Beauty Fakes!

I have purchased many things from eBay (like my rating thing is currently up to 107), and only once have I been unfortunate enough to receive a fake bottle of Viva La Juicy by Juicy Couture 🙁
It was after I had first discovered it and was in LOVE! I was so excited to open it up (the packaging was sealed in the clear plastic wrap and the box looked genuine, but the bottle was an obvious fake as there was squished out and dried glue from where the Juicy Couture logo was put on the front, and the liquid inside became discoloured and darkened over a few months!And the scent smelt the same but didn’t last anywhere near as long.

Was so totally disappointed and mad because I was none the wiser until I actually looked at it properly when the liquid was going darker browny-yellow a couple of months later when it was too late to open a dispute! I bought a proper one and never touched the other one again. My friend was happy to take it when I moved house though because she didn’t mind it being fake but smelling the same.

Ever since then, I vowed to THOROUGHLY check seller ratings and read all the negative feedback first. I have also taken a lot of pride in my perfume collection and have wised up about them and haven’t had a problem since.

Reviving this thread after seeing Deb’s post about counterfeit products – has anyone been scammed lately?

There are LOTS of fakes on eBay. When shopping on eBay, there are a few simple ways to protect yourself from fakes.

1) If the price is too good to be true, it probably is. A 32-piece MAC brush set for $50? Yeah, definitely fake; you won’t even need to check it to know!

2) Feedback doesn’t mean much. If you ARE curious, check any negative feedback a seller has had and see if any fakes are mentioned and how the seller chose to respond to them. Power Sellers and sellers who have upwards of 10,000 feedback are likely to be legitimate, but be cautious anyway!

3) Google up different ways to identify real vs fake products. The Shu Uemura Eyelash Curler is a popular fake, as are OPI Nail Polishes.

4) Use PayPal to pay. PayPal will always err on the side of the buyer in the case of an alleged scam. I don’t know how they handle the delivery of fakes, but at least in the realm of non-delivery, PayPal will definitely side with the buyers.

REGARDING OPI FAKES

I buy a LOT of OPI polishes online. There are a few ways to ID fake ones:

1) Incorrect fonts on the bottle; the L in mL should be capitalised and the “5” should be in a slightly different font.

2) Product name under the bottle; it should have a sticker with a barcode that you can peel off to reveal the product name. Sometimes the top sticker is missing… this doesn’t automatically mean it’s fake, but if it’s there it can help confirm that something is genuine.

3) There should be two ball bearings inside the bottle. Lie the bottle on its side and look for two little metal specks/dots to appear. If you see one, none, or more than two, it is fake.

4) Unscrew the bottle and look at the brush. The brush has “OPI” printed down just ONE side of the brush. If it’s on both or neither, it’s fake.

5) Some genuine OPI bottles will have a serial number engraved into the upper edge of the bottle. If you can easily read this number, it is FAKE… real bottles will not have this engraved number or it will appear to have been filed off a bit.

6) All genuine OPI bottles should have the serial printed in black dot-matrix font on the BOTTOM EDGE of the bottle (not on the sticker but on the clear space on the side of the bottle near the bottom). This number should match the number on the sticker under the bottle.

None of these are absolute guarantees, but they can help put your mind at ease!

Thanks for those points – I’m off to check my eBay OPI bottles! :-s

I always check and scrutinise the sellers on ebay before buying and have brought through ebay over 50 times and up until last week I had never had a problem. My daughter has wanted Vans shoes for ages and I found some on ebay for $12 each, I really sussed out the seller, checked his % rate from sales and also read the comments from people who have brought of him. When I was confident, I went ahead and purchased 2 pair. This was 8 weeks ago and I haven’t received them and when I logged on to try and communicate with the seller, it said he’d been de-registered, the sale was no longer showing under my account and when I clicked on a link in my email on his seller ID name, his profile came up and his % rating had gone from 99% when I looked down to 73% and he had over 200 negative comments (most from people who hadn’t received their goods). Thank God I paid using Paypal because they’re chasing and investigating it all now.

I’ve never bought makeup or brand name clothing off ebay for fear that I would buy a fake, I would prefer to spend extra to make sure I know what I’m getting. Sad really that we have to worry about this sort of things when shopping!

I purchased some fake Benefit from eBay. I was new to the brand and didn’t even realize there were fakes until I did some online research and when I got the products they just weren’t right, one even had wrong spelling. Luckily I got my money back and now I am very cautious with my eBay purchases.

I think the best bet is to pay with paypal and use a credit card.

I got an OPI nailpolish today and its different to the other 3 I have…Unfortunately i think this is is a real one and the other 3 i have may be fakes. I’ m so confused though. They look similar except on the 3 the font is finer and there is no serial number in black on the side and there is four icons on the back instead of 3??

From what i just read on the interent though 4 icons is genuine. argh so confused 🙁

I got an OPI nailpolish today and its different to the other 3 I have…Unfortunately i think this is is a real one and the other 3 i have may be fakes. I’ m so confused though. They look similar except on the 3 the font is finer and there is no serial number in black on the side and there is four icons on the back instead of 3??

There are LOTS of fakes on eBay. When shopping on eBay, there are a few simple ways to protect yourself from fakes.

1) If the price is too good to be true, it probably is. A 32-piece MAC brush set for $50? Yeah, definitely fake; you won’t even need to check it to know!

2) Feedback doesn’t mean much. If you ARE curious, check any negative feedback a seller has had and see if any fakes are mentioned and how the seller chose to respond to them. Power Sellers and sellers who have upwards of 10,000 feedback are likely to be legitimate, but be cautious anyway!

3) Google up different ways to identify real vs fake products. The Shu Uemura Eyelash Curler is a popular fake, as are OPI Nail Polishes.

4) Use PayPal to pay. PayPal will always err on the side of the buyer in the case of an alleged scam. I don’t know how they handle the delivery of fakes, but at least in the realm of non-delivery, PayPal will definitely side with the buyers.

REGARDING OPI FAKES

I buy a LOT of OPI polishes online. There are a few ways to ID fake ones:

1) Incorrect fonts on the bottle; the L in mL should be capitalised and the “5” should be in a slightly different font.

2) Product name under the bottle; it should have a sticker with a barcode that you can peel off to reveal the product name. Sometimes the top sticker is missing… this doesn’t automatically mean it’s fake, but if it’s there it can help confirm that something is genuine.

3) There should be two ball bearings inside the bottle. Lie the bottle on its side and look for two little metal specks/dots to appear. If you see one, none, or more than two, it is fake.

4) Unscrew the bottle and look at the brush. The brush has “OPI” printed down just ONE side of the brush. If it’s on both or neither, it’s fake.

5) Some genuine OPI bottles will have a serial number engraved into the upper edge of the bottle. If you can easily read this number, it is FAKE… real bottles will not have this engraved number or it will appear to have been filed off a bit.

6) All genuine OPI bottles should have the serial printed in black dot-matrix font on the BOTTOM EDGE of the bottle (not on the sticker but on the clear space on the side of the bottle near the bottom). This number should match the number on the sticker under the bottle.

None of these are absolute guarantees, but they can help put your mind at ease!

thanks for that i recently bought some OPI off ebay and I didnt even think about them being fakes then i read this thread and got a bit worried. They have all the things you mentioned above that a geniune OPI polish should have but they have the serial number engraved on the upper edge of the bottle, i suppose its not that easy to read but :/
thanks f

That was some super detailed and helpful facts.

the thing i realised is how many cheapie and knock offs ive bought over the yrs when not in the country, and i knew it but still didnt care.. if it was chep enough!
but if i pay good money, yea i want a good product.