This post is a follow up to my Real vs Fake post reviewing the Dark Horse Skin Frost by Jeffree Star Cosmetics. In this post I’m going to run through a side by side comparison of a real glow kit ordered directly from Anastasia Beverly Hills website vs a counterfeit one that was sold to me on Facebook. For full details of where I purchased the replica and further background info, please head on over to the Dark Horse Fake vs Real post here.

Anastasia Beverly Hills Moonchild Glow Kit ♥ £39

This was my first experience of ordering from Anastasia Beverly Hills UK website and I have to say, I was impressed. I placed my order at 1pm the day before, and my order arrived the next day. I did pay for express delivery but I was still impressed with the prompt delivery speed. I’ve since had similar experiences even when choosing not to pay for express delivery. ABH customer services have also been extremely helpful whenever I’ve contacted them.

Top: FAKE     Bottom: REAL

 So first thing’s first, we’ll start with the packaging. Every Anastasia Glow Kit always comes with a sleeve. As you can see evidently, the fake one is seriously lacking in quality, just looking at the cardboard sleeve! The holographic film is peeling off around the thumb indent and the overall colour of the packaging is off, there’s way too much blue tint. The thing that annoyed me the most about this copy was the logo. Surely if you’re going to copy a product, the first thing you want to get right is the logo! On all of Anastasia Beverly Hills glow kits she embosses her logo but they just printed it. The card sleeve also felt really flimsy and cheap.

Left: FAKE     Right: REAL

If we now move on to when I opened up the palettes, straight away this is where the obvious differences come into play. First looking at at the inside of the lid, you can see on the real palette (right), there is a thin tidy border of overlay from the exterior. On the fake one, this is very messy and not folded down correctly. The in lay is also much to wide making the logo seem stretch and slightly distorted. The colours being reflected in the holographic logo are also so different. The real one is reflecting the true ‘blue’ colour scheme of the palette as opposed to the fake one which is boasting more neutral tones and just looks untidy. The actual structure of the palette is all wrong too. The pans are sunk way too low and the cut of the pans is untidy.

So with all packaging mishaps aside, the main thing we all want to see is the actual product. Six pans each containing 4.2g of glow. ABH is famed for their glow kit formulae, pans full of blinding goodness. The obvious difference here is the colour. This again brings the same problem into play that I referred to while evaluating the skin frost. For the colours to look this different they definitely have made this with the same ingredients as listed on the packaging which surely is a violation of trading standards? I don’t know, but either way, it also poses some major health concerns if we don’t actually know what these highlighters are made of. 

Left: FAKE     Right: REAL

So on the right is the real moon child, six subtle pans of highlighting goodness bringing a whole new definition to holo glow. As you can see, the replica on the left is considerably different. 

• Blue Ice (white, blue undertone)
• Star (pale grey)
• Purple Horseshoe (blue toned purple)
• Pink Heart (pale pink)
• Lucky Clover (pale green)
• Blue Moon (pale chalky blue)

Swatches ♥

The most noticeable shade differences are ‘Star’, ‘Blue Moon’ and ‘Pink Heart’. In the replica palette, Star is a darker muddy grey, Blue Moon is a dark vivid purple and ‘Pink Heart’ a vivid peach. I didn’t manage to swatch the replica shades properly on my arm but I did dip my fingers in. They were still pretty highlighters but not even close to the original.

Left: FAKE     Right: REAL

Last but not least, the rear of the packaging. At first glance, this is probably the one aspect that matches the closest out of all the view points I observed. Only upon looking closely you notice the text is slightly bolder, misplaced and distorted and the holo reflect in the background is slightly off. Again, the barcode is all wrong. On the Anastasia palette the surrounding area is blocked out in white, I’m assuming to ensure no distortion to the scanned image. 

All in all, this again is a terrible copy but if you don’t know what the original looks like it’s an easy mistake to make. There are so many of these fakes for sale on Ebay and other various retail points on the internet, it’s not difficult to see why so many people fall victim, especially if the price is tantalisingly lower. £39 is a steep price for some, especially for those who maybe don’t appreciate the quality of the brand and the high end price tag that accompanies it. 

I hope some of you will find this helpful in identifying fake Anastasia glow kits, I certainly wish I’d known this at the time! If there’s anything I’ve missed or any additional information you’d like to know, please leave a comment below.