Saturday 5 May 2012

Fake vs. Real MAC Lipsticks

MAC is one of those brands whose products you treasure like they were your children, and get butterflies of excitement when swatching and buying new items to add to your collection, for me anyway! Recently, one of my friends bought what she thought was a MAC Viva Glam Gaga lipstick from eBay, something which I would never recommend. She was so looking forward to it arriving, however as soon as she opened the package she could see that it was not what she'd hoped she would receive. Fake makeup is all over eBay, so this post is basically going to give you NUMBER basic point to let you know if you've bought a fake MAC lipstick. To demonstrate the differences I have used a fake Viva Glam Gaga and a real Angel lipstick.


Firstly, the sticker on the bottom is completely different. As you can see, the real lipstick on the right clearly displays the name and finish, (Angel, frost) whereas the fake fails to give a name at all! The text around the edge of the sticker is correct, however it is written in a different font which is much harder to read, and is missing the recycling symbol. Schoolboy errors.


Clearly whoever manufactures these fake lipsticks has spent 2 minutes when designing the outer packaging! This is completely different to the real box. First of all the fake lipstick came in a box that was a different shape to the real lipstick. Secondly, the text isn't even close to being correct. The exact same sticker that was seen on the bottom on the tube has been stuck (squint) on the end of the box. It just screams that it's not real! 


The quality of the tube is shocking. The twist mechanism can be easily taken apart from the bottom of the tube, which is obviously something that a legit MAC lipstick would never do. The lipstick feels lighter than the real one, and the actual product inside just seems too plastic-y to be real.


Talking of the lazy packaging errors, the size of the lipstick is different too! I'm no fake lipstick manufacturer, but it seems that a quick measure of a real product wouldn't go a miss when designing the fake packaging, no? As you can clearly see in the above picture, the imposter on the left is taller than the real product on the right. Also, the fake packaging is a lot thinner and feels like it could easily snap with enough pressure.



The colour of the packaging is different. The real packaging (top) is much more black, whereas the fake is more of a dark grey. Also, the fake packaging fails to feature the 'e' symbol, which means that the quantity stated on the packaging is correct according to EU standards - pretty important!

Also, the smell is vastly different. As most of you know, MAC lipsticks have a gorgeous cakey/vanilla scent, something which has not been transferred into the production of the fake lipstick. It smells like paint. Acrylic, and very unpleasant it makes you wonder what the ingredients are of this imposter product. 

I am in no way an expert on this topic, however I thought this might be a helpful post and if it helps one person avoid wasting money on a fake product, then I'll be happy!

Have you ever bought a fake cosmetic item? Do you have any other tips on how to spot a fake product?

Evie x

12 comments:

  1. Really great post!
    How could anyone make so many errors and expect to get away with selling them as real! Silly people!

    Check out my blog if you get a second! Thanks x
    Jess xoxo

    xAllDolledUp

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    1. Thanks Jess! I know, it's insane, some of them are so obvious! xo

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  2. Urg. At least if you're going to rip something of,make it look like it's the actual thing :D Very helpful post! xxx

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  3. Wow I had absolutely no idea there existed fake make up! (I knew about perfume but that's all)
    Thanks for posting this Evie!
    (but on the other hand it maybe wasn't the best idea to buy make up from Ebay?) I like mine brand new from the store :p
    Great post!!

    xxxx

    lifeisroyalty.blogspot.com
    Maybe you want to check it out? :)

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    1. it's pretty ridiculous! haha, that's what i told her, she won't be doing it again! learned her lesson! xo

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  4. Wowww. That is seriously so ridiculous! It's SO far off the real packaging, haha. They could have at least TRIED to replicate it! I've never bought a fake MAC lipstick *thank goodness* but I usually buy my MAC from the actual shop, so I guess that's why! Lovely blog, btw. Glad I stumbled across it! xx

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    1. it's so obvious isn't it?! haha! i buy mine online from the mac website! totally not worth the risk! thank you so much, that means a lot! xo

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  5. WOW such a bad fake copy, I can't believe that people are even bothered with making fakes! That why I hardly ever buy mac make-up from ebay, they normally always are fake. x

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    1. It's such bad form but unfortunately it's always going to happen! You're better just not risking it, it's so not worth it! Not a bargain if it's fake! xo

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  6. I ended up with a fake MAC lippy a few years back. It smelt like petrol! God only knows what was in it. I havent bought makeup from ebay ever since.
    xo

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    1. it was so bad! don't know how they think they'll go unnoticed! xo

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