Identifying fake MAC Pigments ***Guide with photos***

[panda0410]

No not all pre 2001 batches have shiny lids - I have some pre 2001 pigments and mine are not shiny, they are just like normal lids, except the glitter which as I said is semi matte and probably from handling. My jars dont look like that either, and I have had a green with a black base sticker - yours has a completely different jar and lid. I'd be interested in seeing some pics, these arent like any authentic pigment jars (even pre 2001) that I have seen.

 

[halocaustic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by panda0410 No not all pre 2001 batches have shiny lids - I have some pre 2001 pigments and mine are not shiny, they are just like normal lids, except the glitter which as I said is semi matte and probably from handling. My jars dont look like that either, and I have had a green with a black base sticker - yours has a completely different jar and lid. I'd be interested in seeing some pics, these arent like any authentic pigment jars (even pre 2001) that I have seen.

Can you post pics of your jars? To see the differences. Would it have been more common to have had manufacturing discrepancies back then?

I don't think I have seen enough of the really, really old ones to suspect there is anything untoward with these pigments.
There probably aren't many of them about anymore!!

The boxes look very genuine. I would assume that fakers would make the boxes like the recent MAC boxes, rather than try to duplicate one that hasn't been sold for many years?

 

[panda0410]

Quote:

Originally Posted by halocaustic Can you post pics of your jars? To see the differences. Would it have been more common to have had manufacturing discrepancies back then? I don't think I have seen enough of the really, really old ones to suspect there is anything untoward with these pigments. There probably aren't many of them about anymore!! The boxes look very genuine. I would assume that fakers would make the boxes like the recent MAC boxes, rather than try to duplicate one that hasn't been sold for many years?

Yep, sure!! the boxes and base stickers dont look off to me either, simply stating that I have never seen jars like this before OR shiny lids on any old pigment. My very first Green pigment jar was from a very similar batch code to this one and it definitely had a matte lid and cerntral aligned text similar to what we have already seen - I'm sorry but I B2M that one quite a long time ago

None the less, I will post some pics of my own shortly.

 

[panda0410]

here we go - some of my older pigments ranging from 2000 to 2003 for comparison, I havent pic'd maroon - just forgot to, I can get it if you want but its pretty much the same as the other 2003 pigments here. I also have an earlier White from the original colour - but its also 2003.

The Bright Coral is a 2000 release pigment - its my second jar from pre 2000 in that colour. The first jar was the same as this jar. It definitely doesnt have a shiny lid nor the text seen on the others. It actually has a denser matte lid than the others...

The only one that has a different jar is my 2001 Turquoise matte - its in a glitter jar for some reason?? Dont ask me why, I dont know, probably just a production thing.

The Gold is a 2001 pigment - no difference to it and my 2000 Bright Coral except the base sticker, again in line with my very first Green pigment which was pre 2000, only the base sticker was different.

My Green is the 3rd jar I have had now in that colour. I HAD a pre 2001 Green with the black base sticker and while I dont have that jar anymore I can tell you it didnt have a shiny lid either, nor the above jars. It was the same as all my other early pigment jars with a matte lid and standard central aligned text. My Second green was identical to the one pic'd below except it was a different batch.












And heres a pic of the Red glitter for comparison. This is a very old glitter, its the chunky red previous to the reformulated Red glitter, well before 2000 - this glitter was bestowed upon me by a very good friend!!

 

[halocaustic]

That's really, really helpful Panda
I have never seen any of the uber old ones in person but I have seen pics of them on communities/LJ and such. The boxes are horrible

I've seen other pics of old pigments with the shiny lids too....and your turquoise is in a glitter jar! I think quality control maybe wasn't so strict back in the day.

The oldest one I have is that mustard I gave you some of. It's batch number A89 and has a matte lid. It has the old silver MAC Pro sticker too. I didn't get a box with it though.

 

[panda0410]

LOL!! And I thank you for that VERY much

I "had" a Royal Blue and Light Blue matte pigments coming to me - but they got lost in bloody customs!!! arghhhh.... so pissed off

IF they ever eventuate (unlikely since AU customs admitted liability for them) then I will post pics of those too

 

[halocaustic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by panda0410 LOL!! And I thank you for that VERY much I "had" a Royal Blue and Light Blue matte pigments coming to me - but they got lost in bloody customs!!! arghhhh.... so pissed off IF they ever eventuate (unlikely since AU customs admitted liability for them) then I will post pics of those too

ARGH!!
Knowing how long it probably took you to track it down and having seen how meticulous you are about your pigment collection and database (which is mighty impressive indeed, I might add) that must've been VERY frustrating. I can imagine you explaining to customs...

"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW RARE THAT PIGMENT IS?!!"
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN...IT'S ONLY MAKE UP??!! WTF!!"
*smack* *thud*

Did it go like that?

 

[panda0410]

LOL!! Oh it was much worse than that, I dont think they like me there anymore

The seller was great though and she refunded me already - ((thank-you!!)) - Customs told me to get her to lodge a claim for them at her end since AU post admitted liability for them and it was registered mail she should get her money back her end as well at least.

 

[anguria]

I'm sorry if its wrong place to post this but i'm confused. Are these fake? I havent seen any fake primary yellow or basic red yet so thats why i'm asking.

eBay Seller: beautifulangel: Makeup, Health Beauty items on eBay.com

what do you think about this seller?

 

[panda0410]

I think she has some fakes listed there - I can see a fake Silver pigment... This was mentioned in another thread - the Silver frost pigment is quite rare and was Dcd back in 2003, she not only has a batch from 2005 which isnt actually possible but has listed quite a few - like I said, authentic Silver frost pigment is pretty hard to come by. There are lots of fake matte pigments on ebay - including Basic Red and Primary Yellow, and even LE matts like Smoke Signal are being faked as well.

I wouldnt touch them with a barge pole.

 

[redambition]

Quote:

Originally Posted by anguria I'm sorry if its wrong place to post this but i'm confused. Are these fake? I havent seen any fake primary yellow or basic red yet so thats why i'm asking. eBay Seller: beautifulangel: Makeup, Health Beauty items on eBay.com what do you think about this seller?

those look suss to me. the silver this seller is selling is one that haas been pointed out on here before as being a counterfeit.

 

[anguria]

This is getting ridiculous! >>

*Hot Sell*Free shipping * MAC COSMETICS PIGMENT 7.5g Full Size NEW IN BOX (24 items per lot) - Dhgate

Coco beach??? Cocomotion?

---This is made in China, but the quality is same as the authentic MAC.A++++++++---

LOL

 

[Xqueeze_me]

Quote:

Originally Posted by redambition those look suss to me. the silver this seller is selling is one that haas been pointed out on here before as being a counterfeit.

Definitely a dodgy seller. I think its been mentioned before that the Basic Red has been tested by someone's finger... or thumb by the size of the "dip". The Rose Gold is DEFINITELY fake due to its texture. I would avoid even if she has 2 (including Silver) out of 10 fake pigments. (Just had a look at her 9 pigment set for sale... NO friggin way!!!)

Quote:

Originally Posted by anguria This is getting ridiculous! >> *Hot Sell*Free shipping * MAC COSMETICS PIGMENT 7.5g Full Size NEW IN BOX (24 items per lot) - Dhgate Coco beach??? Cocomotion? ---This is made in China, but the quality is same as the authentic MAC.A++++++++--- LOL

Yea... Add lead to it to make it more special.

 

[1165Cheryl]

I recently on purpose got a Smoke signal from a Ebay seller. I noticed she had some that looked real and some that looked fake so I wanted to find out. I have 2 full one's here and yep, it was a fake but the one that was sent was a good fake. Unless the person had experience with MAC they wouldnt have noticed. I'm getting a refund and mailing it back..she's a semi new seller with 100% feedback but I new some were fakes and didnt want innocent people buying these and not knowing. I wanted to find out so now hopefully it will help others from being ripped off. New MAC buyers have no idea and I hate seeing them getting fakes and thinking they are real. This is the 3rd fake I've returned in around 2 weeks. The first seller was very thankful, she was new and had no idea and refunded me within 1 hour of my email to her. She went through her stock and saw how many fakes she had and asked for my help for what to look for. It felt good working with someone with great communcation, wanting advice and helping them learn about the product. Other fake sellers as many of us have experienced can be very rude and knowingly sell these and don't care.

 

[Almost black.]

I would really like to buy some MAC products, bu as you say - it's really hard to recognize fake MAC's pigments unless you have much experience (and even then it's not easy cause today fakes are better and better

).

Lucky for me, my bf is going to USA and hopefully I'll get genuine MAC products.

 

[1165Cheryl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Almost black. I would really like to buy some MAC products, bu as you say - it's really hard to recognize fake MAC's pigments unless you have much experience (and even then it's not easy cause today fakes are better and better ). Lucky for me, my bf is going to USA and hopefully I'll get genuine MAC products.

HI,

Thats why I get my products directly from MAC and my rares from trusted sellers or macs "lost but not forgotten". The list here on how to spot fakes is good and then the list I keep with any changes MAC makes is a great help. I also have original jars of all of the colors I stock so I have the real thing to compare my rares to or any other Pigment to no matter the year it was made. The person I mentioned, that I bought on purpose and she refunded my account around 1/2 hour ago. Thats good your friend is getting them for you, if she goes to Nordstroms or a MAC store then you'll have no worries. I sell samples and wouldnt be selling them without buying direct from MAC. There are a few good ebayers like Tankist that is very trustful who I go to if I only need 1-2 colors, he's been around for many years also. everyonce in awhile I'll find a rare from someone new that I'm seeing if it's real or not and I lucked out

I love it here too, there are great people that have the real thing and have been able to get my very rares like MACs original green, silver (frost), ect..

On some of the very rares from early 2004 I'll stop trying so hard to stock them since they are so hard to find, expensive, ect..

I go through stages were I purposly look for fake sellers to bust them and then I stop for awhile cause I get burnt out...

 

[Almost black.]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1165Cheryl HI, Thats why I get my products directly from MAC and my rares from trusted sellers or macs "lost but not forgotten". The list here on how to spot fakes is good and then the list I keep with any changes MAC makes is a great help. I also have original jars of all of the colors I stock so I have the real thing to compare my rares to or any other Pigment to no matter the year it was made. The person I mentioned, that I bought on purpose and she refunded my account around 1/2 hour ago. Thats good your friend is getting them for you, if she goes to Nordstroms or a MAC store then you'll have no worries. I sell samples and wouldnt be selling them without buying direct from MAC. There are a few good ebayers like Tankist that is very trustful who I go to if I only need 1-2 colors, he's been around for many years also. everyonce in awhile I'll find a rare from someone new that I'm seeing if it's real or not and I lucked out I love it here too, there are great people that have the real thing and have been able to get my very rares like MACs original green, silver (frost), ect.. On some of the very rares from early 2004 I'll stop trying so hard to stock them since they are so hard to find, expensive, ect.. I go through stages were I purposly look for fake sellers to bust them and then I stop for awhile cause I get burnt out...

Thanks a lot for posting this.

The problem I have with ebay sellers is that they don't ship anything to Croatia, unfortunately. I know I read somewhere here that here some people sell samples as well but don't know where I've seent that so I'll be lurking around if I could find that information again cause I would really like to try something before my boyfriend goes to California so at least he'll know what too look for.

Anyway, thank you a lot dear.

 

[panda0410]

Quote:

Originally Posted by panda0410 LOL!! And I thank you for that VERY much I "had" a Royal Blue and Light Blue matte pigments coming to me - but they got lost in bloody customs!!! arghhhh.... so pissed off IF they ever eventuate (unlikely since AU customs admitted liability for them) then I will post pics of those too

Well ~ you are NEVER going to believe it - those pigments turned up!!!! here they are ...hehe... I am so relieved today that I almost feel sick

anyway, here they are - these are 2003 as well and probably the the last runs in these colours since they were Dcd in that year

The Light Blue has left aligned text - I have noticed that with at least *some* of my old pigments the pro colours are in left aligned jars PRE 2006 - which is when we started to see ALL pigments is left aligned jars.

 

[1165Cheryl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by panda0410 Well ~ you are NEVER going to believe it - those pigments turned up!!!! here they are ...hehe... I am so relieved today that I almost feel sick anyway, here they are - these are 2003 as well and probably the the last runs in these colours since they were Dcd in that year The Light Blue has left aligned text - I have noticed that with at least *some* of my old pigments the pro colours are in left aligned jars PRE 2006 - which is when we started to see ALL pigments is left aligned jars.

Hi panda..that's great those didnt get lost

I remember you had a sample of one ..how do you like them? I'm not much for matte's but by the pictures those are really nice colors. Like you some of my old rares are left aligned also..

 

[panda0410]

The Royal Blue I had a little of before this - its a nice colour!!! I tend to use them wet and as a base for the frost pigments most of the time, but these work great in the crease as well. I like my Royal Blue used with warmer colours and it makes a nice match for me with browns actually, but the fair haired girls could prob get away with all blues or greens with it as well. I havent tried the Light Blue, though its actually darker than its name suggests - clear blue sky is MUCH lighter than this

But I am looking forward to using it, just cant believe they actually turned up after being told they were gone!!!