Tuesday, 17 September 2013

Spotting Fake MAC Products on Ebay


Yes, I mixed the words 'counterfeit' and 'cosmetics' to form an amazing portmanteau word for the title; also that one year of an English Literature degree has finally come into use for knowing the linguistic term to describe that type of frankenstein word. Yay! 

But to the issue in hand: the products that are shown on this page were bought by me from UK sellers on eBay, once knowing that it was a fake, once not knowing until the item arrived. The palette I could identify from photos as fake: the oblong shadows, the sponge applicator, the weird Lady Gaga photo on the box. These were all warning signs that it was counterfeit, but I bought it, curious to find out if the eyeshadows were even good. Spoiler alert: they're not.

The lipstick however I was conned. More about that later.


As I'm sure most of you know, a MAC palette never contains, to my knowledge, oblong pans. Most fakes will contain either 6 or 12 rectangular shadows, a mirror, and a sponge applicator, which are all telltale signs of a counterfeit. The listing was described as a '20 eye shadow VIVA GLAM MAC palette'; when was that released?! If this wasn't enough, when I actually received the palette box, as you can see above, the photos on the back of the box of those weird semi-bruised eyes are as fuzzy as the photo shows. That unedited photo of it shows just how washed out and, sorry fake MAC production team, shoddy the packaging is. I swatched a few of the eyeshadows, and the photo I took didn't even bare inserting, because they don't show up on the hand: there's a slight shimmer to the all but three 'lustre' eyeshadows, but the matte shadows, the three bottom right, are completely unpigmented.

The lipstick however is a complete different saga. Listed as 'Genuine MAC Taupe lipstick BNIB' I was absolutely overjoyed to win at £7.50 a much coveted shade, and though two of the photos in the listing were off the MAC website, one seemed to be of the bullet itself, so an unspoken bond of trust between me and the seller was formed. On receipt of the lipstick, however, the box, though a very decent fake, said 'lustre' rather than 'matte'. I went to open the box. A sticker that read 'AB5 Photo'. This doesn't look good.

The lipstick was counterfeit. The shade, similar at best to MAC Taupe, but just feeling the bullet in my hand I could tell the hollow plastic was not MAC quality. Obviously buying over the internet you can't feel the item before you receive, but if you think you're getting a good deal on eBay on MAC cosmetics, maybe ask the seller for more photos, or even a swatch. 

So what do you do if you have bought one of these products unknowingly? Contact the seller for a full refund; if they refuse, after 8 days of the case being open eBay guarantee your money back within 48 hours. 

Have you ever bought any MAC counterfeitics? Let me know so I don't feel like such a stupid lady for falling for them!




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