How To Buy Korean Beauty Products from eBay Safely

I remember making my first purchase for a Kbeauty product back in the early months of 2010. It was the Missha Perfect Cover BB Cream which actually remained a staple in my make up collection. Ever since then I have always relied on eBay to make my beauty purchases apart from a handful of occasions, so I've become very savvy when it comes to buying from there. One thing that eBay is notoriously known for is the fact that from time to time, the products up for sale aren't genuine products. This rings all too true when it comes to K-beauty and regularly in my searches for products I come across fakes that to me, a little eBay Kbeauty veteran, are screamingly obvious, but to others that may be new to K-beauty they can be a little bit difficult to spot.
I know the topic of fake products is quite highly debated but I personally refuse to use fake products for a number of reasons. Not only are you going to have a product lacking in the quality if you were to buy the genuine product, but there is also a risk to your health/skin. Quite often this fake make up is made in places with poor hygiene conditions and with rules being different in regards to ingredients and transparency of said ingredients, it's difficult to know what is actually going onto your skin. As well, it's not nice to know you've been ripped off for a product that isn't what you actually paid for.   So today I am going to go through some of the aspects to look out for if you are buying K-beauty from eBay (or just make up in general) and to make sure you aren't ripped off with less than stellar products. 
Research Products/Prices and Compare This is probably the most obvious of the pieces of advice here, but I think sometimes it can be easy to overlook it. If there is a particular product you are looking for on eBay, try and look at the first match (in the best match filter) and see what the price is marked at. This is probably the price most similar to the actual brands pricing, but you can also look at the price on their own website to find out a rough guide of how much you can expect to pay. You can give leeway of a couple of £s for products as some retailers will sell them a little cheaper. If a price is vastly different to the ~RRP~, there's a high chance that this will not be a genuine product. Sometimes it's easy to know how much a product should be worth and you should be safe to buy. Basically, if the product seems screamingly cheap and an amazing bargain, chances are that the product is fake.
Some of the brands I have most notably seen with fakes are: 3CE, Etude House, Tony Moly, Bbia. There are of course more than likely fakes of most brands but it's important to try and do your research of the product, the brands price target for the products. If a 3CE lipstick on eBay is £4 when typically their lipsticks are about £15, you're getting ripped off. I think the only 3CE product you can get away with spending £4 on are the nail varnishes really. I also see people often buying the Etude House Etionette Lipsticks as well for prices as little as £2. These are also fake, the product has been discontinued for a long time (we're talking years) so if there were to be any floating about the price would be marked up highly. Those are just two of the most common ones I see when I'm looking about.
Search by Brand, Not just "Korean Beauty"
Quite often when you type in Korean Beauty, you will get products with that title randomly thrown on it when in fact it probably has nothing to do Korean beauty. This is quite common when it comes to things like sheet masks, lipsticks, BB creams and such, it can be difficult to know with some of them how well made they are and how safe. Sit and take some time to find some brands you are interested in or you know you want to buy from. 
Stick to (mostly) Korean Sellers 
This is one thing I have stuck to and I think this is one of the reasons I have been lucky enough to never have purchased a fake product is that I try to make sure the sellers I purchase from are Korean sellers or are well known resellers with respectable sites off eBay. The benefit from this is also that because the seller has saved on fees getting the products shipped from abroad to where they are situated, you will find they can afford to knock the price down just a little bit. They are also pretty efficient at getting the newest products up for sale within days of the product being for sale in stores. 
I do try to avoid purchasing from China due to the simple fact that the majority (not all) of the fakes that are available are produced there. Any of the obvious fakes I have been able to see have been from sellers from China/Hong Kong.
I do from time to time buy from a UK seller if it's a product I need quicker, say for instance my base make up is running painfully low and I need it replaced that week. The price may be a little bit higher, but it gets to me within a couple of days. 
Check Feedback
As well as location, I will quite often look at the feedback of a seller, just to make sure that their previous customers have been happy with them and that there have been minor issues if any (such as late delivery etc, I can deal with that). But any feedback stating that the product didn't arrive as expected that rings alarm bells and I won't buy. I don't have to do this as often now because I've gotten so used to what I should expect when purchasing Kbeauty products on eBay, but I think as a newbie, it's probably mostly important until you get yourself acquainted with a few sellers that you know you trust. 
Don't Be Afraid To Open Cases with eBay If you have followed those steps and you were certain you were going to get the genuine product and it ended up that you were sent a fake, eBay will help you out. If you have received a counterfeit product and it's obviously so, eBay will issue you a full refund. So don't just let it sit around, get your money back!
I have a few sellers I tend to stick to though I do venture to others if I can find a slightly better deal with them. So to round this post up I will share some of them with you to help you make sure you get some genuine products! 
Rose Rose Shop | Rose Rose AU | f2plus1 | RiniShop | Seoul Cosmetics (one of my Korean friends actually worked with this one for a while!) | k_beauty_shop | bringbringshop | beautycosmetic | iamlove-shop | biz-inside 

I hope this post has given you some useful information when it comes to buying some Kbeauty products on eBay. If you're ever a bit dubious about a product and if it is genuine or not, feel free to let me have a little inspection of it and I can try and help you out with it. I think being as savvy as I have been has been a major factor in preventing me buying any fake Korean beauty products from eBay when there are so many of them. Have you got a little story about a fake product? Or have you been quite lucky? Were you initially turned off by eBay with the risks that there can be? Let me know if I have helped you with this information here and feel free to ask any questions regarding this topic or kbeauty in general!
Products Featured Etude House Personal Color Eye Palette - Warm Tone
3CE Liquid Lip Color - #BE DASHED (Review) Tony Moly Ink Cushion Gel Liner - Black (Review)
Tony Moly Crystal Blush - Pink Jubilee
Bbia Wedding Collection Last Auto Gel Liners
A'pieu Triple Wear Foundation - Frozen

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