Image source - weheartit.com
When I first started to appreciate higher end makeup I was overwhelmed by the price. How could a single blusher be worth 20 odd quid for instance? Naturally I sought alternative ways to get higher end brands at a fraction of the cost. This was at a time when I guess I was naive to the darker side to eBay and having been stung myself in the past wanted to forewarn you guys of the dangers of purchasing makeup from an unknown source and potentially saving your pennies and your skin in the long run.
Now don't get me wrong I don't for one second believe that all items for sale on eBay are imitations. I for one have sold many a genuine product on eBay and received positive feedback as a result. The first thing that you need to look at is the price. Back in the day I purchased a POREfessional for £6.50, 6 fricking pound 50! and that included the postage and packaging. When it arrived it seemed real and genuine and I was chuffed with my 'bargain' purchase. More so I even went and left a nice little feedback response to the seller dutifully telling them how happy I was with my purchase. That was until a few weeks later whilst mooching around the Benefit counter I decided to check out the 'real deal' and low and behold it bared no resemblance to the one I had purchased. By this point the seller had moved on. Probably been caught out by those far more savvy than myself. Did I learn my lesson? Hell no! I went on to purchase a Benefit Hoola and Dandelion, both were pretty nice to be honest and not bad considering I paid a fraction of the cost, but after a clever bit of research (bless you Google) it turns out these were imitations too. At the end of the day I came to the conclusion that it really is not worth it. If I want a higher end product I get my sorry ass down SpaceNK and buy it. Now there usually is a reason that a majority of these higher end products are priced the way they are and that's generally down to the quality of the packaging and ingredients which no replication is can match. The worrying thing is whilst its not going to hurt to purchase that imitation Mulberry, with makeup its different. These cheaper replications tend to be made with the cheapest ingredients possible and you are practically buying with absolutely no idea what is included in these products. I have heard worrying stories about girls that have purchased mascaras and eyeliners to discover that they smell like paint which is highly worrying considering that you intend to place this in or around your eye area. So, if the real deal is out of your price range then seek out an alternative. With the blogosphere so widely available and so diverse these days there are always posts out there recommending 'dupes' for the higher end ranges which is a lot safer than wasting your money on something that could potentially harm you.
In my experience the most sold items on eBay which tend to be 'fakes' are Benefit and MAC cosmetics. MAC being the worst. Also take into account this when you see a 'brush set' by MAC for the price of one MAC brush alone. Just think about it. If you had a set of brushes potentially worth 100's would you be selling them for £20? Its like selling a new Jag for the price of a bumped up old Skoda, its not realistic. So the rule is that if it does sound too good to be true then the chances are it is.
As I have mentioned though not all the items for sale are 'fakes' there are genuine people out there that are selling unwanted products in the same sense that bloggers have blog sales. Just have your wits about you. If you are looking to buy from an eBay shop and they have 50 MAC eye shadows for sale each at a quid each then you know there is something fishy. Whereas an individual seller selling 1 MAC eyeshadow with a good description and good feedback then that's different. You can always contact the seller and ask questions. I always ask where they purchased it from? How they can guarantee the authenticity etc and usually if its the real McCoy then they will happily answer your questions if you don't hear a peep then you know can kind of suss they are up to no good!
Also its worth remembering that if you do purchase something and have reason to believe that it is a 'fake' then you are eligible to receive your money back via eBay/PayPal under the item not as described option. Its also worth leaving feedback of the same effect to forewarn other potential buyers before they get stung too.
I am not sure how helpful this post is guys its not my usual take but its something I was thinking about the other day and hopefully this will give you a few things to look out for when looking to buy 'cheaper' makeup.
