KEEPCUP *Go Green*

These irresistible colourful cups are so pretty and it makes you happy looking at the colours! I bought 2 different series, the glass with rubber and the glass cork edition.

So after using the cups, here's what i think:

Cup Size
KeepCups are available in many sizes. Mini, Small and Medium.
Personally the one i have is the latest 'Cork Edition' that only comes in Small (8oz) and Medium (12oz).

Material
There are the plastic range and these glass range. If you are intending to hold really hot beverages, my advise is to get the glass ones. After using the rubber one and the cork edition, the cork edition will definitely beat the rubber one hands down, because i have very low torrance for heat and honestly, the rubber do not help to offset the heat, it is only for a better grip.

However, for the cork edition, you should be careful you do not spill your drinks or coffee onto the cork area to prevent staining of it.


Heat Retention
The heat retention ability is not bad, my drink is still warm after an hour. But this is NOT a thermal flask, so please do not expect that your drink will still be burning hot after leaving it inside for awhile.

Overall i'm happy. I'm currently using it when i make my old beverage or coffee. Stilling trying to explore how to pass the cup to the barista when i order coffee from a cafe! Will definitely try that soon. Just worried that they will stain or dirty the cork area.


Photo credit: ME!

Spot Fake!

Continuation from my previous post on "Why pay with your life" on some very toxic ingredients found in low quality or fake cosmetic makeup. 

Apart from the lower quality makeup by smaller brands in the market, there are many fake makeup of the bigger brands! These manufacturers earns a big fraction by selling the fake because they substitute important ingredients with the low quality and cheaper ones.

So how do you spot the fake ones when the makeup looks exactly the same as the original ones? These manufacturers copy boxes, colors and prints in boxes. But if you look closely enough, you will be able to tell if the product is a rip-off.

Here's some handy guide:
A) Read through the leaflet. If you notice misspelled words or incomprehensible english, don't buy it!

B) Check item codes. The item codes on the product should match that which is on the box, only applicable for brands with item codes printed.

C) Compare lids and applicator brushes with the original ones. Usually fake makeup comes with an applicator of a different size.

D) Examine the box thoroughly. Some counterfeit items will use a slightly different font or colors to print. There will surely be something that will give it away that it is a counterfeit, so be attentive to the details.

E) Only licensed sellers are allowed to sell branded products. Do not risk for health and skin just to save on the few dollars differences.

F) Be suspicious of cheap branded products.

If all these are too much for you, trust me, just do your purchases at authorized sellers or retail stores for 100% authentic products.

Ebay Frauds?

Just like many other ebay users, i sell and i buy from ebay. But as much as we want to be a honest seller, to give a 100% true and full account of the item we are selling, we expect other sellers to be as honest as we are. However, we need to know that there are dishonest sellers around!

Having many unpleasant encounters with dishonest sellers, the thought of giving up on ebay crossed my mind. However, instead of withdrawing from my bad experiences, i decided to write them and advise other ebay users of how they can protect themselves!

Recently, i made a purchase on ebay for a bag. Looking through the photos almost 20 times to make sure that the item is not a imitation or a fake, i decided to buy it. When the item arrived, the alignment of the print is completely out and it is obvious an imitation, a fake! But because the seller indicated 'do not accept returns', i could not do anything or report this seller to ebay!

What can you do to prevent things like this from happening?
1) Make sure that you check through the photos and the materials used to be real before even bidding for the item or make a purchase
2) Check whether seller accept returns, it is ok if seller DO NOT accept returns
3) Make payment with paypal and only in a single payment. DO NOT accept oversea sellers offering you a discount to make payment via transfers at a discount, especially if item is expensive

If after you have done all the above, but still you encounter the same situation as me, what should you do?
1) Contact seller and communicate with seller
2) Indicate to the seller the reason why you think it may be an imitation or a fake
3) Try to come to an agreement with the seller that you will be satisfied with. Whether is it a full refund, a partial refund or other agreements
4) In the event if seller is not responsive to your messages and have indicated clearly that they DO NOT accept returns, try reporting to ebay
5) However, there maybe times where item is not under the ebay buyer protection. Do not be despair. You can go to paypal solution center and file a case against the seller via the transcation
6) If seller still does not response to paypal solution center, you may then escalate to a paypal claim where the money will be withheld from both the seller and the buyer till paypal review the situation and come out with a reasonable payout
7) Be patient to let paypal review the situation but at the meantime, try to keep record of as much evident as possible, as paypal might ask you for some information

Unless seller tell you personally and guarantees that item is authentic, do not assume that it is authentic. There are many replica nowadays that comes even with the authentic card, so even if the seller has an authentic card, it no longer guarantees that the item is authentic anymore. So unless you get a personal response from seller that item is authentic, do not buy.

My 2nd case is as such. i asked the seller whether item comes with authentic card and seller replies yes. However after the first case, i wrote to the 2nd seller immediately to ask whether item is 100% authentic and his reply was that it is from a private seller and it comes with the authentic card. After prompting further, he could not give a 100% yes and say that if i receive the item and still do not like it then i can send it back but i will have to pay for postage and bear the cost of sending the item back.

SO BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN YOU ARE PURCHASING ONLINE. Make sure the seller could tell you and assure that it is a 100% authentic even before you make the purchase so that it will save you all the postage fees and the trouble of sending the items back. Postage fees can easily cost up to $100 per time, so be wise!

However, there are some items that you can live with even if they are not authentic, just like those i mentioned in my previous post on Real or Fake.

M.A.C Brush Sets

Lately i have been seeing a lot of post on how people identify whether their M.A.C brush sets are authentic or not. Looking through some of them i realized a few interesting points stated by some of these blogs, which i think is not so true!

Before i begin, let's look through some of the M.A.C Brush sets available in the market!

All of these brushes are produced by M.A.C for a different season of different years and some are exclusive to make up schools at different years. Some maybe many years ago and some are the really recent ones.

Some of the facts mentioned that are not so true:
1) They only come in silver tips
Looking through the photos, i think you can be very sure that it does not apply all the time.
In fact, they come in silver, black and even gold depending on the series they are being produced for.

2) They only come in black glossy body
Again, you can see that they DO NOT only come in black glossy, they come in matt black, blue, transparent and others not stated here!

3) All brushes comes with the number
This only apply to the more recent series of brushes

Remember i mentioned of the M.A.C brush set i got?
They come in black tip and matt black body. They may not belong to the latter series but the quality is so good.

No so long ago, a friend was telling me about the M.A.C brush she bought from the M.A.C shop itself and the brush is dropping hair every single time she uses it. I believe all items may experiences factory faultiness. It does not determine the authenticity of the item.

The fact remains, if you are afraid and insistent on getting authentic items, my advise to you is to purchase them from the original store itself instead of online stores. So that even if the item does not function well, you will not doubt its authenticity.

Real or Fake?

With the huge market out there, how do you tell the real from the fake? And when does it really matter to you?

Many people ask me from time to time, how to differential an item's authenticity. But my question back to you is, does it matter to you? There are things that i feel you should NEVER get a fake, but yet there are some things that does not really matter to me! So what's the guidelines to this?

For me, i am simple. The 3 NEVERs!
- I will NEVER buy huge brands items from unknown source if it will get me fined while entering the main shop, if i happened to be cheated into getting a fake. I will just get them from the original stores.
- I will NEVER buy food supplements, medication or consumable items that are to be eaten, from unknown sources because this can literally kill me if they are not made with the correct prescriptions.
- I will NEVER buy skincare products like cream or serum that are to be used on the face from unauthorized shops, because i will not want to sacrifice my face, just to test the authenticity of the items.

Apart from the 3 NEVERs, i think the rest of the following are fine with me.
Things like perfume - I choose it according to the scent from the bottle and not just the brand, so assuming that the scent I chose did not go wrong. Then I feel it won't kill me if it so happened that it is a non-authentic piece. At most, the scent may not last as long as the originals.
Eye shadows - There have been some commotions about the authenticity of some eye shadows in the market, like the common one is the Urban Decay Naked Palette. But the main thing in choosing a eye shadow is often the shades, so if i like the shades i buy them, and i guess the authenticity is not the main issue with me. But i have to add, a good authentic foundation base is very important!
Clothes - According to the chart we did previously, if you are not someone who goes purely for brand i think you won't really mind if they are authentic cause very often we are going for a certain trend or design. However if you are particular about the brand then my advise is to go to the authentic stores. As for me, i goes for the design and style, if i like it, brand and authenticity does not matter to me. But if i don't, even if it is a 100% authentic branded item at a great discount, i will not get it.
Shoes and accessories - I think my stand for shoes and accessories are the same as clothes, if i like it, i buy it. Not for the brand, but for the design, style and quality! Things without brand or non-authentic can be of great quality too!
Makeup brushes - Quality is very important to me. There are many brush brands out there that produces really expensive but bad quality brushes while some without a brand can be of great quality! Personally i have a 32 pieces M.A.C Make up brush set i got online some time back, even though some people may say that i might have been cheated, but because they are of great quality, smooth and soft, i love them alot! They are of such good quality it is comparable to the authentic ones! The question is, does authenticity of such item matters to you just because of the brand? To me, i simply loved them and would even recommend them to my friends and to you!

Am i saying that i support the production of non-authentic items? No.
Yet, to some things, i feel what is more important is that i like them, i do not really care about authenticity. What is the point of getting something authentic, that you do not like? But then again, i have my rules when it comes to authenticity, my 3 NEVERs!

I set my own priorities and i am careful to guard them myself. You can do it too!