These Products Are Dangerous | Bri Hall

The video i'm about to make today is so important. It gets a little messy tonight now. How far would you go to look beautiful people need to be educated, more crisis. I don't know i feel like this. Video is very important. Everybody just wants the nicest newest thing: it's incredible what these people would do to make easy money after digging into all this research. This could be the reason why product reviews are inconsistent. The dangers connect the dogs there's something wrong with it, realizing that something had gone terribly wrong. The video i'm about to make today is so important that i have been brainstorming and researching and looking into this for literally a year and some change, the research is just never ending after digging into all this research. This could be the reason why product reviews are inconsistent could be one of the reasons why people who get pr in the mail get better results than people who may get things in stores. I don't know i feel like this. Video is very important, and so i wanted to do it justice, but i realized that perfectionism has gotten me nowhere, but in my brain so i was like i have to go on camera and just put this video down for y'all and if i need to add To it or change anything bear with me. This video today is not to scare anybody. This video is not to deter anybody. This video is to ensure that y'all get what y'all spend your money on when you go buy products and nothing less than exactly what you pay for. I want to take it back to where this video all started and what started this entire process, and that is this little bottle right here now y'all might be thinking marie. I mean if you, if you're familiar with wigs, then you know that this is a hair glue. Some people might be like so breeze. Saying, hair glue is is dangerous. Okay, no, that's not what i'm saying right now, slow your roll! I got this hair glue and it was literally one of the best hair glues i've ever used, except for one condition. It made my forehead break out and i was like yo all right. This is it people move, let's go. Of course, i love research, so i dove into my research i was like. Is it the technique i'm using? Is it the way i'm preparing my hair, the application, the formula or or am i allergic to something, but i noticed that that wouldn't happen. For a few days, other than that it was almost the perfect glue, so i realized okay, even though there are some people that can wear wigs for extended periods of time and have them like you know all the pull tests and have them not moving and stuff. I was like okay, i just have to come to the reality that i want to use my favorite glue. Then i cannot wear wigs a week two weeks on end anyway, but then i realized something what i realized one day when i was casually scrolling across the internet. A video came into my recommended feed on youtube, and it was actually this video right here now, naturally that video sparked. My curiosity as this was the glue that i had been using, that i loved and i tried several and it was the boldhold active hair glue. So i went ahead and clicked the video and the owner of boldhold did an entire comprehensive video about her issue with fake products entering the marketplace and what she was doing to combat fake products. This is where things got interesting. There was one thing that the owner said specifically that stood out to me on a lot of their new bottles and the bottles that they've been putting out for some time. There was going to be a very specific detail that marked a real product versus a face. An engraved b, i was like okay, i love this glue, it works well, but what could it hurt to go? Look at my bottle, so i go under the counter to go. Look for my bottle! Y'All and i go - and i flip it over and there is no bee at the bottom - wait a damn minute, and it was in that moment that i was shocked. I was shook because see i'd gone to an established beauty supply store. I paid the retail price for this product and even the store when i looked on the back end was listed as a vendor for this product, so i was like how is it possible - and i just stared at the bottle, like i'm even staring at it now, Realizing that something had gone terribly wrong - and this was a topic that needed to be spoken about, but this did happen at the height of the end of 2020, when there was a lot more going on than a potential counterfeit hair glue that i had found. So i decided all right, i'm gon na tuck this away, but the thought just never left my head from that day forward. I was like you know what i have to hold on to this. Most people might throw it away, but i had to hold on to this glue because i felt like it was the symbol of something that i wanted to speak about. I have been aware about counterfeit fashion. For a long time, the knockoffs are getting better and better and more profitable for these counterfeiters also being born in new york, where you know you can kind of walk down the street and see the blankets full of bags, and things like that. That was nothing new to me and i also knew a lot about counterfeit makeup industry, specifically due to documentaries that it surfaced, etc. Counterfeits have tested positive for known carcinogens, forskorin superglue, but i hadn't quite seen. Anyone cover the idea of counterfeit hair care. That is what led me down the rabbit hole. I was surprised at all the things that i found this one little bottle made me ask how the hell did this happen, despite in the recent years where there have been an immense amount of counterfeit makeup seizures, the industry continues to expand as per the organization for Economic corporation and development, the international counterfeit cosmetics trade has consistently risen since 2013 and was valued at approximately 5.4 billion dollars as of 2016.. The united states is the leading receiver in counterfeit products and accounts for almost 20 of the global seizures of counterfeit products and as you've seen with even my story. The counterfeit cosmetics industry has caused a lot of harm to individuals, brands and companies and governments. So where do we go from here? How did all of this begin so? The use of counterfeit cosmetics for customers can be extremely dangerous and even fatal, and it says here. Investigations by the government have turned up fake cosmetics containing recognized carcinogens, including arsenic, arsenic, is a known carcinogen and has been linked to increased risk of bladder lung and skin cancers, skin discoloration type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, while the toxicity of beryllium is still being studied. The epa has labeled it as a possible human carcinogen, with most of its detriment being done to the lungs and respiratory system and cadmium, which is also known carcinogen. That targets the body's cardiovascular, renal, gastrointestinal, neurological, reproductive and respiratory systems, as well as excessive quantities of hazardous heavy metals like lead and mercury. Between january 2018 and march of 2020, the us food and drug administration received approximately 12 000 reports of consumers, alleging adverse effects due to these products. They'Ve had cadmium, arsenic, lead and cyanide inside makeup, perfume has had horse urine in it. The impact on brand reputations and, as you can imagine this is something i even thought about as someone that respects brands and the work that they put into formulating products, this industry of counterfeits does irreparable damage, sometimes to the name of a brand and the reputation and The brand often loses money when a buyer doesn't know, they've bought a knockoff and it falls apart. It'S the real company that customer blames it may later come out that a product is counterfeit. It will still deter the general market that may not do that. For the research to even buy the real product when they see it on shelves at an established retailer, so basically a lot that brands can lose from counterfeits. Beauty industry in the cosmetics industry is estimated and expected to lose 5.5 billion in sales due to counterfeit products. In the year 2020 alone, counterfeits industry is expected to suck 4.2 trillion dollars from the global economy and they could endanger over 5 million legitimate jobs and also if the money aspect isn't enough. It is also seen that the counterfeit business is a national security concern to countries, because established counterfeit trade networks might be used by criminal groups involved in other illegal activities. Profits of counterfeits are known to fund criminal activity, including attacks, and this the problem is where the money is going. We are going to pretend we didn't hear that, so it gets a little messy y'all. It gets a little messy now for act two. Where is all this counterfeit makeup and products and hair care etc? Coming from, and how did this glue end up at my local beauty, supply store just to know, cosmetics are some of the most counterfeited objects in the entire world and industry now just to clarify, because some people might see the word cosmetics in this video and get Alarmed and say bree, this is about a haircare product, but i would like to say that i also did my own research in advance to make sure and the fda does regard hair care as a cosmetic as it is some form of cosmetic enhancement. And there are some uh forms of hair care that also intersect that are both cosmetic and drug, for example, a medicated shampoo or even a sunscreen, because it does have a medicated element to it. So, yes, cosmetics, does include hair care of every market in the world. Why this one? What has caused this massive boom in the counterfeit cosmetics market - and that is, i thought, would be a pretty simple answer, but i will start with the most obvious one: e-commerce and the rise of social media. Believe it or not. Social media has impacted a lot of things on the global scale. She said she found her product cheaper online, but it turned out to be counterfeit. That is where sellers come in, because sellers can create their own individual websites and they can sell directly to audiences and consumers without having to go past those marketplace guidelines that you might see on an amazon or an aliexpress. Now don't get me wrong. A lot of counterfeits and things are able to sometimes slide through the cracks on those websites. As well. Experts say, the bulk of counterfeit products are sold online and at flea markets, and they add to be familiar with what you're buying always inspect the packaging and contents. They at least have guidelines set in place where a store can get in trouble. If reported, and things like that and be taken down, and if a listing turns out to be a counterfeit amazon will suspend the account in 2019, amazon blocked 6 billion suspected bad listings. On its site, then amazon's new counterfeit crimes unit takes over formed in 2020, the units made up of former fbi, homeland security agents and federal prosecutors, but on these independent e-commerce sites. Sometimes that gets a little bit trickier on these independent websites. Something that still shocks me is that these brands can actually use comprehensive, high quality photos of these brands and products without getting them removed or taken down by the established marketplace, like i said like in amazon, because they are sometimes a lot harder to catch for trademark And copyright violations that they may impose by stealing and or taking these pictures or using these official logos for counterfeiting offenders could face 10 years in prison. Compare that to say drug trafficking, where punishment can range from 20 years to life in prison, all the way up to a death sentence - and you might say, okay, bree, so just stay away from these independent sites, but no actually marketplaces and social media sites are actually The most common place and breeding ground for a lot of these counterfeit products, uh marketplaces that have been listed like ebay, amazon, alibaba, aliexpress, etc are areas where a lot of sellers will potentially create multiple profiles and accounts. Despite attempts and technologies, counterfeit cosmetics may still be found on these other marketplaces, and again, i'd like to highlight for legal reasons that these marketplaces, a lot of times, do have technologies and teams in place to fight counterfeit. But when you have such a large quantity of people using the sites, sometimes they're they're, finding new ways to evade the system every single day, which makes it that much harder and also the use of third-party imagery to sell counterfeit products was actually confirmed by the u.s Government accountability office in 2018 due to one of their investigations, one of the most popular brands that we've seen is urban decay. Cosmetics as investigated counterfeit cosmetics, are also said to be dangerous on some of these marketplaces, including chemicals such as cyanide, mercury rat, droppings and etcetera. According to that very same study on other internet sites, fakes can be found. Social media began as a platform for sharing, but it quickly developed to include the ability to make direct transactions between everyday people and, as everything is now sold, online buying counterfeit goods is getting easier, but stopping them is much harder. You'Re cutting out the middleman of all of this and you're going directly to the source, and sometimes you don't know exactly what that source may be selling also through china. There are some really really prominent messaging apps and things that are used where customers are buying things. Not even going to the internet, sometimes through these chat services such as wechat and etc, where they're not even going to a marketplace to make a purchase. This is opening up a lot of vulnerability to customers that are, you know, trusting they're getting a legitimate product shopping online. Wasn'T always super super duper common. I have this information right here in my notes. According to the pew research center, only 22 percent of americans reported making an online purchase in june of 2000 compared to a whopping 79 in december of 2016.. That is a 16-year difference and a massive jump in percentile. The retail ecommerce industry, which generated 3.5 trillion in global sales in 2019, is expected to almost quadruple by 2023. Now this is where things get a little bit tricky and a little sticky is the fact that the rise of the very e-commerce industry has also been propelled by the counterfeit industry, and you don't have to go to a flea market, local vendor, to get a counterfeit. A lot of these vendors have moved into e-commerce and online, but they've also contributed to the boom of that very industry. So it's like you can't shut the entire industry down and it's kind of like if you've ever watched. You know, documentaries about economics versus there's. Some people that they quite literally cannot stop because they're so impactful to the economy that it's hard to cut everyone out. So that also creates an issue with the intersecting and interweaving of money and economy. So also the move to the e-commerce space made it increasingly difficult for customers everyday people to spot counterfeits, because when you are seeing things in person, sometimes sometimes, if it's not the best replica, there are things that you can spot in the packaging. That kind of gives it away here we have a burberry coat and it says verb belly. Mistakenly on the button, i will notice that the printing may be a little bit more dull or a little blurrier than the really really sharp and high res version, and also now that we speak about intersection as well. The cosmetics industry has been regarded as a recession-proof industry and it's constantly growing at a pace of about three percent per year, and so that means it kind of it becomes the circle of life right where you have these industries that are making massive amounts of products. We see so many launches coming out to keep up with social media where these brands are having to launch the biggest and best thing like every couple weeks or every month in order to stay relevant in the social media space. And then, on top of that, it's giving counterfeiters more material to work with more things to potentially sell and replicate. It just gets very messy from here y'all now on to the interesting part. Now we've talked a lot about e-commerce and social media counterfeits, but what about in store counterfeits now? Who is the target audience for or consumer for an in-store counterfeit? And the answer is simple: people like me, people who are impatient and want to get their hands on a product right now, people who also work in fast-paced industries or need something immediately that maybe even something as efficient as two-day shipping might not be able to cover. Now this is the piece that my gut has told me this, but to see it in plain text and video, there was an investigative piece of journalism that i found from abc action news. Several years ago i found out that there may even be moments that you go into a store and you get a product that is authentic, but it doesn't perform well because it's not quite counterfeited, but it's also not legit. Now you might be like whoa whoa. Let me explain: stay with me, are you with me? Are you with me comment, i'm with you brie, but many salon brands do not. Actually, this is about salon. Hair care specifically do not actually license their products to everyday chain stores. What are you getting what you actually pay for when you purchase hair care products? Oh at least one brand in fact says: what's sold in big retail stores, may not be what you think now. This was groundbreaking for me because i'm so used to seeing paul mitchell and diva curl and these big salon, hair care, name brands just in the grocery store and in certain stores, i'm not going to name these stores specifically, but you guys can get the gist. John paul de gioria is the founder of paul mitchell hair system. You ever see paul mitchell in any drugstore or supermarket. It is beyond any question of doubt either counterfeit or from the black gray market, and i'm not saying any of these are fakes. It'S actually. Quite the opposite and here's why? Since a lot of these salon, brands aren't actually selling their products or licensing them to be sold in these chain stores and establishments. Sometimes these establishments, because they do want that clientele. They do want that consumer base and they want to have the best products, because that drives more people to shop with them. They get their products from third-party distributors. Paul mitchell says it has contracts with distributors that are only in the professional hair care industry. The distributors then sell the products to the salons somewhere in that chain. Paul mitchell says a wholesaler, gets involved and buys the product in what the company calls a backdoor deal. The product then ends up on shelves and retail stores, where it should never be. That is where things get a little iffy third-party distributors may be those people that you might see going through the salon. You know when i was younger. I always used to see those people that would come through the salon and try to take down the name and number of different hairdressers, and they would be trying to sell them things. But now it makes me just hypothesize - and this is just me speculating here what if some of these were third-party distributors that were actually trying to utilize that hairdresser and their you know, cosmetology license in order to get them to buy products in bulk and sell to That third-party distributor, they kind of hoard these products and then they go out and kind of do some back door deals allegedly with these larger chain brands. Now that shocked me now in this investigative piece, they said products may even cost more in stores than they do in salons, due to the exchanges and many hands they have to go through to get to that shelf. There is usually one big difference and it might surprise you it usually costs more in a drugstore supermarket than it does in the professional salon. Bresnahan says the products in the stores cost between fifty cents and five dollars. More action news did a quick check, comparing one salon with one retail store and sure enough. The paul mitchell color protect daily cost 21.89 at the salon and nearly a dollar more at the store. Some of the products may be even expired, or have been sitting in extreme conditions, ruining the chemical makeup of the product itself. We'Ve seen this with stores such as you know, your tj, maxx and marshall's. Really like hey, stick to clothes. When you go, there, don't get their makeup and hair products because a lot of them may be expired. That might be one example and in this video paul mitchell tested - and i want to insert a clip in the salon or store you hope what you're getting is. As advertised action news bought this paul mitchell shampoo from target. We assumed, like this shopper, that it's the paul mitchell brand because it has a trademark on it and everything it's either counterfeit tampered with or black market. Robert cromins is the global artistic director for john paul mitchell systems commonly called paul mitchell. We don't sell to these outlets. We only sell to professional salons like mine and other salons around the world, but action news found paul mitchell products in target cvs and walgreens. The fact of the matter is they're not buying directly from us. She points out a counterfeit case where the fake paul mitchell product had high levels of bacteria and could that product have gotten into someone's eyes or a cut, or something like that. An infection could have occurred and they said even if a product is legitimate, it still runs the risk of being old, but those expired products can break down over time. The bottle on the left is from a salon, the right from a grocery store. You see white, solid clumps as opposed to in this case you see definitely a much creamier consistency if it's solidified like that that now you're going to have those chunks of whatever that is in your hair. Now, as you saw in that videos that product that they tested from a local chain store, had become crystallized because a lot of the water had actually evaporated, the textures were different. I was explaining this to someone recently where they're like. Why would that ruin your hair, and i said because this is chemistry right. This is that product that needs to be shelf stable, number one um for everything to be chemically sound. I said imagine you are supposed to be getting something and it's supposed to be salt, water, but then imagine all of the water has dissolved and you're using nothing but fine, pure salt sodium right. So i said, imagine the friction that that would cause, and then they started getting the imagery, i'm like yeah. If you have these products and they are no longer having the dilution that water can provide to dilute harsher substances, things that can be a little more detrimental but work well, when diluted, that can be a big mess. Yeah old shampoo can acidify making hair tangle and tear and it can even carry bacteria, that's kind of like mixed drink versus a shot on your hair right. You get the image right. I think i explained that. Well, i hope so but yeah when you're getting a concentrated or unbalanced or not stable version of a product. It can be bad they've, tested and found samples with bacteria mold. Oh thank you. Reputable brands tested by chemists can get a ton of backlash as well. Now we have to explore things y'all now. This is where i might step on some toes, including my own. This means that, and i'm not saying i'm not saying concrete, that we have any of the answers for this. This is another piece of speculation, but that we have to be so diligent when we look at these products and especially when we get these instances of massive backlash for a product that was previously extremely reputable, it begs the question: could this potentially be a third-party seller That has kept this product in just unstable conditions, something where these third-party conditions altered the formula to make it now detrimental to the hair, skin, scalp and in general human body, and we can think about cases like the diva curl case right. I looked at that class action lawsuit and that lawsuit actually went through y'all. I'M gon na put it here on screen, but that is one example where it begs the question right now. This is not discounting anybody with a diva curl story. I believe every single person's story because number one, why not number two thank you for sharing and protecting everybody else, number three, there's so much evidence and photos and videos and all sorts of things, and so the the fact that something was wrong with that formula is Not even up for debate, allegedly the the why, behind the the instability or issues with the formula is something that made me a little bit curious after this example, and it even begs the question about y'all ready, y'all ready, i'm not ready. My eco styler video that jar of eco styler, i did get at a korean beauty supply store that was local and reputable near my home when i was on the east coast. So that even begs the question, because previous years, as you all have seen, i didn't have any issues with that that product, and so that's why it was so shocking and jarring to me, and i was like yo like this - should be concerning that this smells like Ammonia smell, like i literally said my jar smelled like chemicals there's, so many people that were like mines. Doesn'T it's fine but i'm like hey, even if the brand specifically didn't mess their formula up, that doesn't mean that there's not something wrong. What'S not clicking. What'S not clicking there's times when this is the fake look at this ingredients? This is the real. Can look at the ingredients y'all out here, man, fake product, black box market products. My students are going to make this go viral or something going on because, regardless of what the brand did, what was going on in the world, what happened? My product still smelled like ammonia and made my eyes water and people were like? Maybe she just has an allergy like you know, i got a lot of hate for that video and i really really really wanted to highlight i'm looking at these ingredients and some things were a little like hmm, okay, better business bureau. I think i looked at and some other places where people had filed complaints against the brand. A lot of the complaints had similar similar notes as mine, so what if there was potentially a bad, corrupt or counterfeit batch of these products that went out nationally? That'S where the brand also has to come in, and i think it's important to note y'all that i haven't used eco styler since then not saying i'll, never use it again right. The thing that has prevented me from using it at this point is not in the ingredients because, like i said, i'm not pro clean beauty, i think that's one thing that's been very misconstrued. I even said it in my follow-up video. I am not like a binary's person as far as like you must use all clean products and and green juice, and because that doesn't even exist or just use all things that are terrible for you, because i don't think anybody does well. I can't speak for anybody, but i don't think a lot of people do all horrible things for themselves. So in the chemical regard, my thing has been about informed consent of what you're, using knowing that there's a carcinogen in something and saying hey. It made my eyes. Look pretty i'm using it today, but very sparingly like i just want to know what's in the product in a clear, concise and ethical way, so i can make a choice as a consumer and with my eco styler video. That was the message that got lost in all of it. I want people to question their products and demand that information and that clarity and that level of investigation, so no one is sitting in their bathroom with their eyes. Watering from a hair gel like that is absurd right, so that's got to get that out the way now on to act. 3.. Now for act 3. This is going to be about the finesse and how to solve this or where we go from here. You know. I don't like doing videos nowadays where i don't leave y'all with anything. I don't want to just complain, instill fear and not give you all tips. So i spent a more time than anything researching how to avoid this issue, starting this i'm gon na. Let you all know put y'all on game, and this part i wrote down how some beauty supply stores finesse. How did i get finessed with this bolt hold now? One thing i found through actually watching the founder bold holds video. Is she had a friend on facetime? Go into a reputable store, i'm assuming it was a friend or it could have been a supporter colleague, and they found a store where it had been reported that there were fakes, and so she went and she grabbed a fake and they were looking on facetime at The numbers and everything like that - this is not the only change. We have another change in circulation. This change has been uh for two years in circulation. We did not make a big announcement about it. We just basically kind of like talked to you guys about it, but now that they will know about this, they will copy this so to make sure that you're getting the actual product you want to look for that. We also have other things. Other changes that we have made that we haven't made the announcement on. If you have issues you need to contact us through our website and they realize something - and this is what i think may have happened to me. Potentially, vendors will actually mix in fake products and real products so that they dupe both the consumer me and the brand owner. You did this for what. Why not? Why? Why not? I look online and i see oh, this is an established vendor that has an established relationship with the brand. That'S authorized to sell these and get shipment. Then everything looks fine and on the brand's end everything looks fine, but then, if you mix in some fake, then consumers might say hey, maybe i just got a bad batch last time. Oh, it didn't break me out this time, but it did last time and so everyone's in the dark or the store owners get to pocket whatever they have left over from the shipment. Now my favorite part y'all. I went through the hell in high water to find out how to not get a fake hair product. I am so powerful my mind. Oh it amazes me. Sometimes, what is the first thing that i did as soon as i noticed that this product was fake and i decided that there's too much going on in the world to be talking about fake glue and i tabled this. I went on the bold hold website and i ordered a real glue. So here i have the fake and the real one, and i am going to do a literal comparison, close-up and side by side. So you all know exactly how to spot a fake specifically for this brand, but i'm gon na go into how you can do it for as many products as possible. So nobody has this happen to them either, and i would like to confirm that as soon as i got this product, i looked at the bottom. I don't know if it'll show here, but i'll do a close-up. It has to be engraved at the bottom. So i was like just holding it in in shock and i was stunned, buy it directly from the retailer online if you can, or directly from the retailer in stores these high-priced skin serums may look identical, but they're, not in the one to two days of me. Using the same product that i had used for months, i broke out in a very bad rash. She said she found her product cheaper online, but it turned out to be counterfeit, maybe serious consequences to buying skin products outside of authorized dealers. Now the next thing might be just the packaging. This is uh technically number one packaging high quality counterfeits may be almost identical splitting images, but in a lot of cases there are some differences in the packaging seals and serial numbers are removed, and in this case a product has been re-wrapped, for example, on these bold Hold glues, i noticed that the real one has an actual barcode and label and the fake does not. I didn't think anything of it at the store. Um. A lot of things don't have barcodes, which is also kind of a red flag, but yeah. The real has a barcode, also looking at the color of the package. The real glue actually has a slightly more vibrant color, whereas the fake, as you can kind of see on camera, looks a lot more pastel in the in the pink like the real one. Definitely looks a lot more um, opaque and then the because the one real one is a little more opaque. The font just seems clear: all the colors seem a little bit bolder um, no pun intended, and then even the instructions are, quite literally in a bold, easy to read font, whereas the fake, the instructions do appear a bit blurred, and i would also like to point Out the variable that i did use this glue for about a month before, i realized that it was a fake, add some wear and tear, but now i'm at a place where both of these i haven't used this since i realized and this one i've used a Ton and it has wear and tear as well, but the packaging never faded to this color. As you can see, it's been over, it's been like a year, so that is one thing to look for. A hundred percent is just any things that might be different shows how difficult it can be to tell the real thing from the fake. The lipstick on the left is counterfeit. The one on the right is real or alternative type faces and fonts the wrong hewer tint, like i said, is a big one, look for errors and misspelling, which can happen with some brands. If you look carefully on some of them, they're misspelled, because that's the easiest way to identify something: that's counterfeit, gibson, s-o-n, not s-u-n. Another thing, especially online, is the cost. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is, for example, like the dyson hair dryers right. If you see a dyson hair dryer on amazon for 50 bucks, knowing that's a 400 dryer, i would run unless you're intentionally buying a dupe. Then that's one thing, but i would run the other way. There is a price tag attached to the low price. Do not waste your money might as well just say fifty dollars eight times that sounds wild. This is the usual brand. Also. Another big thing is just using your senses: the smell of the product. For example, a lot of brands have a signature scent uh. If you smell a product and it smells a little bit off, it might be time to go return that product. If you can um, because it may not be a fake specifically, but it may just be old or now no longer shelf stable. That'S an issue uh with the government and cosmetics regulation. Cosmetics go unregulated, so there aren't expiration dates. I have to manually write down my expiration dates on my makeup and hair care so that i'm not accidentally using expired products which that just shouldn't happen. I feel that cosmetics should have regulations as well to protect consumers uh from this type of travesty number. Four, an unauthorized merchant: now you can go on most brands, websites and i'll, hopefully include an overlay here when you do like store locator or vendors on their website. It'Ll show you local stores that are authorized vendors of this product. So if you go to a store and you're like wow, i didn't know they sold this here. They probably don't they probably don't run away, run away fast. No, let get out of there. Most of our clients are not interested in the sellers they want to get to the distributors and the people that they're buying from sometimes brands don't update their websites, but i'd still just err on the side of caution. You'Re gon na spend the money anyway, you might as well get what you paid for okay period. Another big thing that i personally look at all the time is, if that brand sells on amazon they'll have a link to their amazon oftentimes on their website. So if you don't see that brand link their amazon and you see the product on amazon be wary, and i will also try to include a screenshot on the screen of where you can find the seller info a lot of the times. I very much when i'm buying something that i want to be authentic. 100. I will look at the seller a lot of brands list. Their amazon account in their listed places. You can buy their products. So if you don't see that run the other way and some sellers are really really sneaky - all they'll name their shop name after the brand that they have the most counterfeits of. But there will be something different, whereas they're, like in all caps with an extra l or an extra letter, number five is verifying the product details. You know product serial numbers are frequently absent. On counterfeits, like i showed y'all here, the barcode is missing. The serial numbers are gone. There is no engraved b at the bottom. If they do exist, the product numbers may differ from the packaging numbers. So sometimes there are apps and websites out there where you can actually scan a product's barcode, and in that case also just buying at established, like department stores and for salon, hair care brands make sure you are buying them specifically from a salon or if the brand Does sell online a lot of times they do not get it directly from their website, and this means that for some of us, if the salon is sold out or something we cannot let impatience guide us, because our impatience will make us spend money on things that Do not work or maybe it is a legitimate dupe and it works exactly the same. But do you really want to risk rat droppings? Hey, i'm not knocking nobody's hustle, but i can't do. I cannot do the right droppings. I cannot do it. I promise i cannot do it, i'm sorry. I can't another red flag that people might not think about. Number six is if the product is labeled as limited edition, for example, two ways it can be a popular product. That'S not limited edition labeled as such. That means that seller might be setting up to sell something at a super discounted price and then they're gon na take the shop down as soon as they sell out and either people will never get those products or they'll be getting all counterfeits or there is a Product that you've never seen before from this brand, hypothetically speaking, let's say makeup forever - is releasing this christmas palette. You don't see any mention of said palette anywhere else, that is to lure in people to think they're, getting something exclusive. When really it's an easier way to make something even more fake, because you have nothing to compare it to since it's labeled as limited edition, another good thing to do is get testers, try items in stores and establish retailers first before you buy them that way, even Having testers on hand, i'd be saying, get like two to three. Also look for red flags. Red flags might include the aforementioned signs that i had listed as well as other information. Look for fake reviews be identified by seeing a large number of good reviews. In a short, very short period of time, i like to change reviews up on like amazon and stuff from like uh newest to oldest and sometimes i'll, see the newest reviews i'll say: oh, this is a scam, this product's terrible et cetera, but the party has 1500 Positive reviews, so that's another, really good way to protect yourself, a lot of short-term reviews with identical phrasing, etc, long shipment time, if it's a product, that's supposed to be from a local retailer. That means that there might be some form of drop shipping. You know, that's been a phenomena recently drop shipping is when a retailer advertises as a local retailer, but then the product is still being shipped from china or alibaba, or some type of manufacturer overseas to be a replica or uh made on site. Also again, with using your senses, check the consistency of your products, say in this day and age. Now that i'm like getting older and stuff, i used to be all like i'll. Just take the food, even if it's kind of off or i used to be very much people who's in that regard, but y'all i'm not the one. I will send an email to a brand. I will dm them. I will slide in those dms like what is this, what is going on what's happening here and that is, it also reporting your fakes. I know that boldhold specifically has a place on their website where you can report fake products and the location that you found them, and that way the person can retract the vendor status of that person. If they are mixing products - or they can completely just warn people and add it to a list of vendors that are selling fake, so you don't support that shop in general, anymore and counterfeiters are getting creative and making their products seem legitimate from creating fake amazon listings. To flooding the u.s trademark office with phony applications, i don't feel like we should be supporting shops that sell known counterfeits, especially of black owned brands. Like that's the piece that was beyond me, i said not you selling fakes of black owned brands, so the actual black owned brand doesn't get any of that black owned money. Okay, oh ciao - and this is one of my final tips - is when you have a product that you love. That is like your your favorite product that you use all the time. Keep the original packaging before you buy a replacement and don't throw it away. Then go get a replacement, um bring that replacement home. So you can compare the two. This actually did happen to me again during the pandemic, with some vaseline y'all would not believe. I saw a great deal on some of that. Vaseline body oil, like you, know a little oil gel they have, and i was like. Oh this looks good y'all. I kept the original vaseline packaging and i said uh i got it and immediately. I said the consistency was different and i had got it off. Amazon and guess what y'all i shipped it right back and i filed a complaint because i was like what the heck. This is clearly not the same, all right y'all. So this concludes my video today, and this is all i have for you now. I will be digging into this topic for as long as i can. If i find any new information and y'all want a follow-up video, i will 100 do a follow-up. I'M very passionate about this topic. I feel like the research is never truly done. I will be listing a lot of my resources that i used down in the description box below so that y'all can see if you want to do any further reading up on this topic as well and y'all. I'M just shook. I'M shook all about it. Uh literally again, i've been buying directly from brands, especially black owned brands as much as possible and just bearing with the shipping time. You know also. Small businesses sometimes do have a longer shipping time and just being patient ordering things earlier. So i keep now a list on my fridge and reminders in my phone when something is running low so that i do give it like a week or two, especially if it's something that is harder to get my hands on like a product that is from an Independent retailer i'll order it in advance, so that way, just anticipating it running out, i know not everybody can do that, but y'all the quality of my life has changed since i've been making sure that all my products are from legitimate retailers, talented, brilliant, incredible amazing, show-stopping, Spectacular, never the same totally unique completely, not ever been done before. So let me know if this video was interesting to y'all. If y'all want me to do some more investigative journalism, slash uh, deep dives or video essays, this type of content is fun. For me. I love to talk. I love to explore things, i'm nosy, so this is the perfect genre for me. Y'All i'll bring my nosy stuff all up in these topics. If y'all want and comment below, if y'all have ever gotten a fake and where it was from how you knew and what you learned from that and how people can avoid it, save us all save us from getting these fakes, because i'm trying to avoid this as Much as possible, it's just the pain in the butt having to return things or feeling like you, wasted your money or feeling kind of like duped and betrayed as a consumer. So, unfortunately, a lot of these brands do hire departments to do this work. But us, as the consumers have that one-on-one experience and there are way more of us than there are departments to spot fakes. So if we go directly to brands and let them know there are fakes, then we can do a lot more help and service to our fellow consumers in order to make sure that they get off the marketplace and yeah and also another good place to check is Reddit and forums i found a lot of good information about which beauty supply stores are reputable, and in my area as well as other areas, a lot of black owned beauty supplies exist. I trust them with my whole soul, again y'all. I can talk about this forever, but i love you peace out gang gang. Please don't forget to subscribe and let's get to a million. I am. I am committed to a million subscribers y'all. I don't care how long it takes, but i'm ready, but that's neither here nor there make sure you subscribe comment below. So you can help out the gang. So we don't have to suffer through these fakes anymore as much as possible and give this video a thumbs up. It really really helps my channel. It'S free. This video took almost a year of just trying things and finding tips and research. So you know five seconds for a like would be so so helpful in exchange for all this work. Please, thank you, love you all right, bye! That'S that, for me,