How to Spot a Fake Lorac Pro Palette

When you buy something fake, it definitely goes beyond the amount of money you have spent/lost; you feel so cheated and deceived and I think that’s the feeling that comes through when you look at the fake item. I was very lucky that I got my money back from Ebay and I was able to purchase the authentic Lorac Pro Palette which I recently reviewed here. But let’s start at the beginning, shall we? Towards the end of 2014, I think around Oct/Nov 2014, I was on the haunt for the Lorac Pro Palette but I did not want to spend a fortune getting it from other retailers that shipped to the UK since it was virtually impossible to purchase this directly from Lorac. Of course, I went on Amazon UK and found out it cost £60 and I subsequently fled. Next stop was Ebay where I saw a plethora of Lorac Pro Palettes and I thought I could find a seller who may have gone to the States to purchase a few and needed some quick cash.  Some of them were from US sellers who were selling it for almost £70 but there were a few UK sellers that sold it for normal prices. I decided to apply my Ebay Shopping Tips and search for a good seller. I finally found one who had 100% positive feedback and had sold several products including Lorac Pro Palettes and Benefit Cosmetics.



I made an offer, she made a counter offer and then we settled for a middle ground which seemed fair and I paid for it via PayPal (thank goodness for that!).  I was glad my Ebay Shopping tips had helped me although I did not follow one tip which turned out to be my downfall. Yes, the one about my instinct. I had this silent nagging feeling that the said palette may not be authentic but I kept shutting it down until I decided to email the seller (after I had already paid). I wanted to find out if she bought it in the States and a few other questions. No answer and this was shocking as she was very good at communicating shortly before payment. At this point, I already had the sinking gut feeling you get when you realise you have been royally screwed and I just waited the product to be delivered. My instincts were right; it was fake. To be fair, it was very difficult to tell because it looked very similar to the original palette at least from the pictures I had seen. Of course, I opened up a dispute case and I got a full refund back even though the seller was so fraudulent that she never left her complete address. I never got to return the disgusting palette because there was no address to return it to which is why I still have it for this post. I hope these tips will help you spot a fake Lorac Pro Palette...

Packaging

To be honest, the outer packaging is almost similar but when you take a closer look, you can see a few differences. The original packaging's print and fonts are much more sharper while the fake packaging fonts look duller. Also, the original packaging looks really black while the fake one has more of a  dark grey tone like it was photocopied. Onto the packaging of the palette, the original packaging is slimmer and more compact than the fake one. The original palette doesn't have any bumps in the packaging and you can see that it was well made while the fake one has obvious bumps around the perimeter even when you close it. The mirror in the original palette is really smooth and has a transparent film protecting it while the fake one has nothing to protect it. Surprisingly, both palettes have QR codes on the actual palette for makeup tutorials on how to use the palette (and yes, the fake one works too!), however, the fake palette has a spelling error "Turorials" instead of "Tutorials" and the fake palette's QR code looks faded/blurred. Lastly, the original palette has a batch code at the bottom and its font is really dark and sharp while the fake one's  QR code looks blurred.




Eyeshadow Pans
The eyeshadow  in the pans of the original palette are well placed and fitted in the palette and you can see that utmost care was taken in manufacturing it while the fake one has the eyeshadows placed unevenly and it just looks really dodgy. Surprisingly, there are no spelling errors in the names of the eyeshadows of the fake palette. The corners of the eyeshadow pans of the original palette are slightly rounded while the fake one has a proper sharp square corner.




Behind the Scenes Eyeshadow Primer
Both primers look very similar and again, it's hard to tell the difference but on closer examination, you can see slight differences. First off, the fake palette's primer is slightly longer than the original one and it just looks a little bit bigger. The fonts in the fake palette are also larger and they don't look as sharp as the original one. The textures of both primers are also different; the original one has more texture to it and comes out without breaking while the fake one is less textured and feels slightly watery. Lastly, there is a spelling error at the back of the fake primer and it reads "indmduelle" instead of "individuelle"...*smh*




Pigmentation of the Eyeshadows
The most glaring difference in both palettes is the pigmentation of the eyeshadows. The matte lighter shades in the fake palette hardly showed up when swatched while the same shades had such incredible pigmentation in the original palette. Seriously, my mouth popped open when I did a comparison. To be fair to the fake palette, the darker shimmer shades looked okay but they looked much different to how the same shades looked in the original palette. It's really shocking to see how poor the pigmentation of the fake palette is.



Overall Thoughts
Ladies (and guys), never use fake eyeshadows (or any products) on your eyes (or face) because they may contain very harmful ingredients. As mentioned, I was very lucky to get my money back because I paid with PayPal and Ebay helped me sort everything out although it took a little while. Sometimes, it is very hard to distinguish the fake palette from the real one but you can always email Lorac Cosmetics with the batch number/code and ask them if they ever made that particular batch. I would not advise anyone to buy this palette from Ebay as there are so many fake ones out there. Save your pennies if you are really desperate and buy from a good source or maybe ask someone in the States to help you. I hope this post and pictures have been helpful to you. See you in my next post...xx