Fake-up: it's a dangerous thing. Regardless of whether you've got delicate skin or not, putting untested, unregulated chemicals masquerading as high-end beauty products on your mug is
not a good idea. Applying these products around your delicate eye area can be especially dangerous, so exercise every caution when ordering your beauty fix off the internet. Even if the substance is safe - and there is no way to tell - it's still a waste of your hard-earned cash and once your money's gone, it's usually very difficult to get it back. Covetable brands such as
Chanel, Mac and
Benefit rank highest as the most-counterfeited items and nine times out of ten it's easy to tell when a product isn't genuine. These high-profile beauty houses put a lot of time and effort into the design and manufacture of their products, so if something doesn't feel quite right and it came from a questionable source, it's probably a fake.
Where do these fakes come from? The majority are made cheaply in China and sold online or wholesale to small businesses who don't realise what they're buying isn't real. I actually saw a
Benefit Brows-A-Go-Go set (RRP £26.50) on deal-of-the-day site Wowcher for a tenner about a month ago. I emailed the company who was going to fulfil the orders and they assured me the set was real. To prove a point, I ordered one to see what arrived. Sure enough, the one that arrived was a shoddy imitation; I quickly contacted Wowcher and they refunded me.
While I worked at
Benefit, people sometimes came to the counter to ask whether a product they'd got off a dodgy website was real or not. The answer was always 'no' - if you have to ask, it's not genuine. I even had a girl come to swap her fake
Brow-Zings for a different shade. She swore blind she'd bought it from House of Fraser or somewhere until I sat her down, showed her the difference and threatened to call security.
Auction sites such as eBay are plagued by counterfeit products and in extreme cases have been successfully sued by high-end brands such as Louis Vuitton for failing to control the problem. Even though there may be some legitimate sellers on eBay, it is
always best to just save up and treat yourself to the real thing. Be aware that counterfeits do sometimes turn up in unexpected places; my sister once bought me a
Benefit Bad Gal Mascara off her school's Young Enterprise group, and it turned out they'd just bought in a shipment of cheap ones from China and were selling them at half the retail price.
So how do you spot a fake? If in doubt, take the product to your local counter and the beauty advisor will tell you in seconds if it's real or not. If you can't wait that long, here are some easy giveaways:
Packaging
Packaging is the easiest way to tell if an item is real, especially if you're already familiar with the product.
- The packaging should be flush; everything should fit perfectly. This is especially easy to detect in sets such as Smokin' Eyes and The Realness of Concealness where glue residue is often visible and make-up containers don't sit quite right in the box.
- For some reason, counterfeiters often have a job getting the font and character spacing absolutely right. If you've owned the product before, you'll smell a rat. If not, see if ASOS stocks it; it has a pretty hardcore zoom feature so you can properly compare the packaging.
- The ribbon Benefit uses in its sets to pull out from under little tubes of product in sets is always red and cut off at an angle.
- Counterfeit items are often torn in places from shoddy manufacturing.
- Most Benefit cosmetics have a peel-away sticker somewhere under which the ingredients are listed. On many fakes, the top of this sticker is reproduced on the packaging but it doesn't peel back. This is a great tell-tale sign for higher-quality, more convincing counterfeits.
- All Benefit cosmetics are made in the USA - it if says it's manufactured anywhere else, it's not real.
Product
This is obviously specific to individual items, but generally products just won't feel...quite right. Blushers are dusty and off-colour, concealers are soft and greasy and liquids such as mascaras and glosses are too watery. It's always worth giving your new prod a sniff; Benefit products are delicately fragranced and smell clean and expensive. If you've smelt them before, you'll know what you're looking for.
What to do if you've bought a fake
If you've bought a fake off eBay and paid through PayPal, contact the seller immediately. Tell them you've received your item and it isn't real. If the buyer is aware his or her goods are counterfeit, they will usually refund you immediately rather than risk an eBay investigation. Accept the refund, then report them to eBay. Sites like these need the support of buyers like you to help make them safer for everyone. If the buyer isn't aware their items are fake, they may argue. They may ask you to send the item back to them so they can inspect it. I wouldn't recommend this; the postage you spend returning it to them won't be recorded on PayPal and you'll ultimately be out of pocket. Simply take the matter to eBay and the seller will be forced to refund the full amount. Then throw the item away.
If you bought online with a credit card, contact your card issuer immediately and file a dispute. Go over the sellers' feedback with a fine-tooth comb and use it to compile evidence. Keep a record of all correspondence with the seller. The important thing is to move quickly; the longer you put it off, the less likely your refund will be.
If you bought online using a debit card, it's unlikely your money will ever be returned to you. Try contacting the website owner, but the chances are they know exactly what they're doing and won't return your emails. Cut your losses and accept you've learned a lesson: buyer beware.
Top tips for avoiding counterfeit goods
- Look out for sellers selling multiple items. If somebody is just selling one blusher and has a history of selling other bits and bobs, it's probable they're just getting rid of an unwanted gift than running a crime syndicate.
- Feedback is not always an accurate indication of genuineness; if other people have been duped by the fakes then they will be giving the seller positive feedback.
- Avoid items that are illustrated with a stock image.
- Stay away from foreign sellers.
- If possible, always pay with a credit card or PayPal. This makes claiming a refund much easier (and much more likely to be successful).
- Check out dodgy-looking sites on WhoIs, which supplies information on how long sites have been registered for and their track history.
- Do not be afraid to ask a beauty advisor to verify your doubts; the worst you'll get is a dirty look and that's much better than you smearing untested crap on your face.
- Stick to established discount sites; ASOS often have sales and voucher codes and sites such as CheapSmells often carry cheap, discontinued lines.
- Do not buy from any shady sources if you are purchasing a gift for someone.
- If you do find yourself in the situation of asking a seller for a refund, stay civil. You're more likely to get a response if you keep calm and polite, even though you're boiling with rage inside!
- Finally, use your common sense. If something is too good to be true, it usually is!
