My experience with Fake OPI polishes

Hi guys, so no nails today but I do have a polish related post. Last week I purchased some nail polish on ebay and it arrived today and to my dismay, they were fake. This has never happened to me before and I have sent an email to the seller explaining that these are fake and am pending a reply so I'll keep you updated.

The polishes I purchased are supposed to be: "That's Hot! Pink!" From the 2008 Mod About Brights collection. "Fly" from the 2012 Nikki Minaj Collection and "Just Spotted The Lizzard" from the not yet released Spiderman collection for May 2012. In all honesty, I was skeptical purchasing JSTL as it has not been released yet, and this seller was the only one offering it, but since they had 100% positive feedback I went ahead and bought it.

Continue reading for more pictures and discussion after the jump!

Now from this picture, Fly and That's Hot Pink look okay, but look at JSTL! If you don't know, this polish is supposed to be a Chanel Peridot dupe with an amazing gold green heavy duochrome. 

Next thing: They don't have labels! I've only ever recieved ONE polish that did not have a label - a color club from one of those sets that DON'T have labels. Dodgy....

Here is the back of all three polishes, I will have some comparisons later in the post showing the abnormalities of the printing.

Next thing I noticed is that none of the polishes had serial numbers, on the lid or the bottle. Here is pictures of what it should look like. Pictured is OPI Don't Touch My Tutu and Lucertainly look marvelous.

Here you can see differences in the top of the bottle, In the first picture is 'That's Hot Pink' on the left and 'Lucertainly look marvelous' on the right. In the second picture is 'Dutch Ya Just Love OPI on the right and 'Fly' on the left. As you can see, the embossed caps writing is much thinner on the fake bottles.

Yes that is a rough swatch of "Just Spotted The Lizzard' on my thumb, as you can see, no duochrome!

Here is a bottle comparison showing the abnormalities in 'Fly' (in the middle) compared to the previous collections bottle of Designer De Better! (left) from the Muppets collection and the succeeding Holland collections Dutch Ya  Just Love OPI? (right). As yiou can see, the print on the bottle isn't as clear on Fly - this is more evident in the next picture. What you may also notice is the pictures. They are significantly smaller on the fake OPI bottle and actually DIFFERENT. I also think that the bottle looks significantly thinner on the fake OPI but my sister dissagrees so I dunno (she does neet glasses but).

Here is a better picture showing Don't Touch My Tutu (REAL) on the left and That's Hot Pink (FAKE) on the right. What you might be thinking is, 'well that's an older bottle, the images used to be different' well let me show you..

Here is That's Hot Pink (FAKE) on the left and Man of La Mancha (REAL) on the right. Man of La Mancha is a black label OPI that was released in 2003. As you can see, the images on these bottles are the same, however the print is not. The size varies between these bottles most obvious is the 'Made in USA' at the bottom which is significantly larger on Man of La Mancha. What you may also notice is the print is much clearer, neater and more uniform on the real bottle.

Here is a bottle comparison of Just Spotted The Lizzard (left) with the most recent OPI release Don't Touch My Tutu. As you can see, also different.

(Please note that it is my sisters hand in the left picture)

Then we have the cap. On the left is the cap of Lucertainly look marvelous, and on the right is That's Hot Pink. As you can see, the right is missing the prominent gears that all newer OPI collection bottles have (This is not evident in Man of La Mancha). The other thing you may notice is the sheerness of That's Hot Pink which is meant to be a creme.

Here in the bottle of That's Hot Pink you can see the sheer jelly-like formula of the polish which is supposed to be a rich creme. On my middle finger is one coat over my existing manicure.

Oh, and look at Fly when I opened it.. completely clogged and congested in what was supposed to be a 'new, unused, unopened' polish.

Here is the three listings I purchased as you can see That's Hot Pink is clearly shown as a creme formula in the image, and Just Spotted The Lizzard is very clearly duochrome. Next to this is the description from the JSTL listing. While the info about JSTL being rare is incorrect as it has not actually been released yet, it is not unreasonable for a nail polish newbie to think so, so I didn't read much into that when I purchased it.

Anyway, As I said i am still waiting to hear back from the seller in regards to this issue and will update you with the resolution.

Have any of you had any experiences dealing with fake OPI polishes?

On my nails is a Jelly Sandwich using OPI Don't Touch My Tutu and Nubar White Polka Dot




UPDATE.
The seller requested the polishes were sent back and then I would receive a refund. When I returned them, the seller refunded me the cost of the polishes, but not the cost of shipping I paid to get them sent to me and then send them back.  The seller has also removed all the nail polish listings from their store.