get into pricing a little bit. Starting out with Blush and moving on to Foundation. We'll be working with prices from the Bestsellers list, from Sephora.com and Ulta.com. Both store/websites sell a lot of the same products but as you well know Sephora doesn't sell any of the lower priced products. It only sells high-end goods or should I say high priced goods. Just because it costs more doesn't always mean that it is actually of higher quality. All it means is it costs more. Sometimes, higher prices are associated with better quality goods. We'll delve into that on every account during our look into pricing. You'll see high and lower priced goods on both Bestsellers lists.


We're going to jump into Ulta's Bestselling Top 10 blushes, to begin with. I'll list them below. The Top 10 bestselling blushes on Ulta.com has 1 blush at #10 and another at #11 that belong to Ulta, that is why I listed 23 instead of only the top 20. I do not consider that a companies own blush on the list to be truly accurate but I didn't want to leave them out altogether. As I did my research I noticed that both stores had products in either the Top 10 or Top 20 of both lists. It is their site and store, I figured that was probably a fabrication. Maybe not wholly but in some part. Anyway, as you can see there are 8 out of 10 blushes that range from $19.00-$38.00, then the price drops drastically to $5.99. The lowest price blush on the list is NYX's blush and when I did the research it was in spot #7, now it seems to be in spot #9. I am assuming, from what I've researched, that lists are constantly being updated on a day to day basis dependent on sales. So when you go to look at these lists you'll see some variation from mine but for the most part the Top 10 remained part of the Top 10, just in a different slot, for the time being. The most expensive blush on the list is actually a palette. It consists of 6 different shades that can be used in a multitude of ways; contouring, rouge, highlight, and etc. So it's a pretty good deal, considering, that the next most expensive items on the list are $30.00 Urban Decay's NAKED Flush, consisting of a bronzer, highlighter, and blush and Too Faced Sweethearts Trio, 2 blushes and a highlighter or a perfect blend of all three to make 1. Still, anything on the list $30.00 and over consists of 1 or more shades to be used as you please. 

Ulta Top 10 Blushes- prices vary from $5.99 to $38 

1. Too Faced Sweethearts Perfect Flush- $30.00
2. bareMinerals bareMinerals Blush- $19.00
3. Urban Decay NAKED Flushed- $30.00
4. Benefit Cosmetics Hoola- $28.00
5. Tarte Amazonian Clay 12-hour Blush- $26.00
6. Japonesque Color Velvet Touch- $22.00
7. bareMinerals Ready Blush- $22.00
8. IT Cosmetics My Sculpted Face- $38.00
9. NYX Powder Blush- $5.99 
10. Ulta Cheek Color- $7.00
11. Ulta Mineral Blush- I$12.00 
12. Maybelline Master Hi-Lite- $9.99 
13. Benefit Cosmetics Rockateur- $28.00
14. Benefit Cosmetics Benetint- $30.00
15. Maybelline Dream Bouncy- $7.99
16. NYX Baked Blush- $6.99
17. Benefit Cosmetics CoralLista- $28.00
18. Ulta Extreme Wear Mousse- $8.00
19. Tarte Cheek Stain- $30.00
20. Benefit Cosmetics Dandelion- $28.00
21. NYX Cream Blush- $5.99-$6.99
22. Maybelline Master Glaze Glistening Stick- $8.99
23. IT Cosmetics Vitality Cheek Stain- $24.00 

Now, we'll discuss the bestselling Top 11-20, listed above in red. As you can see the only drugstore brand that makes it on to the list is Maybelline. They have a total of 3 blushes, if you don't count Ulta's because its their site, 1 in the top 10 and 2 more in 11-20. They didn't win by 1, though, Benefit Cosmetics has 4 total blushes on the list. Most of the ones by BC on the list are blushes in-a-box, except Benetint. That is the most expensive of the 11-20 and doubles as liquid blush and lip tint. Starting to see a pattern here? Anything $30+ on the Top 20 list has 1 or more shades or doubles as two products. If you scroll passed the Top 20 you'll see that Benefit has 4 bestselling blushes in the top 30. It's probably a pretty good "guess" buy if you're unsure and want something on the higher end. If you want something on the lower end or you just want to pop into the drugstore, go Maybelline. 

Number 1, Bestselling, Blush by Too Faced.

Winner, Benefit Cosmetics, has the most items on the Top20 list (pictured "in-a-box" blush).

OK. We've done Ulta's bestselling blushes and are going to head straight into Sephora's. Since, they sell a lot of the same items but not all of the same items we are only going to take a look at Sephora's Top 13. That will give us the most accurate comparison. We'll take into account that the other 7 would probably be a mix of lower priced items, if they sold them.  The bestselling Top 10 range in prices from $18.00 - $42.00. AS you can see NARS is all over the list. Ulta doesn't sell NARS but if it did I am sure that it would have a few of NARS' items in the Top 10. Prices on the items that match Ulta's are the same. We see a lot of the same items in the Top 13/20 list but what surprised me most was that the #1 bestseller from Ulta is nowhere to be found in Sephora's Top 13 or, scrolling down, their Top 20. Items in their Top 10 over $35.00 are all multiple use items, with two exceptions at a lower price, Benefit Benetint and Josie Maran Aragan Infinity. Between the two stores the highest priced bestselling items are all multiple use items. It seems to me that if we're spending the money we want it to be useful in more than 1 way. All of the Top 10 from Ulta, that are sold at Sephora, except Too Faced made it on the Sephora Top list. The bestsellers are fairly universal and range highly in prices.

Bestselling Blushes @ Sephora: range of $18.00 - $49.00

1. NARS Blush- $30.00
2. Hourglass Ambient Lighting- $35.00
3. NARS The Multiple- $39.00
4. Tarte Amazonian Clay 12-hour- $26.00
5. Urban Decay NAKED Flushed- $30.00
6. NARS Blush/Bronzer Duo- $42.00
7. YSL Baby Doll Kiss & Blush Lips & Cheeks- $40.00
8. Benefit Cosmetics Benetint- $30.00
9. Becca Beach Tint Shimmer Souffle- $27.00
10. Josie Mara Aragan Infinity Lip & Cheek- $18.00
11. NARS The NARSissist Cheek Kit- $49.00
12. bareMinerals bareMinerals Blush- $19.00
13. Tarte Cheek Stain- $30.00

Lowest priced, Bestseller @ Sephora, and multipurpose- Josie Mara Aragan Infinity.

Number 1 bestseller, @ Sephora, at a mid-level price. Nars Blush.

Naming Conventions: Ploy or Oversight?

Mini Post-

Let me explain what mini-posts are, according to me, they are the ideas I think of for my next study. My way of keeping you in the loop on what will be a long process for me and a plethora of great information, in some time, for you.

OK. Now that, that's cleared up let's get into it. Naming conventions. One of the most annoying and cute things about cosmetics. You may all know this and you may not. Our skin has undertones; yellow, pink, green, blue, purple. Bobbi Brown believes that most women have a bit of a yellow undertone which according to other companies would make you "warm." Now, most of the cosmetics whether they are drugstore or more high-end have a base or high color and an undertone or many undertones. If you didn't know this you'll definitely know the next bit... all brands pick cutesy names for their products; Milani Coralista, MAC Peachykeen, Maybelline Buff'n'Tuff. These are just a few and most of these give you an idea of the base color that is being provided. That is not always the case such as NYX Pinched, Milani Luminoso, NYX Full-on Femme, and Tarte Blissful to name a few. They don't give you any idea of what color they're going for or what undertones they present. Most drugstore brands tend to have the cutesy names for their products, no description of the color tone or undertone on the packaging, and no description online. Higher end cosmetic brands 1) allow you to test in stores, 2) give you a description of the base color and 3) allow you to return the product or take a liquid sample for free.

My question is... Do the brands that pick the cutesy names, don't give you any indication of color, and don't give you any indication of undertone do that for a reason? Do drugstore brands do that to get you to buy it, try it, and not be able to return it. Sale completed. Do high end brands not describe the undertone hoping that once you get it home you'll like it or be too lazy to drive out to the Nords to return it?

Should we not be given at least the most basic information on the products we're buying? One of the companies I admire the most, and it is my only example at the moment because this is not a fully formed study- its a mini post- is Makeup Geek. They list the color of the eye shadow and its undertones. It's an online only company so there is no way for me to test it before purchase or even look at it in physical form but knowing the color and undertone give me the confidence to buy. We all know that even if I could look at it in physical form it would not help much. Many cosmetics look like one color under the fluorescent store lights and a totally different one in natural and home lighting, definitely on your skin. Sometimes we just go in looking for a new blush and sometimes we go in looking for a blush in a particular base color. Like me, I went out looking for a coral blush today. I could have gotten Milani Coralista but I didn't like the silver flecks. Revlon had a coral-named press blush but I didn't like the color. The rest of the companies had cutesy names and no description. I had no idea if they would present as coral on my skin or if they were technically peaches, apricots, oranges, pinks with yellow undertones and the lot.

So moving forward I am going to;

1. Contact the Mega Drugstore Moguls about naming conventions and full discretion.
2. Contact Makeup Geek and check other online only cosmetic sites for their descriptive qualities.
3. Find out if the companies that give you the info upfront tend to have a better product. Do they know their product is good enough that they don't have to trick their customers into buying with ambiguity and cutesy names?
4. Do as much research on this "ploy" I think has been cooked for a long time amongst the drugstore brands and some high end brands under the drugstore umbrella.

Please leave your comments on whether or not it drives you crazy when your looking for a particular color, you think you've found it, but there is no indication of whether or not your correct and nowhere to go to find out?

I think mini post is a bad name for my hypothesis entries. Ill have to think of something else.