TDoll
Well-known member
Hey guys! Maybe this has been posted before, (I'm new so I have NO idea...) but I thought this was super helpful! Found it while google-ing....
1. First comparison, and the one that's debated most often - the base labels:
You can see the base label on the genuine one is very clear and has a batch number clearly printed on it. Batch numbers can either be printed or stamped but ALL pigments should have a colour name and a batch number. Pro pigments have clear labels and Ltd Ed and regular line pigments will have silver labels. The label on the fake pigment is too opaque and has no batch number. Some of the fakes do have batch number though - someone on Specktra informed me of that when she got a fake Blue pigment.
Also, you can see the subtle difference in colour here too. I'll explain more about that later on too.
2. The back of the jars:
Pre 2006 - genuine MAC pigments had centre aligned text on the back of the jjars. This changed to left aligned text in late 2006(ish). I have seen fakes with both versions of the text.
Fake pigments, although the aligment of the text is correct, normally have the font slightly off or the text way too thick. The pictures haven't come out too great here, but you can *just* see that the text on the fake is thicker than the genuine one. Again the subtle colour difference is visible.
3.The lids:
Genuine pigments have matte black lids except for some really really old batches (normally pre-2001). The old batches will have corresponding pre-2001 batch number though which should verify authenticity. You can see here that the fake pigment lid has a sheen to it, even though the pic isn't that great :/
4. The product itself:
What alarms me most about this is that the fake pigment texture is very, very similar to the genuine one. They're getting closer every time. However, here you can see the colour difference again and it's a bit clearer. The fake pigment lacks the base blue hue of the genuine one.
5.The BIG difference - the swatches:
Okay...pictures speak louder than words here. This is precisely the reason I wanted to see the pigment in person. Although the pictures the website sent looked convincing enough, I knew that swatching the pigment would tell me 100% if it was fake or not. You can see that the fake pigment is a wishy washy colour compared to the genuine one. It also has a helluva lot of gold pearl in it which the genuine one doesn't have.
Here's a pic of the swatches in a different light:
Here you can see the characteristic blue green sheen that gives the genuine pigment it's name. The fake pigment looks like a goldy black and has no visible blue or green on application.
The fake pigment also stained my skin a bit and was hard to wash off compared to the genuine one. Not something I want to put on my eye area!
Okay....now on to the boxes. Now this was hard....really hard! These boxes are so close to the real deal that I was gobsmacked when I saw them. However, there are some very subtle differences.
6. The box tops:
Genuine MAC pigment will always have the label in the same place, the top right hand corner of the lid. As you can see, the label on the fake is identical to that of the genuine one which is worrying. The fake boxes will also normally be slightly scratched as batches of fakes are shipped thrown into big boxes.
7. The front of the boxes:
MAC are extremely picky about quality control and don't do 'seconds' so printing errors on boxes are sure signs of fakes. Although you really need to know what the genuine boxes look like to see the errors. From this picture if you look closely the text at the bottom of the fake box isn't as defined as the genuine box, everything else is spot on though. Also I noticed that the fake pigment box cardboard feels much poorer quality that the genuine one.
8. The bottom labels:
These are very close. The one glaring difference is that the batch number is printed on the label of the fake and NOT on the jar label, whereas you can see that the batch number on the genuine box label corresponds with the batch number on the jar.
9. The body of the jar:
I was unable to get a picture of it because it didn't show up on pics :/
The plastic of the fake jar has a horrible wavy, almost bevelled look to it and reflects the light weird whereas the genuine jar is perfectly smooth and good quality plastic.
I hope this has explained things a bit better!!
Another point of note is that the matte pigments are a weight volume of 2.5g BUT the counterfeit pigments have 7.5g on the matte jars (7.5g is the weight volume of the the frost pigments).
If you want more info on how to spot earlier runs of fakes (there are lots of different kinds of fakes out there) there are good guides on ebay, make-up alley and specktra.net
From a LOT of research by Specktra members - The updated, latest fakes are (and may not be limited to):
* Deep Blue Green
* Deep Purple
* Green Brown
* Blue Brown
* Blue
* Basic Red
* Jardinaires
* Provence
* Emerald Green
* Chartreuse
* Copperclast
* Copper Sparkle
* Electric Coral
* Tan
* Accent Red
* Rose Gold
* Silver Fog
EDITED TO ADD PICS OF A BATCH THESE NEW FAKES:
*image from Sleepyhead on specktra.com
Glitters:
* Reflects Gold
* Neon 60's
* Black
* 3D Silver
* Grey
* Rocking Orange
EDITED TO ADD PICS OF A BATCH THESE NEW FAKE GLITTERS (Grey is a long discontinued and hard to find glitter and all of a sudden it's all over ebay? wtf?!):
*image from Sleepyhead on specktra.com
Eyeshadows:
* Budding Beauty
* Idol Eyes
* Jasmine
* Surreal
* Vellum
* Swimming
* Angelcake
* Satellite Dreams
* Black Tied
* Light Ray
* Rose Blanc
* Twinks
* Fade
* Romp
* Club
The previous batch of fakes from the Far East that are still in circulation are:
*Rose
*Aire De Blu
*Deckchair
*Vanilla
*Dark Soul
*Tan
These have silver base labels on them and come boxed. The font and spacing on the jar and box labels is WAY off (and the box label is way too big) so they're more obvious than the recent batch.
So there are 2 fake versions of Dark Soul out there. Both are lighter than the real deal. Dark Soul is NOT charcoal coloured, it is black with silver sparkle.
There are also a number of fake rare pigments like All-Girl and Deckchair out there. They either have no base label or a crap black one with white number on it. Remember all MAC products have a product name.
I'll give you a few of the most obvious ones here though:
* Don't buy any bulk batches of pigments on ebay EVER! MAC never do wholesale to anyone, so if a seller has large numbers of anything, stay away! They will also lie to you about where they came from.
* Every genuine MAC product has a colour name, not just a number or a description like 'sparkly black'. If you're not familiar with the colour name, google it and do your research.
*Don't buy ANYTHING from Hong Kong, Thailand or China. They will most likely be fake. This is where the counterfeits started although a lot have been coming out of Australia recently.
*MAC pigments never have black jar labels with white text showing only a batch number. These are the first run fakes from the far east and they are still in circulation
*MAC pigments never have a weird nozzle type thing on the inside plastic lid of the jar. I've seen a few fakes recently with this bizzare thing on them!
*Be very, very wary of any seller who has more than one of the really rare colours and don't be afraid to ask for extra pics of the bottom label. If it's a discontinued product or a Ltd ed colour, google for more info and find out what the batch number is likely to be (if they are only available for a ltd period of time, the batch numbers will be quite specific) and see if the pics correspond.
There are LOADS of other ways to spot the earlier runs of fakes and if you google 'how to spot fake MAC pigments' you will find good guides to earlier batches and even Youtube videos to help you out.
Bottom line is: THE COLOURS ARE NOT THE SAME AS GENUINE MAC.
1. First comparison, and the one that's debated most often - the base labels:
You can see the base label on the genuine one is very clear and has a batch number clearly printed on it. Batch numbers can either be printed or stamped but ALL pigments should have a colour name and a batch number. Pro pigments have clear labels and Ltd Ed and regular line pigments will have silver labels. The label on the fake pigment is too opaque and has no batch number. Some of the fakes do have batch number though - someone on Specktra informed me of that when she got a fake Blue pigment.
Also, you can see the subtle difference in colour here too. I'll explain more about that later on too.
2. The back of the jars:
Pre 2006 - genuine MAC pigments had centre aligned text on the back of the jjars. This changed to left aligned text in late 2006(ish). I have seen fakes with both versions of the text.
Fake pigments, although the aligment of the text is correct, normally have the font slightly off or the text way too thick. The pictures haven't come out too great here, but you can *just* see that the text on the fake is thicker than the genuine one. Again the subtle colour difference is visible.
3.The lids:
Genuine pigments have matte black lids except for some really really old batches (normally pre-2001). The old batches will have corresponding pre-2001 batch number though which should verify authenticity. You can see here that the fake pigment lid has a sheen to it, even though the pic isn't that great :/
4. The product itself:
What alarms me most about this is that the fake pigment texture is very, very similar to the genuine one. They're getting closer every time. However, here you can see the colour difference again and it's a bit clearer. The fake pigment lacks the base blue hue of the genuine one.
5.The BIG difference - the swatches:
Okay...pictures speak louder than words here. This is precisely the reason I wanted to see the pigment in person. Although the pictures the website sent looked convincing enough, I knew that swatching the pigment would tell me 100% if it was fake or not. You can see that the fake pigment is a wishy washy colour compared to the genuine one. It also has a helluva lot of gold pearl in it which the genuine one doesn't have.
Here's a pic of the swatches in a different light:
Here you can see the characteristic blue green sheen that gives the genuine pigment it's name. The fake pigment looks like a goldy black and has no visible blue or green on application.
The fake pigment also stained my skin a bit and was hard to wash off compared to the genuine one. Not something I want to put on my eye area!
Okay....now on to the boxes. Now this was hard....really hard! These boxes are so close to the real deal that I was gobsmacked when I saw them. However, there are some very subtle differences.
6. The box tops:
Genuine MAC pigment will always have the label in the same place, the top right hand corner of the lid. As you can see, the label on the fake is identical to that of the genuine one which is worrying. The fake boxes will also normally be slightly scratched as batches of fakes are shipped thrown into big boxes.
7. The front of the boxes:
MAC are extremely picky about quality control and don't do 'seconds' so printing errors on boxes are sure signs of fakes. Although you really need to know what the genuine boxes look like to see the errors. From this picture if you look closely the text at the bottom of the fake box isn't as defined as the genuine box, everything else is spot on though. Also I noticed that the fake pigment box cardboard feels much poorer quality that the genuine one.
8. The bottom labels:
These are very close. The one glaring difference is that the batch number is printed on the label of the fake and NOT on the jar label, whereas you can see that the batch number on the genuine box label corresponds with the batch number on the jar.
9. The body of the jar:
I was unable to get a picture of it because it didn't show up on pics :/
The plastic of the fake jar has a horrible wavy, almost bevelled look to it and reflects the light weird whereas the genuine jar is perfectly smooth and good quality plastic.
I hope this has explained things a bit better!!
Another point of note is that the matte pigments are a weight volume of 2.5g BUT the counterfeit pigments have 7.5g on the matte jars (7.5g is the weight volume of the the frost pigments).
If you want more info on how to spot earlier runs of fakes (there are lots of different kinds of fakes out there) there are good guides on ebay, make-up alley and specktra.net
From a LOT of research by Specktra members - The updated, latest fakes are (and may not be limited to):
* Deep Blue Green
* Deep Purple
* Green Brown
* Blue Brown
* Blue
* Basic Red
* Jardinaires
* Provence
* Emerald Green
* Chartreuse
* Copperclast
* Copper Sparkle
* Electric Coral
* Tan
* Accent Red
* Rose Gold
* Silver Fog
EDITED TO ADD PICS OF A BATCH THESE NEW FAKES:
*image from Sleepyhead on specktra.com
Glitters:
* Reflects Gold
* Neon 60's
* Black
* 3D Silver
* Grey
* Rocking Orange
EDITED TO ADD PICS OF A BATCH THESE NEW FAKE GLITTERS (Grey is a long discontinued and hard to find glitter and all of a sudden it's all over ebay? wtf?!):
*image from Sleepyhead on specktra.com
Eyeshadows:
* Budding Beauty
* Idol Eyes
* Jasmine
* Surreal
* Vellum
* Swimming
* Angelcake
* Satellite Dreams
* Black Tied
* Light Ray
* Rose Blanc
* Twinks
* Fade
* Romp
* Club
The previous batch of fakes from the Far East that are still in circulation are:
*Rose
*Aire De Blu
*Deckchair
*Vanilla
*Dark Soul
*Tan
These have silver base labels on them and come boxed. The font and spacing on the jar and box labels is WAY off (and the box label is way too big) so they're more obvious than the recent batch.
So there are 2 fake versions of Dark Soul out there. Both are lighter than the real deal. Dark Soul is NOT charcoal coloured, it is black with silver sparkle.
There are also a number of fake rare pigments like All-Girl and Deckchair out there. They either have no base label or a crap black one with white number on it. Remember all MAC products have a product name.
I'll give you a few of the most obvious ones here though:
* Don't buy any bulk batches of pigments on ebay EVER! MAC never do wholesale to anyone, so if a seller has large numbers of anything, stay away! They will also lie to you about where they came from.
* Every genuine MAC product has a colour name, not just a number or a description like 'sparkly black'. If you're not familiar with the colour name, google it and do your research.
*Don't buy ANYTHING from Hong Kong, Thailand or China. They will most likely be fake. This is where the counterfeits started although a lot have been coming out of Australia recently.
*MAC pigments never have black jar labels with white text showing only a batch number. These are the first run fakes from the far east and they are still in circulation
*MAC pigments never have a weird nozzle type thing on the inside plastic lid of the jar. I've seen a few fakes recently with this bizzare thing on them!
*Be very, very wary of any seller who has more than one of the really rare colours and don't be afraid to ask for extra pics of the bottom label. If it's a discontinued product or a Ltd ed colour, google for more info and find out what the batch number is likely to be (if they are only available for a ltd period of time, the batch numbers will be quite specific) and see if the pics correspond.
There are LOADS of other ways to spot the earlier runs of fakes and if you google 'how to spot fake MAC pigments' you will find good guides to earlier batches and even Youtube videos to help you out.
Bottom line is: THE COLOURS ARE NOT THE SAME AS GENUINE MAC.
