Hey there!! Welcome to my first Keepin' It Real!
Students: CONGRATS on getting through Hell / Torture / Exam Week!!!
NonStudents: CONGRATS on making it through the first week of May! Lol
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Okay, so it's a given that we all love MAC products because of their great quality, but I'm sure many of us don't always love paying the MAC price. So, we do what we can to scrounge up some money and get those great products, but we sometimes cave and decide to take a "shortcut" and save money by buying off ebay or online stores. Today's Keepin It Real is about MAC Brushes... 

I've been wanting more brushes recently, and I decided to scour ebay in hopes of a great deal...
The majority of the "MAC"  brushes I've found were 24 brushes in a rollup pleather case such as this:

These MACs are blatently fake because the necks are made of black plastic when they should be silver colored. But, unfortunately, they aren't all this easy to distinguish.
This set is a good example:

They look pretty decent, don't they?? However, MAC brushes do not come with covers like you see in the middle. I've also seen some brushes that come with a hard cover for the brush heads...this is fake! MACs have a simple sleeve with a barcode.
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MAC 187
The most popular fake I've seen so far is the MAC 187 (beware of ebay!!!)

Brush head and Text

As you can see, the fake is on the left. The fake has a scraggly, wavy-like head while the MAC is smooth and dome-like. The font on the brush is also a good detail to pay attention to. The fake looks thinly engraved while the real MAC looks like a bold stamp, firmly imprinted into the handle.

Brush Neck
Another good way to spot a fake is the handle...compare these:     
As you can see, the real one has wider spaced grooves while the fake only looks like they have lines on the silver neck.

MAC Text

     
Obviously the fake logo looks painted on and the color looks a little different. The real MAC is engraved/etched on and then painted and the 187 is clear while the fake MAC is a bit unclear.

Resilience

Being that MAC has great quality, it offers greater resilience when some pressure is applied. As you can see in the pic, the Fake (left) bends under the pressure. MUAHAHA it can't take it!!!!!

Handle Color

The real MAC lookes lightly dusted in gold sparkles and polished while the fake has a flat black color (and is it me or does it look bumpy?).
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I hope this helps you distinguish between real MAC brushes and fake ones....I know this research helped me a lot LOL. Please stay tuned for the next Keepin It Real, which will be on MAC makeup itself ^___^

*credits go to risser@pixnet.net and avjwc on ebay!

p.s.
Brush111.com is a site that claims to sell MAC brushes. Please do not be duped!