Lasting Impression: A Consumer-centric Approach to Measure Transfer-proof Lipstick

Abstract

Transfer Proof can be defined as the ability of a cosmetic product to completely resist transferral from one surface to another. It has long been a popular claim across foundation and lip products but the ongoing COVID-19 crisis has made it more relevant than ever before.1 Wearing face masks is now essential to everyday life and consumers do not want to see makeup left behind after masks are removed. This puts increasing pressure on formulation chemists to create color cosmetics that perform,2 and raw material suppliers are developing ingredients to support this transfer-proof performance—most notably, novel film formers.3

Taking a step back, however, it is important to understand what consumers expect when they purchase a product that claims to be transfer proof and what they accept in terms of proven performance. Will they engage with product communic­ations of statistical significance from efficacy testing, or do they seek tangible proof that the product works in real terms? The transfer-proof benefit is now as important as long wear or hydration, so how can it be measured objectively when consumer perception is strongly at its core?

This was the focus of the present work, which aimed to strengthen conventional instrumental measurements by first defining transfer proof from the consumer perspective. These insights were then used to design a test method to measure this attribute in test lipsticks.