the beauty industry and hide behind his
really glossy kio image but one of the
biggest frets to that brand image and
their profit is counterfeit products I
know when I was making my teenage years
I bought some makeup on Facebook which I
reckon was fake now I feel like it's
actually a much bigger issue than we
realize
[Music]
Chloe and I have both bought counterfeit
makeup in the past so today we're
meeting up with a private investigator
who works with these big brands to get
these products off the streets gone
undercover today I just can't with it
and I can't be like a wee-wee woman and
the police is good and I made my cream
so not everyone can afford
obviously the high-end and more
expensive brands so I definitely can't
see where people would be tempted to buy
counterfeit makeup I can totally
understand why BAE companies do work
hands at home with the place because at
the end of the day they're just wanted
to protect their business and their
profits hey girls what exactly is it
that you do then our job is working with
brand owners usually the brands contact
because they've gotten a tip or they
heard about issues in the area which
type of brands have you worked with so
far we've worked with brands like
L'Oreal and Chanel and Mac most of our
clients are not interested in the
sellers they want to get to distributors
and the people that they're buying from
once we got them to keep the goods as
counterfeit we'll go back with a letter
called a cease and desist letter we use
that as leverage to try and get that
retailer who selling counterfeit goods
to tell us where they're getting the
product fun
so we're gonna send you girls undercover
I'm gonna get you guys geared up with
cameras once you get out there act
normal
you guys obviously blend in very well
that's why we picked you to go
undercover down here ask them to show
you around and the more you ask for the
person's help and you play dumb the more
information they're gonna give you do
your best to kind of make sure we get
some good photos of the actual product
look for any kind of misspellings or
information on the packaging that looked
a little bit off any questions no I'm
excited
great get it done yeah
[Music]
yeah I want to get something but can you
open it Justin your honey could I get
this one yeah thank you
[Music]
so what'd you guys find all the big
plans for that we got Kylie cosmetics
slow
James Chao yeah and I have this palette
of home so as someone that's in the
space what do you think of the product
what does it look like you can tell by
looking on it it's fake you know look at
that image on the back but like not
everyone would know that they claimed
that the real one for an extra five
dollars oh really
yeah so they so they told you the real
one's an extra $5 so they're pretty much
telling you this is not the real thing
yeah yeah there were three items for
like $10 when in a normal world like
three items would literally cost you
like $60 look at how this one's filled
okay there's something wrong with like
separating yeah so what we will do is we
will tag all the evidence so we can
proceed with enforcement great work guys
most times counterfeit makeup is so
ridiculously cheap and at dolls make you
kind of wonder like what's actually
inside of them the bailiff and me and we
dodgy factories and have dodgy
ingredients and then perhaps
counterfeit products cost the beauty
industry around seventy five million
dollars a year so I can see why they
hire investigators liked him but I want
to know if they're just protecting their
profits or if there's any risk to the
consumers that buy these counterfeits
welcome guys this is our LAPD evidence
room oh wow
oh my gosh what the hell anything and
everything you see here is basically
counterfeit they all get shipped over
here after we seize it and you know when
it gets up to the court then we have the
evidence here after it's all done and
said all this stuff gets destroyed and
then obviously the makeups run in front
of you so you got your Mac urban decay
Kylie look oh gosh yeah and it's
brand-new you just you're the first
person that opened it oh my gosh if you
look carefully on some of them they're
misspelled because obviously English
wasn't their first language so okay so
it says hey powerful pigmented eye
shadows shadows right like it so that's
the easiest way to identify something
that's counterfeit how much do people
actually make a lot so for an example an
average street vendor they make anywhere
from six to ten thousand dollars a week
that's one was forty thousand dollars a
month so where are they getting this
pies from well most of the stuff is
obviously muck made overseas yeah most
of that stuff if not all of it has high
levels of bacteria and when we tested in
the past it had consistent with animal
feces animal poop that's kind of and
you're applying that to your skin you
know all over your face and so you're
constantly rubbing it you're just like
rubbing and them pretty much it's
just really unsettling I am a little
shocked so like me to say exactly like
the actual scale of high intense this
fear counterfeit industry is I got a
rush from trying on eyeshadow swatches
at the warehouse and to me that is so
alarming I don't really feel much
sympathy towards big brand whoever could
be buying these products without
realizing that the fake or they could
just be buying it to keep up with trends
and keep up with the Kardashians