Have you ever received/purchased a fake beauty product? Share your horror stories! How did you deal? Did you know right away?
I don’t think I have, but it’s been a long time since I’ve bought makeup off of eBay and the like!
Thanks to Gail for today’s question!
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Yeah, I have, someone gave me a fake MAC Daisy Blush. It was such an obvious fake, too. The awkward thing is it’s actually more pigmented than any MAC blush i’ve tried, I feel so guilty that I haven’t thrown it away yet because I don’t know it’s back story!
The closest I have to a “fake product experience” is from working at Bath and Body Works. People would fill the body splash bottles with water and return them (presumably keeping the real product in a different container). Ah, people are amazing sometimes…
that is awful!! not the first story I’ve heard though sadly. Are you guys required to check inside because of that now?
Sorry this post is SO long but this topic just outrages me!!! I can’t believe how LOW people will go, I’m continually amazed and disgusted with how trashy and greedy people are! I buy occasionally from honest sellers who aren’t robbing brands of their business. Or scalping LE items by buying them up on-line and then charging ridiculous prices because the item is sold out or they can’t get it in their country etc…but that’s a whole other long story! I don’t understand why they don’t regulate fake items being sold on Ebay more! FAKE, MAC seems to be prevalent but I’ve seen plenty other brands too and a lot of other high end designer brands of just about anything. Some of the MAC is so obviously FAKE, I just can’t believe people buy this crap and then give the seller good ratings! They obviously don’t have a clue what they’re buying. There is SO much FAKE MAC and FAKE Hello Kitty/MAC and obviously it’s FAKE because MAC doesn’t even make half the stuff they are selling and the eye shadows w/mirror & applicator inside!…etc. How GREEDY and WRONG can people get??? Although, sometimes I just think people are really stupid not doing their homework before they buy a product, like, compare prices etc. before buying it. If your getting a high end or designer brand for $2 and not many are bidding and it’s brand new, the chances are it’s FAKE and these people actually think they’re getting a “great deal!” I have been duped a couple times though and I have to say Ebay has gotten much better about refunds etc. so at least you know you can get your $$$ back! To Arabella, if you like the product then don’t blame yourself, some of these fakes can be amazingly real looking! I HATE the fact that MAC is getting misrepresented and ripped like that and people are profiting off it. I’d just chalk it up to experience and enjoy it, IMO. I certainly wouldn’t buy from them again because what they are doing is obviously SO WRONG!!! I would write to them and say, “You have a good product, why not just put the proper brand name on it and start from the beginning as all other co’s have to do? I actually love the item but HATE what you’re doing and won’t buy from you again! Try marketing honestly instead of using someone else’s hard work to line your pockets!” If they know it’s fake themselves and would do that in the first place, they have NO ethics and they probably won’t care but for my own piece of mind I’d tell them what I thought of it and I’d leave neg FB and let other buyers know it’s FAKE!!! I purchased a used spray bottle of very expensive, discontinued perfume on Ebay from a seller with good feedback, even though they are NOT supposed to be selling used perfume on Ebay. We tried an experiment before buying it. First, I wrote to the seller and found out why she was selling it. She had gotten it as a gift and didn’t like it. Next, I had my fiancé try to get the spray top off an old bottle of my perfume. Let me tell you, it was SO hard to open! He had to use a special, metal cutting tool to get it off and the metal was all hacked up as a result. So, I assumed it was real and I was happy with the perfume, when I got it. *Last Note: These people returning bottles filled with water is just revolting and so is selling FAKE items. Life is hard enough, how do people LIVE with themselves? I just couldn’t! xXx…Sorrow
some people are plain outrageous. at the hardware store i used to work at, someone tried to return a portable bbq..or so it seemed. it was a sealed portable bbq box filled with ROCKS. unbelievable!
wow that is really bad, considering BBW is not even expensive. A friend of mine worked at Saks and told me people would return Le Mer creams the same exact way though, fill them with some dollar store lotion, but the employees were still required to process the returns.
Wow! I used to work there, too, and I never saw that but I totally believe it. The return policy at BBW was so lax. Worst I had was people returning things that we hadn’t sold for 10 years and saying they received them as a gift and didn’t like it. Either they were lying or their friends are really bad regifters.
wow. never heard of that one. they never examine the returned product???
Nope never. I only buy makeup products from Sephora and Nordstrom with occasional exceptions from actual brand websites if there’s a major promotion, like Clinique, Bobbi Brown, Laura Mercier… etc. I just don’t trust Ebay and other reseller websites when it comes to stuff like this, as well as for skincare products.
No I always buy from a reputable store i.e., Sephora, department stores. I dont’ buy from ebay, especially not makeup. Ewww.
If I COULD find a fake MAC Ripe Peach blush – cheap – I would absolutely buy it! I just like the way it looks, I could not care less about its authenticity and they go for $100 on eBay D:
i have bought a fake mac hello kitty blush on ebay : the color was a horrible pink and there is a brush (very bristly) in it : it was so obvious it was a fake! the blush was sold out and i think i’m lucky to get this but in reality not so much. I was refund and the seller said to keep it : it’s always in my bathroom but i don’t use it ? i don’t know why i don’t throw it out!
I don’t understand :why buying a fake (which can be dangerous because we have no idea if all the ingredients are safe), when you can find dupes from reputable brands in reputables stores ?
Yeah I could care less if it’s authentic or not as long as they aren’t trying to charge me the price for a real one and it’s a spot on dupe.
I have never bought makeup from ebay or anything unreputable so I can pretty much say I haven’t.
They could contain scary stuff though… >_<
…except fakes are illegal for a reason. counterfeit products are linked to organized crime, it violates copyright law, governments lose millions in tax revenue, etc etc
oh, and because they’re fake, they also don’t follow government regulations. at best it’ll be something like your counterfeit sunscreen not working because it wasn’t formulated with any uva/uvb protection, but people have been poisoned from it.
why don’t you just look for a dupe?
+ 10 !
eRiN: perhaps check out Estee Lauder (MACs parent company), they have an ombre blush that might be a dupe to Ripe Peach. It costs a bit more than MAC but it´s authentic and brand new then 😉 In any way it is probably less expensive than Ripe Peach on Ebay.
Oooo, you shouldn’t do that, though. If someone is dishonest enough to be willing to counterfeit a product and sell it as the real thing, they’ll be dishonest enough to use unsafe dyes, work in nonsterile environments, etc… Nothing you want to put on your skin, in other words! 🙂
Yep in a swap I got a bad mac eyeshadow and I think off Ebay when I was first starting out and didn’t know better then to buy Mac on ebay.
Sadly…yes 🙁 Benefit Coralista. Because where I’m from (Philippines), Benefit is not available locally.
1st time – bought on ebay. I already gave positive feedback before I found out it was fake.
2nd time – ebay again. The seller guaranteed it was authentic. When I opened the package, it was still fake. Thankfully, the seller was nice enough to offer a refund & I shipped back the product.
3rd time – still ebay. Finally…authentic! I should’ve bought from that trusted seller.
Yes! An acquaintance from high school sent me some “MAC” makeup after I commented on one of her statuses. The labels were so fake, and the lipglass smelled like citrus and was called “snow”.
No, not at all. I’ve never purchased makeup off eBay. No matter how much the product may entice me, I’ll just say “oh well” if I cannot have it authentically.
No, I haven’t, I always buy from reputable stores, too. But one time a lady at a railway station in Athens (Greece) stopped me and offered me some MAC products for 10 euros each. They were *so* fake! The funniest thing is that the MAC store was less than 50m away!!!! I didn’t buy and I went and talked about it to the MAC store manager and she went out to search for that lady… (yeah, I can be such a b**** sometimes)
I have bought one (hopefully real) MAC product from eBay and it was Bite of An Apple from the villains collection. I was very iffy about buying because I ALWAYS buy from Sephora, MAC, or their websites, but I decided to try it. Stated it was BNIB (brand new in box) and it did look brand new and unused. The box was real with promotion art and the packaging looked real not fake. If it is fake, it’s still a good blush. I saw makeup blogs of people who owned the real product with pics of them wearing the blush, swatches and of the actual packaging….it all matched up. Don’t think I’ll buy makeup again from eBay but my experience all worked out good.
Fake mac pigment…i shudv known it was too good to be true !
Bobbi Brown brushes on EBay. I was naive.
Same here.
Fake Benefit from eBay and I returened on time.
Tons fake MAC and givenchey sale on aisa eBay or retail stores in hong kong.
Yes, I bought fake 3 Benefit box blushes off ebay!! I found out a year later they were fake when I compared the boxes at Sephora.
No, I have not. I do buy makeup off of eBay because it’s cheaper, but I’ll only buy it if I know for sure it’s authentic. Probably 80% of the MAC eyeshadows on eBay are fake, so I read auction listings very carefully.
Unfortunately, yes. I’ve had fake ‘MAC’ pigments, eyeshadows, lipstick and even a fake Superglass from ebay sellers 🙁
Someone was selling a fake MAC palette, obviously fake because it has 8 colors, but I loved to color combinations, so I just bought it. It was very cheap, so no worries about that. Pigmentation isn’t bad, so I still use it.
I feel obligated to comment whenever I hear anyone express similar sentiments. If you look into how makeup is made, and what is and isn’t safe to use on your face, you’d be more wary about putting stuff made by counterfeiters on your face. They aren’t concerned about their brand reputation as MAC is, and if you get a reaction (or develop future issues from repeated use of unsafe ingredients), they won’t be held accountable. So, they don’t care if they are using dyes or other ingredients that are unsafe to use on the skin. They don’t care about producing their makeup in sterile environments.
Unfortunately i have. I was given a number to this girl who was selling MAC cosmetics really cheap. I ended up meeting up with her in the back of some gas station. Should have been my first clue, but it wasn’t. I kept asking her question and the more i asked the more she lowered the price. I kept asking stuff like this container looks funny and who dies this stuff not have any names on it. She kept making these story up, and i kept asking. Finally she said will if you buy one of each color ill give them to you for 4 dollars a color. I had managed to talk her from 10 dollars a pigment down to four with out even trying. Well i said WHat the hell and bought all the colors, along with some lipsticks, dazzelglass and she also hand some that looked like the barbie , hello kitty, and heatherette collection. So i bough a little of this and a little of that. About a week later it kind of hit me that all this stuff was fake MAC, but since i didn’t spend MAC money on it i was not that upset about it. some of the product was pretty horrible. THe dazzleglass looked very similar to the real one but when you put it on its was very sheer and so was their creamlipglass, but at 3 dollars a tub not a big deal. Now The blush and the pigments, i will admit was a good buy. The colors were very pigmented, the colors were bright and with all my make up i wear a primer it stayed put. For four dollars a pigment (and this is before MAC went to the smaller pigment bottles) it was a lot of product. Some of the container were super cheap and broke, I had to transfer them to other bottles. No i did not get an infection or had any breakout, and truth be told, my real MAC (true fuchsia) always stains my skin for like 2 days and the similar fake one does not. In retrospect, for the price i payed it was a great deal. some thing were great other were a hot mess. Would i ever buy fake MAC again? NO. I probably would have been upset if i had spent MAC prices but thank god i didn’t. So for all of you out there if the deals seem to good to be true its probably is. Hope this is helpful to anyone out there!
Yes, I’ve ended up with a fake Chanel quad and a fake YSL quad from eBay once. The “Chanel” quad is actually really pretty and very pigmented, so I’m in two minds what to do with it, lol. I’m a lot more careful now by the way and always research first, but sadly I see many fake items being bought on eBay by naive people who just see the name and think, yay, a bargain! It’s a shame, because there are a lot of genuine sellers on eBay, I myself sell my unwanted make up and skincare products and I never sell fakes. So eBay is not an evil place altogether, but people do need to be very careful and research their purchase beforehand. Also, just because a seller has 100% feedback doesn’t mean their items are all real, I have seen many receive positive feedbacks for obviously fake products, because people are not aware of the authenticity what they’re buying.
Yes on ebay. Now I have bought loads of stuff from ebay over the years but only one fake. Armani eyeshadow palette, the seller tried to tell me it was a Canadian exclusive!!!!! LOL The colors did not match any Armani colours. The box was real the inner palette black etc look good but important labels etc missing. I did get my money back and even spotted the seller trying to sell more, I reported them again and they disappeared. I did get to keep the eyeshadow palette, but never used it.
once, the guy had real stock on the picture and what i got was completely different. but what really baffles me is, the obvious mac fakes, like the mac 120 pallette, i saw a bid once on a pallette for £72.00. you could buy a manly pallette for like less than £15 which would save you hell of a lot because its the same thing. Google is there for a reason, do the research before you buy it!
One of the employees at the office where I work was selling “MAC”. She had them laid out for us to buy and choose. The brushes all sold for $5.00 and the eyeshadows were $11.00. The brushes looked so fake. The handles did not look like the MAC handles and the hair of the brushes were constantly shedding. The 239 brush was in black and not fluffy and still like the real 239 which is white. The makeup boxes for the MAC still look very real and so did the makeup containers for the eyeshadows and blushes. One of the beauty fashionista bought a bunch of stuff like $90.00. She thought they were real until she dropped the eyeshadow and it broke. She said that she had dropped MAC shadows before and it had never broke into pieces like this. She had also bought fake Hello Kitty by MAC from ebay….she said the stuff was so fake. I personally NEVER buy outside the makeup counters or Sephora or Ulta. I am so very fussy….must inspect the whole item for fingerprint or bad nicks. I make the sales rep get me out 2-3 items out for inspection till my satisfaction….Some get pissy with me thinking it will get ruin by use anyhow. But often I never use the makeup I purchase and keep it so I want it pristine. With the fake product, how do you know what country was it made in and what crap they put on the makeup item? They just stick a label and that is fraud.
yes, from a trusted seller on the mac livejournal community. she didn’t even realize it was fake so she was nice enough to refund me. same thing happened when i tried to buy a mac eyeshadow on ebay.
yes, i’ve purchased a “mac” pigment off of ebay once.
I have never bought a fake and will never do ! If I don’t have the money for the item I like (a bag or a garment for example), I try to find something in the same style in a cheaper brand, and as far as makeup is concerned I try to find good dupes from reliable brands.
I don’t think I did. I did buy some beauty products (mostly MAC LE items)on ebay but I’m pretty sure they were not fakes.
I’ve never bought any cosmetics or skin care from ebay and one of the reasons is that there are so many fakes out there. When I first learned of this, I was REALLY surprised. I wouldn’t have though that counterfeit makeup would be something that would generate enough profit – seems like a LOT of work for products that aren’t very expensive (unlike fake handbags or watches that sell for hundreds or thousands….)
I’ve received, although never purchased myself.. and I do not believe they knew they were fakes (older men!). I got a fake handbag once or twice, but as far as cosmetics, actual product, no, but fake MAC brushes which are apparently super easy to find (and also super gross!)
I don’t think I have. I only have a couple of Pigments I bought off Ebay a long time ago and they were from a seller who was not really selling much makeup, so I think they were just ones that she did not want. They looked ok to me (and I checked as thoroughly as I could) and they never gave me any wear problems.
Yeah, I have. I bought a bottle of perfume off eBay and I knew when I opened it that it was fake. The color of the perfume was noticeably different from the real perfume. I sprayed it and it smelled like a very watered-down version of the real thing. I was disappointed and angry.
oh boy, the first makeup purchase I ever did online, a mac brush kit through ebay. I didn’t know mac was so popular that people were making fake products. While I was waiting for it to arrive I found out it was fake and still got my money back, fortunately.
I did once when I started using make-up but since then I have not.
I bought fake special edition MAC brushes on ebay once (they were dirt cheap so it was pretty obvious that it was fake). They worked fine, but the skunk brush started oozing dark green goop after I cleaned it with shampoo, ughh! I had to throw it away!
Ugh. Don’t remind me. I did buy some fake MAC eyeshadows from ebay. It was a long time ago and I was an idiot, lol. At least they didn’t cost me much. So I learned not to buy makeup from ebay.
Yes when I first started getting into make up a few years ago I purchased from ebay and got fake eyeshadow and fake brushes. I just recently threw them out. Never really used them. Now I purchase from retailers online or in stores.
Before I was really into makeup and didn’t even know anything about MAC since I only had two eyeshadows, I bought some fake ones. I was at a flea market and there were some eyeshadows in a little basket and were like $5 and I was like score! Only later once I knew something about makeup and MAC did I realize they were fake. They sucked too by the way!
I personally never experienced buying a fake beauty product. But can you write a post on how to tell real from fake? Thanks Christine and I love Temptalia!
I wouldn’t know since I don’t have experience with fakes – my general rule of thumb is to always purchase from retailers themselves!
Thanks!
I haven’t. But I’m currently trying to find out where to buy Skin79+ BB Cream, and I know ebay and even Amazon have loads of fakes. If I google it there are 2 websites (one for North America and one for USA) and it’s just all a little sketchy.
I haven’t ordered from them, but I heard they were reputable. 🙂 http://www.shoppingholics.com/
Yes, I have!!!! From eay. It was MAC pigments Acid Orange (MAC pro color?), and Fuscia. There were pics of the containers, and the lid open so u can see the product on the auction. I was wondering why they were so cheap because no one in their right mind would sell an UNUSED $19 pigment for $5-8. So, yeah i thought I was getting a deal, and it was when i tried it on that I realized it was fake. MAC pigments are HIGHLY pigmented, only takes a little, and does not come off easily once applied. But These fake pigments were the exact opposite, not very pigmented, they rubbed off your skin easily, and do not look vibrant. The rule on ebay is, if you paid with paypal you can get yor refund. I called Ebay and disputed the issue, they gave the seller 7 days to respond to me and refund my money (and of course she never resmonded to my emails nor returned my money). So Ebay gave me that sellers address, told me to hip it back to her (they paid for the shipping, all i had to do was drop it off at UPS), and i had a tracking number, so she DID receive it, and I got my money back (not from her though, but from Ebay).
Lesson learned: NEVER buy MAC makeup, brushes, pigments, lipsticks, anything from ebay. They are ALL fake.
Ever see someone selling a LOT of 15, 20, or 30 pigments for a very cheap price>?? FAKE!!!! Yes, the containers are the exact same (actually they are not if you look closely, the printing can be slighty crooked or can have mussing symbole, the inside of the cap is different from the REAL mac pigment caps)… but they are all counterfit. No matter what the seller says they got it from. “Oh, a friend gave it to me,” ” Oh, a MAC store was closing and I am selling the leftovers..etc etc” don’t believe it. They are going to act like they dont know what you’re talking about. Its safe to always buy it at a MAC store, or if you want cheap MAC, you can go to a CCO.
CCO’s have foundations, pigments, eyeshadows, lipsticks and items from past limited edition collections that didn’t completely sell. And they have been sitting on the shelf longer, so the quality is not going to be all that great, which is why its cheaper.
I don’t think ALL MAC make up on eBay is fake though.
Yes I bought fake Mac brushes off of eBay. I was able to prove the were fake and filed a claim with paypal. I got my money back which was good 🙂
In a swap, I’ve received a fake MAC brush. But it was an honest mistake, and the swap was cancelled.
The only time I have purchased fake cosmetics is when I buy make-up from ebay as most of the time it is fake so I know what I am expecting.
It doesn’t bother me really because most of the time, the fakes are of brilliant quality and quite inexpensive.
As long as you take everything on ebay with a pinch of salt, its fine
x
You don’t know what ingredients or dyes those fake products have in them. There are plenty of dyes that give good color that just aren’t safe to use on your skin, and plenty of ingredients that are cheaper to use but are just terrible for your skin, or that contain impurities that will make you sensitive/ allergic to things over time. Counterfeiters only care about the sale, they don’t care about customer safety as the real companies do. If you have a bad reaction, you can’t do anything about it.
I have never purchased a fake product. I’ve never bought beauty products from Ebay, solely because I know fakes are so abundant. I purchase my products directly from the retailer, or from drugstores, department stores, etc.
I’ve been reading some of these replies about store returns/exchanges and I just can’t believe it. I mean, I can, but it’s not something I would consider doing. How shameful.
I’ve never purchased anything from Ebay, but I have seen some obvious fakes on Amazon. I’ve been building up my collection of MAC permanent shadows, so I went to Amazon to get some of them less expensively. In one description, the seller described the brush that went with the MAC shadow; another described a palette of MAC cream shadows! Damn, smh & lol!
This is one of the strengths of this site: that massive database of items. Is Rule a matte or a satin? It’s here. Has there ever been a MAC cream collection in one palette? As I work on the collection, I spend hours on this site. Thanks, Christine!
By the way…MAC includes a brush with LE palettes, but not singles; Rule is a matte and MAC hasn’t done cream shadows in a palette.
no, I havent. i never order online, so thats part of the reason i guess, but I would hate to have that happen to me, especially when you pay the full ammount
Yup, from ebay (this seems to be the main culprit). Purchased a limited edition My Beauty Diary box of face masks for a reasonable price. The seller had good feedback so I thought it was safe… but when I compared it to the authentic masks I buy from a local reputable store, it was definitely fake. I hadn’t rated the purchase yet (good for me) and wrote a complaint letter to the seller. They refunded my money on the same day and apologized, so I gave them an okay rating for not giving me trouble. But still… ebay is no good for cosmetics and skin care 😛 Learned my lesson!
Hi all!
I usually buy from stores like StrawberryNet or Sasa.com when I shop online. The products there seem ok. However to double check I always use the cosmetic calculator (http://beauty-and-aikido.blogspot.com/2011/03/cosmetic-calculator.html) to see when the batch was produced and what the expiry date would be. I suppose if it were a fake you could not find a batch number on the product or even if you found one, the calculator would not give you any information about a fake batch. So it would be fishy.
Wow! Great resource. Thank you for sharing that. I am going to use it faithfully.
My aunt gave me 2 shadows she bought from ebay that were “mac” but they were obvious fakes so I threw them out
Yes, I have received and purchased fake MAC makeup and I have been invited to fake MAC makeup parties too. I bought the fake MAC makeup so I can compare it to the reals ones I have so that in the future I can spot a fake one. All of the fake MAC makeups that I had was given away to friends and letting them know that they are fake and it’s up to them if they want it or not.
Sure have! I have been using MD Forte cleanser for twenty years. I thought that I would save a few bucks and get it cheaper on ebay. I was sent bottles that had NO LOT NUMBER, and smelled and felt like Cetaphyl.
If I had wanted Cetaphyl (itself a great product) I would have bought it from Walmart.
The seller said that I was crazy, and is the only seller in eleven years that gave me a negative review.
Before I questioned the seller’s integrity, I called Allergen (the maker of MD Forte products) and made sure that something was up with my ebay products.
I avoid ebay now, as I have been ripped off too many times.
Fortunately I haven´t bought fake makeup, yet 🙂
My aunt had purchased me two fake Too Faced palette from her local Beauty Supply store. At first, I refused to use them, but when I swatched them on my arm.. Geez they were so pigmented! They weren’t exacts, but VERY close dupes to the actual palettes! Eventually I did use them on my eye, and I’ve had no bad reactions to them.
My friend had given me fake MAC x Hello Kitty products though, such as mascara and eyeliner. I didn’t want to use products that would be on my lashes or in a liquid form, and I’d read a lot of terrible things about the fake MAC x Hello Kitty specifically. So I kept trying to throw them away, but my mom (who is a total newbie to MAC) kept thinking they were real and scolding me. She’d keep them in her make-up collection and I’d have to keep sneaking them out of her bag!
About a month ago I was looking for the first Lady Gaga Viva Glam Lipglass on EBay and found a bundle of MAC pigments, and 8 Lady Gaga Lipglasses…I bid on it and with 13 pigments, 8 Glasses (all Lady Gaga) and I think 6 or 7 OPI Nail Polishes the total came to $60 with shipping. It all didn’t really sit that well with me, so about 2 hours after the auction end – and after some online research! – I sent the seller a message requesting a refund due to the possibility of fakes. Thankfully I got my money back! And I’ll NEVER buy MAC from Ebay again! Since then I was able to find and purchase the Lipglass I was looking for on the actual MAC site – so everything’s kosher!
I do however still purchase some Urban Decay products on Ebay from time-to-time, but never anything “dirt cheap” and I always do my research before I buy! I haven’t purchased any fake UD products, but I have seen some obvious fake NAKED palettes and one 15 Anniversary Eyeshadow palette! When it comes to the more elusive UD products, it’s best to find them in a reputable store or on authentic website! and I ALWAYS sanitize the stuff I buy from Ebay even if it looks like it’s never been used – you never know what or where that stuff has been!
Fake purses and clothing is one thing, but once you venture into cosmetics or beauty products, then it’s EW. You never know what kind of products these people are throwing into their counterfeit MAC products, and what kind of reaction it will have on your face or body thereafter!
Thankfully not! I’ve studied transnational crime way too much to want to have any part in that, even if I bought it by accident I’d still feel horrible. I’d just think about how it got here and what else was smuggled in alongside it, and how the workers who made it were treated….
And I really can’t believe all the people who’d use fake stuff O.o There are all sorts of harmful chemicals even in some legitimate makeup, and then you have things like the Panama cough syrup case, and I just can’t understand putting that on your skin.
I have bought fake Hello Kitty MAC shadows & glosses on ebay before I knew how to spot the real thing!! Pigments, too 🙁
However, I’m now an active seller on ebay and personally, I only sell VERIFIED authentic products! It’s really hard, to be honest – because I can’t compete with the people who offer the fakes at such low prices, even with my perfect feedback rating and reputation for quality… I would never sell anything that I personally wouldn’t want to use or receive.
The fakes will either have a name OR number, but real products – they don’t contain BOTH the name and alpha numeric batch code that are stamped into real MAC items. There are other subtle differences, like lettering or box size slightly different, the lipsticks not having that sweet smell, pigments not having that inside cover with a number on it, and other things….but do your research! There are numerous articles about how to spot the fakes!!
And I promise, there are genuine people out there with authentic products to offer!! Sorry to hear the bad ones are spoiling it for the rest of us 🙁
Sorry, that should say that real products **DO** contain both a name and alpha numeric batch code
Yes, I ordered 2 OPI’s from eBay and they came with no manf stickers on the bottle bottom and they smelled horrible. One was a shade I knew very well (Thrill of Brazil) The color was so NOT OPI TofB. The seller argued with me saying that she bought them at a reputable beauty house and knew the colors because they were in a bucket with a tag on the bucket as to what name they were!!! Duh – what turnip truck did she fall off of? eBay took less than 30 seconds review and refunded me my $ but not my shipping I paid – GRRRR!.
Not me, my parents had. They wanted to give me some MAC brushes for Christmas,and they didnt even know about fakes,etc. The worst thing was their dissapointment more than anything :/
My mom bought some fake MAC Hello Kitty products from some lady at her job. You know those ladies that come around selling fake purses and fake cosmetics lol. My gullible mom thought it was all real and bought a few things for her and for myself. Good thing she didn’t pay a lot. But I’m not gonna lie..they were good fakes! The e/s palette I still use and the colors are nice and very pigmented. Me, myself, I bought a fake CHI on ebay once 🙁 I gave positive feedback before I even used it so I didn’t even bother complaining. Lesson learned!
No never..once I thought of buying some make up in Ebay and decided to google some opinions…right away I decided not to and just buy the product I want from stores. Luckily I found some online retailers (beautybay, feelunique…) that are super trustworthy and I can get my hands in some products I normally wouldn’t.
i accompanied my friend when she was buying her formal dress and since it was X amount, the SA said ‘oh fantastic, you get a free mac dazzleglass! they’re valued at blah blah blah’ etc. SO painfully fake- smelled like generic sweetness rather than vanilla, was named 003 and, worst of all, was a sheer pink creme although it was marked DAZZLEGLASS on the pack! oh dear
That is just embarrassing. >_>
I’ve gotten scammed on ebay twice, once for a set of “MAC” brushes and once for lipsticks. The brushes weren’t MAC quality, but they weren’t terrible. The lipsticks, however, were terrible.
I bought a fake Mac palette once. I sort of suspected it was, but I was new to Mac and didn’t know for certain till I received it. That said, it’s still one of my favorite eyeshadow palettes anyway!
No, I’ve never ordered make up from eBay or any site like that, and I don’t buy stuff from whatever web shop I find without looking it up first. I don’t wanna get a fake product, you never know what’s in them…
Never have I ever bought a fake beauty product. If there’s something I want I’ll buy it right then at Sephora or their website(my hometown Sephora rarely bothers to restock the shelves) or MAC counter especially if it’s LE. If I miss out, oh well, I always find something the next season that i’m going crazy for.
Yeah, I bought a fake Benefit Coralista blush from Ebay. I got it in the mail and it didn’t have the sweet smell that Benefit blushes do, and the sticker was peeling off the top, which shouldn’t happen on the real one. The ingredient information on the back, which is supposed to peel up, was just glued straight onto the box. There was even a spelling error on it, haha. I immediately emailed the seller and said it was fake and he said he didn’t even realize that makeup companies made fakes, ha! He refunded my money within seconds. After I got my money back, I peeled off the sticker since the blush was worthless anyway and underneath it said “Rio” instead of Coralista. So weird.
I, unfortunately, have bought a fake set of MAC brushes (complete with a free brush roll! SCAM ALERT!) and paid about $60- $70. For a teenager who does not have a steady income (no job yet, too young, haha) it was a pretty big splurge. At first I was so excited to use them but when I first used them, I noticed that the hair started to shed and the brushes were not at all soft like everyone had said, but incredibly scratchy,and then I came across some videos on Youtube about fake MAC cosmetics/brushes. Needless to say, I figured out that the brushes I purchased are fake. ;[
I was also a newbie at makeup and was too naive to realize that they were fake. . .
Never going to do that again! If it’s too good to be true, it usually is!
Yeah, I have buy fake MAC Brushs.
I did…fake Mac shadows from ebay. $7.95 for a shadow refill pan?? Should’ve known better…
I still have them, though I don’t know why. I’m too scared to use them!!
I bought a MAC palette with four colors that were pressed in squares. I had a feeling it was fake but the colors where so pretty. I asked the buyer was it real and that I searched google and could not find anything about this product. If it is real Mac how can you not find it in a search lol. She stated that it was real and that she buys from a whole sale company. It was 10 bucks plus shipping. I said oh what the heck send it. I was horrible and I talked to her and she was like send it back. I told her that it was not worth sending it back since I paid 10 plus shipping 4 dollar, why would I pay 4 more dollars to send it back plus I had opened it and swatched it and she said if you open it I will not take it back. I just threw it away it was fake and she knew it. I put in her comments that the products sent to me was fake Mac product so others can read it and be aware. Even if you say something good you can always go back and edit what you said and change the status to something else. I have bought a few Mac items that were real but it just takes too much time to try and figure the crap out so I just don’t deal with EBAY and makeup anymore.
Got this info off of the WWW
Spotting Fake M.A.C Pigments
As you all know M.A.C Pigments are very high quality products and there are fakes being sold online so be careful with this post I am going to show you how to find real m.a.c pigments and how to spot fake ones!
Step 1. First of all look at the Price. Of course you want the best deal possible, but is paying less for something awesome and instead receiving a replica of the product worth it. . .No? M.A.C pigments are a little expensive, but they are high quality and that little tub of product lasts a very long time. So actually, if you are purchasing a color that you will use regularly then it is not expensive in the long run.
Step 2. Look at the bottom of the box. If there is a sticker on the box, it is most likely safe. If the bar code is printed on the box, then don’t even bother opening it. It is fake.
Step 3. There should be a round black sticker on top of the box with the name of the color on it. On the bottom, there should be a clear or silver sticker with the name of the shade on it. Stickers that do not have the name of the shade, but only the number on it are fake.
Step 4. Look at the lid of your pigment. After unscrewing the black cap, there should be a protective lid covering the pigment. This lid should not have a hole in it to pour. If your pigment lid has a whole in it, send it back for a refund.
Step 5. Test a little bit of the pigment on your hand. Authentic MAC pigment will leave a rich color on your skin with the use of just a little. It is also difficult to remove and requires makeup remover if does not leave a pigmented color and rubs off easily it’s a . . .FAKE!
No, I haven’t ever bought or received one. I buy pretty much all of my makeup myself, but if my boyfriend does, we’ve been together so long he knows exactly where to go, what to buy, and who to ask for!
Unfortunately yeah,when I was a MAC newbie ,and only had like 2 real eyeshadows ive bought myself from the store,I bought fake MAC pallette,pigments,lipsticks and blushes. Not too long ago I purchased a fake MAC VV bite of an apple and fake MAC Ww golden lariat fake, omg. It was horrible,they look so identical to the real thing ,but the fake golden lariat was the size of the blush,the colors were still very pretty. But also it had a mirror in it which the real Ww msf didn’t. and the seller didn’t deny they were fake but still giving me a hard time to get my money back,I opened a dispute ,so still waiting to get my money back. NEVER AGAIN trusting eBay ,and their customer service truly sucks,only a very small handful of sellers I know are real now,so I’m just going to stick with them. Xoxo
Also,to top it off,I payed regular price for the LE items,didn’t think they sold fake ones. Now,I know better. =-/
Yes, and after realizing it was fake I never used it. What a shame.
I am SHOCKED by how many people are commenting here saying yes they buy fakes but they’re so cheap and omg the colors are so nice lol!!1!
Counterfeiters will use the cheapest ingredients they can to increase their profits. There are MANY dyes and other ingredients that will give nice colors, but that are TERRIBLE for your skin. Even if you can wear them without an immediate reaction, over time your skin can develop allergies and other issues from using bad ingredients.
And if you get something from a counterfeiter that seriously harms your face, what are you going to do? Complain to their company? Good luck tracking them down, and good luck getting any kind of refund or help with your medical bills from a small counterfeiting factory in China.
I’ve never bought a fake product. I’m careful about what I buy on eBay- I don’t go there looking for bargains, usually only to look for discontinued items. I look for sellers with excellent feedback, who aren’t selling lots or huge amounts of things. I make sure I know the product I’m looking for before buying. You have to be safe with this sort of thing- you only get one face, and a bargain on cheap makeup isn’t worth the risk of damaging it.
1) SHUE UEMURA EYELASH CURLER – E-BAY (the feedback was like 97%, but I compared it with the one that I bought before, from Sephora…).
2) PERFUMES – TJ MAX, MARSHALLS, KOHLS, e.tc… (Very often they are fake in such stores…)
No way. I never buy makeup online, I am too germaphobic and don’t trust that someone hasn’t dabbed into it. I buy from the dept store counters and if I buy from the drugstore it must be sealed. My face is too important to me to put nastiness on it and contract some awful disease. I don’t even swatch in the stores. Ewwww. I definitely do not share makeup either thats like sharing lingerie. No no no no way.
I got a fake MAC pigment once on eBay. Big surprise huh? The seller refunded me 100% just as soon as she knew knew it was a fake. I learned real fast to ask for pictures of the pigment jar label. I won’t use fake MAC because who knows what is in the jar? The restrictions on makeup contents is much less monitored than here in the USA. Good question!
Have looked at wet and wild palettes that temptalia raved about…I cannot even buy those palettes…..how can I buy ANY makeup from ebay….I never even knew ebay had so many fake MAC being sold. Except for Sugarpill Shadows and some Sephora products and the only MAC JW shadow online, I must touch and inspect every single makeup product before purchase for a pristine condition. The sales clerk thinks I’m nuts.
I bought a “MAC” brush set from Ebay. But it was $5, free shipping, and the brushes worked well. They were actually quite nice, so I didn’t really give a crap.
I actually wrote an article on how to check if you are buying fake MAC over here: http://ally-asphyxia.blogspot.com/2011/07/check-your-mac.html
But they are really good at producing the fake product you almost can’t tell if they are fake anymore! That reallt tic’s me off
Yes i have been burnt on ebay when i first starting purchasing a few mac things online, i have now learnt after heaps of online reasearch how to pick a real from fake and i also have some sellers that i keep saved for me to go back to and 1 that i email orders to on a regular basis. Problem with Australia is our mac products are double the price so its better for me to buy them in USA or Canada
I have! I did recognize something was off right away. It was a ghd straightener from eBay. I e-mailed the seller immediately with my concern and she assured me that it was an authentic ghd. After three weeks of use and research, I was positive that it was not authentic. I e-mailed the seller immediately. When she did not respond, I filed an eBay counterfeit report to get my money back via eBay. But it had been too long. She never did respond and now I have a $150 piece of crap lying in my closet 🙁
I would never buy makeup off ebay. I just would never do it, especially MAC. I also think it’s pointless to try to figure out what is fake and what isn’t, what to look for etc… these scammers are just going to take notes and get better at ripping things off. Save yourself the trouble and just don’t do it. I’d rather just pay full price from a trusted retailer. I’m not big on LE things anyway.
I have bought perfume off of ebay/amazon. Both times they smelled like rancid alcohol. Will NEVER do that again.
Yuck, I should have known better. I’m an esthetician. I got excited about Too Faced Candlelight on eBay and bought it. I compared it to my existing compact, that I bought from a reputable beauty supply. Different color and lacks all the gold luster.
Who knows what is in this. $12.00 mistake. I need to cough up the $25.00 if I want the real thing, which I do.
I bought what I thought was an authentic ud 15th anniversary palette, but when I recieved it I knew it wasn’t real because I swatched it and the colors looked different than those of another ud 15 that I bought from urbandecay.com. The shadows also have a toxic smelling scent. I paid $70.00 for a fake!! I have two real ones though so I’m not that bummed, but I still would like this problem to be fixed. I also got a fake book of shadows 4. Anyway I’m not buying makeup from ebay ever again. At least not from those that ripped me off. I recommend just buying from Sephora, Ulta, or Urban Decay or sites that are well known to be trustworthy.