Griffin identifies three factors that can normally drive up the cost of your lip products: ingredients, performance, and packaging.
Natural ingredients don't come cheap because sourcing them can cost a pretty penny, so expect more expensive tubes to come with ingredients like mango butter and aloe extract, Griffin says. Cheap ingredients, on the other hand, are either synthetic or more readily available and mass-produced, allowing manufacturers to pass along the cost savings to consumers. And when lipsticks are made with pricier ingredients, they are supposed to look and feel better on your lips than even your best drugstore buddy, although blind tests by beauty experts like Allure have proven that this is not always the case. Then there is the cost of packaging, which Griffin admits is what often draws the customer. "Visually, you're usually attracted to amazing packaging, something different from the rest," he said. Like most of us, he's even put packaging ahead of what's inside when considering a product.
