Hey!
I know this is really late, First off I am sorry you were Con'd out of your money for products that are potentially unsafe for your skin and eyes. I am a makeup artist and have worked as an assistant on movie sets and even had a brief stint as a entertainer myself (AKA Drag). When you are in the entertainment industry things are given to you by all companies and random people, wanting you to use them in your collection on celebrities or for high profile events. There is a place locally and CA seems to have several where these fakes are being allowed to be retailed for profit. The State and city councils both know they are in operation and even the US Government continues to allow the import of the harmful and very fake products to enter the country. One Problem is that our customs officers clearly are not as knowledgable about M.A.C. or other name brand cosmetics. And the importers have made these products look so real right down to the packaging, it takes a trained eye to really spot it sometimes. A lot of times its not until your actually using the product and then you can either see the visible difference or feel the graininess of the product. I myself have been in this situation when I first started out... fresh out of school, We used M.A.C. but I was loyal to Lancome, NARS and for those of you who remember TOMMY HILFIGER ( not sure if they are still around?) had a very decent and highly pigmented line which was cheaper for us newbies. I had so much of these products that were fake because I, like most was trying to save $$ and got screwed. My first big break was working in NYC as an assistant to a very well known makeup artist for NY fashion week in 2004. She had 2-3 shows to do and trusted me with my own little box of makeup to manage one of the less high profile shows. gearing up for what I thought was going to be my shinning moment. Disaster struck! not one but two of the models who's faces i had painted with the products I had, their faces broke out and became red and irritated. The other assistants had used the same name brand products I had, but because mine were "Fake" and I had no clue! I scrambled to find concealer to try and fix the issue and it seemed to make it worse. The show went on and no one but me and the team as well as the poor models knew what happened. But thanks to a pack of silence the news never got back to the boss or the client. The next day with the money i had made from that show, I threw all of my stuff away including brushes. Walked in to a M.A.C store and re purchased almost everything new. Trying to save a few $$ could have cost me my career, reputation and integrity. As well as the guilt I had that I could have damaged the models skin and ruined their career as well was too much! PLEASE, PLEASE!!! if it sounds to good to be true "IT IS!" Know your product lines and the collections as well. do some research and if you have questions, call the company itself they will be more than happy to verify its validity. Sorry this was so long I just wanted to share the horrible experience I had and hope my story could help someone on the fence of purchasing "Wholesale" or "Discounted" Cosmedics.
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