The Elusive World of Makeup Repair on TikTok

MAKEUP MYSTERIES The Elusive World of Cosmetic Repair on TikTokWho are these people who fix broken palettes and melt lipsticks? They prefer to stay behind-the-scenes, but experts agree: they're total pros. 

By Alaina Demopoulos

March 22, 2022

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Makeup ASMR on TikTok is kind of a choose-your-fighter situation. The genres are endless. You can watch honey-voiced influencers whisper as they gently tap brushes against their skin, or listen to a comforting bedtime story while a creator smears serum onto their face. Now there's a new weirdly-soothing trend making the rounds: cosmetic repair.

Want to see an anonymous, gloved hand revive a broken palette or smashed lipstick, all while the dim sound of industrial equipment churns in the background? You're not alone — over 678 million people have clicked on the hashtag #cosmeticrepairs. The videos provide a certain kind of indescribable, you-know-it-when-you-see-it sensory response.

"I feel safe here," one commenter wrote after watching a few Nars palettes get the full refurbish treatment. "This account helps me more than my Ativan does," wrote another. Who knew the process of cosmetic chemistry could make us feel so tingly?

Though the process is technically recycling — a beat-up product goes in, a fresh one comes out, no need to buy another — it certainly seems frivolous. "I'd tell people to just buy a new blush," says cosmetic chemist Vince Spinnato. "I think it's a lot of work, and there's only a couple of items that a layperson could do at home. These people are all in a chemistry lab."

Meet the experts:

• Vince Spinnato, a cosmetic chemist and author of My Pursuit of Beauty: A Cosmetic Chemist Reveals The Glitz, The Glam, and the Batsh*t Crazy.
• Nick Dindio, a cosmetic chemist and research and development director for SOS Beauty.
• Jessa Blades, a makeup artist and clean beauty expert.
• Ginger King, a cosmetic chemist and product developer.
• Jill Rossini, the founder of the makeup repair line, Fixy.

Allure set out to interview six different beauty repair content creators, but none of them answered our request for comment. We're not sure why they're so elusive, but Spinnato guesses they're cosmetics chemists or product developers playing around at work.

"Lab time can cost around $500 for an hour," Spinnato says. "When you see them refurbish a compact, that process takes about two hours. So it's about $1,000 [worth of lab time] to get these videos done. You never see their faces or hear them talking, and they're wearing gloves. I think that's to have a sterile environment first, but also because they could be rogue employees in some lab."

"When you see them refurbish a compact, that process takes about two hours. So it's about $1,000 [worth of lab time] to get these videos done." 

Cosmetic chemist and research and development director for SOS Beauty Nick Dindio adds that "the people who are repairing cosmetics definitely know what they are doing. The equipment isn't difficult for the average person to get their hands on, but there are quite a few different tools and machinery that they are using that would be quite expensive," he says. "For this reason, I don't think the average consumer would have the ability to repair cosmetics like this at home."

Makeup artists who tend to travel around for work often reconfigure their kits to make them packable and ensure they're only toting around the essentials. "People combine products to keep it streamlined so you don't have to schlep around more than you use," says makeup artist Jessa Blades. But those artists are putting all of that makeup into a new compact or case, rather than reusing old ones.

Pessimists might assume that #cosmeticrepair videos actually show the process of making counterfeit products, but Dindio isn't concerned about that. "The amount of time and effort that goes into a single repair would be far greater than the profits they could make," he says.

The lab conditions in the videos appear sterile, though Dindio says it's tough to generalize whether or not makeup repair should be considered hygienic or safe. "It depends on the product," he says. "Anything that goes on or around the eye area would be the highest risk type of product in my opinion, so I would personally not use an eye product that had been 'repaired.' Many of these products [used in the videos] are powders that don't contain water and are generally not as susceptible to microbial contamination, so the risk is lower."

Cosmetic chemist and product developer Ginger King warns that refurbished eye shadows, in particular, could pose a risk. "There could be contaminations during the process," she says. "I know it's attempting to salvage things when it's broken, but makeup is not something you want to mess around with, especially when it comes to eye shadows for potential infection."

"I know it's attempting to salvage things when it's broken, but makeup is not something you want to mess around with, especially when it comes to eye shadows for potential infection."

King adds that bronzers and blushes might be a relatively safer bet for makeup rehab. "Those tend to last a long time, and if you absolutely want to try this, you could if you are not prone to acne or pore-clogging issues." Still, King recommends "just buying a new one" when the time comes.

Some brands, like MAC and Kjaer Weis, sell refillable items in an effort to reduce waste. "The first resort should always be just to return to the retailer, and brands are usually happy to help," says SOS Beauty president Charlene Valledor, who worked in product development at Hourglass and EM Cosmetics before starting her own company. "Attempting to repair a product could actually just ruin it. A lot of people try to add alcohol to a broken powder, which is crazy – even if you fix the break or whatever the aesthetic issue is, you are likely to ruin the performance of the product."

Jill Rossini founded the makeup repair line Fixy, which sells kits intended to salvage broken compacts. She's obsessed with the ASMR aspect of #makeuprepair, but she's never heard of anyone who does it as a business.

"I can't imagine they would charge less than $100 per compact for what they're doing," she says. "It's really hard to take compacts apart, and they're completely dismantling them. I've built a company around pressing makeup, and I would never do what they do — the process is insane, if you ask me. But they do such a nice job with the audio that you get the sound and true texture and feel of the product."

Though the world of makeup repair is still extremely mysterious — Who are these people? Where do the products come from? — perhaps that's part of its pull. Unlike the stereotypical, hungry-for-attention influencer, these ones are content to stay in the shadows, blissfully free of drama or controversy.

More on makeup:

• How Amanda Gordon Uses Makeup as Poetry
• Gigi Good Is Drag's Most Daring Doll
• Deepica Mutyala Makes the Beauty Products Her Followers Can't Find

Now, learn all about Amanda Gorman's beauty essentials:

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Alaina Demopoulos is a beauty editor at Allure. She previously served as a staff writer for The Daily Beast and Popsugar, respectively. She graduated from NYU with a degree in dramatic writing and her virgin brown hair, which she promptly dyed eight more colors. (She's settled on green for now.) When... Read moreBeauty Editor

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