Could Your Bargain Be Costing You Your Life?

Imitation is suppose to be the highest form of flattery, I would not think that high end make up brands would agree. In the never ending saga of fake make being sold to the public, Leanne Wertheim was sentenced to 8 month suspended sentence, £2,000 costs and 160 hours of community service. She took £40,000 from the public over four eBay accounts, the "brands" she was selling included Bobbi Brown, M.A.C, Benefit, Lancome and Max Factor.

Unsuspecting customers, who were thinking they were getting huge discounts with some products selling at £3.99, were actually buying toxic make up. When customers complained about the quality of products, she claimed that they were genuine. When initial tests were carried out on the products, the results showed that they had 3 times the normal levels of lead in them. Lead contamination can lead to side effects as brain damage, a lowering of IQ in unborn babies and behaviour problems.

In one instance, a Max Factor mascara was showed to be having 68 mg/kg of lead, where the legal amount is 20 mg/kg.

So how you spot a fake?

Knowledge is power, look at the stores to see how the product feels and how its packaged. Chanel and MAC are the most common copies that are sold. Chanel is always dressed in glossy packaging, with very simple writing. Fakes have little touches, logos in the wrong places, lower grade cardboard and lower grade pigments.

With MAC eye shadows and pigments, real items have the bar code as a sticker on the box, as well as having the colour name and finish on a sticker on the top of the box. MAC also do not have mirrors and applicators in with their products, the logo will always be centre (apart from mascaras which is on the left hand side). Sizes on genuine items will be given in grams and ounces - fakes tend to be in millilitres.

The best way to avoid fakes?

Save your pennies and buy only from authorised retailers and manufactures.

For more information on spotting all fakes, try: http://www.spotcounterfeits.co.uk/
Another brilliant entry on Fakes by BritishBeautyBlogger