January 17, 2010

Hello and happy weekend! I have ended my week on a very good, productive note.

I visited a MAC counter at Nordstrom today and took a look at all the new MAC items. They have changed their packaging (again) to print the shade/color on the top of the box rather than printing it on the circle stickers. I would imagine there will be a lot of "old packaging" shelf-pull MAC products hitting the wholesale maketplace due to new packaging, which is good for everyone. Now, just because it does not have the printed color on the top right of the box, does not mean it is counterfeit. The old packaged products will be around for sometime. Nodrstrom had both, old and new packaging.

Some ways to detect counterfeit MAC: Any item that does not have a matching code printed on the box AND the item, any item that does not have a color/shade listed on the label, any pigment that comes with a black lid, misspelled colors, colors that do not exist, items that do not exist, etc.

Recently, I looked at Ebay to find "Hello Kitty." I was astounded at how many counterfeit Hello Kitty items there were listed on that site. Now, because I am very familiar with the line (since discontinued as it came out last February 2009), I could detect easily which items were NOT released as Hello Kitty by MAC. These counterfeit/knockoffs are advertised as "Hello Kitty" but not necessarily a MAC product, so be careful. Do your research and homework before you buy, always buy from a trust seller with positive feedback across the board, check on seller's feedback as usually someone will discover a counterfeit item after receiving it and then leave negative feedback and when in doubt, go to a buyer whose feedback is flawless and as close to 100% as possible.

Also, it is always good to buy from someone who has lots of different MAC items listed, not just pigments or shadows or what is purportedly Dazzleglass. There is a significant amount of Dazzleglass on Ebay as well, that is only coded with "numbers" and no colors. These are fake items and sometimes even the sellers don't know it. A good rule of thumb, if it seems to good to be true, it usually is -- that is, the item is being sold for so little because it is not an authentic MAC product. A seasoned MAC user will know the difference between authentic and knockoff but a new user might not be aware of the authentic traits and labeling of the products.

New items listed: Eyes by Design Expert Brush Set (beautiful), formerly sold at HSN and now sold out, some new MAC Paintpots and NARS duo lipgloss in Giza/Boogie Nights, in very limited supply.

So, enjoy your weekend and be safe:)

Sue