Benefit Coralista or "Benefit Coralista"?

Hello petals :)

Ok, so last week, the lovely Sinead was selling a few bits and bobs off, and I decided to nab "Coralista". Sinead did state that she'd bought it from eBay and wasn't sure if it was genuine or not. I decided to buy it anyway because who knows, it might have been genuine therefore a bargain at £6.

This is what Benefit Coralista (RRP £23.50) should look like:

Image Credit: Benefit

This is what mine looks like 

(Please excuse the fact that I've ripped half the label off haha)

Looks pretty much the same right?

The genuine Coralista does not have a sticker, this image is printed on to the box. The edges of the image are rounded, whereas they're not so much on the fake. The sticker on the fake is wonky. I'm sure the genuine image isn't. Also, the pink colour on the image is less pronounced on the fake. Finally, beneath the sticker, the word 'RIO' is printed across the box.

The details on the box lid

They are the exact same as the genuine article

One side of the box

It reads: 

'a "rio" pleasure... face powder'

'"rio" poudre plaisir visage'

Now, this is where I come unstuck

I researched on Google and YouTube about Coralista fakes, and everyone said that the label on the underside of the box does not actually peel back. Well, mine does.

See?

And as with the genuine product, it has the language translations inside.

However, 'Rio' here has the capital 'R' that the actual box does not. And the right hand side of the second label appears to be cut off. Surely the genuine is not so shoddy?

Something else the victims of the fakes said was that the brush supplied was wood effect plastic.

This is actually made of wood.

Fakes apparently do not tend to come with the protective brush shield or tray

As you can see, this came with the tray but no protective shield

The powder

*no flash*

See the sparkle? Apparently fakes are matte. So now I have no idea whether this is genuine or not.

*flash*

Some people have said that fakes aren't very well packaged, but I've also read that the packaging of some of the genuine products aren't that great either...

But look at this. I'm sorry but what? As if Benefit make packaging this badly!

So to sum it up if you're not sure whether you have a fake or not, these are the things to look out for in fake Benefit Coralista products:

* No slanted 'f' in the word 'Benefit'

* Stickers instead of printed images

* A label that says "Peel Me" but doesn't actually peel

* A plastic brush

* No protective brush shield

* No protective tray

* A powder tray that falls out (luckily mine doesn't but I've seen some that do)

* Matte powder

* The powder may break you out (I saw a girl on YouTube who had this happen to her after unknowingly buying a fake Benefit Hoola. Benefit staff told her to not use the product as it was not safe to do so!)

It also appears that many of these fake Benefit products originate from Asia. So if you are going to bid/buy on eBay, I'd suggest using UK or American sellers if you're in the UK/Europe/US.  And check that the sellers have positive feedback and not a bunch of negative feedback. Also if you pay by PayPal you are protected. I found many people had been the victims of fake products, which they had to get verified as fakes by the staff at Benefit counters, in order to get a refund. So the motto here is be very wary. And if you're still not sure, save up and buy from Benefit/Boots/Sephora. Better safe than sorry!

I'm sure there are probably more things to look out for, but this is what I've found. If anybody knows of any other points to add, please let me know and I'll update this post so everyone can see. 

Also if anyone can help me determine whether mine is genuine or fake, please let me know :)

UPDATE: It would appear that older genuine Coralistas have stickers on them rather than a printed image. If this is the case with yours and you've bought it from eBay, don't be too worried about it :)