Fake-Up Spotting: Kat Von D
As promised from my previous post, I thought I'd let you all know about my learning experience when it came to purchasing make up online that wasn't quite the real deal. I'm pretty sure we've all experienced fakery at some point or know someone who has, but I decided that this post was pretty important simply because it took me a little while to realise that the items I had purchased were in fact fakes.
Why so long?
We all know that bigger and more established brands such as MAC, Urban Decay and Benefit are faked constantly, some are glaringly obvious even to those that aren't addicted to pigment perfection, then there are some that might leave the less savvy double guessing.
These are brands that we're pretty much all familiar with, however, Kat Von D's popularity is on the rise but for those of us who live in the UK, you have little more than some blurry photos to compare your product to. So how do you know you're getting the real thing? In short, you don't.
A few years ago I used to order Kat Von D palettes all the time through eBay via a reliable seller who now has their own online store that we've all come to know and love as Roses Beauty Store. Their products are 100% the real deal, and despite a slight increase on the price tag it is a pretty big saving on ordering from Sephora if you're not after a load of stuff (or have friends equally addicted to split the bill).
It'd been ages since I'd actually purchased from Roses Beauty Store on eBay, and unfortunately I decided that I would hold everyone to that standard. I'm not sure why it never occurred to me that there might be fake versions of Kat Von D products, but obviously with the booming success of the Shade and Light series, someone wants to try and cash in.
The palette that caused the most doubt for me was most definitely the Innerstellar palette, there was something about the packaging that just didn't quite look right from other pictures I'd seen. It was advertised as damaged by the seller so I assumed that maybe it was a factory reject (lied to myself basically) as some of the pans weren't entirely full.
The main differences to the packaging between a real Innerstellar palette and a fake:
- Spherical effect of packaging is not present on the box, fake is flat.
- Fake palette uses gold text on logo, whereas real palette is pastel pink.
- Spelling mistake on the back, 'Darkstar' appears as 'Darhstar'.
While I'm pretty embarrassed that I missed the spelling mistake, in my defence, the fonts are pretty hard to read on a reflective surface. After hours of staring holes into the shade name, I finally decided that shit was not right.
Unfortunately it was really difficult to find any comparisons on the internet (you're welcome!), so I didn't have a lot to go off other than a hell of a lot of googling and finally messaging the seller to find out where it came from, which we'll come back to later on.
There isn't any dramatic difference between the fake palette and the real palette on the inside, another reason why I didn't have any clue that I was using a fake product. The main differences between the real and fake shadow-wise are as follows:
- Fake palette has matte packaging surrounding the shadows, real palette is glossy.
- Fake palette's eyeshadows look a little more sad and washed out.
- Pigmentation is not what it should be.
The following swatches are to compare the pigmentation between the real and fake palettes, both were swatched on bare skin without and primer. On the left are the real palette swatches and on the right are the fake swatches.
As you can clearly see, the difference in performance is not to be sniffed at.
The Shade and Light palette had me going for a while, as far as fakes go I will say that it's actually pretty good in terms of first looks. The spelling error on one of the shadows finally gave it away, but before that it was most definitely the low quality of the eyeshadow itself. I've owned numerous Kat Von D palettes before now, most likely in a variety of formulas and none of them have ever been as crappy as this. When I tried to recreate a look by Jessica Haze I knew something was up as it just was not blending and the colours just felt really off.
As you can see from the above photos, many of the colours look seriously wrong, but without seeing the real deal beforehand it was difficult to tell until I tried to recreate that look. A lot of my googling efforts for this palette only came up with the contour and highlight palette comparisons which was pretty confusing as it wasn't clear as to what I was looking for. The only thing I can say is that colours just aren't what they should be.
As for the spelling mistake, this time it was the shade 'Ludwin' that had suddenly become 'Luowin'. Easier to read and a bit more obvious. Apologies for what are probably the worst photos in the world of blogging,
As for getting my refund, that was where the real fun began. The girl that I purchased these from I believe to be around my age, and from what I can tell, probably not a major crime lord. She sells a variety of weird shit on her eBay account from TART bronzers to male chastity devices. Still unsure whether I should report her to trading standards as I don't have the palettes any more, but for now I will not name and shame because I don't want the keyboard warriors attacking people mindlessly.
When I asked her where the palettes came from, I received the following reply:
Now, I've never dealt with a problem item before, let alone a fake. I'm unfortunately stuck in this mode where I believe everyone to be just and good, so I stupidly sent the palettes back to her. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together can guess what happened next; they went missing. Of course they did, the evidence destroyed! Or so she probably hoped, luckily I'd kept a copy of the receipt from the Post Office, and obviously a million and one photos. Hoorah for blogging!
Suffice to say, her communication was rubbish and after a prompt I was told that the products still hadn't arrived, either because of bad weather or the time of year etc. and she so badly wanted to give me my money back. Obviously.
I realised after a while that this girl was having me on with excuses and I was never going to get my refund unless I fought for it. Fortunately with Paypal's buyer protection and a change in the law, the refund was mine after opening a case on Paypal. Which lead to two fantastic messages in quick succession as I quoted the Consumer Rights Act 2015.
But then, not a moment later, a new message appears:
Translation? "After realising that this is pretty serious shit I have decided to give you your money back, but I don't really want to so can you please defraud the Royal Mail?". Obviously I wasn't going to do that, because then I'd be in serious shit, and I quite like RM, they bring me my comic books.
My reply?
The politest Smack Down you will see this year. Probably. I never did get a reply from her.
So what have we learned from this post? Basically that you should only order from legit sources, whether it's make up, clothing or electronics. I feel completely mortified that I purchased a fake product from eBay after lecturing so many girls about the dangers of fake make up, but I suppose it shows that it can happen to anyone with any brand. A quick google of how badly it can go wrong will most definitely put you off any juicy looking eBay purchases, examples here, here, and here.
It took me a long time to construct that final message, as I was incredibly angry with the seller. As someone who works full time in make-up I would have been claiming for a lot more than just two fake palettes if I'd had a reaction costing my work time and probably worse. It makes me sick to think that god knows what has touched my skin and how lucky I am that I didn't have a reaction.
Hopefully this post will be helpful to those who have previously purchased any make up from eBay that they have doubts about, as I would have killed for one on these palettes last year.
We are all human and we all make mistakes, just make sure it doesn't cost you your sight.
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