You might think you’re getting a great deal on your favorite beauty products by shopping online, but recent reports show that counterfeit makeup is becoming more and more common on Amazon.

If you’re searching for a good deal on your favorite high-end palette, you might be excited to find a great bargain on Amazon. After all, quality makeup can be pricey, so if you’re on a budget but you want to treat yourself, buying makeup on Amazon can seem like the perfect compromise. However, you might not be getting a deal on the product you think you’re buying. You might just be paying less for a counterfeit product in deceptive packaging.

To determine how many counterfeit products were being sold on Amazon in general, market researchers combed through reviews to see how many buyers suspected that the products they bought were fake. Out of all the products up for sale by third-party sellers on Amazon, approximately one-third of the items were suspected of being counterfeit.

Makeup has the highest percentage of third-party listings—basically, a large number of beauty products on Amazon are not sold directly by the brands. Instead, they’re sold by individual, independent people who are unaffiliated with the company. Because so much of the makeup for sale on Amazon is posted by third-party sellers, it has a high probability of being counterfeit. The problem is even worse with popular brands. Researchers determined that about 75% of the products labeled as L’Oréal, e.l.f., or Olay were actually most likely counterfeit.

This is bad news for anyone who frequently orders beauty products from Amazon. Of course, the easy solution is to simply buy the beauty products you want from brick and mortar stores or from the company’s website. But what if Amazon really is the most convenient option for you, and you need to save money? What if you have an Amazon gift card and need to replace some of your favorite products?

There are a few steps you can take to make sure you don’t fall into the trap of buying counterfeit goods. First, remember that if a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is! Avoid buying cosmetics from third-party sellers, even if the price is cheap. Always read reviews from other customers—if many suspect that the product is a fake, don’t waste your money. When it comes to quality cosmetics, you want to make sure that you’re getting the real thing.

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