ES advice please - with photos

julie150463 · Mar 14, 2008

Hi ladies

Well I need your advice as I'm still not sure about these eyeshadows

I've already shown Panda & Xqueeze-me and the jury's still out

I've taken lots of photos of 2 I suspect (I have what I think are good ones to compare them to) - the 'suspect' one is on the right of each photo. I really can't tell from the shadows themselves it just the blasted boxes. The ones on the right have those horrible scratchy marks on them and the card is not the same - just like the fake pigments

panda0410 · Mar 14, 2008

LOL - my god I must have been tired last night because I thought you wanted me to look at the ones on the left - I remember thinking this is very strange

winterwonder · Mar 14, 2008

Oh those are tricky! The boxes are the epitome of what fakes look like but the pots are virtually indistinguishable. The font on the lid looks slightly off to me but I may be looking too hard lol.

And the backs of them look off around the hinge somehow too, the first time I thought it was just me but then it happened for both colors. I don't know, I'm so torn, but I'm leaning more toward fake. If they are they are damn good ones. Ah sorry I wasn't more helpful!

Lizzie · Mar 14, 2008

dannng, if those are fakes, they're really good ones.
I agree about the boxes though.
I didn't click all of the pictures, since there are so many, but do you have swatches? I think that'd be the best way of checking

Good luck, I hope they're real!

gigglegirl · Mar 14, 2008

dang......(caveat: I have no personal expertise in judging fakes, but the ones that Panda or XSqueeze have documented for us are more obvious, this is freakin good if it is fake) To me they look identical in my eyes, I'd probably have passed them off as legit.

I've received a couple shadows from a CCO and one of the boxes was a bit beat up, scratched a bit, but it prob was there for a while. No concerns as I knew they were legit. I wish I still had the box here to compare.

panda0410 · Mar 15, 2008

winterwonder said:
And the backs of them look off around the hinge somehow too,

OK - now I am looking at the right ones...lol.... I thought this too. I dont own many e/s and but when I compared it to my own there seems something not quite right about this part of the pot. The actual pot still seems fine and the batch codes on the back are still printed on in different dye which would seem right. The embossing on the pot bottoms is also still right.....

Honestly its hard to tell - if these are fake then they are bloody good.... I agree with the swatching, like the pigments it might just be the only really good way to tell!

Click to expand...

julie150463 · Mar 15, 2008

Thanks ladies

So how do you swatch? I shouldn't be allowed make-up - I'm hopeless

As you realise I am a complete novice despite my senior years!

Do you think this is why lots of unboxed ES are appearing if the cases etc are so good? To me - they look the same but I'm not sure it shows on the photos but I swear the shades are slightly diiferent - I guess a swatch (when someone tells me how) will be the best judge. It's just those blasted boxes that keep ringing the alarm bells!

Thanks everyone
Julie

BeautyPsycho · Mar 15, 2008

Use your clean finger and go over the e/s to grab some pigment, transfer it onto your hand (or arm) making a streak... take pics

(macro, natural light etc...) also, right next to that swatch, swatch your original e/s (if you have that same one)
Sorry, HTH I suck at explaining stuff

redambition · Mar 15, 2008

i think that they are real. if they are fakes they are uncannily good!

there is raised lettering on the base of the pot - something that is usually missed on a fake.

also - the creme de violets have different batch numbers, which correlate on the box sticker and the pot sticker. this reinforces my belief that they are real because fakes normally all have the same info.

the budding beauty and creme de violet also have different barcodes on their stickers - see above point

edit: something else has just triggered a reaction - the boxes are a bit beaten about, and in the second photo you can see one of them is scratched, but there's no white where it's been scratched, it's just a difference in the black colour. this seems to be consistent with real mac packaging.

rockin · Mar 15, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by redambition

i think that they are real. if they are fakes they are uncannily good!

there is raised lettering on the base of the pot - something that is usually missed on a fake.

My fake Humid and Nocturnelle both have the raised lettering on the bottom of the pot, same as my genuine shadows

darkishstar · Mar 15, 2008

Try to scratch the box with your nail. Do it gently. Does the box scratch easily?

Then try scratching the real one, you'll see it's so hard to scratch a real one if you do it gently. I tried to scratch my MSF box earlier and I couldn't scratch it, and I imagine that if the fake ones always come in ugly scratchy boxes, it must be awfully easy to scratch compared to MAC ones.

redambition · Mar 15, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by rockin

My fake Humid and Nocturnelle both have the raised lettering on the bottom of the pot, same as my genuine shadows

that's interesting, if the counterfeiters have started adding the raised lettering then it's going to be tougher to weed out the fakes. for my own curiosity - what ended up distinguishing them as fake product to you?

panda0410 · Mar 15, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by rockin

My fake Humid and Nocturnelle both have the raised lettering on the bottom of the pot, same as my genuine shadows

Yikes! Well, I didnt think they would get the embossed print on the bottom right.... they are certainly covering all bases

Quote:

Originally Posted by redambition

that's interesting, if the counterfeiters have started adding the raised lettering then it's going to be tougher to weed out the fakes. for my own curiosity - what ended up distinguishing them as fake product to you?

I was wondering the same - was it a swatch that determined it?

julie150463 · Mar 15, 2008

Sorry if I'm adding to everyones paranoia - come join me in the mad house!

The thing with the boxes as well as the horrible marks on them is that there is hardly any glue holding them together and some of them are literally only being held together with the top flap. I will take some more photos and do a swatch later.

I've just tried to scratch one of the boxes and it just leaves one of those horrible marks - I'm getting really confused now - perhaps I should laydown in a quietened room

Julie

ashleydenise · Mar 15, 2008

The boxes make me want to think they're fake, but if they are, they're *really* good fakes.

Have you swatched them yet?

julie150463 · Mar 15, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by ashleydenise

The boxes make me want to think they're fake, but if they are, they're *really* good fakes.

Have you swatched them yet?

Not had chance been run off my feet with family and it's dark now. I will do it as soon as I get up in the morning in natural daylight. I will put photos on then and of the 'falling to bits' boxes.

How do you actually put photos in the post instead of me just posting the links? Sorry for being a bit slow!

Julie

rockin · Mar 15, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by redambition

that's interesting, if the counterfeiters have started adding the raised lettering then it's going to be tougher to weed out the fakes. for my own curiosity - what ended up distinguishing them as fake product to you?

As you can see from this pic, my Nocturnelle has a different colour print on the label. All my other shadows have grey text. The actual label looks a slightly different shade, too.

http://i27.tinypic.com/2sacfmq.jpg

The boxes in this pic are in the same positions as the shadows in the above pic. You can see the flash reflecting off of the Nocturnelle's box - it's much shinier than any of my other shadows, real or suspect.

http://i30.tinypic.com/mlgq4i.jpg

You can also see that the 'e' on the front of the ''Humid' box is quite wrong.

All except the 'Nocturnelle' box mark easily when rubbed lightly with the back of a finger nail. For this reason I am also doubtful about the Brun and the Black Tied.

I've also just checked, and in each of these 'suspect' shadows, the clear plastic front sits ever so slightly proud of the surrounding black.

redambition · Mar 15, 2008

hmmmm... those are very small differences (all the more scarier if they are fakes because they are ever so close). do all of the boxes have a double front? I can see that the brun definitely does from the photo, what about the rest? (i mean 2 layers on the front of the box).

the boxes are a bit unusual, i'll reserve comment on the difference in the labels on the pots until i get back home tonight and take a look at the ones in my collection for comparison...

julie150463 · Mar 15, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by redambition

hmmmm... those are very small differences (all the more scarier if they are fakes because they are ever so close). do all of the boxes have a double front? I can see that the brun definitely does from the photo, what about the rest? (i mean 2 layers on the front of the box).

Should they have this double layer? Just that the one I received off the MAC website does but so do the crappy boxes I have

rockin · Mar 15, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by redambition

hmmmm... those are very small differences (all the more scarier if they are fakes because they are ever so close). do all of the boxes have a double front? I can see that the brun definitely does from the photo, what about the rest? (i mean 2 layers on the front of the box).

the boxes are a bit unusual, i'll reserve comment on the difference in the labels on the pots until i get back home tonight and take a look at the ones in my collection for comparison...

They all have the double front

ES advice please - with photos

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