Vietnamese make-up brands new target of counterfeiters
Vietnamese make-up brands new target of counterfeiters
A number of Vietnamese cosmetics makers have fallen victim to counterfeiters, who used to target only foreign brands, while many local consumers have had their beauty ruined by the fake products.
While authentic make-up products have to pass strict production and quality testing procedures, the counterfeits are widely available and are faked in such a sophisticated way that consumers can hardly tell them apart from the real ones.
At least three Ho Chi Minh City residents reported to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper last month that their faces had been severely damaged by fake make-up.
Truong Ngoc Yen, of Thu Duc District, said the White Doctors Melasma Pro, a type of blemish remover, she bought for VND780,000 (US$36.71) almost deformed her face after the very first use.
Lan Anh, a Tan Binh District resident, bought a fake Sac Ngoc Khang skincare product and ended up suffering “face damage that I can never recover from,” she told Tuoi Tre.
The White Doctors Melasma Pro is in fact among 17 cosmetic products that were subject to a recall by the Drug Administration of Vietnam under the Ministry of Health in October this year.
Hoa Thien Phu JSC, the manufacturer of the authentic Sac Ngoc Khang brand, said Lan Anh had bought the counterfeit in late 2013, when the company itself had yet to even introduce such a product.
A Tuoi Tre correspondent went undercover as a cosmetics trader and contacted Phan Hung, who introduced himself as a representative of Hoa Lan Co. Ltd., the manufacturer of many cheap body wash brands.
His products, branded as White Care, Rose and Queen Love, were on sale at dirt cheap prices at an ongoing fair in Ho Chi Minh City, where consumers can buy three 1.2-liter bottles for only VND100,000 ($4.71).
“If you place huge orders to distribute to other markets, we can supply any new designs, labels and brand names as you wish,” Hung told the undercover reporter.
Hoa Lan Co. is capable of making a brand new shower gel brand for any customer who orders at least 400 cardboard boxes of the cheapie.
“You can choose to label them as made in Thailand, Malaysia, or whatever,” Hung said, adding the price for large orders is only VND19,000 ($0.89) per 1.2-liter bottle.
“We can even accept lower prices but the products will have lower quality then, and thus are hard to sell,” he noted.
A representative from Hoa Thien Phu Co. said while the firm has to spend dozens of billions of dong on the research, development and production of new products and win trust from customers with good quality, the counterfeiters do nothing. (VND1 billion = $48,100)
“We grow the trees, and the counterfeiters pick the fruits,” he said ironically.
