venacava
Well-known member
Hi fellow Specktrettes,
A couple of weeks back I purchased an alleged genuine Your Ladyship pigment from an Australia based seller Alwaysyouthful on eBay. Not too surprisingly (how cynical are we?), it turned out to be another counterfeit. Aside from pointing out the obvious such as 'beware of buying cosmetics on ebay' and 'do not buy from this seller because the pigment is fake and probably some other stuff are fake too'; the primary purpose of this post is to provide a quick guide on spotting a counterfeit Your Ladyship pigment.
In order to keep everyone from falling asleep (and so that I won't have to type as much) I've included pictures. I'll put up video clips too once I work out how to convert the files into a format acceptable to youtube.
Also, before we start - I want to clarify that all items in images below that are labelled with 'MAC' are items I purchased directly from either a MAC counter, flagship store or PRO store. In most of the images below I will be comparing the fake with the real Your Ladyship pigment I brought from MAC.
Firstly, note the difference in the font used for the stock code/stamp. Also the code on the real MAC item is lightly stamped while the fake pigment is deeply imprinted.
In the image below note the differences in the plastic inserts. The inserts on the real pigments are slightly puffed out around the center and are glossier. The fake one kind of caves in a little. As a matter of fact the insert used on the fake Your Ladyship pigment is exactly the same as the ones used on a batch of fake Fairylite pigment that circulated around eBay back in 2008.
Btw, the 3 piggies on the right are Your Ladyship, Goldstroke and Sienna all of which are from the Antiquitease LE collection.
Here, pigment residual on the inserts shows the fake pigment is peachy pink in color while the real item is slightly lighter and more beige toned.
Aside from the evident color differences, the fake is metallic instead of shimmery and lacking the gold glitter and slight gold shimmer when compared to the genuine item.
Notice the difference in spacing and font size. The mostly obvious part is that the text on MAC's box did not bold the distribution info. I've also compared the fake to a number of MAC pigment boxes from 2006 - 2008 with the same result.
Here's a comparison with another 2007 pigment box.
Note the difference in text spacing, font and text size.
Note the difference in the shape of the cardboard flaps. Once again, the text on the fake is thicker. Also, on the REAL MAC item there is a break in the middle of letter 'M' which is lacking on the fake.
Now the background story:
Okay here's the obvious part - I was dumb and brought a fake.
So of course I contacted the seller Alwaysyouthful to complain about it and to request full refund + reimbursement for postage I will incur in sending the item back to her. She claimed that all her products are genuine etc you know, the same spiel from everyone seller caught out selling counterfeits. However, she very generously *cough* agreed to provide full refund and did not object to covering my postage cost, but she did point out that she prefer that I send it back to her via return-to-sender.
Here's where the problem started. The post office refused to return the item to sender because the package had been opened. Consequently I had to pay for the postage, which I did. On my way out I had a bad feeling about the whole thing so I turned back and added a few more dollars to register the package. The total postage is $4.55 for basic rate + $2.95 to register it. Yes, it's very expensive to post stuff in Australia.
Afterwards, I sent an msg to Alwaysyouthful advising that I have posted the item, the fact that PO demanded payment of additional postage, the postage fee incurred and the tracking number for the package. I also offered to send her a scanned image of the receipt from the post office if she requires it. That was last Friday.
This evening I received a very rude... okay it way down right sh1tty msg from the seller. She stated that she had received the item today, but she will not reimburse me for the postage incurred because I did not get her permission to do so and that I should have sent her another msg to gain her permission before paying for the postage. And how DARE I make that decision etc so on and so forth blah blah blah
So to break this down - (after I had driven 10km to the post office for the sole purpose to posting the fake garbage back to her) when the postal worker refused to accept the package, she want me to drive back home to send her a msg and wait heaven knows how long for her to reply, then drive all the way out again to post it.
At the end of that msg, she backtracked and said she would consider refunding only $4.55 IF I snail-mail the receipt to her.
In other words, she wants me to drive all the way to the PO to mail her the receipt. I bet she's not going to cover the additional postal and petrol costs. Think she is forgetting the fact that my town, as well as 75% of Queensland state, has been declared to be natural disaster zone.
Gosh I'm glad I registered the damn thing. At least she can't claim to have never received it.
In the end I told her to forget about it. I'm just going to write it off.
Anyway, except for the video clips this is the end of my show-&-tell. I apologize for any grammatical or spelling errors and if I come across somewhat incoherent as it's getting late here.
But yes, vid clips will be up very soon.
EDIT:
Here are the swatch vid clips:
Swatch on hand
Swatch on paper
Update on 14th January 2010:
I contacted eBay regarding Alwaysyouthful's Your Ladyship pigment listing and request eBay to remove this listing. However, (knowing how slowly these processes goes and in the mean time there are still 8 fake Your Ladyship pigments on that listing) I've also tracked down, via the seller's feedback page, 2 other eBayers who had recently purchased pigment off the same listing and warned them not to use the product. Evidently one of them read the msg and approached Alwaysyouthful to address the issue, since this morning I received an 30 days account suspension notice from eBay for "transaction interference".
Oh well. At least that's 1 person NOT using fake pigment.
A couple of weeks back I purchased an alleged genuine Your Ladyship pigment from an Australia based seller Alwaysyouthful on eBay. Not too surprisingly (how cynical are we?), it turned out to be another counterfeit. Aside from pointing out the obvious such as 'beware of buying cosmetics on ebay' and 'do not buy from this seller because the pigment is fake and probably some other stuff are fake too'; the primary purpose of this post is to provide a quick guide on spotting a counterfeit Your Ladyship pigment.
In order to keep everyone from falling asleep (and so that I won't have to type as much) I've included pictures. I'll put up video clips too once I work out how to convert the files into a format acceptable to youtube.
Also, before we start - I want to clarify that all items in images below that are labelled with 'MAC' are items I purchased directly from either a MAC counter, flagship store or PRO store. In most of the images below I will be comparing the fake with the real Your Ladyship pigment I brought from MAC.
Firstly, note the difference in the font used for the stock code/stamp. Also the code on the real MAC item is lightly stamped while the fake pigment is deeply imprinted.
In the image below note the differences in the plastic inserts. The inserts on the real pigments are slightly puffed out around the center and are glossier. The fake one kind of caves in a little. As a matter of fact the insert used on the fake Your Ladyship pigment is exactly the same as the ones used on a batch of fake Fairylite pigment that circulated around eBay back in 2008.
Btw, the 3 piggies on the right are Your Ladyship, Goldstroke and Sienna all of which are from the Antiquitease LE collection.
Here, pigment residual on the inserts shows the fake pigment is peachy pink in color while the real item is slightly lighter and more beige toned.
Aside from the evident color differences, the fake is metallic instead of shimmery and lacking the gold glitter and slight gold shimmer when compared to the genuine item.
Notice the difference in spacing and font size. The mostly obvious part is that the text on MAC's box did not bold the distribution info. I've also compared the fake to a number of MAC pigment boxes from 2006 - 2008 with the same result.
Here's a comparison with another 2007 pigment box.
Note the difference in text spacing, font and text size.
Note the difference in the shape of the cardboard flaps. Once again, the text on the fake is thicker. Also, on the REAL MAC item there is a break in the middle of letter 'M' which is lacking on the fake.
Now the background story:
Okay here's the obvious part - I was dumb and brought a fake.
So of course I contacted the seller Alwaysyouthful to complain about it and to request full refund + reimbursement for postage I will incur in sending the item back to her. She claimed that all her products are genuine etc you know, the same spiel from everyone seller caught out selling counterfeits. However, she very generously *cough* agreed to provide full refund and did not object to covering my postage cost, but she did point out that she prefer that I send it back to her via return-to-sender.
Here's where the problem started. The post office refused to return the item to sender because the package had been opened. Consequently I had to pay for the postage, which I did. On my way out I had a bad feeling about the whole thing so I turned back and added a few more dollars to register the package. The total postage is $4.55 for basic rate + $2.95 to register it. Yes, it's very expensive to post stuff in Australia.
Afterwards, I sent an msg to Alwaysyouthful advising that I have posted the item, the fact that PO demanded payment of additional postage, the postage fee incurred and the tracking number for the package. I also offered to send her a scanned image of the receipt from the post office if she requires it. That was last Friday.
This evening I received a very rude... okay it way down right sh1tty msg from the seller. She stated that she had received the item today, but she will not reimburse me for the postage incurred because I did not get her permission to do so and that I should have sent her another msg to gain her permission before paying for the postage. And how DARE I make that decision etc so on and so forth blah blah blah
So to break this down - (after I had driven 10km to the post office for the sole purpose to posting the fake garbage back to her) when the postal worker refused to accept the package, she want me to drive back home to send her a msg and wait heaven knows how long for her to reply, then drive all the way out again to post it.
At the end of that msg, she backtracked and said she would consider refunding only $4.55 IF I snail-mail the receipt to her.
In other words, she wants me to drive all the way to the PO to mail her the receipt. I bet she's not going to cover the additional postal and petrol costs. Think she is forgetting the fact that my town, as well as 75% of Queensland state, has been declared to be natural disaster zone.
Gosh I'm glad I registered the damn thing. At least she can't claim to have never received it.
In the end I told her to forget about it. I'm just going to write it off.
Anyway, except for the video clips this is the end of my show-&-tell. I apologize for any grammatical or spelling errors and if I come across somewhat incoherent as it's getting late here.
But yes, vid clips will be up very soon.
EDIT:
Here are the swatch vid clips:
Swatch on hand
Swatch on paper
Update on 14th January 2010:
I contacted eBay regarding Alwaysyouthful's Your Ladyship pigment listing and request eBay to remove this listing. However, (knowing how slowly these processes goes and in the mean time there are still 8 fake Your Ladyship pigments on that listing) I've also tracked down, via the seller's feedback page, 2 other eBayers who had recently purchased pigment off the same listing and warned them not to use the product. Evidently one of them read the msg and approached Alwaysyouthful to address the issue, since this morning I received an 30 days account suspension notice from eBay for "transaction interference".
Oh well. At least that's 1 person NOT using fake pigment.
