Top brands are oftentimes counterfeited, but the risks land on the consumer. (Photo: Keate)

Fake it ’till you make it — or maybe not, if you’re selling counterfeit cosmetics products. A 45-year-old woman from New Port Richey, Florida, has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison and owes $961,744.75 to MAC Cosmetics. The woman, Tina Oleszczuk, bought the fake products from a source in China and then sold them as real MAC goods at higher prices through her home-based company, Cozmetic Delights LLC.

MAC Cosmetics released in a statement, “We would like to explain that our products are distributed for sale only at our authorized retail store accounts (including certain direct TV sales), free-standing stores, and e-commerce sites. Products sold to our authorized accounts are genuine M.A.C. If a retailer is not one of our accounts, we have no control over the merchandise that they sell. Further, we have no way of knowing how they obtained our products. Therefore, we are unable to assume responsibility for unauthorized representation of our product.” In May, Gavin Terry, the lead officer of intellectual property with the Chartered Trading Standards Institute in the UK, told The Guardian that MAC Cosmetics is one of the most popular brands to be counterfeited, though all desirable brands are counterfeited to some extent.

Fake makeup isn’t just harmful to the brands bottom line, the products can contain arsenic, cyanic, and animal feces as they don’t have to follow the same safety guidelines. If you get an eye reaction or rash from an authentic product bought from an official retailer, you can always return it and file a complaint with the company. You can also request a list of ingredients to send to your doctor for medical analysis. But if you buy counterfeit products on Facebook or eBay, you don’t get consumer protection or FDA-grade testing — or even a refund. Makeup is supposed to make you feel and look good; counterfeit products run the risk of doing the opposite.

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