The Lipstick Lesbians convey the True Beauty Ventures-backed concept as effectively turning the beauty innovation pipeline inside out, exposing ideas that might otherwise remain in lab presentations or beakers and soliciting feedback from consumers on their commercial viability before moving forward with them. The concept echoes existing and past efforts such as Volition Beauty, which surfaced lab innovations in tandem with consumer-submitted ideas and influencer partnerships, Beauty Pie, which cuts out middlemen by taking products directly from labs to customers, Rephr, a makeup brush brand that receives input on forthcoming products from more than 200,000 community members and asks consumers to pay what they choose for prototypes, and From the Lab, a now-defunct subscription-driven brand from Lorraine Dahlinger and Steve Dworman that brought formulas from manufacturers working with big-name brands to customers without snazzy packaging or marketing.

For its first “leak,” Leaked Labs dropped what it calls Amplify Flexi Powder, a thin disc of pigment that appears to originate from Italian manufacturer Chromavis Fareva. The brand promotes Amplify Flexi Powder as delivering “effortless payoff when worn dry” or, with a mixing medium or setting spray, transforming into “an act of performance,” and as resistant to shattering. The product, inspired by lasagna, is priced at $34 for a pack of four and a tin to house them.

The launch has been met with a vociferous response online, sparking curiosity, skepticism, anger and confusion among beauty enthusiasts and professionals. Critics question the product’s practicality, hygiene and value. One Instagram user with the handle @breejinx writes, “Very respectfully, this seems to present more problems than it aims to solve.” Others contend the product resembles the kinds of samples manufacturers often distribute to brands during development, sometimes at no cost, raising questions about why consumers should pay for a lab sample.

At the same time, the concept isn’t without support, and a not insignificant number of commentators praise its inventiveness. Plenty of people have been intrigued enough to buy Amplify Flexi Powder, and the initial leak sold out within four days. In a TikTok video, a creator named Jalana argues much of the blowback misses the point of the brand’s model. She says, “This company is meant to give you early access to beauty prototypes, collect your feedback, and then decide, ‘Hey, is this going to actually be a product that a brand is launching, or are we going to retire it given negative feedback from people?’”

Taking the discussion off social media, we wanted to see how labs view the Leaked Labs concept. For the latest edition of our ongoing series posing questions related to indie beauty, we asked 14 manufacturers, product developers, research and development consultants and more the following: Do you have lots of innovative formulas sitting around that haven’t made it to market, or is this concept trying to commercialize ideas that were never commercially viable? How much should consumers pay for lab-originated “leaks”? Could this model change how innovation travels from lab to shelf?