Fake Mac Blushes: How to Spot and Avoid

I was foolish enough to buy myself a Mac Mineralize Blush in Dainty from Ebay, and surprise, surprise, what arrived at my house turned out to be a fake. To be honest, I was aware of the risks, but the seller had such a good reputation that I thought I'd give them a go. I suppose you could say that I got lucky on this one, as my purchase initially got lost in the post and so the seller refunded me. However, the little parcel eventually turned up, and when I saw what was inside, despite having assured the seller that were it to appear then I would happily pay for my item, I decided there and then that I would certainly not be doing so! You hear about fakes being difficult to spot, but I have to say that that was certainly not the case here. I knew it was fake the second I laid eyes on it, and I'm fairly sure that any self-respecting Mac lover would have been able to too.
But, just in case, I have photographic evidence here to share with you, just to ensure that none of you fall into the same trap. You might think that a good fake is just as nice as the real product, but be warned - fake branded cosmetic products will not have undergone any of the required tests, and it can be very dangerous to use them on your skin. Some have even been proven to have dangerous levels of lead in them, and we don't want to be using products like that, do we?

Above, you will see pictures of the box my fake blush came in, from every possible side. Unfortunately, I didn't have a real box handy to compare it with, but perhaps if any of you have one to hand then you could have a little look at that to see how it differs, and below I will show you both real and fake products in order for you to see the differences.

Honestly, this is such a bad fake it's ridiculous.

So, the first giveaway is the colour of the pigmentation itself. Dainty does NOT look like this. In fact, it looks like it does in the picture below.

Now let's look at the packaging. First, you will see two pictures of the fake 'Dainty', from the top and the bottom, and then you will see the same pictures of my real Mac Mineralize blush in Gleeful, followed by some comparative shots of the two.

As you can see the packaging is as huge a giveaway as the pigmentation itself.

• Firstly, real Mac blushes do not come in shiny packaging. 
• Secondly, look at the labels on the backs of the two blushes. The real one has the name of the shade written in capital letters, whereas the fake does not. The real label features grey writing (it's not just old!), while the details on the fake label are printed in bright white.
• The Mac writing on the front of the compact is a fair bit thicker and darker on the fake blush than it is on the real one.
• The fake blush has the code 'CB1' printed above the shade name, whereas the real blush has nothing of the sort.

I haven't even bothered trying this out on my skin, and I certainly won't be doing, either. In a way, I think I'm glad that my purchase ended up being so clearly fake, if it has to be fake at all, as I think it's always worse when you are not sure. I know that if that were the case, I would be tempted to use it, as I wouldn't want to have wasted my money, but at least in this instance, I know not to take the risk.

Lesson learned here: Do NOT buy makeup from Ebay - it's too high risk and a waste of time.

Have you ever accidentally found yourself with a fake Mac product? If so, how were you able to tell, and what did you do about it?