Since my recent introduction by a close friend, I've become quite addicted to M.A.C. products and particularly eyeshadows.

However, due to their high retail price in Australia, I had been looking for cheaper ways to purchase them - and subsequently found plenty of M.A.C. products available on both eBay and Oztion.

What I didn't realise was that there are manufacturers who have specifically targetted M.A.C. products and specifically to counterfeit them. Apparently the sellers of the subsequent sellers of these products are often unaware of the nature of these products and are deceived into selling them.

I'd like to thank Specktra for my introduction into the world of counterfeit products - as much as it's been both a painful and financially damaging journey. I'd particularly like to thank their Counterfeit M.A.C. forums. I don't think I would have realised that the products I had been purchasing were not genuine if I had not found their site.

Please note that any of the images I've displayed can be clicked upon for a larger view.

However, when you take a lot closer look that you start finding quite a few differences which make you wonder on the legitimacy of the product.

Prying apart the black plastic tray and flipping it over, the immediate thing that's most striking is that each of these have the same number 15 on them. I'm not entirely sure what this number represents, but none of the legitimate store-purchased products I had thus been marked 15 - and most have different numbers - but I'll get further on with the comparison further below.

In each of the photographs below, the authentic product is on the right and the suspicious / potentially counterfeit on the left.

Prying apart the black plastic pan gives a better look at the individual products - It's inside that the most visible differences between the counter-bought and the potential counterfeit products are most readily apparent.

• The four manufacturing marks are set quite a lot closer to the middle of the pan
• The number 15 is apparent on each of the potentially counterfeit eyeshadows
• There is no middle 'dimple' on the potentially counterfeit product
• The quality / consistency / finish of the plastic seems to be subtly different - as can be seen in the last picture

I can confirm that these observations hold true across all counter-bought and these suspicious / counterfeit M.A.C. products that I have purchased.

Now we'll take a look at the rest of the casing.

• There is no numbering on the casing up towards the hinge
• The four manufacturing markings are in a slightly different position and more towards the middle of the casing

The same four manufacturing markings on the lid are also slightly different between the legitimate and the potentially counterfeit products. Unfortunately I've been unable to capture high enough quality images of the lid to demonstrate this adequately so I've skipped this.

Another difference that I've observed between legitimate and these potentially counterfeit products can be observed with the metal pan itself. If you depot the eyeshadow, you'll find a circular indentation in the middle of the pan:

Julie150463, a member of Specktra received the following letter from M.A.C. in relation to the indentation, and confirming that all pans have a smooth underside.

I recently borrowed Sushi Flower from a friend of mine, and compared this against one of these potentially counterfeit eyeshadows. The results are below on my ugly NW15 hands:

The color tone to me seemed subtly different. In the pan itself, there were slightly different sparkles in the actual shadow, however I wasn't able to adequately capture this in a photograph. Looking at the colors in the pan itself, they were virtually indistinguishable if you didnt look closely and reflect them in the light. One thing I did find was if I dragged my finger across the shadows a few minutes after application, the legitimate shadow barely moved whilst the potentially counterfeit smudged badly.

I honestly don't think you'd be able to tell them apart without swatching them against each other - and even then you'd be hard pressed to say which was the legitimate one - very scary!

The following link on the Specktra site has additional valuable information on this type of potentially counterfeit product:

(Please note that this link will require a login to the Specktra site to access)