AUTHENTIC VS. COUNTERFEIT BABYLISS MIRACURL

How I knew right away that the item I received was a fake:

1. Colours on box appeared strange.Even though I had never seen the box for the authentic product, I could tell that the authentic packaging wouldn’t have been like this. Maybe it is my design background that I can just tell things like this? I don’t know, but the grey on the background of the box just seemed too close of a shade to the blue of the text that the blue text “MIRACURL” on the front of the box did not stand out like I felt like it should on a normal packaging. Also, the images of the curling iron all appeared to have a slight green tinge where it starts to fade into the shadowy part of it, which did not seem like a professional photograph. The blonde hair on the front of the box also looked like it had a little bit of a green tinge. Additionally, on the side of the box there is a photo of a girl with her hair curled. The girl’s skin is so dark, and literally orange! Not realistic at all.

2. On the front of the box where it says “Hair goes in...” the text is not a straight line, looks like a printing error.

3. Printing quality of the box is terrible!Images are all grainy or pixelated, looked like it was scanned from the original and reproduced or something.

4. Performance.On the lowest heat setting, the curling iron took more than 3 minutes to heat up. On the highest heat setting, it took more than 8 minutes! Considering this was supposed to be “Nano Titanium”, it certainly took much longer to heat up than even a normal ceramic iron. Also, when I tried to actually curl my hair with it, it would not even hold the curl! Oh and did I mention how loud it was? It sounded like a vacuum cleaner!

5. Barrel colour looked a lot darker than pictures I’ve seen. On the side, it was almost black. Inside was actually black. It kind of made me wonder, because all the nano titanium flat irons and curling irons that I’ve seen by Babyliss were silver in colour, but why was this one black? I also shined a flashlight to look into the barrel, and the surface appeared to have slight ridges/bumps - it was not even smooth.

So I found one that I knew was for sure authentic and made a comparison...

1. Packaging was a lot nicer.The grey on the box was a lot lighter, and the words stand out unlike the fake one. The girl’s face on the side was not orange, blue colour on the image of the curler did not have a green tinge, and neither did the blonde hair. Also, on fake one, on the side of the box with the 4 consecutive images and the girl’s face, the first of the images has a weird grainy blue background. They all have white backgrounds on the real box. Images were not grainy or pixelated. Text all lined up. Every part of the box that was blue, including

the words, had a slight metallic sheen to it. The back of the box had an extra image saying “Cleaning tool included”, which the fake one did not have. Even inside the box, the packaging was different. The iron and instructions booklet were both wrapped in a plastic with writing on it. The fake one, only the iron was wrapped in a plastic bag, but the plastic bag had no writing on it.

Top: Fake; Bottom: Authentic Top: Fake; Bottom: Authentic

Top: Fake; Bottom: Authentic Top: Fake; Bottom: Authentic Authentic

Authentic

3. Colour of barrel is grey on the end, and silver inside. Not black, colour of the iron itself is a little lighter than the fake one, engraving on the end of the handle is much clearer than on the fake one.

Top: Fake; Bottom: Authentic

Left: Fake; Right: Authentic

Authentic Fake

2. Performance.The curler heated up in about a minute, on the highest heat setting. When clamping down, the motor was a lot quieter than the fake one. It was more like a quiet humming than a loud vacuum. It also curled my hair a lot better. Also, the authentic iron is heavier and feels more rugged overall.

6. Cord is thinner, and also it is a double cord, not a single round cord. Plug is also smaller. On the end of the plug, there is a code. Also on the side of the plug there is a triangle symbol.

Top: Fake; Bottom: Authentic Top: Fake; Bottom: AuthenticLeft: Fake; Right: Authentic

7. Included pamphlets were different. The real one included 3 pamphlets, all enclosed in a plastic bag. The fake one only had the black one of the pamphlets and was not wrapped at all.