A Journey into the Shady World of Online Cosmetics

When a journalist at Wirecutter (New York Times) set out to test how easy it is to buy counterfeit beauty products online, she did so with a simple premise: shop as any consumer would, then verify the results scientifically. What she uncovered was far from reassuring.

Among the dozen skincare and cosmetic products she purchased from third-party sellers across major online platforms, every single one was found to be counterfeit or otherwise problematic.

The most unsettling example was a tube of lip gloss that, at first glance, appeared entirely legitimate. It had been purchased from a third-party seller on a major marketplace, while an identical product sourced directly from the brand served as a control. Only when the two were placed side by side did inconsistencies begin to emerge – including the fact that the tube from the third-party seller was bloated, suggesting that microbes were busy growing inside it.