shade range, wear time, or texture.
If a product's premium isn't buying you one of those, it's buying you a heavier cap.
“Drugstore dupes are just as good” and “you get what you pay for” are both half-true, which is why the argument never ends. The useful question isn't which shelf is better. It's what you're actually paying extra for in this specific product.
Foundation and concealer are where the money shows most clearly. Wide shade ranges with proper undertone options cost real money to develop and stock, and a near-match looks like a near-match in daylight. If your shade is hard to find, this is the category to spend in.
Wear time is genuinely a formulation problem, and it's one that money solves reasonably well. If you're doing long days or events, the premium here buys you something you can actually feel by hour eight.
A black eyeliner, a brown brow pencil, a plain mascara. The pigment is the same pigment. Differences come down to brush and applicator design, which drugstore brands have largely caught up on.
The per-shade cost of a $55 palette looks fine until you're honest about the fact that you use the neutral and the shimmer and nothing else. Two single shadows you'll finish beat twelve you won't.
Launch pricing is priced on urgency, not on formula. If the same brand sells a permanent version of a similar product for less, that's the more honest price.
The rule that survives contact with reality: spend up on base products and anything that has to last all day, and buy cheap on colour and on anything you're trying for the first time. That split will do more for how your makeup looks than any single product will.