So you want to by Bleu by Chanel...but you are afraid of buying a counterfeit...do yourself a favor and buy it at a Chanel's own website, a higher end department store, Sephora or Ulta.
Ebay, flea markets, mall kiosks, craigslist, many online retailers and other retailers are known to sell counterfeits...save yourself the headache and doubts by buying at an authorized dealer only!!!
Or you already bought Bleu by Chanel...from eBay, a flea market, a mall kiosk, website, craigslist, or some other retailer, or were given it as a gift ....and you have doubts as to its authenticity...well this tutorial will help you determine whether it is real or fake.
ebay member jmpassaniti wrote this:
"It appears the sales of counterfeit Bleu de Chanel are now epidemic on eBay. I have encountered dozens of listings, most showing either a slightly faded box cover or a generic Chanel image that sell almost hourly on here. After sharing notes with several buyers, including myself, it's a safe bet they are almost ALL fake counterfeits.
These are being sold by sellers in Michigan, New York, and California, and by some who have nearly 100% positive feedback, but the fragrance is undeniably a weak fake. Considering almost all of these auctions net the seller between $40-50 a bottle, with multiple sales a day this is quite a haul.
The cellophane wrap and box seem convincing enough. The logo is raised, the box bottom has what appears to be a four digit lot or serial number embossed on the box, and the earlier counterfeit problems of spelling errors and unclean packaging appear to be resolved by the offshore manufacturer. The real story doesn't become clear until you open the box and look at the bottle itself.
It has got a hazy film all over it, smudges and smears of what could be fragrance or fingerprint oil, and tiny fine scratch swirls that become evident in bright sunlight. The top shows a diagonal seam and the bottom is slightly irregular -- the sign of a cheap glass bottle manufacturing process. These bottles have been around, and not in a good way.
The bottle cap will be the ultimate test of real vs. fake. Real Bleu de Chanel has a cap that holds in place with a magnet. The phonies have a small seam line inside the cap which, by forcing the cap down, holds it in place. If you set your cap on top of a real Chanel bottle, the magnets do all the work and the cap will automatically be held in place -AND- most important of all, the Chanel logo on top of the bottle will always spin into perfect alignment with the front/back of the bottle. You can see a demonstration of that on YouTube. Just search for "Real vs. Fake Bleu de Chanel."
If your bottle cap doesn't do this, it's a fake/counterfeit. The fakers sometimes use magnets, but the bottle caps don't align properly. The most recent ones on eBay don't even bother with that -- they simply require the owner to press them down to hold them in place.
Ignore the Made in France vs. USA tips from around a year ago. Legitimate Chanel fragrance can come from either their U.S. factory in New Jersey or from France. Most of the fakes will say France just because people assume Chanel = France.
If you have a phony, don't even bother to spray it on yourself. You have no idea what is in there, and would you spray a crime ring's fragrance on your skin?
Instead, file complaints. The feedback system on eBay is notoriously poor for identifying fakes. People are just happy to have received something in the mail quick for a good price that resembles the product they want. Most have no idea they bought a phony.
Sellers promise refunds and some encourage you don't blow the whistle on their fake sales. Occasionally, some are unwitting dupes themselves.
Chanel is among the most frequently counterfeited fragrances because of the high demand and the manufacturer's near-obsessive inventory control. They destroy leftovers, old stock, and irregulars -- they don't sell it at wholesaler auctions. I'd suspect the only real bottles of Chanel on here are those sold by individuals who have a single leftover bottle they don't like, one inherited from a family member who passed, or got one as a gift. The ones selling a near-endless supply (check those feedbacks to see what they sold in the past) are immediately suspect, especially if they are selling in the $40-50 range for a 3.4oz bottle.
Yes, you'll pay $79 for an authentic bottle of this at the local department store, but for twice the price you'll actually get the real product. The 1.7oz costs $59 -- around what you'll pay for the fake and the return postage to send it back (not to mention the time and hassle)."
View this YouTube tutorial:
Also this YouTube tutorial can be helpful:
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