How the Blush is Made

Nerding out on product development with our Chief Product Officer

Last week, I asked what you want to know about Rare Beauty. Someone (hi, Vi!) asked how our new Soft Pinch Matte Bouncy Blush came to be. So, as the new self-elected voice of the people, I went straight to Joyce Kim’s office to find out the answer. As Chief Product Officer, Joyce oversees everything in the Rare Beauty line up.

Joyce is always down to talk blush, even if you show up on her office doorstep unannounced

Rare Beauty Insider: There’s one question I just need to get out of the way. We already have three great blushes in the lineup. Why did we need another one?

JOYCE: Do you want the honest answer?

RBI: Yes...?

J: It’s because people are afraid of our [Soft Pinch] liquid blush. It’s very, very pigmented. We’ve seen people try it and be like, “Oh god, that’s a lot of color.” There are some TikTok videos circulating [Insider's note: this IG post is a good summary]...

Our melting blush gives a beautiful wash of color, and our powder blush has a luminous finish—but liquid blush put us on the map. We wanted to create something less intimidating with a similar look. To be honest, a traditional pressed powder just seemed really boring to me. Early on, we were excited about this formula. I’ve never felt anything like it.

RBI: What role did Selena play in the concept?

J: People are surprised to hear that Selena follows customer feedback. She saw that people were overwhelmed by how pigmented our liquid blush is and agreed that we needed to offer another option. We sat together thinking about how we could approach blush in a fun, user-friendly way that still delivers vivid pigment. She loves applying makeup with her fingers, and she wants it to be quick and easy—those are always things we keep top of mind. So I worked with our partners in Korea to come up with an innovative formula that meets our criteria. It’s like Selena helps us figure out where we want to go, and then my team gets us there.

That texture…

RBI: I’ve heard people in the office say that making this formula is like baking cookies. Or did I mishear that?

J: No, you heard correctly. We used something called an extrusion process for this blush, where transparent base ingredients and color pigments are mixed completely uniformly, like cookie dough. And then that “dough” is rolled out and stamped with what looks like a cookie cutter. That goes into a pan, which goes into the compact. It’s a very different process than, say, our liquid blush, where pistons shoot the formula into each bottle. This extrusion process gives us that unique putty texture, a creamy feeling that blends out to a powder, and incredible pigment.

RBI: What do you mean by a transparent base?

J: Traditional pressed powders—even matte formulas—contain mica. It’s usually used as a base to give powder a smoother texture. The downside is that it can create a white cast on your skin. With this formula, the base is actually transparent, so you’re getting true color payoff. What you see in the compact is what you get on your skin.

The only exception is if you’re choosing a color that naturally contains white pigments, like pastel pink. It's not the formula but the actual shade that creates a white cast on deeper skin tones.

RBI: How long does it take to develop a typical product?

J: There are so many ways to go about it. Some brands move really quickly, but at Rare, it takes a lot of time. Our average behind-the-curtain timeline is two years. It sounds like a lot, but we really don't take shortcuts.

RBI: What’s the process like?

J: At the start, there’s literally a chemist sitting in her lab mixing ingredients in little beakers. You can do a lot at that stage because you’re dealing with such tiny amounts—any dream can become a reality. But the real test of whether a product can be sold in stores is what we call a scale-up process... Can those tiny amount be recreated in a huge drum without compromising anything? And then we have to make sure the formula is stable.

RBI: What does that mean, exactly?

J: It just means the formula isn’t changing over time. Take a simple pressed powder as an example. You’ve got pigments in a pan. But how do those pigments react to UV lights in the store? Do they fade? Does the powder’s texture change? We want to be sure the product you buy today performs the same a year from now.

There's also compatibility, which is how the formula reacts to the packaging it’s in. You might find the perfect tube for your lip balm, and then you discover issues in the development phase. Your balm has silicones that start reacting to the tube’s material, and now it’s leaking from the tube. When that happens, you have to start the packaging process all over again.

RBI: So was Bouncy Blush on the usual timeline?

J: This one took a year and a half. I know I said we don’t take shortcuts, but we expedited the process because we really wanted to get it out into the world.

RBI: How were you able to do that?

J: We used what’s called stock packaging instead of customizing the compact with anything other than our brand logo. You may have seen a similar compact on the market, but let's be real: innovation is expensive. We wanted to invest in making sure the formula was unique and hit all our criteria. We love our custom packaging (like the iconic Soft Pinch cap), but sometimes a stock pack allows for more approachable pricing.

RBI: What’s your favorite part of your job?

J: I know it sounds nerdy, but it’s definitely going to a factory. When you watch the machines working and think about all the people involved up to that point—there’s something really special about seeing an idea come to life.