The battle between drugstore and high end beauty is one that shows no signs of slowing down.
Some of us are suckers for pretty packaging, others want to save their pretty pennies and a select few want all of the above. Regardless of your preferences, we can’t deny the overwhelming assumption that expensive products are of better quality than their cheaper counterparts.
According to a recent survey done by Suave, 7 in 10 women feel that premium or higher-priced brands and products are more trustworthy than value or lower-priced brands and products, while 89% of millennial women say they wish there were more value brands that did not sacrifice quality.
That’s precisely why the discount brand decided to go undercover as a newly-launched luxury brand called “evaus.” After creating an Instagram account for the faux hair care line, complete with millenial-friendly packaging and the illusion of prestige pricing, they invited a set of beauty influencers to test the product for 10 days.
What followed is a video review from each woman, discussing what made this brand so much better than the “regular” stuff out there.
“I was instantly in love with this product after the first time I used it,” proclaimed one reviewer, while another couldn’t stop talking about the packaging.
Subscribe to our daily newsletter for the latest in hair, beauty, style and celebrity news.
“It’s edgy. It’s modern. It’s sleek,” she exclaimed. One woman even shared that her stylist doesn’t recommend anything from the drugstore.
The real kicker is when each blogger is handed an “evaus” box, only to discover it’s a smartly disguised version of Suave (i.e., the brand name spelled backwards). Proof that a lot of us think premium products are only available at a premium price, it’s interesting to see how enthusiastic we are about products that look a certain way.
According to Suave’s study on our shopping habits, “while many women judge brands and products based on price, more than 9 in 10 indicate that they seek out great deals and value when they shop.”
To that same point, 81% of us feel as though we’re carrying a savvy secret upon discovering lower-priced hair care products that work as well as higher priced ones. The reactions of each woman in this video are a prime example of that.
Label bias is obviously a long-running issue within the beauty industry, but Suave’s latest feat is proof that what’s inside the bottle is what truly counts. Watch the entire video above and shop Suave’s product lineup here.