The Fake Face of Beauty

Recently a colleague of mine informed me she had had a splurge on makeup. All mid to high end brands she had bought two palettes of eyeshadow from Chanel, five MAC lipglass, numerous bits from Benefit and a couple of Dior mascaras. Sounds good? Yes indeed, a good spree even if you are much poorer at the end of it. So when my colleague told me that the grand total spent on these products was just over £50 online there were some loud alarm bells ringing. Despite trying to gently suggest this to my colleague it did fall on deaf ears. Until a couple of days later when she came into work sporting dull, pink eyes - conjunctivitis, not a look she'd created from using her new palettes. Compared to some she came off fairly lightly.


Looking at the sites she had bought from it was abundantly clear that none of these items were legit. Unfortunately the fake cosmetics industry, along with its fashion/accessories counterparts, is booming. Sites like eBay and Facebook make it much easier to pass on fake products, never mind doing a quick Google search and finding entries like cheapmacwholesale.com (or thereabouts, you get my drift!) where you can buy a lipglass for a couple of pounds. We all love a good bargain, especially when money is tight so it may be tempting to go for the cheaper option - paying £20 for a genuine (it is, honest! The website says so ;-) ) set of 20 MAC brushes as opposed to a few hundred pounds on the MAC website for the equivalent brushes?


Why so against the fakes? When reading on sites about people buying counterfeits because 'why should they pay extortionate prices for an eyeshadow?' or 'the copy is just as good as the real thing' my heart does sink a little. Consider these...

Ethics - First of all another company is getting credit for 'creating' somebody elses product. It's also illegal - why fund crime? If you choose brands that don't test on animals, chances are the counterfeit will not be guaranteed to follow this either.

Health concerns - Unlike wearing a fake Chanel 2.55 handbag, a knock-off foundation might just cause a few more problems to your health. Skincare and cosmetics companies undergo rigorous testing before they are up for sale and have passed stringent laws for the country of sale. Increasingly high levels of lead, copper and arsenic, amongst others, have been found in counterfeit cosmetics, bacteria have even been found in some eye makeup. Lovely. If you develop an eye infection or an allergic reaction there will be no comeback, and lets face it, with such lax analysis of their products this is pretty likely.

How to identify fakes?

Unfortunately it's pretty difficult as the counterfeit companies are making some strong similarities with their items. There are some key points to check and consider though:

1. Cost - be realistic, a genuine Dior lipstick which retails for £25 is never going to be sold for £5. Ever. All of these so-called wholesale websites will say that they are selling factory seconds which justifies their low price-nope! A product that is flawed in some way won't be put out for general sale.

2. Ratings - eBay isn't the most reliable place to purchase higher end cosmetics, but if you're careful you can find some gems. Check the sellers rating - if there are any comments suggesting they are selling fakes, beware. Likewise if somebody is selling vast amounts of the same products (usually brushes) alarm bells may ring.

3. Packaging - difficult to assertain for sure unless you have seen genuine items already however MAC products are always named, they aren't sold as shade 01, 02 etc. There should be a batch number available.

4. MAC brushes - do not come in sets, apart from the limited edition sets usually released only at Christmas. They never do sets of 20 brushes and this is a common fake that crops up on eBay!

5. MAC palettes - 88 eyeshadow palettes? Not in MAC's product list. Another eBay item, don't be fooled. At most there is usually six eyeshadows in a made up palette as part of a promo, certainly not 88/100.

These are just four of many fake MAC products on eBay at the moment.These are more obviously fake if know the brand than some.

For more information have a read of these links:

Daily Mail article   this is worth a read to look at some of the dubious and quite frankly scary materials found in counterfeits.
Specktra forums    fantastic, knowledgeable forum where there is a lot of information on identifying fakes. Spotted an amazing deal on that limited edition lipstick from long ago? Check here first.
eBay review - spotting fake Benefit cosmetics    some useful information on checking if your Benefit cosmetics are real.
eBay review - spotting fake MAC    and another one for MAC too

There are some good comparison pictures found on other blogs too which have some clear pointers on what to look for, very useful if you are unfamiliar with a brand.

Please do take a moment to consider if your next bargain is in fact real. Its not worth risking your health to wear something that has not undergone testing to the same standards as the original. If you suffer a reaction (at the very least) you have nobody to come back on for this - the 'warehouse' these items came from won't be admitting any responsibility. There are plenty of affordable brands who are reliable, don't break the bank and are good quality (MUA - try it!), otherwise bite the bullet and pay for the real thing, your skin will be much more appreciative of it.