If you took my quiz on who owns what yesterday, you already know that L'Oreal and Lancôme have the same corporate owner. Even though each brand operates independently, my inner bargain hunter was wondering if the same products are merely being packaged and marketed differently. So I decided to compare my beloved Lancôme Bi-Facil makeup remover to the L'Oreal version.

At first, I was excited; both products come in blue-tinted bottles. "Ooh, maybe it's the same excellent stuff, just much cheaper," I thought. So I put on about three pounds of eye shadow on each eye, and then went to town taking it off. My results are below.


Lancôme L'Oreal And the winner is...
Price $26/4.2 ounces $5.99/4 ounces L'Oreal costs 75% less than Lancome.
Packaging The sleek, child-proof bottle looks elegant. A narrow hole dispenses only what you need. Surprisingly sleek for a drugstore product, the bottle is nonetheless devoid of any fancy bells and whistles. Unfortunately, Junior will have no problem opening it and guzzling it down. Lancôme's packaging is more user-friendly, if you care about this sort of thing.
The formula itself Non-greasy texture, but feels smooth on eyelids. The oil-free remover is similarly smooth, but Lancôme's version is slightly more so. Lancôme, but just barely.
How well does it work? Bi-Facil removed heavy eye shadow, eyeliner, and mascara with just swipe — no tugging required. Removed shadow easily, but required a little more work to wipe away eyeliner and mascara. Bi-Facil. It's quick and effective, whereas the L'Oreal version required more product.

Both products are good makeup removers, but they certainly aren't twins. In this case, having the same parent company doesn't matter — they're different formulas. I'm sticking with Bi-Facil because of its effective and gentle formula, but L'Oreal's version isn't too shabby, either.

Love This Email Print Facebook Stumble It!