The internet can be a bit of a Wild West situation when it comes to purchasing beauty products. Not getting what you paid for is never a plus but, as a new report released by the U.S. Government Accountability Office this week suggests, there may be some much bigger risks involved in the road to the ripoff…
“The main danger posed by counterfeit beauty products is the heightened potential to put harmful ingredients on or in your body,” says Kelly McCarthy, partner at San Francisco–based Sideman & Bancroft, an intellectual property and brand protection group that works with beauty lines like Fenty Beauty and Kat Von D Beauty to protect against counterfeits. McCarthy says the best advice she can give to consumers is to avoid third-party sellers or unauthorized retailers and to find out where the brands you use are sold by authorized dealers. “For example, if you know your favorite skin care line is sold on the company’s own website and in a specific department store, make the effort to purchase it in those places. By doing this, you can be assured that the products are authentic. Avoid the temptation to purchase it from more convenient online locations as you have no idea how the product made it to that marketplace or where it came from in the first place. Also, if you see a ‘deal’ on beauty products and the sale is not happening in a store that you know is an authorized seller, you are definitely raising your risk that the product is fake. If the pricing looks too good to be true, it probably is.”
