A filling machine, a shed and mysterious chemicals: The recipe for fake cosmetics in southern China
Regulators in Guangzhou raid 56 workshops pumping out ‘dangerous’ concoctions in counterfeit luxury brand packaging
Producers of fake cosmetics in China require only a filling machine, a sealer and one or two workers to produce a bottle of knock-off Chanel Chance perfume in southern China, the Guangzhou Daily reported on Friday.
One third of Chinese licensed cosmetics manufacturers are based in Baiyun district of Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, but that doesn’t stop the prevalence of fake cosmetics being churned out bearing the labels of Dior, Chanel or L’ Oreal, according to the report.
By the end of October, the district’s food and drug regulators had raided 56 counterfeiters’ workshops and confiscated products worth more than 82 million yuan (HK$98 million).
Authorities said the counterfeiters didn’t need high-end machines – just one or two staff, a rented room, a filling machine, and a sealer to produce fake lipsticks and eyeliners under famous local and international brands.
The production process was basic, as described by one counterfeiter detained in a recent crackdown: dump unknown raw materials into the filling machine, squeeze them into soft tubes with labels printed in English and box them in packaging.
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The counterfeiters had various methods to copy the elaborate packaging. Sometimes they would simply buy a sample of the genuine product then get a printer to copy the design and produce them in bulk.