I'm disappointed to say i went back to Target today with plans to pick up some MAC at their awesome lower price. However when i opened the lipsticks since there were no testers the label sticker looked a little funky. Also i noticed some batch barcodes were printed a little crooked.
I was planning to get 2 blushes and i rubs the MAC indent on the cover like no tomorrow and some sunk in, some were flat... so i couldn't tell if they were fake for certain. I then opened the box and took the blush out to get a good look if it had been touched before i was to buy it and that's when i saw the yellowing label sticker! Yuck! Fake MAC! Right then and there i put the products down. I couldn't believe it.
I took a closer look at their face powder and noticed straight away the box is too shiny glossy black as well.
I'm so disappointed but i'm so glad i'm well informed enough to not buy them. I feel bad for the girl i was talking to who was also looking at the MAC. However i did start a conversation with her and asked her if they looked fake but i don't think she is too familar with them like i am.
Confirmed fake. Why wouldn't MAC have their own stand in Target? The products are just placed on the shelves like anything else. Also the ad from the blog is a dead give away. It should be labelled as M.A.C and not MAC! Target is really looking for trouble here. I'm not sure why they would take such big of a risk. I guess not much people tend to go into Target to buy their beauty goods here in Australia. I'm devastated and shocked! But it's not big deal. I really shouldn't be buying more make up anyways hehe
And i asked the sales girl and they are permanently that price. So there's no rush to buy them if they weren't fake anyways.
I posted this in a forum to describe how they are fake.
I own more than enough and have purchased online and received fakes in the past. I've done lots of research a long time ago and can recognize a fake in a second.
What stood out from these fakes were the shade labels on the blushes, they are yellowing. Which was what the first fake MAC copies had. Another thing to notice is the MAC logo on the plastic case is not suppose to sink in. If you rub it, there shouldn't be a dent in the plastic.
The lipstick stickers were also very off. on their font and printed differently.
The foundation powder... i didn't even bother opening it because the box was already way too glossy black to be MAC.
The lipstick tube is also a bit too glittery. I checked the batch codes and most were from 2011. However some barcodes i noticed were printed crooked. Out of the numerous MAC products i've purchase from a MAC counter, NONE have ever had these errors. They can only be found in the dodgy online products. I am 100% certain they are fake. I have not checked every product but for them to even carry fakes, i don't believe any of it is genuine. There are very good fakes out there and it is easy to tell once to know what to look for.
They are still pricey and i don't recommend anyone waste their money on counterfeit junk!
Update:
I've been quite busy this week and haven't followed on what's been going on with the fake Mac in Target issue. Honestly, this is completely my opinion and i don't mean to offend anyone but i'm sick and tired of non-mac owners arguing back saying how can such a big company like Target possibly sell fake products? If Target started selling Chanel bags without Chanel's permission, would everyone be saying how it must be real?
MAC has always been really exclusive in keeping their products within their company. It's almost impossible to buy the authentic product elsewhere besides online and even then it's still tricky business with the insane amount of fakes lurking around.
A lot of girls who have bought the fake MAC seem unsure as they can only compare to photos online. And from experience, the differences are so minor, only in real life can you tell.
There's a couple of comparisons online already but i've been thinking of posting some photos since i have still kept the fake MAC eyeshadows i got online a few years back.
Here are comparisons for the mac eyeshadow 'club'. The fake one was purchased off ebay and looks exactly like the one sold at Target. I have depotted it into a palette so i will compare the colour payoff on them to the authentic MAC one. I also own one of the limited edition holiday MAC palettes which includes club and will use it in this comparison also.
In natural light. As you can see the authentic MAC looks slightly more green from the duochrome and the fake one appears more brown and flat in colour.
Photo with flash. They seem very similar but once again the MAC one appears to be a smoothly blended duochrome and the fake looks like chunks of brown and green eyeshadow mashed together. The authentic MAC also appears to have a darker brown base in the eyeshadow.
Authentic MAC eyeshadows NEVER have yellowed stickers. Sometimes the font will vary a little. It will either be normal or pulled more narrow. The fake ones tend to have 'fatter' letters. Also the whiteness of the font also does vary in the authentic ones. The limited edition eyeshadow pots have almost white font. The starflash colours seemer to also have brighter fonts. The other shades have grey font.
If you look at the eyeshadow pot at the top, it is from a 2005 collection, this is very old and the sticker still has not gone yellow from age like the fake ones have.
All labels have grey font
Some people have also complained about the printed barcodes. MAC has started printing the barcode and shade names on the boxes. However this only started in 2009. The last number of the MAC batch code should indicate the year the item was made. Such as A99 = 2009, A98 = 2008, A91= 2001 or 2011, A92= 2002 or 2012.
And no, Target is not selling A38 stock which could be so old it's from 1998... MAC eyeshadow pots back then use to come in round turn lid pots unlike the flip tops they have now.
I swatched the eyeshadows, each swatch was layered 3 times. With the authentic shadows i was able to build up colour. The fake one stayed the same flat colour throughout. It also appears much lighter and you can't see as much of the green duochrome coming through as the authentic swatches. When smudged, the fake faded a lot more than the authentic mac showing less staying power also.
I wish i had the pots to also take label comparison photos but you can find other blog posts which have done them already. Overall i hope this can help show people who are unsure that this is fake MAC being sold at Target. And for the people complaining that it can't be fake, or make up is just make up, or that the quality seems pretty good. Well it's still not the MAC quality you had expected to pay for. If you are willing to pay that kind of price, you're better off buying non-counterfeit brands. There are plenty of cheaper brands on the market like Savvy by DB and Essence sold at Priceline for just a few dollars with just as good quality.
Do not support counterfeit products. There are many innocent people out there getting tricked because important information like this isn't getting shared. I still love to shop at Target and i don't wish anything ill against them. I just want the girls who go out and pay still a high price on these fake MAC products to know it's fake so they can make a fair decision for themselves.
I also still have some fake MAC blushes on hand but i'm a little too lazy to do a comparison on those against real ones. I don't suggest buying the fake blushes. I had one oxidize and formed a disgusting orange layer on top. I had not even realized until i look into the mirror at work and realized my face looked like it was rusting. This blush was only 2 years old according to the batch number and should not have changed while still so new. I had suspected they were fake but i was not as informed back then so i still used them. They look very close to the real ones besides the funky labels with funny yellow font. Which reminds me i ALSO have a fake cream colour base i can compare with also... hmm clearly shopping online for MAC is not the safest idea and i have since not bought MAC online in a long time due to this.
Maybe i'll post some photos on those later. Until then, i'll still try to keep track on the issue occasionally because i'm waiting for this to blow up :)
Update:
Here are some photo comparisons on the blushes and cream colour base. Below is a photo of really REALLY good fakes i got online around 2 years ago. They did not have the yellowing stickers but you can still notice differences in the font.
Fake MAC products tend to have a smooth label sticker. If you look at the real mac label, where the light is shining, the sticker is actually textured. If you scratch the surface of this sticker you will actually notice it's roughness. But please note not all authentic mac labels have this rough surface.
Once again the real mac font is more narrow compared the the fake. The fake seems to have that odd pixelated-lettering-too-far-apart type of font. Also the font is a little brighter on the fake.
Comparison between Mineralize Blushes. The sticker on the fake mac is actually yellowing. The font on this one is actually more narrow yet where it says 'mineralize blush' on the fake, the spacing between the letters are all over the place and not consistant, possibly due to the fatter looking letters. The font on the real blush looks perfect and neat. The fake blush also has the batch number 'A09' embossed upside down... however i have seen this embossed sideways on authentic mac items. Never upside down though.
It isn't too noticeable in photos but the fake mac cases are also darker and more black. The authentic mac cases are almost a grey black. Very matte whereas the fakes are very glossy. Almost more chunky glittery.
After looking at these i've remembered a few other ways to tell if the product is fake. For the eyeshadow pots, when you depot them, there should only be a minimal amount of glue holding the pot together. The fake ones i depotted had the largest chunk of glue. Usually dirty looking as well. They were very hard to depot due to the massive amount of glue used. I remember snapping my stanley knife when attempting it a few years back.
Another 100% for sure way to tell if your MAC product is fake is the MAC logo on the plastic top.
This i have found to be true for all MAC products i own and for the fake ones i've unfortunately bought from online.
Use your nail and scratch along the surface across the MAC word slowly. If you stop at the logo for a bit but then continue to scratch over it, it is genuine. If you scratch slowly across the logo and your nail hits and stops for half a second then continues, it is fake.
This is because the fake MAC products have the MAC word embossed into the plastic. Authentic MAC have the logo printed onto the plastic. The ink will cause the font to rise a little, which is why you can feel the logo when you rub against it.
You will feel the fake MAC logo almost scratch against your finger when you rub it.
Every MAC product i've bought over the past few years at the MAC counters has NEVER had the MAC logo scratched into the plastic like the fake ones have.
All the fake ones i received, have also NEVER not had the logo scratched in. I feel this is one of the most reliable ways to test if it is fake or not. And has always worked for me. When in doubt i always check on this.
I tried to get a very clear picture of this. You can see the light reflecting into the scratched logo of the fake mac. Whereas the real one is smooth ink printed on.
Comparisons between Cream Colour Bases
Once again the fake has a yellowing sticker.The batch number on this is from 2004 which is VERY old but as above, i have an authentic eyeshadow from 2005 that has not yellowed. Not only that, i only purchased this online around 2008. Typical font differences as before.
I've actually used the fake one quite a bit. I have not caught any freaky disease nor do i hate it. However there are very obvious differences in the texture. I also own another fake cream colour base in Pearl which is a very popular fake, i have not used that one often but both the fakes have a very STICKY consistency. They feel like lipglosses. They stay sticky on the skin and never dry up. However the authentic cream colour base is much smoother and less sticker. Like a cream eyeshadow, a little thicker and rougher feeling than the paint pots but they dry the same on the skin.
From this swatch, the fake doesn't spread its pigment as smooth and nicely as an authentic product. Once again, they do appear safe to use however are much cheaper lower quality.
I guess this has sort of become a guide on how to spot fake mac. I hope this is helpful and a lot of this information can be found online from a few years back when really good fake mac items started exploding everywhere online. It is a big issue because i've seen many fake items on ebay being sold at almost full RRP! Too much people are getting tricked and it would be nice to not have to worry about buying counterfeit products! Clearly i've fallen victim many times in the past but i've educated myself and can spot a fake almost instantly now :)
