How to avoid fake K-beauty when you shop online

Popular Korean skincare is copied. Counterfeits turn up most on open marketplaces, where anyone can list a product, and they can look very close to the real thing. A fake is not just a waste of money: you do not know what is in it. Here is what we check, and what you can.

1. Buy from a store, not a stranger

Specialist K-beauty stores and the brands' own stores buy their stock from the brand or its distributors. Many brands publish a list of authorised sellers on their website; if a shop is on it, that is a good sign. Every store K Young compares is a real shop selling new, sealed products; we leave out open marketplaces and second-hand sellers. You can see all of them on Stores we compare.

2. Be wary of a price far below everyone else's

Real stores price within a fairly narrow band of each other. When one listing is a fraction of what every store charges, ask why. When three or more stores sell a product, K Young drops any price far below the others, so a price that looks too good to be true doesn't become the "cheapest".

3. Check the box when it arrives

Compare the packaging with the brand's own photos: fonts, colours, the seal and the batch or expiry code printed on the box and the container. Real products have a batch code that matches between box and bottle. A texture, smell or colour unlike what you have used before is a reason to stop and contact the seller.

4. What a barcode does and doesn't tell you

K Young matches every listing by the barcode printed on the box (Korean products' barcodes start with 880), which is how we know two stores sell the identical product and size. A barcode alone does not prove a product is genuine, because a counterfeit can copy it; that is why we also only list real stores.

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