Some Brushes Are Not What They Seem...

Yes, this blog has a new post! And a beauty related one at that!

As you 've probably figured out from the title, the issue I 'd be addressing today is that of fake MAC brushes.

So, a few months ago, being quite a makeup newbie (and I am one still), I made the huge mistake of going to ebay for my first MAC brushes. I got a 224 and a 219 from a seller with pretty good feedback, who didn't sell anything else beauty related besides MAC brushes (that should have been a give-away, but whatever).





Of course, having no previous MAC brush experience, I didn't suspect they were fakes. But slowly, as I kept expanding my brush collection, I realised these two were not quite the same as the rest...Can you notice what's wrong with them at this point?

Ok, so let's take a closer look at the 224:





The fake one (on top) has clearly less bristles than the original one and obviously lacks its dome-like shape. The MAC insignia is also different: notice how the diagonal lines of the M of the fake one meet one another leaving a small gap, when they should be one on top of the other like on the original one? The A is different too: the horizontal line of the fake doesn't go to the far left as it should. And the numbers...they just look like someone used a different font, right?






What about the 219? Same here. I am comparing it to a 219SE one, as this is what I have. The lettering and numbers are still wrong. Also, did you look at the bristles of the fake one? They look hard and are too, they practically scratch your lid, nothing like the smooth bristles of the original 219.

A couple of other things you should be aware of:
a) the printing of the country that the brush was manufactured in, and
b) the glitter contained in the black varnish :
in the original brushes they both tend to be more subtle, however, this is difficult to tell, especially if you don't have the fake and the original side by side (I 'm not sure this is even picked up by the camera - fake one on top).




Also, if you softly press your finger against the top of a fake one, it splays easily - the original maintains its shape a lot more, since it's denser and of better quality.

So, please, learn from my mistake: try to avoid ebay for MAC brushes, if possible. If not, check the feedback of your seller - if there is as much as one negative or neutral comment concerning authenticity, please steer well clear. Apart from that, what other items does your seller have for sale? Are they a beauty seller? Are the rest of the items genuine or smell fishy? What is their refund policy?

Hopefully, by having that in mind, you won't get scammed like me and you 'll be able to enjoy your brush, not only because it does the job, but because it's an authentic item too... :)