Is my colourpop fake??

I bought Colourpop Ultra Matte Lip in Solow during a hapless episode of impulse buying. I've read raves about it online but because my makeup routine has always focused on skin-perfection, I never really bothered with lip products. I also do not have the prettiest lips, my lips are boring, normal, okaayy so they never really had my attention. So buying Colourpop, a rather risky product, is completely out of character even for me on a shopping high.

I categorize it as risky for several reasons:

1. Lip products expire easily. While face and eye products usually last for 2 or more years, lip products only last for a year at most. This goes especially for products packaged like Colourpop UM. The wand picks up bacteria after every application and then dips all that bacteria back into the product. Yuck.
2. The whole matte oversized lip trend is well, a trend. I'm usually the last person to follow trends. I fancy myself classy so I'm never one to jump head on as soon as Hollywood promotes a new makeup fad. I wait for at least half a year before experimenting. This is because I hate seeing old pictures and realizing how I've become a fashion victim from donning a look that looks horrible outside its trendy context. Also, this gives me proper time to observe how well a trend looks on faces with features similar to mine. 



I mean, this looks good now. But come 2020 how would kids be making fun of the parched, shriveled, raisin-y look?

3. Because it's trendy, there are tons of fakes out there. Which I've fallen victim to.

I was in Fairview Terraces to get my hair rebonded. (BTW, Headway Vera Salon did an awesome job! Best rebond I've ever had. My hair is shiny, smooth, has volume and looks completely natural. My hair was dry, wavy, and the ends were rubberized - they're miracle workers, I swear.) So I was there completely not intending to go makeup shopping. I was about to go home even, when I passed by a table of makeup for sale. There was a signage that said "US ORIGINAL PRODUCTS" and the products seemed legitimate. I mean, they weren't cheap, and sometimes when you're not very smart, you get convinced that when something is expensive, it must not be fake. 

There were Revlon, CoverGirl and other US drugstore products that didn't look suspicious. They were reasonably priced, too. I once sold makeup from my cousin from the states and so I know products like that are really sold that way. There were more expensive products too, and by expensive, I mean Estee Lauder and other designer makeup priced like designer makeup. I had a hunch though that the Ben Nye powder was fake (turns out it was! Good thing I doubted whether the small bottle of chalk was really worth P500!) I ended up buying an overpriced 3W Clinic Natural Powder in the wrong shade but still works for me, and an overpriced Naturactor Coverface in the wrong shade too but works somehow too. My heart was uneasy the whole time I was at the stall, I didn't want to part with my P1,600 but I was already there and I figured online shopping posed the same risks anyway so. 

Since I wasn't really meaning to buy lip products, Colourpop especially, I did no prior research about what fakes look like compared to originals. I absolutely had zero idea about how much Colourpop is supposed to cost. It was a matte lip pencil that originally caught my attention. It was worth P150 (same price as Avon/Sophie Paris/Maybelline which have good quality lip products) so I thought it's safe to get one. But the SA was good at what she does and convinced me that Colourpop Ultra Matte Lip was a better product (doesn't dry lips, and stays on even after eating...) It's worth P300 so I thought, okay, what's P300 anyway? She attempted another upsell to a Kylie worth P450 (!) but I doubted that it's priced THAT cheap so I settled for a Colourpop.

Again, I had no idea about how much Colourpop costs. All I knew was that it's cheaper than Kylie products because they're the generic version. More like, Kylie is the repackaged, overhyped, overpriced version. And I was sold on the promise that they won't dry my lips AND they'll stay on after meals. I'm all after a simplified beauty routine.

IS MY COLOURPOP ULTRA MATTE LIP FAKE??

I'm getting my resources from this very informative blog: GLENDABELLE.COM. 

Looking at the box, a non-observant buyer won't notice anything suspicious. Fonts are okay. Kerning are okay. Spelling and grammar are okay. All the basic stuff are okay. 

The Made With <3 in the U.S.A. print looks normal. I read online that the fake ones are printed lopsided or in black. 

The closing flap is shaped like the original - like a U with angles. The fake ones are rounder. 

The top of the tube is also shaped properly - rounded. The fake ones are flat, the tube can stand on it.

The unembossed part (the rectangle around the "ULTRA MATTE LIP") is spaced properly. The fake ones are awkwardly spaced right around the letters. 

See, you can't really tell. China-made fakes are usually glaringly fake. But I guess this one that I got is what they call "Class A", which makes me even angrier.

Some blogs say genuine Colourpop Ultra Matte Lip shades are printed only in white. Some say some are printed in black. This temporarily gave me hope.

However, the shade label on the tube itself is black too. And I could not find a genuine tube that does not have a shade label in white.

The inner part of the tube top should also have teeth. This one is smooth. 

Bloggers say the genuine thing has "pearls" at the bottom of the tube. The fake ones have clear bottoms. As you can see, mine does look like there are "pearls", it's def not clear but the "pearls" are not convincing.

By the time I've crossed out 90% of signs that my P300 Colourpop Ultra Matte Lip might be fake, I felt a sense of relief. Until I opened the tube again and realized that the mouth of the tube is PLASTIC. The genuine ones online looked clear. 

SO, IS MY COLOURPOP ULTRA MATTE LIP FAKE??

Unfortunately, it is. Something that's 90% authentic is still fake.

One fool proof way to tell is the scent ~ the original ones have no scent. The fake ones smell like chocolate/cocoa/cinnamon.