Cynthia Erivo cares more about how something makes her feel than how much it costs—but how lavish is her taste, really? In this episode of “Expensive Taste Test,” the Grammy, Emmy, and Tony winner puts her instincts to work, judging everything from heel height and headphone sound to nail polish pigment and peppermint tea. Armed with her signature vocal warmup trill and a sharp eye for aesthetics, Cynthia tries to tell the cheap from the pricey—all while calling herself a “cheap date,” which, she admits, stands to reason.
Stream Cynthia Erivo’s new album, ‘I Forgive You’’ here: https://cynthiaerivo.lnk.to/IForgiveYou
00:06Hi, I'm Cynthia Erivo, and we're playing Expensive Taste Test with Cosmo.
00:11I'm not sure I have expensive taste.
00:15I'm not necessarily about how much it costs, but how it makes me feel.
00:20Now, I mean, here's the thing, regardless of which is more expensive or not, I'm not
00:29I'm not wearing these, because they're way too low.
00:32These are definitely higher.
00:33What do you look for in a good heel?
00:35Height.
00:37A lot of height.
00:41Oh yeah, but who cares about that?
00:44I'm not really an open toe girl,
00:47because I think you can get a bit more
00:48out of your close toe shoes.
00:50You can get more adventurous with the design on them.
00:53It's all quite soft, isn't it, this one?
00:55Well, actually, I don't know.
00:57Let's have a look.
00:59I'm gonna pad a bottom on that,
01:02way up here, and this one does not.
01:05This here is not necessarily padded hard,
01:10but I think it's these.
01:15Yeah, the color and the height.
01:24Headbones.
01:26These look, I really like the aesthetic of this.
01:29I'm used to seeing headphones like this.
01:32Ooh, they fold.
01:33That's cool.
01:36Is that connected?
01:39Base is good on it.
01:44Okay, not bad.
01:50Okay.
01:51I like these.
01:52I like the sound on these, and I might be totally wrong,
01:54but the sound is good on that.
01:56I'm gonna pick those.
02:01I thought I was gonna go with these, and I wasn't sure.
02:04I was like, am I just going for the aesthetics of it at all?
02:06Oh, well, here you go.
02:07Here you go.
02:14Two microphones.
02:15Is it for, like, karaoke or something?
02:17Which I never do, by the way.
02:19Welcome to use Bluetooth microphone.
02:22Okay.
02:23Power on.
02:25They're very, very chatty, aren't they?
02:27Do I need to speak into them?
02:29Oh, there we go.
02:29There's a speaker on either side of them,
02:31so you can hear oneself very clearly.
02:34One, two, one, two.
02:35Well, that's nice.
02:35There's a nice little reverb on that.
02:37That's very much clearer.
02:38And it would be hilarious if this was the most expensive one,
02:41because you should be upset with yourself if this is the case.
02:44What's your most unusual warm-up routine?
02:47I don't know that this is unusual,
02:49because I think most singers know how to do this.
02:51But it's just a trill, which is just a...
03:00I'm gonna go with this one because it just sounds nicer,
03:02but I'm sure I'm wrong again.
03:06Oh, good.
03:07At least I know something about sound.
03:15Okay, we have a nail polish, I believe, here.
03:18One is very, very bright.
03:20Let's see.
03:21So this is like a slightly muted, more army green, I guess.
03:24Less bright.
03:26Can I have some swatches, please?
03:27Thank you very much.
03:28Oh, that's very much nail varnish.
03:30You can smell that from a mile away.
03:35Pigment's very good.
03:37Lovely.
03:40Let's do the other one.
03:42I don't know that I would wear either, but I've probably worn something similar to this one.
03:47I haven't necessarily worn something that's as bright as this.
03:50Oh, that's good.
03:51Good old pigment on that immediately.
03:53Not necessarily a color that I would wear, but it's gone on very well.
03:59One brush is really, really wide. One brush is quite thin.
04:03I think this is the more expensive one because of the brush on it and how much pigment you get when it gets laid down.
04:11I may be totally wrong, but I think it's this one.
04:14You have peppermint tea, but there's more mint in this one than there is in that one for some reason.
04:29Regardless of what the cost is, I'm not drinking this tea because this, I think, is a green and peppermint, which is not fun, but this is very, very minty.
04:42This is like much lighter in here, and I can't tell if it's because it's not been steeped for long enough, but there's as much as you're going to get.
04:54Do you want to try it again?
04:56Do you want to try it again?
04:58Do you want to try it again?
04:59Do you want to try it again?
05:00Why on the Earth?
05:01No.
05:06It's like drinking an essence.
05:08I don't know which is more expensive, but I'm going to go with this one because it just tastes nicer.
05:16See?
05:17Told you!
05:23We have earrings here.
05:25One of them has a pierced back, which is better for me,
05:30and the other has a clip back.
05:33They are very dangly.
05:35They're both gold.
05:36One has a pink center.
05:38I don't know if I would wear
05:39either one of these earrings, to be honest.
05:42I think this is backed on leather.
05:44These feel quite light.
05:48These are, these are also quite light as well.
05:52I mean, I honestly couldn't tell you
05:53which is which, to be honest.
05:56Um, I mean, I guess I'll say this one
05:58because there's a lot more to them.
06:03Yeah, I figured, because not my style at all.
06:06Neither one of them.
06:12I have no idea.
06:13I couldn't tell you, for the life of me,
06:16what is more expensive between two pairs of black spectacles.
06:19I don't know.
06:20They're both spectacles with black frames and square.
06:25One is slightly shinier than the other, and one is matte.
06:30And it really just depends on what you want.
06:31I mean, one is just frame, one is a pair of readers.
06:36Well, I'm gonna assume if these are a pair of readers,
06:39they're easy to get.
06:40So I'm gonna pick this pair.
06:42I think we have roasted edamame beans here.
06:55I like the color on these more,
06:56because they're a little darker.
07:03I have no thoughts yet.
07:04That seems to have a new flavor, which is interesting.
07:12I don't know. I can't tell.
07:14They taste better.
07:15And I might be wrong, but maybe I just am a cheap date.
07:19So we'll go with this one anyway.
07:23Told you.
07:25It is what it is.
07:26I got a three out of eight, and that kind of stands to reason.
