There are many who have been to New York's Chinatown and bought a fake Rolex watch. I did so myself, many years ago. Funnily enough, I still have it and it still works. Then again, I knew that it was a fake. Further, even though it was a fake, I also knew that it would not cause me any physical harm.
Watches are one thing, cosmetics are another. What we sell on this website comes from the main UK importer of any given product line or from one of their main wholesalers. Occasionally, we do get asked if what we are selling is the real deal or if it is a fake.
Let us apply some logic to this.
We sell quite specialist skincare. They are not products which are seen in everyday shops and most have a limited market in the sense that most ranges are not subject to mass media advertising campaigns.
True, many of the products are not cheap. That is down to what is in the product, rather than your having to pay to cover the cost of big-time marketing. The margin for the retailer (I don't mind admitting this) is quite reasonable - so why would you sell a fake version, when you can make a sensible profit selling the real deal?
In order to present a fake product of the ranges we sell, you would need to spend a significant amount of time and money to source the correct packaging. You need to lable the product correctly and then, you need to obtain some product content, which fairly closely resembles the real item. All that has to be achieved for what, in beauty terms, is quite a limited market. As I said, you can make a quite reasonable profit selling the real item - so why bother going to all that fuss.
There are clues. Nearly all the websites selling what are termed "cosmecuticals" have their prices set to roughly the same level. Some may be a few dollars/ pounds/ euros more and some a few less. Some offer a discount, others free postage - but all are invariably within the same ballpark. If you suddenly come across the product you seek for a substantially less amount, then beware!
Note that not all products carry a "sell by" date - that is more a European thing. Ones that don't, however, will carry a "lot number". Many non-EU manufacturers are introducing "sell by" dates, but it is no means universal.
Many of the products we sell come from the USA and all of the manufacturers involved, quite rightly, jealously guard their product as much as the presentation of their products. So, even after you have managed to produced a fake cream, there would be a very limited time frame available between launching the product (and, indeed, the website) and the arrival of some very heavy duty law firm letters along with the inevitable search-engine take down.
As I said at the beginning, my fake watch can do no harm. A fake cosmetic product is a different matter. You need to know what is going on your skin and it is not just the actual cream that can affect you. Some product reacts in a bad way in different containers, containers may not have been properly cleaned and stored (and the actual product may not have been correctly stored). The make up of the contents may use banned substances, very old ingredients or incorrectly stored or contaminated ingredients.
We at Skin Perfection wish to remain as a trusted supplier. We wish to remain online. If a manufacturer says we cannot sell their product online - then we don't sell it. What we do sell, we always buy from the UK importer or (approved) wholesaler and we may take a few days longer to send you order as we do not keep massive stocks - that way, we can make sure that what you receive is as "fresh" as it can be.